By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
A front-line Yukon fire engine is in the shop with mechanical issues.
An estimated $35,000 repair is needed to the engine of the Yukon Fire Department’s engine one, which already has been down for several weeks.
The 2013 model is the YFD’s first-line engine at fire station one, 1000 E Main.
“We knew there were some engine issues but then they ran into some more problems,” Yukon Fire Chief Shawn Vogt said. “They found a flaw in the engine block itself, so they’re having to do some other work. It actually needs a new engine block.
“We’ve got to have that truck. It’s a very good truck. I know it’s never good to have to spend that kind of money, but once we get it back and fixed, it will last a long time.”
Yukon City Manager Jim Crosby told city council members this week the overhaul to engine one would take about 10 days to finish.
Speaking during Tuesday night’s council study session inside the Centennial Building, the city manager advised the truck must be repaired.
Council members gave Crosby the go-ahead to authorize the immediate repair, which they will formally consider paying for at their Sept. 15 meeting.
“I think we ought to get it fixed right away since that’s a front-line engine,” Ward 1 City Council Member Rick Cacini said.
Ward 4 Council Member Aric Gilliland agreed, adding, “It’s something that’s got to be fixed.”
RESERVE FOR A REASON
The fire department’s reserve engine is a 1994 model with considerable mileage.
“It works as a reserve, but it’s got a lot of years and miles on it,” Chief Vogt said. “Running as a front-line engine, it’s not the most reliable. It is our ‘reserve’ engine. It’s used to just running for a couple days while one gets service work done.
“It’s not that often we’ve ran into an issue to where we’ve had a piece of fire apparatus down for this amount of time.”
Council Member Cacini asked whether the City of Yukon could “rent” a fire truck from the Oklahoma City Fire Department while Yukon’s engine one is off-line.
Yukon Fire has inter-government mutual aid agreements with Oklahoma City and other area fire departments who could respond to Yukon with their units if “we really need it”, Crosby explained.
“We’ll put our second engine on-line, but if we need more, they will respond and help as they have in the past,” he told council members. “And we help them.”
A new fire apparatus is costly. For example, an engine the City of Yukon bought last year was about $535,000.
