Fox Chapel Council approves new fire truck purchase

Fox Chapel Council has approved purchasing a new fire truck for the borough’s volunteer department.

The borough will purchase a Seagrave custom seven-person Marauder stainless steel full cab walk around rescue truck manufactured by Seagrave Fire Apparatus in Clintonville, Wis., from McKeesport-based Flashover Fire Apparatus & Equipment Co. for nearly $1.25 million.

Fox Chapel Council approved the contract July 17.

Mike Pohl, firefighter and fire department secretary, said the new new truck will replace a 1998 Seagrave with a Marion Bodyworks walk-around rescue body.

“Our existing rescue truck is 25 years old and is starting to show signs of age,” Pohl said. “A new truck offers great improvements in regard to firefighter safety, reliability, cost of ownership, and response capabilities. Just as the Borough of Fox Chapel, the Fox Chapel VFD and the fire service have evolved over the past 25 years, so has fire apparatus design.”

Fire apparatus should be retired after 25 years of service, according to National Fire Protection Association guidelines.

Artist renderings of the new truck were unavailable. Construction is estimated to take 920 days, or about 2.5 years The goal is to have it in service in late 2025 or early 2026.

Pohl said the department has been working on the fire truck project for about five years, but the pandemic put it on pause until this year. The estimated 2.5-year wait time is credited to high demand of new vehicles.

“Compartments of the new truck will be purpose-built for tools, equipment, and materials that we carry on a rescue truck today, rather than being purpose-built for the equipment that we carried 25 years ago,” Pohl said.

Council President Andrew Bennett said providing emergency responders with the best tools for their job is of the utmost importance.

“We are blessed with a great group (of emergency responders),” he said. “Our job as council is first and foremost the safety of our residents. That speaks to the police, fire and EMS departments. That’s how important those groups are.”

The borough budgeted $1.317 million for the truck, funded by $850,000 from the capital reserve fund and $517,000 from the anticipated amount in the fire truck fund in 2025.

Borough Treasurer Jeanine Mancuso said the fire truck fund now contains about $330,000, and the borough anticipates getting the rest by the time the truck is built.

The fire department has 29 active members and six vehicles in its fleet, including three fire engines, one rescue truck, and two squad trucks.

According to information provided at the July 17 meeting, the department responded to 330 calls in 2021, with 174 of them mutual aid to other communities. Twelve of the overall calls were Fox Chapel receiving mutual aid.