New Sycamore fire engine completes 1,300-mile journey

SYCAMORE – A nearly brand new fire engine was purchased by the city of Sycamore from Logan City, Utah, last month, which meant someone had to drive the truck 1,300 miles back home in December.

Sycamore Fire Chief Bart Gilmore said he thinks the new vehicle was well worth the trip required to get it to its new home, where it will be put to good use providing emergency aid to area residents.

“I’ve been calling this thing a unicorn because you won’t find something this new in this kind of condition,” Gilmore said.

Gilmore said he was aware of other fire departments, including one from Canada, that were looking at the 2018 Rosenbauer Pumper. So he sent two longtime members of the Sycamore Fire Department to inspect and potentially purchase the engine as soon as possible after receiving City Council approval.

On Dec. 13, Sycamore Fire Lt. Eric Walker and firefighter John Pink were flown to Salt Lake City, and picked up by Logan City Fire personnel, so they could look over the prospective purchase.

Then, over a three-day span after purchasing the vehicle, the two of them drove Sycamore Fire Department’s new version of the Cannonball run.

“Nothing really aggravating happened. There wasn’t a thing we passed unless it was something pulling onto the highway from an off ramp that was going slower than we were, so we were probably the slowest thing on the road for 1,387 miles,” Walker said.

Walker and Pink, who have worked a large portion of their careers alongside one another, took turns driving the Rosenbauer Pumper out of the Rocky Mountains, through the northern plains and back home to Sycamore between Dec. 14 and Dec. 16.

On Jan. 17, Sycamore Fire personnel held a “push in” ceremony for the new vehicle, but it wasn’t an event that had been long anticipated. Gilmore said late last fall a crack running the length of the frame of Sycamore Fire Engine 2, a 2005 Central States Rescue Pumper, was discovered during a routine safety inspection.

Within days, the Sycamore City Council authorized the fire department to spend up to half a million dollars on a replacement fire engine.

“We asked the council for approval for $500,000 because engines are so hard to find, quality used engines are so hard to find, you really can’t wait around another month while the council approves things,” Gilmore said.

The Rosenbauer Sycamore decided upon was used for a couple of years before it was transitioned to a reserve role. The pump is almost pristine because of strong water pressure in the mountains, Gilmore said.

The vehicle can automatically deploy chains, if it’s ever caught in ice, and has airbags in the event of rollovers. It had an asking price of $425,000 but Gilmore said Walker was able to barter down to $400,000.

Gilmore said the vehicle could easily last 15 years.

“And we got it at a cost that’s less than half of what a current fire engine would cost, and we got it without having to wait two years to get it,” Gilmore said. “When I called it a unicorn I wasn’t trying to be funny. I mean, literally the chances of finding an engine so new in such good shape is impossible.”

Gilmore said a Rosenbauer salesman recently told him it could take as long as 54 months for a department to receive a new engine, so he’s feeling pretty lucky after Sycamore City Manager Michael Hall found the vehicle and his staff were able to beat other departments to the purchase.

Walker said their luck hadn’t run out when it came time to drive the new engine – governed at 65 miles per hour – over the continental divide.

“We had a little break and some really good luck with the weather. So the weather really wasn’t bad at all really here or there,” Walker said. “Within 30 minutes we were in the mountains, if not really less – two blocks north from the fire station downtown in Logan and start heading east, and we were going right up in the mountains right away.”