SPENCER FIRE DEPARTMENT ADDS STATE-OF-THE-ART BRUSH PUMPER TRUCK

SPENCER FIRE DEPARTMENT DEDICATES STATE-OF-THE-ART BRUSH PUMPER TRUCK

Truck to Fight Wildfires and Purchased with Assistance of a $55,000.00 REAP Grant from ACOG

SPENCER, OKLA — City of Spencer officials and citizens participated in an age old “Wetdown” ceremony on June 29 at the Spencer Fire Department to celebrate placing a new apparatus into service.

The new Brush Pumper Truck provides updated, safer and more technologically advanced firefighting equipment.  It is a custom-built truck and includes brighter lighting for increased visibility at emergency scenes, 400-gallon water tank with on-board foam system, remote operated terete and front bumper sweeps (all controlled from inside the cab of the truck) and will serve as a wildland fire/EMS response unit.

“Our new Brush Pumper Truck will carry up to three firefighters and has been outfitted with a full complement of wildland gear as well as basic life support medical and trauma equipment,” Spencer Fire Chief Dale Griffith said.  “We’re very excited to add this new equipment to our department to fight wildfires and assist on medical calls in Spencer and neighboring communities.”

The “Wetdown” ceremony is a traditional event that dates back to the era when fire pumpers were horse-driven and powered by hand. Following a fire, the horses would be separated from the pumper car and both horse and pumper would be washed by the firefighters.  The pumper would then be pushed back into the station ready for the next fire.

“This just allows our community to continue to grow and will will help our citizens to know that they’re safe,” Mayor Frank Calvin said.

The City of Spencer was able to purchase this new state-of-the-art Brush Pumper Truck with the assistance of a $55,000.00 Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) Grant through the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG), a public safety tax passed by Spencer citizens and the truck chassis was supplied by Oklahoma County Emergency Management Services.

The REAP program was created by the Oklahoma Legislature and appropriates funding for small, rural communities with populations under 7,000. ACOG administers the grant process in Central Oklahoma for REAP projects. REAP grants require no match and may include improvements in rural water quality, rural solid waste disposal or treatment, rural sanitary sewer construction or upgrades, provision of rural health care services (including emergency medical care), telecommunications improvements, projects that increase employment levels, and municipal energy distribution system improvements.  REAP grants may also fund projects such as road and street construction or repair, drainage projects, rural highway improvements, county bridge construction or repair, industrial access road construction or repair, among other specific transportation projects.