ECFD welcomes new truck with 'push' ceremony

Two years after ordering it, the Elizabeth City Fire Department celebrated the arrival of its shiny new red fire truck on Monday with a firehouse tradition that dates back to the 1800s.

Back then, fire equipment was drawn by horses, so when it had to be stored inside a firehouse, firefighters and community members had to unhitch it and manually push it indoors.

Elizabeth City Fire Chief Chris Carver said city firefighters wanted to honor that tradition, so on Monday they welcomed the help of members of the Elizabeth City State University Vikings football team and other volunteers, and side by side they pushed the new truck from the driveway off Harney Street into a truck bay in Fire Station No. 2, where the truck will be based.

Afterward, in his remarks, Carver thanked Mayor Kirk Rivers, members of City Council, City Manager Montre Freeman and local citizens for their support in helping the fire department purchase the $902,524 truck. The vehicle, ordered in October 2021, will replace one of the department’s current front-line trucks. That truck will be placed in reserve status. The fire department also plans to get rid of a 2002 American LaFrance engine in the near future to keep its vehicle fleet at six.

The department’s new E-One 2023 fire truck is 36 feet long and carries a 75-foot-tall ladder. The truck’s water tank can carry 500 gallons of water and its pumper can pump 1,500 gallons of water per minute.

Carver told the crowd attending Monday’s ceremony it’s a great day when a new fire truck goes into service.

“It takes a lot of work, a lot of planning to get to this day,” he said. “These trucks are built to each customer’s specification. Every, nut and bolt the truck committee is sitting there planning and it is truly a custom built apparatus.

“I thank our truck committee for all the time they put in designing this truck, trips they made to Rocky Mount and to Florida, planning it,” he said.