The Isabella Fire Department recently acquired new equipment including a new rescue service truck and extrication equipment.

The new rescue truck is a 2008 Ford F350 crew cab truck that will be used for emergency medical calls, vehicle crashes and all fire calls. It is equipped with basic life support supplies, extrication equipment and various firefighting tools.

The truck’s price tag was about $52,000. Other equipment will likely be added on to the vehicle as soon as it is available.

Fire Chief Brent Conway said this truck is replacing a much older truck that is unreliable.

“We had to have something that would be reliable for our department to use,” Conway said. “This rescue service vehicle will serve in a multi-use capacity, and it should last for many years.”

The fire department also purchased a $12,000 extrication tool from TNT rescue equipment. It comes with an air pump along with a hydraulic cutter and spreader.

Conway said they needed an extrication tool so they wouldn’t have to call for mutual aid.

“We have two major highways in our coverage area,” Conway said. “We needed an extrication tool so we could get a victim out of a vehicle as quickly as possible. This will allow us to respond to most of the entrapment calls that we might get.”

All of the new equipment was paid out of tax money the department received. The department was turned down on its grant requests for both the truck and the tool.

Conway said they couldn’t continue to purchase equipment like this if the fire tax redistribution amendment doesn’t pass.

“This isn’t a tax increase; it just redistributes the taxes more fairly to all the departments,” he said. “If it doesn’t pass, then small departments like ours could be hurt.”