The Joint Fire District serving Pleasant Hill and Newtown Township in Miami County has taken delivery of a new fire engine, the district announced Tuesday. According to WHIO-TV, the apparatus arrived four years after it was ordered.
The engine was purchased in 2022 following almost ten years of strategic planning, the district said. The district said the new truck will replace a 1995 rescue engine sold in 2024 and a 1989 fire engine that is to be retired when the new unit is ready for service.
In a social media statement, the district said merging firefighting and rescue functions from two trucks into one would cut recurring maintenance expenses and save hundreds of thousands of dollars on future apparatus replacement. Those projected savings were described by the district and were not independently verified in the report.
Before the engine enters service, district members will install equipment and finish required training and familiarization, the district said. The report did not specify a timeline for those steps or for the engine’s placement into service.