The Village of South Jacksonville Fire Department will soon have a new emergency response truck.
The Board of Trustees approved a purchase of a 2023 Ford F-250 for approximately $55,000 from Morrow Brothers Ford in Greenfield on Thursday night.
Talks of purchasing a truck for the fire department to take out on medical calls began almost a year ago.
Fire Chief Rich Evans, Jr. says they want to reduce taking out one of their fire engines for medical calls: “We’ve been looking for a pickup truck for over a year. It’s a little bit smaller and easier to maneuver around town just for our basic medical calls instead of taking a $200,000 fire truck out on a medical call. We had put an order out for the pickup about a year ago. With the vehicle demand within the last several years, we’ve been having trouble getting one. We finally found one within $5,000 of the original approved purchase price. I think this will fit our needs really well for running our basic medical calls around South Jacksonville.”
Evans says the fire rescue truck will still remain in their fleet, but used for its intended purpose of fire calls.
He says between 60-65% of the calls his department receives on a weekly basis are medical and/or lift assist calls from residents. He says that by having the new truck, it will quicken their response times and save the department money in the long run by decreasing wear and tear on the fire truck.