Derek Kilbourn
Sounder News
The Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District is beginning what will be a two year process to acquire a new firetruck for the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department.
The cost of the new truck looks to be $717,899, if the Board goes ahead with the option recommended by Fire Chief Will Sprogis. All of the options presented had costs over $710,000.
Sprogis brought the subject up during his regular report to the Fire District Board. A special meeting is being held on December 20 for the Board to have further discussion on the new truck options.
The current ‘bush truck’ for the GVFD is the 1995 truck, dubbed “#4.”
The plan is to replace it with a dual purpose vehicle, that can still serve as a bush/wildfire truck – but also take a role a first line engine.
The new truck will be capable of being operated by one operator, with pump and roll features, a front turret with controls from the cab. On-board water storage will be 1000 Imperial gallons.
Sprogis spoke to the Sounder after the meeting.
He said this purchase is to keep the department within what the Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS) requires for a volunteer department serving a community the size of Gabriola.
For the FUS requirements, the department needs to have a first line engine and a first line tender (water tanker) at each of the halls. Each of those four trucks has to be under 20 years of age.
Within the next ten years, the department will see one engine and one tender need to be replaced to meet the FUS requirements – both in 2029.
Rather than have to purchase two trucks in 2029, Sprogis said it made fiscal sense to have this new bush truck serve a dual role.
“I didn’t want to buy just a bush truck, and [then] just an engine.”
He said the proposed truck would be recognized by BC Wildfire as a type 1 wildfire engine. With this, he hopes, “that might even effect insurance ratings in the future, as communities start looking at a department’s ability to respond to wildfire.
“Type 1 is highest level of engine.”
He said the current 1995 bush truck would be a Type 6.
Once fire trucks are no longer on the first line, they are put into the reserve section of the GVFD fleet.
It was one of these reserve vehicles, #11 (aka The Donkey), that was went to help out with the wildfires in BC’s Interior this past summer.
Sprogis said the GVFD has gotten, “great dual purpose out of the last bush truck, it has seen a hard life of snow plowing and going into the bush for rescues and wildfires.”
He said it will still be maintained as a utility truck, the department will still use it as a snow plow when needed.
The issue of a new bush truck came up in 2022, but has not been on the agenda since then, as the then-Trustees opted to push the truck replacement to 2023.
Sprogis said that allowed the District to put more money into capital reserve.
In reporting to the Board, Sprogis said it will take 20 to 24 months to build the truck – a similar timeline for when Engine #1 was replaced.
Three companies have been approached for truck proposals. Fort Garry Fire Trucks, HUB Fire Engines, and Rocky Mountain Phoenix (RMP). All three of the companies were asked to quote on a full truck build out, as well as a ‘body only’ which could then be built on to a chassis purchased from the Freightliner dealer in Nanaimo.
Fort Garry won the preferred apparatus for the Regional District of Nanaimo, and the GVFD falls under that, which means getting a 5% savings.
For a complete chassis, the quotes came in at:
Fort Garry: $723,210
HUB: $728,350
RMP: $764,614.
For the chassis, Fort Garry and HUB both had chassis prices of $200K, and RMP chassis prices was $199,200.
The body prices for the three were:
Fort Gary: $517,899
HUB: $527,662
RMP did not provide a body-only price.
Sprogis said there are advantages to buying the chassis locally, one of which is that the truck is pre-delivered for inspection. Ownership isn’t turned over to GVFD until the truck is in Nanaimo, so if any damage occurs during shipment, that cost isn’t on the Department.
He said when Engine #1 was driven out to the island from Fort Garry, repairs for rock chip damage done en route was covered by the local dealer.
Sprogis said he is recommending the District go with the option to purchase the body from Fort Garry, and the chassis from a Nanaimo dealer.
At the end of the discussion, the Board opted to carry the discussion forward to a special meeting on December 20, prior to formally approving the go ahead.
That meeting on December 20 is scheduled to be at 4pm at the Albert Reed Memorial Fire Hall #1, and is open to members of the public.
Below Photo: An example of the multi-purpose truck from Fort Garry Fire Trucks, one of three options being considered by the Fire District to become a first-line vehicle in the GVFD fleet. The vehicle in the photo was built by Fort Garry for Tla’amin Nation Fire Department in Powell River.
Photo courtesy Fort Garry Fire Trucks
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