Program allows fire departments to make use of military surplus trucks
JAMESTOWN, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Wooldridge fire on Saturday saw fire protection districts from Mid-Missouri coming in to support Cooper County.
But for some districts, having the money to purchase a new truck can be costly.
The Jamestown Rural Fire Protection District has used a program through the state to help. A former military surplus truck got a new life in Jamestown.
“I figured it out the other night what we ran on this truck. I ran 28 loads on this truck in like 13 hours and that was 14,000 gallons of water,” said Kevin Coffelt, who is the assistant fire chief of the Jamestown Rural Fire Protection District.
Coffelt drove the brush truck while fighting the Wooldridge fire.
"This truck was going in places a normal half- or three-quarter ton or one-ton truck couldn't go,” he said. “They just didn't have the ground clearance. They couldn't get over the levees.
The Missouri Department of Conservation has been in the firefighter program since August 2007, according to Ben Webster, who is the fire program supervisoer for MDC.
According to Webster, MDC has seen a lot of surplus vehicles from the federal government come through the state.
The benefits for departments and communities go hand in hand.
“There's a couple of fire departments in the state that I know are operating solely on the vehicles that we've provided,” Webster said. “That's how they operate, because they don't have the funding.”
Departments can pay $100,000-$200,000 for a new brush truck. The cost of retrofitting a former military truck can be a lot cheaper. Coffelt said his department has invested about $40,000 in upkeep for theirs.
When it comes to fighting a fire like the one in Wooldridge, having something that large can be a benefit
The trucks can also help departments in flood-prone areas to rescue people. The vehicles and equipment are government surplus through the US Forestry Service and the Department of Defense.
