Hampden today might not look like the kind of community that needs a 100-foot ladder truck to put out blazes and rescue people from high places. But its new state-of-the-art fire truck is designed to serve the community as it grows over the next two decades.
The town’s newest fire truck, which arrived earlier this month and will be in service by the end of the month after staff have been fully trained, is the latest upgrade to Hampden’s public safety fleet. The $998,000 fire truck will be the town’s first ladder truck since the 1990s, when it retired a 1941 model. It will join a $253,000 ambulance the town added last November that’s the first of its kind in the region, complete with a hydraulic lift for stretchers and ultraviolet light to sanitize the interior.
The new fire truck “fits all the community’s needs for the next 20 years as Hampden continues its efforts to attract more business,” Chris Bailey, director of Hampden Public Safety, said Wednesday.
Clockwise from left: Lt. Matt Thomas operates the ladder on the newest truck at Hampden Fire Department on Wednesday; Thomas drives the truck out of the bay at the Hampden Public Safety building; Thomas prepares to back the truck back into the bay; The truck has a smaller footprint with just a 12-foot jack spread. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
Hampden ordered the new ladder truck and the ambulance from the same company at the same time, in the fall of 2020, allowing the town to secure reduced prices.
Using the ladder truck will be safer for firefighters, in part because they won’t have to rely on ground ladders at fire scenes that they have to place on uneven ground or snow, Deputy Fire Chief Jason Lundstrom said.
“When we’d go to a house fire before in the winter, we’d put a couple of ground ladders on top of snow and climb 32 or 33 feet to get to a metal roof covered in ice to put out a fire,” Lundstrom said Wednesday during a demonstration of the new truck’s features. “We weren’t capable of getting higher than that.”
Hampden firefighters will also be able to handle rescue operations that require the use of a tall ladder, rather than rely on other area fire departments with ladder trucks.
A few years ago, a camper at the Bangor Region YMCA’s day camp in Hampden became paralyzed with fear at the top of a zip line. Because Hampden did not have a ladder long enough to reach the child, Brewer responded with its ladder truck and the stranded camper was able to climb down to safety.
While Hampden might not have six-story buildings as Bangor does, it has houses and warehouses that are at least three stories tall, including Good Shepherd Food Bank’s regional distribution center, a sorting facility for the U.S. Postal Service, Dennis Paper Co.’s headquarters and others.
In addition to the 100-foot ladder, the tanks on the new truck hold 500 gallons of water and 300 gallons of foam. There is also a stationary hose line attached to the retractable ladder that carries water or foam to the top of the ladder.
“There’s an apparatus at the top of the ladder that can be moved to point water or foam in different directions as needed,” Lundstrom said. “A firefighter also could attach a hose to it and go in through a window when necessary.”
That means the full length of that hose could be inside a structure instead of partially outside connected to the truck or a hydrant.
Another of the truck’s features is its 12-foot jack spread, which gives it a smaller footprint than other fire trucks that makes it easier for it to set up on residential driveways. The jacks stabilize the truck at the scene. Fire trucks usually have a jack spread of between 16½ and 18 feet, according to Lundstrom.
The new truck, which is made of aluminum rather than steel, can carry six firefighters and nearly all their necessary equipment, including ground ladders of various sizes, Lundstrom said.
Hampden has owned two ladder trucks over the last 80 years.
The 1941 truck was purchased new at a cost that is lost to history, according to Lt. Matt Thomas. It was later retrofitted with a ladder from the former Hampden Telephone Co. and taken out of service in the early 1990s.
In 1993 or 1994, the town bought a 1957 ladder truck from Bar Harbor. It was never able to pass inspection, however, and the town auctioned it off less than a year later.
Hampden last bought a new fire engine in 2009 for $300,000, according to Lundstrom. It is due to be replaced in 2029.