ANDOVER – Fire Chief Ken Dixon beamed Tuesday afternoon as he proudly showed off the town’s newest fire truck, a 1982 pumper from Pennsylvania.

The E-One body on a custom Pemfab chassis complements three other Andover fire engines built in the late 1970s. Like the 1982 truck, all of them were bought used from fire departments in Freeport, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Dixon, 64, bought the former Rose Tree Volunteer Fire Co. pumper this summer in Media, Penn., for $29,000, using $35,000 from an insurance settlement for the town’s totaled 1973 engine.

That truck was wrecked on the steep Eaton Hill Road in Rumford when Dixon responded to a call for help to fight a backcountry woods fire on April 19.

Rumford police said Dixon set the emergency brake, but failed to put chock blocks behind the wheels as an added safety measure.

The emergency brake let go and the lime-yellow engine rolled downhill, nicking a Dixfield firefighter’s pickup truck before veering into a drainage ditch and boulder, which ruptured the water tank.

“We were fortunate to have the right insurance coverage,” Dixon said.

After driving the wrecked engine back to the station, Dixon said he opened the department’s copy of PA Fireman, a monthly Pennsylvania magazine, which fell open to the page on which the 1982 Rose Tree pumper was advertised.

“We took a road trip down there, drove the pumper around, crawled all over and under it and put in a bid for it that was more than we had in mind when we were going down there. We wanted it bad enough to bid $2,000 more than what we had in mind to assure ourselves we would get it,” Dixon added.

Unlike the 1973 gasoline-fueled standard-shift engine, the 1982 diesel automatic firetruck came outfitted with several storage compartments, a top-mounted pump panel, front suction, a generator and seating for five. Only two firefighters could ride in the 1973 tanker.

“We never had compartmentalization on our old truck, so we could never carry all the stuff we need for wrecks and fires. We may have lost a 250-gallon water carrying capacity, but we gained compartmentalization and we’re real happy with it,” Dixon said.

The 1982 truck can pump 1,500 gallons of water a minute from its 750 gallon tank.

Dixon put another $7,000 into the pumper, adding a new roof ladder, new hard suction pieces, a new rack and deck gun, which can be dismounted and used on the ground. Erik Design of Peru did the lettering work.

“This is a real firetruck and she’s ready to fight fires. But most importantly, she comes with wheel chocks attached to the chassis,” Dixon added.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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