Shelbyville Fire Department's new ladder truck pushed into service

shelbyville-fire-department-s-new-ladder-truck-pushed-into-service

In his final act as Shelbyville Fire Chief, Brian Tackett climbed behind the wheel of the fire department’s newest ladder truck and watched more than a dozen firefighters push it into the bay Saturday afternoon at Fire Station No. 2.

The symbolic christening of the department’s newest fire truck brought the ladder truck into service nearly two years after the $1 million expense was first approved by the city’s Board of Works.

Tony Logan, Shelbyville’s fire chief in February of 2022 when the purchase request was approved, also was in attendance Saturday for the ceremony.

“It’s a great looking truck. I think it’s going to a huge asset to the city,” said Logan. “We chose to go with a single axle platform this time and it will help with wear and tear on the tires because we were having to buy four new tires every year on the back of the truck. It also will make it more maneuverable.”

Logan appeared before the Board of Works in early 2022 to get a letter of intent to purchase started to lock in the production cost of $1,007,000. A price increase was coming which prompted Logan to act quickly to fill a need within the SFD.

To read the Shelby County Post story from the 2022 Board of Works meeting, go to https://shelbycountypost.com/local-news/617249

That same day, Logan also got letters of intent to purchase approved for three new ambulances at a base price of $249,000 each. Those ambulances are still in production.

“The reason we had to move on it so quickly is because they had a huge price increase because of supply and demand issues,” said Logan. “We bought this and three ambulances at the same time and those ambulances aren’t here yet. This was $1.2 million and by ordering it when we did we probably saved $200,000 to $300,000 because of the price increases they were planning on doing. We needed a new truck but we had it laid out a little further down the line. This truck sitting right here is probably $2 million if you had to buy it today.”

Members of the Shelbyville Fire Department wipe down the new ladder truck Saturday at Fire Station No. 2.

Tackett, who replaced Logan following his retirement later in 2022, had his retirement ceremony Friday following more than 20 years of service to the department. On Saturday, he and Logan rode in the ladder truck cab as it was pushed into service.

“We are a growing community. This will come in real handy if God forbid we ever have a fire downtown in one of the larger buildings,” said Tackett. “And we have manufacturing buildings on the outskirts of town … things a normal fire engine can’t get to or reach. A ladder (truck) can really spray a lot of water in ladder mode and keep your guys safe. It also comes in handy if you have a high-rise rescue or second floor rescue on some of these houses.”

The truck’s ladder can rise to 100 feet in the air to combat fires, according to Tackett.

“A lot of times a ladder truck is used in more of a defensive mode of fires or high volume fires, or high water volume, and that really helps keep firefighters safe,” he said.

The ladder truck will be stationed at Fire Station No. 2, 375 Progress Road, on the city’s southeast side. Personnel was a main reason for housing the ladder truck at the city’s newest fire station.

“We typically have three firefighters per fire apparatus,” explained Tackett. “We don’t have enough personnel to fully staff two ladder trucks. So engine No. 1 will respond in their regular fire truck and station No. 2 will always respond in this ladder truck. And a lot of times we don’t know if we will need the ladder truck or not and we can respond in regular fire trucks.”

New Shelbyville Mayor Scott Furgeson has appointed veteran firefighter Doug Lutes as the new Fire Chief for the department. He takes over for Tackett this week.

“It would have been better if we had gotten the truck when we were supposed to in January (of 2023) but the guys have worked really hard after we received the truck to do all the final stuff on it and get it into service,” said Tackett of his final duty with the department. “They just felt myself and Tony (Logan) should be involved in the ceremony since it was kind of our project and we got to put the final touch on it. That was nice.”

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