ALL FIRED UP: City plans more than $1M in replacement vehicles, equipment for fire department

Newton Fire Department plans to see more than $1 million in new equipment this upcoming fiscal year, according to the city’s capital improvement plan.

Between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022, the fire station is scheduled to spend $650,000 to replace a fire engine and $285,000 to replace an ambulance. Also included in the CIP is $90,000 for a power load and power cot to pair with the ambulances, which help load and unload patients.

For some time now, the fire department has placed its emergency vehicles on a rotation to keep them up-to-date and in good condition. Newton Fire Chief Jarrod Wellik said vehicles are currently on a nine-year rotation, meaning they are on the front line for nine years and then spend three years as a reserve.

“Most departments use equipment on the front line for 10 years and then move it to a reserve status. We have tried to replace fire equipment after 20 years.”

By the nine-year mark, ambulances usually accumulate more than 200,000 miles and are in need of replacement. Equipment by then will have surpassed its useful life and be replaced, too. Wellik said the FY22 ambulance will come included with a new power cot, power load system and a new cardiac monitor.

Fire engines eventually need replaced, too. The engine’s fire apparatus typically does not have a tremendous amount of miles and usually racks up quire a few hours, Wellik said. Once a fire apparatus reaches 20 years of service, the annual maintenance cost increases “considerably.”

“A good example is our ladder truck. In the past two years we have spent nearly $80,000 for maintenance and repairs, above the normal operating costs. That vehicle is currently 20 years old,” Wellik said, noting the fire engine in need of replacement is 26 years old.

The two new vehicle replacements are the latest models available. Wellik said every year improvements come out for ambulances and fire apparatus. The biggest changes involve supplemental safety systems that protect patients and responders. But what happens to the old vehicles?

Wellik said those vehicles are either placed into reserve status or are sold. Currently, reserve status is used for the Newton fire station’s ambulances. The reserve vehicles are kept at an alternate location and are used when the department is performance maintenance or repairs on front line vehicles.

The fire apparatuses are typically traded in as part of the purchase or are sold directly. Much of the equipment — like hoses and sometimes ladders — are kept and placed on a new apparatus, Wellik said. Supplies inside ambulances are all moved from one unit to the next.

Any of the replaced equipment remains on the ambulance for reserve service.

“This equipment replacement is important to citizens,” Wellik said. “When they call for an emergency, the equipment we rely on to help them needs to operate. We do not have time to work on it prior to or during the response.”

The Newton Fire Department has utilized power cots since 2011. But starting in 2022, Wellik said the department will being pairing these up with power loads in the ambulances. Each year Newton transports about 2,500 patients, which means paramedics are loading and unloading patients by hand.

Two operations for each patient is 5,000 “patient load and unload cycles.”

Citing data from the CDC, Wellik said the No. 1 reason EMS providers leave the business is due to musculoskeletal injuries. Studies in 2018 show approximately 27,000 EMS providers are injured every year. Of those injuries, 21% are related to lower back injury, which can cost an average of $18,000.

“I look at these numbers and think the price we are paying is small compared to the cost of a back injury,” Wellik said.

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