By Joseph Deinlein
The Evening Sun
HANOVER, Pa. — The Hanover Borough Council has decided to buy a new fire engine before new vehicle emissions regulations that go into effect Jan. 1 would bump the projected cost up by as much as $100,000.
The council is buying a 2010 KME Fire Pumper for $548,629 through a piggy-back purchase program run by the state. The financing is to be covered by a bond issue the council plans to take out next year to cover upgrades to the regional wastewater-treatment plant.
Had the council waited to buy the engine next year, as it and Fire Commissioner James Roth had planned to do, the cost could have exceeded $600,000.
KME, based in Nesquehoning, Pa., is able to supply the pumper with a Detroit Diesel engine that meets federal Environmental Protection Agency standards from 2007, Roth said.
“In 2013, there will be more changes (in standards),” he said.
The plan came about after the council in 1999 realized its apparatus — some of which was more than 30 years old — was becoming difficult to maintain. But it also didn’t want to have to buy multiple pieces of fire equipment at the same time.
The council set a policy to replace after 10 years one of the three fire engines it bought in the early part of this decade. Then the engines would be sold on 20-year cycles.
Doing so increases the borough’s rating with fire insurers, which gives better rates for communities with fire apparatus less than 20 years old, Roth said.
The proceeds from the soon-to-be sold engine, also a KME pumper bought in 2000, will go toward the cost of the new engine, he said.
Hanover’s new engine will have a compressed air-foam system, which Roth said is capable of putting fires out faster than water.
Penn Township already has two engines that use the system, which Hanover’s firefighters have observed in action at fire scenes for the past few years.
Though Roth said some might say the best way to put out a fire is with a direct and heavy stream of water, he said the foam works well for his purposes. The chemical components are able to penetrate materials treated to resist water, reducing the chance for flare-up.
“The advantage is that it gives a quicker knock down,” Roth said. “And with the shortage of manpower we’re seeing in the fire service, I want every advantage I can get.”
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