BRYAN, Texas — The Brazos County Fire Department has a new engine serving on the frontlines for the Benchley and OSR area in Precinct 4.
“It gives us more space that way we can get more personnel on scene and it’s a little bit closer to the Benchley area instead of having to pull an engine from a little bit further away so that way we have everything here,” said Bodie Zollinger, Firefighter/Paramedic with Brazos County Volunteer Fire Department.
This new engine is replacing a 2008 tender truck.
“It wasn’t user friendly for the firefighters going on medical calls and major accidents, even structure fires,” said Chief Joe Warren, Brazos County Volunteer Fire Department, Precinct 4.
Chief Joe Warren says this truck saved taxpayers a lot of money by getting a used truck.
It was purchased through sales tax.
“This truck here costs the taxpayers $410,000 whereas a new engine, if you order it, takes two years to get once you order it and you’re looking at over one million dollars for the price,” Chief Warren said.
Assistant Fire Chief Chris Ford has been with the Brazos County Volunteer Fire Department for 12 years.
He started in the fire industry back home in Calvert, Texas after high school.
“I mean it’s just the way I was brought up,” Ford said.
“I like helping people — I like helping the community so when I seen I could volunteer and be a volunteer firefighter, as a kid I liked being a firefighter, I always said that was gone be my dream job so when I got the chance to do it, I did it.”
Engine 422 has a 1250-gallon pumper, 4 SCBA seats, vehicle extrication tools and paratech stabilization struts.
Assistant Chief Ford is very excited to have this new piece of equipment in the fire house.
“I love this fire truck,” Ford said.
“When I first started, we had a truck here that would only hold two personnel, so if we had a structure fire or any kind of medical call, we could only get two people on the truck to go to that call.”
The old tender truck is now at station one until the new tender truck arrives in November, supported through a Texas A&M Forest Service grant.
Engine 422 hasn’t even been on the road for a week, and it’s already serving the community.
“With this truck, we can get up to four people to go on a call,” Ford said.
“We’ll know we got help, we got water, we got good equipment so it’s a big plus to the community.”
Chief Warren says this new engine will respond to between 200 to 250 calls a year here at Station 2.