Deer Lake -
Fire Chief John Dinney is like a kid on Christmas Eve as he talks about the brand new pumper truck which is making its way to Deer Lake.
Dinney said the truck is currently stuck on one of two vessels that have been unable to dock in Port au Basques due to the reparation of the ferry, MV Atlantic Vision.
The pumper is coming from a fire truck manufacturer in Centreville, N.B.
"We're really excited with this new pumper trucker. The truck itself is very highly electronic ... It's unbelievable the things that are on this new truck, it's the future generation. It's digital," said Dinney.
Dinney said other than being generally bigger than the current trucks the department has, the pumper is also fully digitized and able to calculate all its mechanical activity.
"It can calculate the amount of water and foam pumped out of the truck in a fire," Dinney said of the 2010 Freightliner.
He said the 1050 pumper can hold 800 gallons of water and 30 gallons of foam, which is all the region needs since the department has full access to hydrants in the area.
The fire chief said he and three other firefighters from the department traveled to Grand Falls-Windsor to get trained to operate the new machine in late November.
"When the truck arrives, we will train the rest of the fire department," said Dinney.
The Deer Lake fire department consists of 28 firefighters.
The repaired ferry returned to service Wednesday afternoon, allowing the pumper to wheel onto dry land and start its trek to Deer Lake. The vehicle must pull into the Fire Emergency Services depot in Deer Lake where a technician will look over the vehicle, checking for any deficiencies. Once the pumper clears its inspection, the town will take possession of it.
Deer Lake got its new fire truck through funding by the Department of Municipal Affairs. The Town of Deer Lake applied for funding two years ago when it lost a 37-year-old pumper truck due to mechanical malfunctions. The pumper costs $270,000 pumper truck with an 80/20 cost-share ratio with the provincial government.
