NFD to acquire new ambulance, SCBA fill station

Technology at the Newton Fire Department continues to advance in the wake of a city council-approved purchase of a new ambulance and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) fill station.

The Newton City Council voted Jan. 7 to approve the acquisition of both items and replace outdated equipment, which altogether totals approximately $180,000 worth of modernized tech; the new ambulance accounts for the lion’s share of the hefty price tag.

A 2019 Type III module ambulance will replace the 2010 Type III model still currently in service at the fire department. The remaining NFD ambulances are 2013 and 2016 models and will not have to be replaced for another three to six years, respectively.

Newton Fire Chief Jarrod Wellik said ambulances at the department are put on a nine-year rotation. Every three years, the NFD acquires a new ambulance to replace the oldest model, which he said is an effort to spread out the cost of purchasing new emergency transport vehicles.

“If I had to replace all three ambulances at once, right now, it would be almost $600,000,” Wellik said.

The department acquired three bids for the new ambulance. North Central Emergency Vehicles, of Plainfield, Ill., offered the highest bid of $187,869. Foster Coach Sales, of Sterling, Ill., bid $174,155. The fire department and the city council accepted the low bid of $172,747 from Klocke’s Emergency Vehicle, of Sterling, Ill.

“It’s expensive to run a fire department,” Wellik said.

Funds from the 2018A bond for fire and ambulance equipment will pay for the 2019 ambulance.

The new SCBA fill station will replace a much older model in the fire department. The new system cost $8,400 and will be paid from “the one time expenditures from the General Fund undesignated ending balance.”

According to city council agenda documents, the current equipment “does not properly provide sufficient cover when filling SCBA bottles and is a safety issue.” An SCBA, Wellik explained, is the air pack a firefighter wears in response to a fire call.

To address the safety issue, the new system will allow firefighters to fill their SCBA bottles in an encased area. If a catastrophic malfunction or failure were to occur, the pressurized system would contain the bottle and nozzle attachments in the enclosed container and prevent a member of the fire department from suffering any severe harm.

“That has a tremendous amount of pressure — it’s about 4,500 psi (pounds per square inch) so it’s huge pressure,” Wellik said. “The fill station we currently have has two cylinders, but they’re open on the top. You connect the hose to it, and when you start filling there’s nothing that holds any of that in place. So if something were to happen and the bottle would fail, it’s actually very dangerous for people.”

The fire department, he added, estimated the current fill station was built sometime in the 1980s. Following the purchase of the new system, it will be moved to another area of the fire station to better accommodate firefighters. The purchase of the SCBA fill station and the ambulance continues the department’s trend of equipping of firefighters with updated supplying.

Although it may not always be first in line to get the cutting edge tech, Wellik said the department is “operating on the best stuff that has a proven track record of working” in the field.

“We don’t have the luxury of being the test outfit for this stuff,” Wellik said. “We require it to work. We don’t want to be messing with things that are not proven. There’s constant change (in fire department technology) … Somethings you don’t use every day, but when you need them you can’t be in a position where you don’t have them.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com