Crime & Safety

Fire Department Facing as much as $1 Million in Equipment Needs

The department hopes to purchase a new heavy rescue truck, river rescue boat and breathing apparatuses within the next several years.

A new heavy rescue truck. A new river rescue boat. New self-contained breathing apparatuses for firefighters.

They’re all on the radar for Inver Grove Heights Fire Chief Judy Thill, who said the Inver Grove Heights Fire Department is facing as much as $1 million in new equipment needs within the next several years.

With an anticipated price tag of roughly $400,000, the heavy rescue truck is the single largest purchase currently earmarked by the department. For several years, Thill has considered replacing its current, 19-year-old rescue truck, but the department chose to postpone the purchase of the vehicle so that it could buy a $727,000 ladder truck in 2010.

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A new rescue truck, Thill said, would serve various purposes within the department. The truck would likely be used as a mobile command center and a warming/cooling house for firefighters responding to an emergency during the winter or summer. The multi-purpose rescue truck would also be used to transport specialized rescue equipment and would respond to traffic accidents on the highways within the city, Thill said.

The truck may be the largest purchase the department is planning to make, but it’s not the only priority when it comes to emergency equipment needs. A handful of incidents on the Mississippi River in Inver Grove Heights, including the swing bridge fire and an emergency call involving two struggling swimmers in the river, have underscored the department’s need for a motorized rescue craft, Thill said.

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When dealing with river incidents, the department relies on South St. Paul response teams, which are equipped with a boat. But it can take as many as 15 minutes to dispatch that watercraft down to Inver Grove Heights—which amounts to a significant delay in an emergency, Thill noted.

Finally, Thill said, the department is also scheduled to replace all of its self-contained breathing apparatuses used by firefighters to breathe while responding to fires. That purchase could cost several hundred thousand dollars, Thill estimated.

The growing number of annual calls the fire department has responded to in recent years only increase the demands upon its vehicles and equipment and crews, Thill explained at a recent council work session. In 2010, the department responded to 1,256 calls, up from 677 in 2005.

Conscious of the economy, the department is actively searching for alternative ways to fund each of the purchases, Thill said. The department applied for federal grant money to help purchase the river rescue boat, the fire chief said, and may buy its breathing apparatuses in tandem with one or more other nearby fire departments to negotiate a lower price.

“We’re just trying to be sensitive to the economy and balance out when it should be replaced based on age and mechanical ability,” Thill said.

The fire department isn’t the only arm of the city that may be looking at significant truck and equipment upgrades in the near future, according to City Administrator Joe Lynch.

For the last several years, Lynch said, the city deferred scheduled replacements of police squad cars and Inver Grove Heights Public Works Department pick-up trucks as part of its budget-cutting process. Because of the deferrals, the city was able to cut its annual equipment expenditures from as much as $2.4 million down to $1.75 million.

But those deferrals are now catching up to the city, according to Lynch, who said the city faces more equipment upgrades in the near future to update its fleet.

How and when those purchases are made falls on the shoulders of the department heads, who prioritize needs and balance expenditures between city departments, and the Inver Grove Heights City Council, which reviews and approves purchases, Lynch said. The city tracks its upcoming purchases as part of its Capital Improvement Plan, Lynch added.

The fire department is also in the process of searching for a site to build a proposed fire station.


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