(From Owyhee Avalanche)
The Murphy-Reynolds-Wilson Fire District’s newest piece of equipment is practically brand new. Fire Capt. Louis Monson said installing some equipment salvaged from an old structure fire engine helped bring a wildland Type 4 brush truck online. The truck, which bolsters capabilities, started life as a half-ton military cargo truck in 2003. Monson said the truck was purchased from the North Dakota National Guard through a federal firefighter property program administered by the Idaho Department of Lands. MRW spent no funds two acquire the vehicle, Monson said. “If we had to purchase a Type 4 brush engine, they currently cost between $100,000 and $150,000,” Monson said. He said that the military was doing away with the vehicle and others like it because with anti-improvised explosive device (IED) undercarriage shields, making the older models obsolete for military applications. “The truck had around 5,000 miles on it when we got it,” Monson said. MRW volunteers worked to painted and decaled, and a 900-gallon water tank from Navy surplus was mounted. Hose reels from that old structure fire engine were rebuilt and installed, and in-house work also included the construction of hard line plumbing and connectors, while the rig’s special suction and pressure hoses were manufactured by a local company. “As best I can calculate, we spent around $10,000 building the unit,” Monson said. “This, of course, does not count the untold man-hours that were donated by myself with the assistance of a lot of people.” The truck carries drip torches that the Bureau of Land Management gifted to MRW. The fuel tank for the water pump was salvaged from an old Air Force refrigeration unit, Monson said. The water pump and fire tools and fire hoses were obtained with a U.S. Forest Service grant administered by IDL, he added. “I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Wendall Snider and Glen Sevy with special thanks to Bill Lacy for his welding and fabrication skills and my now-departed friend Mike Beavers,” Monson said. MRW also is in the process of refurbishing an old military semi-truck tanker as a water tender. The tanker was brought north by MRW from White Sands New Mexico. — JPB
