The 100-foot aerial truck was purchased in 2022 by the city from Pierce Manufacturing Inc. in Appleton, Wisconsin at a cost of $1.8 million, according to city Fire Chief Sam Aungst. It replaces a 2010 Pierce 100-foot rear mount tower truck that was put into service in early 2011. The 2010 model has already been sold to the volunteer fire company in Hayward, Wisconsin, for $501,000. It was sold in early April after the Bureau of Fire received a 2007 Quint 77-foot ladder truck that the city will be using as a reserved fire apparatus. The city bought the Quint from a fire company outside Philadelphia for $305,000, Aungst said. The city purchased the 2010 Pierce “for around $1 million,” Aungst said. The cost today for a new aerial piece is almost double what it was 12 to 14 years ago, he added.

The cost of fire equipment, like everything else, goes up each year and has increased considerably over the last 35 years, Aungst, who became a city firefighter in 1992, said. He recalled that in 1990, when he was a member of Independent Hose Company in Jersey Shore, that volunteer fire department purchased a new fire truck for $125,000.

“When the city ordered the new Pierce ladder truck clear back in February 2022, the manufacturer told us that it should be ready for service in about 20 months,” Aungst said in a recent interview at his office at fire headquarters on Walnut Street.

“The 2010 Pierce was really starting to cost the city money in upkeep and maintenance,” Aungst said.

Williamsport Bureau of Fire Tower 1 bucket is extended over the entrance to the Bureau of Fire Headquarters in Williamsport. The new tower truck gives the department a much more versatile truck that can act as a pumper, tower and carry more gear for the firefighters to use than the previous tower truck. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

For years, the tower truck responded just on calls involving fire alarms, structure fires and special rescue assignments, interim Deputy Chief Kenneth Smith said. “It sat in the station while the city’s two engine companies handled most of the calls,” he added. “We are now going into an era in which our new tower will handle more calls. It will respond to all vehicle accidents in the city,” Smith said.

The Bureau of Fire had Pierce build the tower to certain specifications that would best suit the city’s needs, Aungst explained. “The 2024 model is a shorter aerial – by about five to six feet – than the 2010 tower,” he said.

“On any street where we can put an engine, we should be able to place the new tower; on skinny streets and narrow alleys,” Smith said. That was not the case with the 2010 Pierce tower, Aungst said, adding that firefighters will have greater mobility with the new apparatus because the rear tires or real axles on the new tower are steerable, an option that was not available on the former tower.

“The new tower’s flexibility was a huge factor for us,” Aungst explained.

“For a department our size and for the call volume that we have each year, our department can expect to get anywhere from eight to 12 years of service out of a front-line engine and 10 to 15 years out of a tower truck,” Smith said. The new apparatus can seat four firefighters as compared to six on the 2010 tower. Two firefighters a shift, sometimes three, are assigned to handle the tower.

Williamsport Bureau of Fire Engineer John McCann gets out of the cab of the new Tower 1 truck at the Bureau of Fire Headquarters in Williamsport. The new tower truck gives the department a much more versatile truck that can act as a pumper, tower and carry more gear for the firefighters to use than the previous tower truck. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

“The new tower’s design allows us to get better use of space, something we could not do with the 2010 Pierce,” Aungst said. By reducing the number of seats from six to four, additional space became available for more medical equipment and extrication tools.

It only made good sense to carry more medical supplies on the new tower, Aungst said.

Years ago, it was rare for a front-line engine or ladder truck to be dispatched to medical calls. Today, nearly 60 percent of the fire department’s emergency dispatches are medical episodes, ranging from overdoses and cardiac arrests to strokes and other illnesses, Aungst said. With an ever-increasing aging population, the percentage of medical incidents being handled by the fire department is only expected to go higher, he said.

Inside the cab of the new aerial is an air-filtration system that “will clean the air and pull carcinogenic particles out of the air and trap them in the unit,” Aungst said. The purification system will not only improve the air quality for firefighters on the truck, but when activated, the system should help remove hazardous materials, such as carcinogens, from the air the crew is breathing, the chief said. Carcinogens – organizations that can cause cancer and damage one’s DNA – are found in dense smoke firefighters encounter at fires.

“The filtration system will certainly make for a healthier environment for our firefighters,” Aungst said.

Williamsport Bureau of Fire Engineer John McCann gets in the cab of the new Tower 1 truck at the Bureau of Fire Headquarters in Williamsport. The new tower truck gives the department a much more versatile truck that can act as a pumper, tower and carry more gear for the firefighters to use than the previous tower truck. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

The new tower is just part of a $3.3 million package the city signed with Pierce two years ago to upgrade the bureau’s fleet of frontline apparatus. The package also includes two new pumps, costing $750,000 a piece, that are expected to be placed in service in three to four months, Aungst said.