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Show New aerial fire truck reaches tall buildings It reaches tall buildings, shoots water 250 feet and saves people's lives it's the new Vernal City-Uintah County aerial fire truck. The new $217,560 fire truck was added add-ed to the city and county's fleet of three other trucks three weeks ago. The truck has a 50-foot hydraulic ladder lad-der with a water snorkle on top to facilitate fighting fires in three-story buildings. The fire department has been working work-ing for the past five years toward buying buy-ing the new fire truck because of problems pro-blems with fighting fires in taller buildings. "I wish we would have had the truck three weeks earlier so it could have been used on the fire down there," said Dale Slaugh, fire chief, referring to a fire in a two story building last month at 1000 East Main. The new fire truck will be used exclusively ex-clusively for structure fires, the other three fire trucks will be used on grass fires, Chief Slaugh said. The truck has a total water capacity capaci-ty of 1.000 gallons and can shoot 1.750 gallons per minute. It requires about 16 hours of training for firemen to Continued on page G Fire truck... Continued from page 1 become familiar with the new truck's operation. It is now ready for action, Slaugh said, but is yet to go out on its first fire. The truck requires continual maintenance, so once a week it is taken out of the fire station and the hydraulic ladder is extended so the seals don't set up. The new fire truck was purchased jointly by Uintah County and Vernal City with a Community Impact grant of $50,000 and a Community Development Block Grant of $48,000. The county and city paid the rest of the cost of the truck from their budgets. The fire department will continue to use the fire station at City Hall. An old 1950 fire truck will be retired, making room for the new truck. The new truck fits into the station by just inches. |