by Geoff Fox
Firefighters at Hancock Volunteer Fire Company took part in a tradition firefighters have been doing for centuries by holding a housing ceremony for Tanker 5 on Monday evening, July 7.
The Fire Department Housing Ceremony typically involves pushing a new piece of apparatus into the station bay where it will be housed.
This tradition harkens back to when horse-drawn equipment and firefighters having to manually push their apparatus into the station.
Firefighters brought Tanker 5 home to Hancock on April 2, and on May 20, it was placed into service. It ran its first call on May 25.
photo by Geoff Fox
Tanker 5 is a Kenworth T-880 with a 565HP Cummins engine, holds 3,000 gallons of water and a 1250 pump.
On Monday evening, members of the fire department and a few dignitaries showed up at the fire hall located on Fulton Street to ceremoniously push the tanker into its new home.
Among those in attendance were Mayor Roland Lanehart, Jr.; Senator Mike McKay; Delegate Terry Baker; Commissioners Derek Harvey, Randy Wagner, and Jeff Cline; and Councilwoman Terry Breakall-Smith.
Before the festivities, the group gathered for a small meal.
Assistant Chief Ben Breeze, who was part of the committee for the purchase of the new tanker spoke a little on how the fire department was able to purchase the new apparatus.
“Several years back this thing was a pipe dream,” Breeze said. “We didn’t have funds to get it.”
The idea of the new tanker was put on hold until Debbie Cohill came to the committee with a possible funding source.
Breeze said there was a quick scramble to find a manufacturer for a bid so they could apply for a grant.
The committee sat down and talked about what the fire department had and what they needed with a goal to not get any bigger than what the engine tanker they already had.
However, they wanted to be able to carry more water and, with the number of volunteers at the fire department, they were able to give up some seat room.
The body is stainless steel, which would allow, in the future, the fire department to lift the body off the chassis and put it on a new chassis at a cost savings, which Breeze added the equipment is not getting any cheaper.
When they started putting things together for a new tanker, Breeze said they were looking in the $400,000 range, but it turned out to be $635,000 range.
“We couldn’t get a contract signed fast enough to get the price locked in because every couple weeks it seemed like prices were going up,” Breeze said.
Hancock Fire Company moved on from Engine Tanker 52 due to issues with the apparatus and parts no longer being made.
The price of the tanker didn’t include the equipment, which was another cost for Company 5.
Breeze said a lot of time, fire apparatus will take new equipment and the fire department would upgrade as much as they could.
