{"id":88073,"date":"2017-05-19T08:42:57","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T13:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=88073"},"modified":"2017-05-20T06:26:48","modified_gmt":"2017-05-20T11:26:48","slug":"vwfd-brings-back-traditions-in-welcoming-new-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/05\/19\/vwfd-brings-back-traditions-in-welcoming-new-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"VWFD brings back firefighting traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

Van Wert Fire Chief Jon Jones brought back an\u00a0old firefighter tradition on Thursday as the city fire department conducted\u00a0a\u00a0pushing-in\u00a0ceremony\u00a0for its first new fire truck in a decade.<\/p>\n

\"Van
Van Wert firefighters and the city officials participate in pushing-in and wetdown ceremonies for the department’s new Smeal fire engine on Thursday.<\/strong> Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is something we don\u2019t do every year, so we wanted to celebrate that a little bit and bring back the tradition of the pushing-in ceremony,\u201d Chief Jones said. \u201cWhen I became chief, I wanted to bring a lot of tradition back to the fire department, and I think some of our younger guys have lost that over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to bring back little things to have like a buy-in to the fire department, so that it\u2019s more of that family atmosphere and they can pass it on, too, to other people down the road,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Chief Jones, who was sworn in back in February to replace retiring fire chief Jim Steele, noted that the ceremony goes back to the 1800s and early 1900s when fire engines were horse-drawn. After a fire, firefighters would unharness the horses and push the engines back into the firehouse to get them ready for service again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what the pushing-in ceremony symbolizes,\u201d the fire chief explained. \u201cTo push it into service for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Firefighters and others participating first placed their hands on the vehicle while a prayer was said before pushing it into a fire bay.<\/p>\n

Of course, with today\u2019s multi-ton fire trucks, city firefighters and other city employees and city officials who helped push the department\u2019s new multi-ton Engine 7 into the firehouse during the ceremony had\u00a0some help from the truck\u2019s engine to get the vehicle into the firehouse at the Van Wert Municipal Building.<\/p>\n

The firefighters also performed a wetdown ceremony\u00a0using water from the truck being replaced to symbolize the transition between vehicles.<\/p>\n

The custom-built, stainless steel 2017 Smeal fire truck, the first new fire truck purchased since 2007, cost approximately $675,000, with another $100,000 in firefighting gear. The money comes from the city\u2019s 0.22-percent Safety Capital Tax Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to buy good stuff that\u2019s going to last and stay in service,\u201d Chief Jones said, pointing to a 2001 Smeal engine that still looked nearly new after 16 years of service. \u201cWe try to get 20-25 years out of an engine, that\u2019s our goal, and I think they\u2019re all going to meet that goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big investment,\u201d he added, \u201cbut it\u2019s spread over quite a bit of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The truck it replaced, Engine 10, a 1989 Grummond that saw 28 years of service with the Van Wert Fire Department, will continue in service after being sold to the Willshire Fire Department for use in that village.<\/p>\n

Chief Jones said the new truck, which is significantly larger than Engine 10, also has more firefighter safety features than the vehicle it replaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two things most firemen die from is heart attacks and car accidents,\u201d the fire chief said, noting that the new truck has a built-in roll cage, lots of air bags, and seatbelts.<\/p>\n

The new engine joins two other engines that provide tanker capability, as well as firefighting gear, and two aerial trucks on the firefighting side. Chief Jones said the new engine would likely be used more for residential fires within the city, but could also perform tanker duty for a large fire in a rural area that doesn\u2019t have fire hydrants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Van Wert Fire Chief Jon Jones brought back an\u00a0old firefighter tradition on Thursday as the city fire department conducted\u00a0a\u00a0pushing-in\u00a0ceremony\u00a0for its first new fire truck in a decade. \u201cThis is something we don\u2019t do every year, so we wanted to celebrate that a little bit and bring back the tradition of the pushing-in […]<\/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-88073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 11:05:20","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\/88073","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=88073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}