Detroit welcomes 5 new Smeal fire trucks

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The Detroit Fire Department unveiled five new fire trucks Friday.

Each of the Smeal pumpers cost around $477,000, according to DetroitNews.com.

From DetroitNews.com:

“It’s a dramatic upgrade to what we were working with,” said Sgt. Ronald Ward of Engine 1, which received one of the new rigs two weeks ago. “We made the best of what we had, but it’s nice not to have to do that anymore.

“This truck is going to pump as it should, and we can arrive (at fires) without worrying it’ll break down. That’s happened before.”

From FreeP.com:

The five new fire engines are the last to hit the streets of 10 new rigs the city bought recently with $5.5 million from a $120 million “quality of life” loan taken out last year during Detroit’s bankruptcy to pay for critical public safety needs.

“They’re brand new, they don’t have 100,000 miles on them,” fire commission Edsel Jenkins said at a press conference this morning at public safety headquarters. “They’re fresh off the assembly line, they’re strong, ready to pump.”

These rigs will replace older trucks which will now be retired, according to FreeP.com.

The city plans to order additional rigs later his year, DetroitNews.com reported.

Read more and see photos on DetroitNews.com and FreeP.com. FireTruckBlog.com’s post on a delivery in July is here.