Fire department hosts push-in ceremony

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

The newest addition to the Van Wert Fire Department’s fleet was given a traditional welcome Monday morning.

The fire department held a “push-in” ceremony with firefighters, city officials and members of the community “pushing in” Engine 3 into its bay at the Municipal Building.

“Years ago when we had horse-drawn fire apparatus, we’d get back from a fire and then they’d unhook the horses and push the apparatus back in the building, so this kind of represents that,” Van Wert Fire Chief Jon Jones said of the push-in.

Many fire departments conduct a push-in ceremony to welcome a new fire engine. Monday’s ceremony also include an official blessing.

Chief Jones described Engine 3 as a rescue engine.

“We carry our tools on it and we put a lot more specialized rescue equipment on it,” he explained. “On our old trucks were didn’t have room for tools for a grain bin rescue but this truck has what they call ‘coffin compartments’ on top. We have a lot more rope rescue, some water rescue stuff that we just didn’t have room for physically on our old trucks.”

He also said acquiring Engine 3 was a three-year process and noted a committee consisting of himself, Captain Dave Cummings, Lt. Zach Merkle, Lt. Gary Gasser and reserve firefighter Jeff Ricker.

“We started the committee three years ago, we talked to our department to see what they wanted, what our needs were, and to see what’s changed in the last 20 years and we made those adjustments,” he explained. “The initial cost of the truck was about $800,000 and in today’s world it’s about $1.2 million – they’ve gone up that much in three years, so we really tried to get our bang for our buck for our community. We wanted to get the most truck we could for the least amount of money.”

Engine 3 is replacing Engine 4, which was purchased 20 years ago and according to Jones, is still a good truck in many ways. He also noted there are a couple of area fire departments interested in purchasing Engine 4.

“We just do a lot more heavy service here and for the volunteer departments it would make a good backup truck or main truck,” he said.