Former CA Rescue Truck Finds New Life in MA Town

Aug. 23, 2018

The only yellow apparatus in the Spencer Fire Department's fleet is the rescue truck that once served in Santee, CA.

The Santee Fire Department sold their 2000 heavy rescue to Spencer, MA, where the rig will be the only yellow apparatus int the fleet.

SPENCER - Some of the firefighters call it Big Bird, but really, it's the Fire Department's new rescue truck, a canary yellow hand-me-down of sorts from a fire department in California.

The new Rescue 1 is now in service after firefighters spent the weekend loading equipment into its spacious cabinets and training with the vehicle, Fire Chief Robert P. Parsons said.

The 2000 Pierce came from Santee, California, and was a bargain for the town.

"We found it at a brokerage online," Chief Parsons said. "We were able to get it through town meeting."

The truck cost $69,000 - a good value when a new one would cost about $700,000, the chief said.

"There's nothing wrong with the truck," he said. "It's absolutely beautiful."

Beautiful - and yellow.

Firefighters in Santee, which is in San Diego County, drive yellow trucks but are switching over to the more traditional red vehicles, Chief Parsons said. Spencer's other trucks are red but the rescue truck, in part because of cost, will remain California yellow.

"We like it," the chief said. "When we show up, people will know who it is."

The used truck replaces a 1990 GMC that was "too small, has a standard transmission and hydraulic brakes," the chief said.

This is an automatic, is much larger and will save time because firefighters will have just about everything they need when it arrives at crashes, water rescues, and high-angle and confined-space incidents. At fires it will be a support vehicle.

On the West Coast in Santee, firefighters learned about Spencer's acquisition through social media, and some folks there mentioned how much they miss the vehicle.

"Glad it found a new home," Rob Nicholson wrote. "Hope she serves you well."

Jorge Alberto Mejia echoed that sentiment. "Loved that thing," he wrote.

A representative of the Santee Fire Department wished Spencer the best with the truck.

"Congratulations on your 'new' apparatus! We hope she provides you many years of valiant service as she did for us. It's great to see that she will literally serve from coast to coast of our great nation! We would love to see more pictures of her posted," they wrote.

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