Mayor Peter Marchetti sits behind the wheel of the new truck as Fire Chief Thomas Sammons looks on.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Pittsfield Fire Department welcomed a new engine to its Somerset Avenue station on Friday.
Per tradition, firefighters pushed the 42,000-pound vehicle into the bay for good luck. The 2025 Pierce Saber arrived from the state of Florida the night before and will go online in a few weeks.
It will replace the 2005 Engine 2, which will go on reserve as Engine 7.
"This will be in service for the next 20 years here," Chief Thomas Sammons said. "This truck will see a lot of these guys that are here today retire."
Paid for as a capital city project, the $780,000 vehicle had some cost savings because it is a stock unit, rather than custom-built. The department is able to return some of the allocated money back to the city.
"I think it's important that we stick to our vehicle replacement plans, whether it be police, fire, public services, and so it's prudent for the city to continue to stay on that path," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.
"It’s easy to say we’ll do it next year, but we can’t do that."
Sammons explained that they prefer the stock units because they arrive "a lot sooner."
"It took seven months to get this truck more or less built, and then the whole getting it delivered up here. They drive it up from Florida to here for a break-in period. Then once it's up here, it goes through some stuff at the dealer, where they check all the fluids, change what needs to be changed, torque down anything that loosened up during the drive, and then it gets delivered," he said.
"This got delivered last night, and we christened it today, traditionally pushing the engine into the bay, and it'll sit here for a few weeks. Every group will get trained, and this particular truck by the manufacturer who is going to come out for four days and hit every group, and then that will go into service that night."
Built within National Fire Protection Association guidelines, the new engine will go out about 5-6 times per day. Sammons said it is more reliable and will serve the citizens of Pittsfield well.
The department has a replacement plan that has been in effect for years, and this year, Engine 2 was in line to be replaced. The 2005 Engine 2 had to be replaced years ago and will now go on reserve as a backup if an engine needs to be serviced or repaired.
"We have three reserve engines and one reserve ladder truck, and with our five frontline engines and a frontline ladder truck," Sammons said.
"Anytime that an engine's got to go out for repairs we run 24-7, seven days a week so when that truck goes out for routine maintenance or for another issue, a reserve apparatus has to go in and so this one will now be designated Engine 7 in a couple of weeks, and it will be our first reserve truck to go out, because we are very serious about having well maintained apparatus and it costs a lot of money to maintain these. They get driven hard, and they get used a lot."
He was glad to report that the new engine didn’t cost much more than Engine 1 cost a couple of years ago.
"We were very pleased at the price, and so actually, we had more money set aside for it, and that will go back to the city," the chief reported.
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