The City of Campbell River is replacing another fire truck.
The almost-$1-million pumper truck approved for purchase at Monday’s council meeting will replace the 1999 Smeal rescue pumper, which is housed at the No. 2 Fire Hall in Willow Point. The old truck will be moved to a reserve role with the fire department for another five years once the new truck arrives, at which time it will be disposed of.
How, exactly, that will happen, hasn’t been determined, but while the Fire Underwriter Survey – the agency which sets the insurance grading in B.C. municipalities – doesn’t recognize a pumper’s water pump capacity past 20 years, the truck would still be more than capable of helping out somewhere in the world, so the city has been known to donate old fire trucks to third-world nations once they have reached that point, Chief Thomas Doherty says, and they will certainly look at that possibility again.
“We’ll look at the condition of the truck at that time (before deciding),” Doherty told council Monday night. “With a proper maintenance schedule for the apparatus, we should be able to extend the life of the vehicle out to about 30 years, but we’ll have to look at that.”
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The last apparatus taken out of service in Campbell River – a 1986 Mack – was donated to Firefighters Without Borders back in 2017. Doherty told council Monday night he recently found out that it is currently being put to use in fire supression work in the Phillipines.
The final cost of the new truck came in at $995,635 before tax and will be purchased from Fort Garry Fire Trucks. There was one lower bid received during the RFP process, according to the staff report on the awarding of the purchase, but that apparatus didn’t meet the specifications set out by the city.
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