Visual evidence of the three-year beefing up of Putnam County’s emergency services was demonstrated in the administration building’s parking lot late last month after a county commission meeting.
It was a firetruck, a 78,000-pound, 43-foot long, $1.47-million behemoth with some versatile and eye-popping capabilities. More specifically, it was the county’s new aerial ladder truck for the expanded fire department.
The truck had arrived just days earlier after a year-and-a-half construction time by Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton, Wisc.
The most obvious feature of the new truck is a hydraulically operated, 100-foot boom that carries a manned bucket on its end that mounts two nozzles. One is purely straight-stream, for distance and water penetration into fires, Putnam County Fire Chief Thomas McClain explained, while the other, called a “fogger,” is adjustable, much like a really big garden-hose nozzle, that can be used for spraying rooftops and walls to keep a fire from spreading, or for a second straight-stream attack on a fully-set fire.
The truck’s pumping system can push 2,000 gallons a minute up to the bucket, with one single-stream nozzle able to apply 1,500 gallons a minute on a fire from 75 feet away.
But water volume is just one thing. It is the boom that gives the truck its versatility. Though Putnam County has few structures over three stories high, the 100-foot boom allows the bucket to go up and over a structure to attack a fire on the back side—think lakeside homes.
Perhaps even more importantly, the boom can extend laterally its full 100 feet to attack fires from the side, adding capability to perhaps get past large trees or other structures blocking access to the truck itself. McClain recalled his county team testing the truck before taking possession. One test had the boom turned perpendicular from the chassis and extended straight out to its full 100-foot length and with four grown men in the bucket only five feet off the ground, the truck did not tip, he said.
One thing Putnam County does have is multiple water courses: two major lakes, Little River, Murder Creek, and all their smaller tributaries. This geography translates into a lot of bridges and downslopes. In a pinch, the aerial ladder truck also could be involved in rescue operations, as the boom is capable of being lowered even further at a 15-degree downward angle. The truck also comes equipped with a rescue basket and a hoist.
The build-up of the county fire department involves more than equipment, however. In the past two years the county commission has funded 33 new full-time firefighter positions, which brings with them a priority on training.
For instance, McClain explained that to become certified to operate the new ladder truck, its two-man crew will have taken a five-week course and spent four weeks online with it before a final hands-on week led by an independent, certified instructor.
The county fire department, with a budget of $2.5 million this year, operates 10 stations. Four are now staffed round the clock, 365 days a year: Rock Eagle, Harmony, Flat Rock, and the main station now on South Oak Street, but scheduled to move next year to a new facility being built behind the county administration building north of town.
Still, the department remains dependent on volunteer firefighters, especially at the six more rural stations.
But aside from the unforeseen need for a fire truck to show up at a residence or business, what is in it for the taxpayer? Basically, lower fire insurance premiums. The trade-off comes in the form of an Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating given to various areas in a county, depending on the level and quality of fire protection available.
All sorts of factors are at play in an ISO inspection, from water availability to water pressure, from response times to training records, from equipment to personnel. The versatility of an aerial ladder truck weighs heavily in the ISO formula. Both the county and Eatonton fire departments already have such a truck, but they tend to be more mechanically operated and carry a 75-foot extension ladder. The county will retain its older truck as a back-up, McClain said.
ISO ratings range from 1 to 10, with 10 representing no services available at all. In the not-too-distant past, large areas of Putnam had a rating of 7, but McClain said the rating has been lowered to a 5 already and he hopes next summer’s scheduled inspection will reduce it even further. “Everything we do is pointed to that and to providing service to our citizens,” he said.
Other evidence of the beefing up, and the investments to make it happen, came during the commission’s formal meeting:
• Approval of ordinance changes to require new subdivisions to include 8-inch water mains and specific types of fire hydrants for fire protection.
• Approval of the purchase of one new ambulance ($237,000) and the upgraded chassis for a wrecked ambulance ($114,080, offset by $74,000 in insurance).
• At their earlier formal meeting, the commissioners voted to allow two rezoning requests to be withdrawn “without prejudice,” meaning the petitioners can start the process all over again with different details.
• Rocker Construction had asked for a conditional use permit for a skeet range at 368 Harmony Road, and William and Barbara Vargo had asked for a shift from R-1 (residential) to AG (agricultural) for 10.6 acres at 230 Quesenberry Drive in the Rockville community. The Vargos and an agent for a potential buyer currently are scheduled to present a new request at next month’s Planning and Zoning Commission for a shift of nine of the 10.6 acres to C-2 (commercial).
• The commissioners also voided an earlier attempt to abandon Battle Smith Road.