Firefighters can get ladder truck

By GINA KINSLOW

CAVE CITY — CAVE CITY — Volunteer firefighters have been given the go ahead by city council members to purchase a ladder fire truck.

The truck, a 1991 International, will cost the fire department $50,000, which is about $9,000 less than the original asking price.

“I think it’s a steal myself,” said chief Kenneth Moulder.

Firefighters have been looking to purchase such a truck for the past four to five years.

While some may think owning such a truck would have enabled firefighters to extinguish such blazes as the November Comfort Inn fire on Mammoth Cave Road quicker, Moulder said that’s not necessarily true.

“We had two ladder trucks out there and it didn’t help anything,” he said.

However, the fire department has been in situations where owning such a truck would have been beneficial.

Moulder explained firefighters can use the truck to reach the upper areas of attics when extinguishing structure fires. With a ladder truck, he said, firefighters can push the hose’s nozzle through the window to fight a fire without having to get so close to the blaze.

“It means a whole lot that our people are safe and sound,” he said.

Moulder has yet to see the truck himself, but several firefighters drove to Woodlawn, which is near Covington in northern Kentucky, to see the truck and test it.

“From what they are telling me, this truck is not an outstanding truck, but it’s definitely a truck that would work in our department,” he said.

The same type of truck would have cost the fire department close to $75,000 last year.

“Somebody was going to buy this truck. Times are hard right now. We’re just fortunate to be able to use a (local bank) here in town to be able to buy the truck,” Moulder said.

Council members agreed to allow Moulder to talk to a local bank about securing a $25,000 loan to assist in the purchase of the fire truck.

Mayor Bob Hunt was pleased that the city council gave the fire department permission to purchase the fire truck.

He pointed out that Cave City will not only benefit from the use of the fire truck, but so will the surrounding community.

The fire department has a mutual aid agreement with several surrounding fire departments and Hunt said it is very likely the fire truck will be used in assisting other fire departments to extinguish blazes.

There is a possibility that the city’s Insurance Services Office rating could be lowered due to the purchase of the fire truck.

According to ISO’s Web site, “ISO’s expert staff collects information about municipal fire-protection efforts in communities throughout the United States. In each of those communities, ISO analyzes the relevant data and assigns a Public Protection Classifica-tion (PPCTM) — a number from 1 to 10. Class 1 generally represents superior property fire protection and Class 10 indicates that the area’s fire-suppression program does not meet ISO’s minimum criteria.”

The city of Cave City currently has an ISO rating of 6, while the county has a rating of 8.

“Hopefully, when we get that piece of equipment the ISO will come down and give us some other rating,” Hunt said. “We hope it will drop us down even more where homeowners’ insurance will go down.”

The type of equipment a fire department owns and is trained to use is just one thing ISO officials look at when issuing a fire protection rating. Hunt said they also take into consideration water flow, records, dispatch service and the maintenance of the fire fighting equipment.

The truck is expected to arrive within a few days.

“I think it will be a good truck for us and I think it will be a good truck for the county,” Moulder said.