Spokane7
67°
November 3, 2011 in City
Outdated city firetrucks getting new assignment
Pumpers sold to Guatemala firefighters for $1 each
Daryl Wing, Spokane Fire Department maintenance foreman, has been working on this 1977 American LaFrance for the past 21 years. The truck will be sold for $1 to a department in Guatemala.
(Full-size photo)
Two Spokane firetrucks have been saved from the scrap pile by a decision to donate them to volunteer fire departments in Guatemala.
The 1977 pumpers manufactured by American LaFrance haven’t been in service in Spokane for a couple of years, and attempts to find departments to buy them were unsuccessful.
The department did, however, get offers to buy both trucks for about $5,000 to scrap them or use them in parades or advertising. Fire Chief Bobby Williams said the department would be willing to sell them for other purposes, but not for such a low price.
“Fire protection is important to communities, no matter if it’s in our community or another community,” Williams said.
Art Nichols, division chief of facilities and logistics, said the connection to the Volunteer Fire Department of Guatemala was made through Hearts in Motion, a nonprofit that provides firefighting training resources to Central America. The Guatemalan department will pay $1 each for the trucks.
Nichols said three Guatemalan firefighters will fly to Spokane next week. They’ll stay in town for about a week and will stay with Spokane County Fire District No. 3 Chief Bruce Holloway, who is fluent in Spanish. They’ll then drive the trucks to Los Angeles, where the trucks will be shipped the rest of the way.
Holloway, who has worked with Hearts in Motion and trained firefighters in Guatemala, will train the three firefighters in wildland firefighting while they’re in Spokane. He praised the city for approving the donation.
“I know that they’ll get some benefit from it,” he said.
The Spokane City Council voted 6-1 earlier this month to accept the sale for $1 each.
Councilman Bob Apple said the city should have accepted one of the other offers for scrap or to use them in parades.
“I don’t gift public money,” Apple said. “I don’t care whether or not they choose to scrap them.”
Other council members said they trusted the advice they received from city attorneys and that they preferred the trucks to remain in firefighting service.
“I can’t justify (scrapping them) when we can find a country that can use them,” Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin said.
Closing Geiger: Wise or worrisome? 
another_perspective on November 03 at 2:25 a.m.
“Other council members said they trusted the advice they received from city attorneys”.
After yesterdays guilty verdict of Karl Thompson, I wouldn’t be so fast to take any advice from the city attorneys.
I guess our council has been living under a rock and never heard of eBay.
A dollar. Now I wonder if Cooley is going to try to take the charitable donation off the cities income tax?
They should set up a raffle to see who gets to ride in the trucks to LA.While they are giving away things maybe they could honor Bernie Maddof with a gift of Avista?
crazyivan44 on November 03 at 7:06 a.m.
Or you can just be happy your city and local FD is doing a generous deed for our less fortunate neighbors so that they can have some of the same protections you and I enjoy here in the States.
philipgregory on November 03 at 7:07 a.m.
What a great thing to do.
Congratulations to whoever came up with this idea.
ManleyPointer on November 03 at 8:40 a.m.
The way things are going in this country, pretty soon we’ll be in a position to be accepting free fire trucks from Guatemala. So we’re doing a smart thing by getting on their good side.
another_perspective on November 03 at 12:54 p.m.
I have a few questions.
Whose going to pay for the insurance when these are on the road? US
Whose going to fuel them up before they leave? US
Whose going to pay for their stay with Chief Bruce Holloway while he baby sits them. US
Are we going to let them take all the first aid gear, hoses, nozzles, clothing, boots, SPARE PARTS? Maintenance Manuals etc. etc with them. US
Who is screwing the tax payers? The City Council.
Maybe we can be REAL generous and send all our Photo Red cameras to Mexico. Ship all the AMR ambulances to Hondurous. Damn just think of all the savings if we divest all of the cities capital goods that you and me the taxpayers paid for.
Now the real question is..if we are getting rid of the fire engines, then can we fire the people who man them and maintain them?
reservedparking on November 03 at 4:03 p.m.
@lackofperspective:
They are surplus apparatus. Haven’t been manned for years.
Chief Holloway is with an entirely different Fire Department.
And please, cite your sources for who is covering the lodging, fuel and insurance costs.
The maintenance manuals are specific to these trucks. No sense keeping them. Most of the rest of the other equipment gets stripped off the trucks - that which is still serviceable is used by those that are still in service. Clothing and boots aren’t part of the engines.
AMR ambulances don’t belong to the city, They belong to AMR, a private company. City can’t sell them.
Photo red? Yeah, we can agree on that.
For the rest of it, get yourself informed before your next rant.
reservedparking on November 03 at 9:01 p.m.
Oh, and thank goodness Bob Apple is a short timer. What a short-sighted, closed-minded, negative dweeb.
You’re lucky to soon be rid of him, Spokane.
estatetracker on November 06 at 11:29 a.m.
Since when did the City become a charitable organization to a foreign government?
Five-grand is alot of money. One dollar wouldn’t buy half a cup of Guatamalan coffee. Apparently, the City isn’t as broke as the headlines read.
The gift is a nice gesture, and I’m sure will leave a warm and fuzzy feeling in those that ceremoniously will hand over the keys and titles—but I would bet the City has already spendt more than five-grand in legal, adminitrative, and other misc. cost to “sell” for $1.
For all we know, the recipients will break-down in route to Callifornia and end up scapping the equipment anyway. It would be an interesting follow-up to see if the equipment ever makes it to its intended destination, whether or not they get used for the intended purposes, and where all the fuzzy-warm gift-givers take vacations in the future.