PRESS RELEASE
Keeping a time-honored tradition alive, Prosper Fire Rescue’s newest addition to its fleet will be honored during a traditional fire service wetdown and push-in ceremony on what will be Quint 2’s first day serving the Town and its residents.
The ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 4 at Prosper’s Fire Station 2, located at 1140 South Teel Parkway. The members of Prosper Fire Rescue cordially invite the public and media to attend this special ceremony.
The celebration of a new piece of fire apparatus has been a source of pride in the fire service dating back to the 1800s. Firefighters would hold social events to mark the occasion of acquiring and placing into service a new piece of equipment. Since the equipment was either hand or horse-drawn, firefighters regularly pushed it into the station. The wetdown tradition came from rival fire companies attempting to “wash” the new apparatus before the firefighters who would soon operate it. The public is invited to assist with the wetdown before the firefighters push the truck into the station. Prosper’s Fire Chaplain, Mike Martin will deliver a blessing on Quint 2 and the firefighters who will ride it.
Quint 2 is a Pierce 107-foot rear-mount aerial ladder truck. It has a 1,500-gallon-per-minute fire pump and a 500-gallon on-board water tank with a 25-gallon foam tank.
It will be Prosper’s second aerial truck and the first quint in the town’s fleet of apparatus. As its name implies, a quint fire truck includes five main tools for firefighting functions: a fire pump, water tank, fire and supply hose, aerial device with a permanently attached waterway and ground ladders. Quint 2 combines the capabilities of a ladder truck and the water-pumping ability of a fire engine This allows the crew a range of benefits, including flexibility to adapt to various emergency situations including firefighting, aerial suppression and can be used for rescue operations.
Crew members will be cross-trained in both engine and ladder company functions.
