Humboldt Bay Fire gets new truck and engine to replace old ones

At Humboldt Bay Fire, it’s out with the old and in with the new. Humboldt Bay Fire Community Risk Reduction Specialist as well as Public Information Officer, Talia Flores, spoke to Redwood News about the new apparatus the fire department recently received.

“We just got two new apparatus. We got a 2023 Pierce Tiller, and we also got a 2024 Pierce Enforcer,” Flores said. “Those are going to be used to replace our 1995 platform truck and our 2006 engine. So we’re getting brand new apparatus.”

But there’s no overnight shipping when it comes to equipment like this.

“They were ordered about two years ago,” Flores said. “Pierce’s lead time is about 18 to 24 months. So we just got those in, which is great.”

Truck or engine? There’s a difference.

“So what we’ve got standing behind me is a tiller truck, which is similar to the one that we just received. So these are what we call a truck,” Flores said. “The other ones that you’ll see running around town, those are the engines. So our other one, the 2024 enforcer, that’s an engine. And the 2023 tiller is a truck. So we refer to them a little bit differently.”

“The Tillers are specifically designed to maneuver through difficult places, tight spaces, because there’s going to be a driver here in the back and they are basically going to control the rear axle of the truck in order to maneuver that truck into tight spaces,” Flores said. “But other larger engines or trucks might not be able to get into.”

Replacing firefighting rigs doesn’t happen randomly.

“They’re going to be used in our strategic apparatus replacement plan in order just to keep up a modern and efficient fleet. The whole reason that we are updating our apparatus, implementing this new strategic apparatus replacement plan is to keep up with NFPA 1911, which basically just states that engines are allowed to respond to first alarm calls for up to 15 years and they can be fully retired at 20,” Flores said.

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