Plover’s new fire engine ready to serve

By Brandi Makuski

Plover’s new fire engine is now in service.

The latest addition to their fleet, Engine 1, was ordered in 2020 but arrived late due to COVID-related shipping delays, according to Fire Chief Mark Deaver.

Plover took receipt of its new Rosenbauer fire engine about two months ago, and since then, members of his department have been prepping the vehicle to hit the streets. It was finally service-ready on Feb. 2.

A fire engine differs from a fire truck, Deaver previously explained to the Metro Wire. An engine is generally a multi-purpose rig containing a pump, internal water tank, and hose (also called “lines”). A fire truck is, essentially, a big rig with a fixed ladder that carries a lot of tools.

“The guys have been working very hard on this, getting all of the equipment on it, getting everything updated,” Deaver said on Thursday.

The $721,000 vehicle was a planned replacement, as fire vehicles generally carry a life expectancy of 20-25 years, Deaver said. The next vehicle up for replacement is the department’s 2004 engine, housed at Station No. 2 in Whiting.

Engine 1 carries 1,000 gallons of water, can pump 2,000 gallons per minute, and has a rear-mount pump; one of the few in the area. Fire department vehicles in Grand Rapids and Amherst also have them, Deaver said.

The rear-mounted pump makes it “much easier,” Deaver said, to pump water to the internal tank, or to expel water into a drop tank if there are no hydrants nearby.

“We’re still waiting on new ladders, also on delay, but currently we’re using ladders from the old engine,” Deaver said. “But we want to make sure everything is up and running perfectly before we get rid of our old engine.”

Engine 1 comes with a six-person cab with collapsible seats and a lot of custom cabinets designed to hold axes, Halligan tools, chaps, handheld lights, extension cords, and other tools.

It carries about 800 feet of large-diameter hose (typically, hoses that are three-and-a-half inches or more in diameter), and “a couple thousand” feet of smaller hoses, Deaver said.

“If you really look at an apparatus, you can see how a department really operates, how much pride they have, by how they store their equipment. You can see how organized they are,” he said.

The Plover Fire Department is located at 2400 Post Rd. and can be reached at 715.345.5310.