EVOC

Saturday dawned bright and crisp for the final day of the Emergency Vehicle Operations Course. RFD crews ran most of the apparatus through an obstacle course set up in the MBTA parking lot as the final phase of the course.

This training will enhance safety on the street for both RFD members and the general public.

Hose Testing

Last evening RFD members completed annual testing of our 5” supply hose, as well as a small amount of attack hose. The detail provided an opportunity to test our new Roll’n’Rack hose management system, which really works quite well.

Engine 1 was retired from service after the detail, and its hose was placed into storage.

The detail also provided an opportunity for some updated photography. It may be hard, unglamorous work, but it sure can look good. Enjoy the slides.

The End of an Era

Engine 1’s pump was retired from service after the hose testing detail this evening due to the need for extensive maintenance and repairs. This rig had been on loan from Georgetown after the failure of Engine 1’s 1985 Ford, and the failure of local government to replace it.

The saga has been well documented on this website.

This marks the first time in 80 YEARS that the RFD has been without an Engine 1, and it leaves us one engine short of what is required to fulfill our mission. The Board of Selectmen has promised to consider a replacement proposal in the spring of 2008, after refusing to consider one this year.

Given the status of local budgets in the Commonwealth in general, and the specific issues in Rowley, this webmaster is left wondering if tonight’s retirement may mark the permanent disbanding of Engine 1. I hope not.

Either way, goodbye old friend.

Engine 4 Returns

Engine 4 has returned from Valley Fire Apparatus and will return to service within the week.

Recent work at Valley included removal of all the rust on the body, a full repaint, warning and scene light upgrades, aluminum hose-bed cover, pump maintenance, installation of OnSpot chains, and various safety upgrades. Engine 4 is expected to last another 8-10 years with these repairs and upgrades.

Engine 1’s borrowed Hahn is in need of extensive repairs and will most likely be removed from service and returned to Georgetown FD, with our thanks.

'Next year' is response to Chief's request

The Newburyport Daily News, Monday, March 5, 2007

By Will Broaddus, correspondent

ROWLEY - “Two and one” is a standard dispatcher’s call, according to Fire Chief James Broderick, that summons two water-pumping engines and one ladder truck to a fire.

Right now, according to the chief’s testimony at last Monday’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting, if that call were issued, the Rowley Fire Department could respond, but with less than full confidence in its equipment.

In asking the board for a new engine, the chief pointed out that one of his original two is having body work done. At 20 years old, the age at which fire engines are normally replaced, removing extensive corrosion may extend its life by eight years, but only if it is returned to a reserve, rather than a lead response role.

Its absence leaves Broderick to depend on another 20-year-old truck, one from Georgetown Fire Department that ‘basically they threw out.’

The asking price for a new engine, $411,000, is $11,000 more than last year, when the chief first made his request. New requirements from the EPA on diesel emissions add to the cost for manufacturers and new FAA [sic] rules would force the chief to buy new radios instead of salvaging those from his current engine.

These additions occur in an economy with rising fuel prices that make processing raw materials increasingly expensive, escalating costs for a business in which just-in-time manufacturing produces only 600 or 700 new engines a year.

Every year that the town waits, the chief pointed out at the meeting, a new engine is going to be significantly more expensive. Meanwhile, if a fire were to break out at one of the buildings in town that estimates determine would take the full pumping capacity of two engines to control, the department would be left with no backup to handle any additional outbreaks, while relying on a truck that should have been at least partially retired.

The chief’s request comes in a year when town departments are “level funded,” allowing for no increases.

Citing the failure of all seven budget overrides attempted last year, Selectman David Petersen pointed out that this year, the board hoped to increase its chances of success by asking for only three.

Adding a fire engine to the list would increase the total amount requested to nearly a million dollars, Petersen added, and that might produce only voter resistance.

What he could offer was a commitment to make next year “the year of the Fire Department,” when Broderick’s requests would get priority. In the meantime, mutual aid, the system by which surrounding towns respond to each other’s emergency needs, would have to be “our fallback for another year.”

Selectman Richard Cummings added that for the present, “You can’t prioritize the priority list -- everything’s a priority.”

Broderick said that this was not what he had hoped to hear. “We’re continually in the same boat,” he said.

Webmaster’s note: The Board of Selectmen may be contacted at 978 948-2372 or via email at Selectmen@TownofRowley.org.