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Tusayan Fire buys new ladder truck
Town of Tusayan donates $35,000 so fire department can fight rooftop fires

From left to right: Volunteer firefighters Tyler Krombeen, John Shoppmann, board member Andrew Aldaz, Fire Chief Rob Evans, board member John Vail, board member Ann Wren Serna and Lucy the golden retriever stand with the fire station’s new ladder truck. Clara Beard/WGCN

From left to right: Volunteer firefighters Tyler Krombeen, John Shoppmann, board member Andrew Aldaz, Fire Chief Rob Evans, board member John Vail, board member Ann Wren Serna and Lucy the golden retriever stand with the fire station’s new ladder truck. Clara Beard/WGCN

Thanks to a $35,000 contribution from Tusayan Town Council for a 75-foot aerial truck, Tusayan Fire Department (TFD) can now extinguish fires in a three-story building.

TFD board member John Vail said no other agency in the area has that ability.

"If the El Tovar caught on fire, we'll probably be running with that truck," Vail said. "This is something that we've wanted for a long time."

The truck, built in 1986 and completely overhauled in 1999, is operational now. The department plans to only use it for major incidents around Tusayan. Fire Chief Robbie Evans said the truck's use will extend from the rest area north of town and into Grand Canyon National Park if needed.

"We aren't going to be putting a lot of miles on it," Evans said. "My basic thought on the whole thing is, it's going to be for in town."

The department bought the truck from Summit Fire District with a $35,000 bid. Evans said that from doing some research on the truck online, it should have been worth about $150,000.

"Brand new, that's a million dollar truck," Vail said.

Vail calculated the cost of basic upkeep and gas for the truck will be around $2,000 per year.

The ladder truck should hopefully be good news for local business owners. Not only will they receive better fire protection, the truck may also help lower insurance rates.

Based in Chicago, the Insurance Services Organization (ISO) inspects and grades fire departments from one to 10. Homeowner insurance companies base their rates off of that grade.

"They go off your dispatching system, how credible your water system is, your equipment, your training, all that kind of stuff," Evans said. "It's based on a whole conglomeration on a lot of different things."

Homeowners have no fire protection in their area if the grade is a 10. Tusayan Fire is a six, which Evans said is very good if you take into account they have just two paid positions and limited amounts of volunteers.

"One of the things we've always been missing is having a truck that's capable of putting water up in the air and getting on the roof of a building and now we've accomplished that," said Evans, adding that since the department's last ISO inspection, they've installed new fire hydrants, which should also help boost ratings.

Two new positions

Tusayan Town Council is currently in talks with the fire department to help pay for a full-time fire fighter and administrative assistant. If approved, the town will give the department $109,000 annually for the two positions. The agreement would be for two fiscal years and would start next month.

"What's this is going to do is it's going to lighten our workload a little bit," Evans said. "It's going to provide better customer service, it's going to provide a little bit more rapid response."

In the last two years, the Tusayan Fire has struggled to keep its volunteer numbers up. Evans said they have a core group that has been with them for 12 years, but retaining new volunteers is tough because of Tusayan's remoteness.

"We're looking for volunteers most of the time," Evans said. "But one of the things here is that you teach them, but most of the young kids need movie theaters and malls and end up going somewhere else."

Lack of volunteerism is another reason the department asked the town for financial help, Vail said.

"This isn't a real good time for the fire department," Evans said. "We have 4.5 million people on this highway. We go from a little teeny hamlet to becoming a small city. We've been fairly busy. We've been running a lot of calls since school got out."


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