New $203,000 Elkville Fire Truck Nimble and Functional

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Elkville Fire Department's new $203,000 fire truck brings together the very best of both worlds in firefighting--a very functional 500 gallons per minute pumper and a 2,000 gallon tanker truck.

For community and rural fire protection it may, in fact, be the best truck available.

Fire Chief Kenneth Wright said the truck arrived three days early over the New Year's holiday and it was unveiled this week.

The truck was built by the Toyne fire Apparatus Co. of Breda, Iowa near DesMoines.

It features a roomy two-man cab and the truck operates from dual controls on both the inside of the cab and the driver's side control panel.

It's a nimble truck perfect for neighborhood firefighting. It can drive under low hanging tree limbs, navigate through alleyways and corner on a dime.

Yet, it's a beefy diesel-powered truck that rides on a Kenworth chassis.

It has all the amenities of a much larger truck--a huge water capacity, hose bed, full ladder and pole racks and storage places for tools, air ejectors or generators.

The truck joins a 2007 1,000 gallon pumper and a 1984 Seagraves pumper.

The truck will help support the 18 men in the Elkville Fire Department.

All will be housed in a new 68-by-60 foot fire station. Construction on that new building is expected to begin in three weeks. All aspects of the design and materials of the new building were certified this week.

The new fire station will feature three bays on the front and a fourth front-to-back drive-through bay.

Collectively, the Elkville Fire Department is a very modern, well-trained department with a lot of equipment, which enjoys a tremendous mutual aid agreement with Du Quoin, Dowell and other surrounding fire departments.