Out with the stick, in with the bucket.
When it came time for the Hugo Volunteer Fire Department to replace a 25-year-old fire truck, it went a step up. The older truck’s aerial was all ladder, referred to as a stick. The new truck, an 85-foot 2000 model purchased from the Midway Fire Department in Davidson County, has a bucket at the end.
“They’re like different animals,” Hugo VFD Chief Johnny Craft said. “Your stick, you can do very little rescue. It’s more like an elevated water supply, with a 55-foot (truck). Whereas, with this one, we can do rescues with it. We have a rappelling device as well as we can monitor or have up to two or three firefighters up, stepping onto the roof.
“The other one was limited, very limited. It had a 400-pound tip load on the other truck, and this one has 1,000, so there’s a big difference there.”
The bucket also marks an improvement in firefighter safety. Craft said most firefighter fatalities on the scene happen by falling through roofs.
“They’re able to work on roofs without having to manhandle ladders to get to a roof. Most people, if they’re not in the fire service, don’t understand that if you take a roof like that one over there,” Craft said, gesturing toward the old Sharon United Methodist Church, “say it’s 25-foot, and you’ve got to put an extension ladder or advance up the roof to get to the peak with another ladder. That means you’re leaving safety to go if we had to do ventilation.
“With this truck, you don’t have to leave the bucket until you need to leave the bucket, with a safer zone. The other thing we can do is we can do rescues. If, say, they were replacing the roof and someone had a heart attack or whatever, you can go up and then down with the bucket, instead of bringing them down on a rope.”
The Hugo VFD has more than 60 firefighters on staff — including the junior firefighter training program — covering 56 square miles and about 4,500 residents. It responds to about 200 fire calls a year.
But not everyone can get behind the wheel.
“There are about 10 or 12 who have already got their driver’s license for this — who either got it, or have a Class B license and have taken the class,” Craft said. “This won’t be driven by just anybody in the department.”
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at WolfeReports.