By Tim O’Neill
The Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA)
EAST DUBUQUE, Iowa — The East Dubuque Fire Department outgrew one emergency first response vehicle and replaced it with something bigger, better and newer.
The department recently purchased a new Chevrolet truck from Runde’s to replace the Chevy Suburban they had outgrown. The Suburban simply didn’t have enough room in the back to secure all of the equipment the first response vehicle needed to carry. The new truck has room in the back for each piece of equipment to be stored either in a cabinet or on a rack.
“The purpose is going to be first response for medical calls and a command vehicle for the fires and major incidents,” said East Dubuque Fire Chief Joe Heim.
After the department received approval from the city of East Dubuque, the old truck was listed to be sold and a buyer was soon found. A fire department in Kentucky offered the asking price.
“We kind of outgrew the Suburban. We had the OK to list it and a fire department in Kentucky offered us what we were asking for it, which is hard to turn down,” said Heim.
The truck will primarily be a first response vehicle. As required by regulations, the truck is stocked with certain medical supplies mandated by the state of Illinois .
“It will carry the basic first response equipment that we can carry.” Heim went on to say, “We’re licensed with the State of Illinois as an Emergency Medical Technician basic service so the state tells us what equipment we can use.”
The state requires a certain number of lights and reflective strips on each emergency vehicle licensed and the utility box should be done sometime this week.
“It will be in service, hopefully mid-April, we are waiting for the emergency lighting to come in,” Heim said. “Once that comes in, it will be equipped and pretty soon it will be on the road.”
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