A new, $840,000 fire truck like this one won’t fit through the door of its intended new home.
(DEREK RUTTAN, The London Free Press)
City officials may be fire-engine-red with embarrassment after a tiny measuring error left a new $840,000 truck unable to fit into its destined London fire hall.
But London’s fire chief moved Wednesday to hose down any controversy after The Free Press learned of the gaffe, saying the new engine will still be put to good use, at another station.
“It’s just a matter of redeployment,” Chief John Kobarda said. “Unfortunately, we’re dealing with older buildings.
“They were built in the 1960s for a much different style of vehicle.”
A fairly simple error in measurement created the headache.
The new engine — known as a quint, basically a truck with a ladder on top — was ordered for Station 8, the relatively small, 1960s-built station on Western Rd.
The door frame was measured at 11 feet, 8 inches high, Kobarda said.
The truck they wanted was 11 feet, 6 inches in height.
“We knew we were going to be tight,” he said.
The problem, however, is exactly what was measured.
The station, like many fire halls, has roll-up doors on its bays. But when opened, the door doesn’t roll all the way up — it hangs below the top of the door frame, obviously farther than the two inches of expected wiggle room.
The truck, one of two ordered from a company called Smeal in Nebraska, arrived in London in June.
It isn’t yet in service — it still needs a few things, such as radios — but Kobarda expects it to eventually roll into Station 12, in Byron, rather than Station 8.
The switch will be part of a continuing truck shuffle, he said, that was happening anyway over the next two years under the city’s fire master plan.
Another existing truck will go to the Western Rd. station that was to get the new quint. The truck now at Western Rd., having reached the 17-year limit on front-line duty, will move into reserves.
It’s unclear which city department is responsible for measuring the door for such a purchase, but Kobarda noted he didn’t do the measurement.
He also shrugged off suggestions the situation is an embarrassment for the fire department.
“It would have been better if the truck fit into Station 8, but we just ended up moving the (quint) into No. 12 (in Byron),” he said.
“We were trying to give (No. 8) a new vehicle (but) we’ll just put another vehicle there.”
There are about 25 fire trucks, including those on the front line and in reserves, in the department’s fleet.
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via The truck’s too big . . . for this London fire station | London | News | London Free Press.
