Sneak Peak of the New "Rescue 261"

Part of the job for the Board of Directors and the administrative staff of the fire department is to plan, acquire and maintain the necessary amounts of quality and functional fire equipment. This equipment ranges from firefighter gear all the way up to the stations and their locations.
One of the hardest equipment lines to design, acquire and fund are the emergency response vehicles. At Orange Rural, we have vehicles ranging from a Polaris UTV up to the Town of Hillsborough's 95ft aerial platform truck and everything in between.
Since the early 80's, we've had a utility truck to haul extra lights and an air supply to refill the air packs worn by firefighters during fire suppression operations. These utility trucks, vans, squads and eventually "rescues" have always been bought used or repurposed from other agencies or fire departments.
In the late 90's, our "squad" gradually developed into a rescue truck carrying more specialized equipment needed to perform the rescues of people in a variety of situations.
Today, the department is certified to provide confined space rescue, structural collapse rescue, vehicle and machinery rescue, swift water rescue, rope rescue, and trench collapse rescue.
The main vehicle used in all of these is a 2001 KME heavy rescue made in Pennsylvania that we bought used from Little Creek Fire Department in Delaware. This truck is being sold to a neighboring district for them to continue building upon their current capabilities for heavy rescue.
In 2021, the Board of Directors placed an order for a new rescue/air/light truck to be built to the design and specifications of the department's firefighters. The truck has been completed and will go through a final inspection on December 2nd. If that goes well, the truck should arrive in our station around December 12th.
This truck will be the first rescue truck ever designed from scratch by members of our department to serve our communities and mutual aid districts.
Following the arrival of the truck to our station, our personnel will begin loading it with a combination of existing and some new equipment we are adding to further advance our capacities to serve those in need.
We are excited to get the new truck into service and we thank the Board and our citizens for their support of the fire department.
To learn more about this truck or the fire department, get in touch with us or drop by the station. We welcome visitors of all ages because sometimes we all need to just climb in a fire truck and think about all the possibilities...