Adam Fulbright, the new chief of the Chehalis Fire Department, was introduced at Monday night’s regular city council meeting
He didn’t wait long to get straight to business.
Fulbright brought his first request before the council — permission to purchase a new ladder truck for the department.
Before becoming the Chehalis fire chief, Fulbright was the East Grays Harbor Fire and Rescue chief. He has a total of 30 years experience and began his firefighting career when he first volunteered at the fire department in Ocean Shores at 19 years old.
“This is the fastest I ever think we’ve had a (new) employee come and ask for a huge check,” Mayor Tony Ketchum quipped.
“Mayor, it certainly is not ideal,” Fulbright responded.
The city council voted to approve the purchase.
Talks of purchasing a new ladder truck have been ongoing since before Fulbright arrived as city staff have struggled to keep the current ladder truck serviceable over the years.
A new truck is needed due to the current ladder truck being listed under limited service, restricting it from being used in any situations except “extreme emergencies,” according to the city council’s meeting agenda report. The report stated the old truck is now five years past its original service life expectancy of 20 years.
The purchase will be made using $1,574,498 of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, with an additional $75,000 for any possible additional costs and equipment that Fulbright might have to account for during the truck’s construction.
Fulbright stressed the purchase needed to be made immediately as new ladder trucks are in high demand from other firefighting agencies. He said if the city passed on the truck, it would likely have to wait until after the ARPA fund allocation deadline passed before another became available. This would force the city to find other funding for a new ladder truck.
Once delivered, Chehalis will have a brand-new, 2023 Rosenbauer Viper 109’ ladder truck.
The Rosenbauer ladder truck has improvements over the old Spartan ladder truck, like a 500-gallon on board water tank and a 2,200-gallons-per-minute pump compared to the old ladder truck’s 100-gallon on board water tank and 2,000-gallons-per-minute pump.
Fulbright detailed some of the issues the old truck, a Spartan 1997 Nova Quintech 100’ ladder truck, experienced. Most recently, the controls for the ladder and bucket have been malfunctioning.
“(The Spartan ladder truck) was built by three different companies. It’s got a Spartan chassis, another company built the box, and then the ladder itself was built by another company,” Fulbright said.
Due to the multiple companies involved with the manufacturing of the ladder truck, Fulbright said city staff told him it had mechanical issues from day one.
Because of the multiple manufacturers, it’s been a struggle for city staff to track down replacement parts. To make matters worse, some replacement components aren’t being made anymore, Fulbright added.
As for maintenance on the Rosenbauer ladder truck, Fulbright said he recently oversaw the purchase of a Rosenbauer fire engine and tender for East Grays Harbor Fire and Rescue, neither of which have had issues so far.
Fulbright replaces Tedd Hendershot, who served as the chief of the department from June 2020 until his retirement earlier this month.
