{"id":211636,"date":"2026-10-26T15:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=211636"},"modified":"2026-10-26T22:13:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T03:13:48","slug":"newest-addition-to-vwfd-pushed-in-during-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/10\/26\/newest-addition-to-vwfd-pushed-in-during-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire department hosts push-in ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newest addition to the Van Wert Fire Department\u2019s fleet was given a traditional welcome Monday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fire department held a \u201cpush-in\u201d ceremony with firefighters, city officials and members of the community \u201cpushing in\u201d Engine 3 into its bay at the Municipal Building.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Firefighters and others took part in Monday morning’s “push-in” ceremony at the fire station. Bob Barnes\/VWFD photographer<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cYears ago when we had horse-drawn fire apparatus, we\u2019d get back from a fire and then they\u2019d unhook the horses and push the apparatus back in the building, so this kind of represents that,\u201d Van Wert Fire Chief Jon Jones said of the push-in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many fire departments conduct a push-in ceremony to welcome a new fire engine. Monday\u2019s ceremony also include an official blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Jones described Engine 3 as a rescue engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe carry our tools on it and we put a lot more specialized rescue equipment on it,\u201d he explained. \u201cOn our old trucks were didn\u2019t have room for tools for a grain bin rescue but this truck has what they call \u2018coffin compartments\u2019 on top. We have a lot more rope rescue, some water rescue stuff that we just didn\u2019t have room for physically on our old trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe started the committee three years ago, we talked to our department to see what they wanted, what our needs were, and to see what\u2019s changed in the last 20 years and we made those adjustments,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe initial cost of the truck was about $800,000 and in today\u2019s world it\u2019s about $1.2 million \u2013 they\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just do a lot more heavy service here and for the volunteer departments it would make a good backup truck or main truck,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Engine 3 was given a special blessing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Plenty of youngsters were at Monday’s ceremony and had a chance to enjoy some goodies afterward.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor The newest addition to the Van Wert Fire Department\u2019s fleet was given a traditional welcome Monday morning. The fire department held a \u201cpush-in\u201d ceremony with firefighters, city officials and members of the community \u201cpushing in\u201d Engine 3 into its bay at the Municipal Building. \u201cYears ago when we had horse-drawn fire apparatus, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-03 04:04:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211636"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211675,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211636\/revisions\/211675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}