Members of the Shelby Community Fire Department went to Nebraska Sunday to pick up the new pumper-tanker. Pictured above, from the left: Board member Dennis Stiefel, Lt. Ernie Maddex, Capt. Corey Cooper and Chief Mike Geisendorfer. Photographs submitted by SCFD
By Troy Treasure
The Shelby Community Fire Department’s newest member was on its way to Shelbyville at the Herald’s press time Monday.
Chief Mike Geisendorfer, Capt. Corey Cooper, Lt. Ernie Maddex and board member Dennis Stiefel traveled to Nebraska on Sunday, Jan. 31 to bring home a 2021 Freightliner 3,000 gallon pumper-tanker truck.
Stiefel was behind the wheel when the group departed at mid-morning.
“It feels just like a new truck,” Stiefel said via Geisendorfer.
“It’s a really smooth ride,” Geisendorfer added.
The SCFD Board voted unanimously in June 2020 to purchase the pumper-tanker from Danko Emergency Equipment Co. at a cost of $283,000.
Geisendorfer said last summer the truck is capable of powering 1,000 gallons of water per minute. The pumping apparatus will allow firefighters to draft water from lakes and ponds.
The truck’s height and length were cited last year as important safety factors when responding to emergency calls on gravel roads and curvy, paved surfaces.
The truck arrived a month earlier than the department anticipated last year when it originally was to have been ready in March.
