Photo By Strategic Communications DLA | This former Defense Department fire truck from Alaska will now serve the people of...... read more read more
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BATTLE CREEK, Mich. - The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has a new ladder truck thanks to Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services’ Firefighter Excess Property Program.
The Montana DNRC assigned the fire truck, which it received through DLA Disposition Services at Anchorage, Alaska, to a volunteer fire department in Montana City, a few miles south of the state capital of Helena.
The fire department is responsible for 35 square miles. The area is mostly rural but also includes Montana City, a growing community that has seen more than 200 new buildings constructed in recent years, including businesses, homes and a new school.
“They did not have a ladder truck, only a hand ladder,” said David Hamilton, a rural fire specialist with the DNRC’s Forestry Division.
What the department required was a ladder truck, but that would cost more than $1 million.
Hamilton went to work looking for a truck to fill the void. Thanks to the Firefighter Excess Property Program, he found one in Alaska. But getting it to Montana would take some planning.
Montana’s DNRC flew an employee to Alaska to accept the truck from DLA Disposition Services at Anchorage. He then drove the truck to a local shipping company and placed the fire truck on a barge for a five-day cruise to Washington state.
While the truck was in Washington it underwent an inspection by the original manufacturer. As Hamilton put it, “It was just luck that their facility was so close to where the truck arrived. Once it comes out to Montana it will never be that close to that type of facility again.”
| Date Taken: | 02.28.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.01.2012 13:37 |
| Story ID: | 84549 |
| Location: | BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 128 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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