Clean as a whistle: Marietta Fire Department receives new ladder truck Friday
The Marietta Fire Department received its new 2024 Sutphen SPH100 ladder truck and had it out at Station 1 at 301 Putnam St. Friday afternoon to show the community. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
The new 2024 Sutphen SPH100 ladder truck the Marietta Fire Department received Friday is replacing a truck the department has had since 1994. The truck has a longer ladder as well as has a lot of capabilities with rope and water/dive rescues, river rescues as well as more capabilities in fighting fires. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
The cab of the new 2024 Sutphen SPH100 ladder truck the Marietta Fire Department received Friday. The truck cost $1.7 million. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
The Marietta Fire Department received its new 2024 Sutphen SPH100 ladder truck and had it out at Station 1 at 301 Putnam St. Friday afternoon to show the community. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
The new 2024 Sutphen SPH100 ladder truck the Marietta Fire Department received Friday is replacing a truck the department has had since 1994. The truck has a longer ladder as well as has a lot of capabilities with rope and water/dive rescues, river rescues as well as more capabilities in fighting fires. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
The cab of the new 2024 Sutphen SPH100 ladder truck the Marietta Fire Department received Friday. The truck cost $1.7 million. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
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The Marietta Fire Department unveiled its new tower truck Friday as officials believe it will be serving the community for at least the next 30 years.
The department received the new 2024 Sutphen SPH100 ladder truck and was showing it to the community as well as Mayor Josh Schlicher and others.
The new truck came from Sutphen in Columbus, Ohio, and will replace an engine the department purchased new in 1994.
"This new truck will give us a lot of extra options that we didn't have with the old truck, including a lot of safety features that are with the new generation of trucks," said Marietta Fire Chief C.W. Durham. "It is a very versatile truck in case we need it."
The ladder can deploy faster and there are a lot of capabilities with rope (high angle or confined space) and water/dive rescues, river rescues as well as more capabilities in fighting fires.
The truck has a longer ladder than their previous truck and it can reach all of the buildings in town they need to, including the Dime Bank Building which is the tallest in Marietta.
"We are looking forward to having it for a very long time," Durham said. "We are excited to have this resource available to the community.
"We are excited the citizens of Marietta supported us and helped us to be able to purchase this piece of equipment. We look forward to continuing to serve them the best we can."
The department began the process of getting a new truck, working with the mayor and Marietta City Council, in 2021 with delivery of the truck on Friday, the chief said.
The department will be conducting driver's and in-service training for the next several days.
"It will go into service next week as a front line vehicle," Durham said. "Very soon it will be in service and responding to calls."
The truck cost $1.7 million and the department was able to lock in the price in 2021. If it were ordered now, it would cost around $2 million to $2.5 million.
"It was definitely advantageous for us to lock in the price when we did and get a huge savings on it when we did and keeping the price down as much as we could," he said.
Schlicher said the truck is a "great milestone for the Marietta Fire Department."
"You don't take possession of a nearly $2 million truck every day," he said. "It is a major investment for the city into public safety.
"We want our firefighters and everyone who uses these apparatuses to be safe and want them to be as well equipped as possible with the latest equipment and safety features. It is a beautiful truck but it also has got everything on it that we need to serve the public and do it well."