By Bill O Boyle
The Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — At a brief ceremony on Monday, Mayor George Brown thanked Fire Chief Jay Delaney and all the members of the city’s fire department for their work in helping to ensure the new $850,000 fire engine had all the equipment needed.
“This is your baby,” Mayor Brown said. “And hopefully this will last the city for the next 15 to 20 years.”
And with that, retired city Chaplain Don Crane, offered a prayer as he blessed the shiny new fire engine at Fire Headquarters on South Street.
Chief Delaney said Mayor Brown worked with him to acquire the new fire engine. They said they were able to locate on on the assembly line and ordered it — saving the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“If we waited, the cost of a new fire engine would have been well over $1 million,” Delaney said.
Delaney said it usually takes three to four years after an order is placed to receive the vehicle. He said the city was fortunate to find one already being built and he and the firefighters worked with the manufacturer to ensure the new engine had all the equipment the city wanted.
“These firefighters will work on the engine every day,” Delaney said, looking at the firefighters in attendance. “They are the ones who go into burning buildings where the temperature could be 1,000 degrees and this engine will play an integral part in keeping them safe.”
Mayor Brown said he promised the firefighters that he would provide the best equipment and that he would hire more firefighters to fill long-vacant positions.
The new fire engine is a 2024 Pierce Enforcer Pumper Fire Engine and will be delivered to WBFD Fire Headquarters, 20-22 East Ross St, on Monday.
The plan was to conduct a traditional “Fire Engine Push-In Ceremony” — celebrating the arrival of the newest addition to the Fire Department’s fleet. That ceremony was canceled due to inclement weather on Monday.
The tradition dates back to the 1800s when crews would return from a call on horse-drawn equipment and be unable to back into the station— requiring crews to detach the animals and push the equipment into the bay.
Over time, with the invention and adoption of motorized apparatus, the need to manually move the equipment was gone. However, the tradition continued.
Now, in honor of those early crews, many fire departments hold a push-in ceremony when taking delivery of a new apparatus, often inviting community members to celebrate the exciting moment their tax dollars helped make possible.
The new fire engine will be stationed at Fire Headquarters as Engine 1. It will replace a 2006 KME Fire Engine that was experiencing mechanical difficulties.
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