Fire station welcomes new truck

Bunbury's career firefighters are better equipped to serve and protect after taking delivery of a new and improved fire truck.

The $720,000 Heavy Rescue Scania Urban Pumper is the first of four trucks being delivered to country career fire and rescue service stations to replace Acco Medium Pumper appliances.

Bunbury Fire Station officer Peter Stewart said the replacement vehicle would give crews faster response times and improved rescue capabilities.

‘‘The old vehicle was 12 years old and that was a refurbished model, so it’s very much welcomed,’’ Mr Stewart said.

‘‘Most of our heavy rescue stuff we stored on a trailer, nowit’s allwith us.’’

Weighing more than 13 tonnes, the new truck has a 1200 litre tank which is 300 litres more than its predecessor and is outfitted for industry emergency response and heavy rescue.

Attending more than 550 call-outs each year, Mr Stewart urged residents not to waste firefighting resources by causing needless incidents.

‘‘Discarding cigarette butts is an issue, particularly around town at traffic lights where they’ve got median strips full of mulch,’’ Mr Stewart said.

‘‘It ties us up in little run-around jobs when we could be used elsewhere.’’