Woodlands to spend $1.9M on new fire trucks

The Woodlands Fire Department will obtain two new ladder fire trucks at a cost of $1.9 million to replace two of the department's aging trucks. The Woodlands Township board unanimously approved the expense, which was included in the 2017 capital budget, Thursday.

The trucks to be replaced are both 2007 models with 100-foot ladders that have 7,113 and 6,317 hours of operation, or the equivalent of about 213,400 and 190,000 miles of travel, respectively.

"These apparatus - ladder trucks -they're reaching their service life," Fire Chief Alan Benson said.

Benson explained that the department evaluates its assets as they approach the end of their service life to determine whether they should continue to be used, put into the reserve fleet or traded in to buy new vehicles. He added that the two 2007 ladder trucks have cost more in maintenance, averaging $25,000 to $30,000 a year, than the department anticipated. Still, the ladders have lasted the standard lifespan of 10-12 years.

The department opted to trade in the trucks because it already has a sufficient reserve fleet, including four engines and one ladder, and Benson's staff was able to negotiate a trade-in deal with the manufacturer, Pierce Manufacturing Inc., of nearly $400,000 for both.

The ladder trucks to be purchased will be 2018 models, one with a 100-foot ladder and the other with a 107-foot ladder.

The 107-foot ladder truck will be a single-axle vehicle, which is more maneuverable and shorter than the current model, making it easier to get up long driveways and approach large structures, explained Deputy Fire Chief Jerry Bittner.

The 100-foot ladder truck is longer horizontally, 58-60 feet in length, but is also more maneuverable than previous models, with a firefighter in the back helping to steer. Bittner showed a video of the model easily taking tight turns and whipping around a cul de sac.

"These vehicles are used in urban environments with tight streets," Bittner said. "We have tight streets (and) buildings on top of one another."

The second ladder truck will be used at the Central Station to serve the high-density, urbanized Town Center.

Once the ladder trucks are ordered, it can take a year for them to be manufactured, and then an additional two months of training on them before they are put into service.

The Woodlands Fire Department holds the highest class rating from the Insurance Services Office Inc. Public Protection Department, which evaluates a fire department's ability to respond to structure fires. Only 67 of 47,000 fire departments in North America hold this distinction, which helps decrease property insurance premiums.

The Woodlands Fire Department reached ISO 1 in 2014 by upping its professional staff, adding more stations and resources and by keeping response times under five minutes. When the department went from an ISO 2 to an ISO 1 rating, residents saw an 8 percent decrease in insurance premiums, and commercial properties saw a 3 percent decrease, according to Benson.

"The return on investment was quite significant," Benson said.