Lansing Fire Department gets new rescue truck
Community effort makes rescue vehicle upgrade possible ... Some of the members of the Lansing Fire Department and Rural Fire Board stand together next to the department’s new rescue vehicle made possible by their collaborated efforts and the support of Lansing residents and the surrounding community. Pictured, left to right: Tim Rethwisch; Chief Stephen Darling; Jeff Darling; Bill Bartels; Tony Becker; Greg Rea, rural board member; Dan Conway, rural board member; Jamie Rasque, treasurer; Ben Ghelf, vice president; Gene Bay; Kenny Johnson, safety officer. Photo by Julie Berg-Raymond.
by Julie Berg-Raymond
The Lansing Fire Department recently acquired a new rescue vehicle, thanks to a community effort that began in April 2020.
“The key players in this game were the truck committee made up of various members from the (fire) department, the citizens of our fire district and also our rural board members,” Lansing Fire Chief Stephen Darling said.
The truck is a 2019 Chevrolet 6500 medium rescue vehicle. “It is designed for rapid response and hauls all our department’s rescue equipment - ice rescue, high angle, grain bin, auto extrication, to name a few,” Darling said. “It can haul five personnel and enough air packs to suit up eight firemen. The truck itself ended up costing around $210,000. The funding was done 100 percent by the rural board. They set aside money for fire equipment to maintain and purchase new equipment whenever necessary.”
Darling said the previous rescue truck was having some electrical issues, with its emergency lights not working correctly - making the truck a liability for the rural board, which owns several of the fire department trucks.
“We would just like to send a huge thank you out to the rural board, Lansing Fire Department truck committee, and the citizens of our fire district,” Darling said. “It took a lot of time to get this together and we couldn’t have done it without each of these individuals. On a more personal note, I would just like to say it is an honor and a privilege to be your fire chief and we have a few more surprises coming up in the near future.”
