WILTON – Finally, the Wilton Fire Department has a new rescue pumper.

The new truck arrived Friday afternoon as firefighters, some selectmen and onlookers marveled at the bright, shiny truck that had just pulled into the station.

“We’ve been trying for two years,” Fire Chief Sonny Dunham said, “and waiting for a long time.”

“The new 2007 has everything we wanted on a truck,” he said, although he did concede to a five-man instead of a six-man cab. It has a 1250-gallon per minute pump, a 1,000-gallon tank and a 30-gallon foam tank with all rescue and resuscitation tools mounted on it.

“It will be the first piece out of the station on most all calls,” he said, “and will relieve the other engines.”

After climbing into the driver’s seat, Mike Warren, a driver for the department for 19 years, said, “I love it. This is sleek. It’s like Christmas, you can’t wait for it to get here and now it’s here.”

In December, Wilton residents authorized $190,000 to purchase a new firetruck. The final cost, Dunham said, was $182,751.

Two years ago, a truck committee made up of selectmen, firefighters, the town manager, community members and himself came up with a proposal for a new truck that selectmen shot down, he said.

One survey was done and then on a third try, a retired fire chief out of Rhode Island, Paul Ripa, now of Farmington, did a second survey to see what the town wanted. This also came to no solution. Finally, the department took a stand, Dunham said. The result was seen Friday.

Purchased from Emergency I with plants in Massachusetts and Brunswick, the truck chassis was made in Ocala, Fla., and from there went to Massachusetts where the tank was installed. Then it was on to Brunswick where the extraction tools were mounted. The truck was finished at 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Emergency I will provide training on the new truck for firefighters.

Selectman Rodney Hall, who is also on East Dixfield’s Fire Department, tried out the driver’s seat and said he thought it was a beautiful truck, simple to operate and that the department had got its money’s worth.