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Fire truck arrives in village
Highway rescue vehicle will also respond to fire calls

Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, February 19, 2015

LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
The Fort Simpson fire department now has a truck specifically equipped to respond to motor vehicle crashes.

NNSL photo/graphic

Several members of the Fort Simpson volunteer fire department gathered at the station Feb. 11 to move equipment into their new highway rescue vehicle. From left are David Britton, Aaron Donohue, Michael Rowe, fire chief Roger Pilling, Calvin Spencer, Tyler Pilling and Neil Mitchell. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo

The highway rescue vehicle arrived earlier this month from the Winnipeg factory of the manufacturer, Fort Garry Fire Trucks Ltd.

The 2015 Ford F550 chassis is brand new and will replace an old truck the volunteer department

has been using to transport equipment and firefighters.

"It's something we've been looking for quite some time," said Fire Chief Roger Pilling on Feb. 11 as members of the volunteer department moved equipment into the new truck.

The GNWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has been providing fire departments funding to buy equipment for highway rescue.

Pilling said several years ago it got to the point where they had every piece of glass breaking equipment and hydraulics the department needed, but what they really needed was a new truck.

However, the funding wasn't set up to allow that.

"Can I put it towards the truck?" Pilling recalled asking the department.

"'Nope.' OK, then I don't want anything," he said.

Then the rules were changed in 2013 and the department was allowed to save up two years worth of funding to be put toward the truck.

That covered $86,000 of the truck's $170,000 cost. The remainder was paid by the village.

"That's great," he said referring to the funding contribution.

Loaded with the tools needed to cut up a vehicle to extract someone, the vehicle won't only respond to accidents.

It seats five and carries extra air tanks firefighters use when responding to fires.

"It will be a bit more of a multi-purpose vehicle," he said.

Pilling said the department typically is called to two or so more serious motor vehicle crashes per year.

Most accidents along the highway system covered by the department only involve one vehicle and Pilling said since they happen in areas without cellphone coverage, often they're helped by other motorists without the fire department being called.

Even people who get injured are often brought to a community by another motorist, he said.

"Where we get calls are where people get trapped," he said.

The older vehicle didn't really work well when taken off the island for such calls, he said. The plan is to phase it out.

He said there won't be any specific training required for members using the new truck.

Training for motor vehicle accidents is usually done at the village dump where there are old vehicles available.

As the firefighters examined the new truck in the fire hall Feb. 11, they debated the best places in it to store various equipment and tested out the built-in generator and floodlights.

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