On Thursday night May 26th the SLVFD conducted training on our temporary ladder truck.

Recently our Ladder LT-144 required significant repair. LT-144 currently 32 years old was a 1990 KME Grumman that was completely refurbished in 2000, It was purchased and placed in service by Saranac Lake in 2011. The costs of those repairs exceeded the overall value of the truck. In light of the expense and the current planning for a new one, LT-144 was sold.

Fortunately replacement of that truck has been in planning for quite a long time. The Village of Saranac Lake has contracted with fire truck manufacturer E-One for the build and purchase of a new ladder truck. Construction and delivery of the new truck is anticipated to take 18-24 months.

In the meantime while we wait for our new one to be built, We still need a ladder truck to protect lives and property in our coverage area. We have arranged to lease one for the duration of the build out time. The training this past Thursday was familiarization with this temporary apparatus which will serve us during this time period.

The temporary apparatus is similar to our old LT-144 and it has quite an interesting history. The previous owner was the University of Connecticut "UCONN" The door of the truck is still labeled as UCFD Tower 122. Following its service there; it has been used by various other fire departments in the same manner it is being used by us. These departments have left their marks on the truck, it has stickers from Portsmouth and Dartmouth. Soon it will also be lettered with our own Saranac Lake label and will be identified by the county as LT-144.

Below you can click on the 2011 article about retiring our old snorkel which served over 40 years and placing the departing LT-144 into service.

The SLVFD is very proud of how hard our volunteers train to protect our community, enjoy the photos of our most recent fire school training on the temporary ladder truck.