The Benton Township Fire Department is getting some new equipment following action this week by the township board of trustees.
Speaking to the board at its regular meeting, Fire Chief Robert Harper said his department needs to replace 23 nozzles and about 40 hoses due to their age. He said the equipment has been falling apart.
“We lost two nozzles over the past week, two weeks,” Harper said. “Not lost them, but they broke. And we can’t get parts for them. Actually, we had to take two nozzles off our ladder truck to put on the engine.”
Harper said over time, the old equipment has become obsolete, making it harder for the department to face the hotter fires that new technology is creating.
“With the fires nowadays with the plastics and everything, they’re just burning hotter and faster. Even if our nozzles were in good shape, we couldn’t combat these fires with what we currently have.”
Harper said the department couldn’t afford to replace all of that equipment at once, which is why it’s slowly buying new equipment year by year. He said it’s all about playing catch up so something is always being replaced.
Trustees agreed to the equipment purchase at a cost of $36,000.
The current nozzles and hoses used by the department are about 20 years old.
