A new, yellow firetruck has recently hit the streets in the Five Cities.
The tiller truck, which takes two people to drive, is the newest addition to the Five Cities Fire Authority's (FCFA) fleet.
“We haven't had a new fire truck in a long time,” Alice Rodriguez, a Five Cities resident, said. “Good on them for getting a new fire truck.”
This specific tiller isn’t here to stay.
FCFA is borrowing this one from the Ventura County Fire Department, which doesn’t need it anymore.
Now, firefighters are using it to get comfortable with the equipment before a brand-new tiller truck arrives on the Central Coast late next year.
“We've been operating obviously on a straight axle truck for many years,” FCFA Chief Scott Hallett said. “A lot of it is just getting all of our members comfortable and familiar with that process. When it comes to specific operations, in terms of deployment of a ladder truck, there's not a lot of huge differences.”
The new tiller will replace a fire truck that has been in service for about 16 years.
At just about 60 feet, this truck is meant to help firefighters move around more easily as more people start making Oceano, Grover Beach and Arroyo Grande their homes.
“Our current ladder truck is what we call a straight axle truck,” Chief Hallett said. “That does give you some, some limited capabilities in terms of access as we get into higher density housing complexes and commercial development.”
Rodriguez said she never thought about how hard it is to move a firetruck in tight spaces. Now, she sees how the tiller’s flexibility could help with response times.
“It'll be able to get into smaller, tighter spaces, hopefully,” Rodriguez said. “Then we'll have more to go around because unfortunately, there's lots of times [where] there's more than one fire at a time.”
