Rural volunteer fire departments rely on fundraising and grants to be able to do the work they do to help the community. Sun Prairie Rural Volunteer Fire Department recently received a large grant which helped them to secure a new truck.
“We applied for a FEMA assistance firefighter grant and were awarded that grant in 2020, so this project's been four years or so in the making,” said former fire chief, Chris Tacke.
After receiving the $400,000 grant, they bought a custom-made, new and improved, 2024 model from Boise Mobile Equipment.
“Our original truck was the 1983 Ford 9000 truck that was actually converted to a water tender. So, it had the back taken off, we put a 3000-gallon tank on it, and it worked great up until it didn't,” said Tacke. “Started to wear down, parts were hard to get, things like that, was becoming less reliable, and so we needed a more reliable water source.”
Joey Zahara, public information officer for Sun Prairie and Vaughn Fire, explained why this new truck will allow Sun Prairie Fire to better serve the community by giving them the ability to do their work quicker and more efficiently.
- Montana Millionaire: winning tickets!
- West Yellowstone police officer dies
- Alleged dog abuse captured on video
“By us having a water source on site of an incident, we don't have to leave an incident and go to find a water source, a fire hydrant or a river or so forth. So, we can have 3000 gallons at our beck and call on an incident right there. So, this is going to improve our operations,” said Zahara.
Tacke added, “90% of our district does not have fire hydrants, so the only way to take water to a fire is using one of these tenders. Now that we have a new tender that can carry 3000 gallons on a lot more reliable basis, we'll be able to securely take water to the fire scene, supply water to the fire, and then go get more if we need to.”
95% of the funding for the truck came from the $400,000 grant and the other 5% was raised through fundraising efforts within the community of Sun Prairie.
