The Lexington Herald-Leader
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Lexington public safety officials unveiled new equipment Thursday that is destined for 10 fire stations around the city.
Fire Chief Keith Jackson said the new equipment was “a great opportunity to enhance our depleted fleet, and to enhance our ability to serve and protect the citizens of our community.”
Mayor Jim Gray said Lexington was safer because of recent unprecedented investments in fire trucks and emergency medical buggies — now beginning to hit Lexington’s streets — as well as additional firefighters.
The city has replaced four of the city’s 10 ambulances. Three of the new ambulances are in use, and they replaced buggies that had 240,000 to 269,000 miles on them.
In terms of firefighting equipment, the city has bought five engines and two ladder trucks. Three of the new engines have been delivered and are expected to be ready for duty this month, city officials said.
All of the engines and the ladder trucks are replacement equipment. The new ladder trucks will allow fire officials to move equipment now on the front line to the reserve fleet, making the reserve fleet more reliable.
Investments in equipment were delayed because of the recession, Gray said in a news release.
“A recovering economy and money saved from making government more efficient have enabled us to turn budget shortfalls into surpluses over the past two years,” he said. “We’ve made significant investments in police and fire with those surplus funds, and it’s great to see the new fire equipment moving into our neighborhood fire stations.”
___
(c)2014 the Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.)
Distributed by MCT Information Services