On Wednesday March 25^th Cazenovia Engine 131 was placed “in service” by Chief Sam Usborne.  After three years of researching, writing specifications, reviewing bids, overseeing fabrication, mounting equipment, and training it was a great achievement to finally have this unit ready for action.

Engine 131 will be “first due” on all fire and Motor Vehicle Accidents in the Cazenovia fire district while Engine 132 gets moved to “second due” in district and “first due” to all mutual aid fire calls.

Our new engine is a 2008 Custom Stainless Steel mid-ship engine.  Features include a Cummins ISM-450 hp motor, Hale Qmax pump with Foampro A/B foam system feeding the front bumper, both crosslays and one hosebed discharge.  An Akron “Saberjet” deck gun nozzle with 30’ remote tether was added to keep firefighters from the hazards of tripping or falling off the top and allow the operator to deploy the deck gun without tying up a firefighter to manually operate it.  For the first time in Cazenovia a front intake with pre-connected hard suction and low profile strainer was added to keep portable ponds and tankers in front and out of the way because ladders, hose, cord reel are located at the rear of the apparatus and also to keep room in front of the structure for the truck.  Other features include pac-trac with reflective striping mounted in the compartments for tool mounting, a tool box in the pump operators compartment for fitting organization, a hydraulic combi-tool for extrication and a special compartment for the stokes basket (complete with RIT equipment) and backboard storage.

A special “Thank you” from Cazenovia goes out to Duane Brinkerhoff of Williams Fire & Hazard, Mauriceville, Texas and Craig Russell from Metro Fire, Houston, Texas.  Both gentleman bent over backwards to assist us as consultants, factory liaisons and equipment suppliers.  They truly enjoy and respect the fire service and helped us without ever having any financial motives.

Anyone interested in looking closer is welcome to stop in anytime.

For more pictures click here