Liberty County Fire Services is on the way to replacing several aging vehicles in its fleet — and faster than normal.

County commissioners approved, in a 5-1 vote, approving a $2 million quote for two new engines and a new tender. The two engines, which hold 1,000 gallons of water each and can pump 1,500 gallons per minute, could be on hand as soon as within the next 30–45 days, county Fire Chief Brian Darby said. The tender, with a capacity to hold 3,000 gallons, will be delivered within six to eight months.

Darby pointed out to commissioners that having engines ready to deliver in that short amount of time, rather than the two-to-three years’ waiting period that is now customary, is a huge boon for the county.

“We somehow got our hands on this golden nugget,” he said.

Of the 16 apparatuses in the county fire services inventory, four are over 25 years old. Five others are over 20 years old and another nine are have been in service for at least 15 years. The National Fire Protection Association’s guidelines call for putting vehicles between 15–25 years of service into reserve and retiring those vehicles with more than 25 years of service.

“We’ve got to start planning ahead of time for vehicles,” Darby said. “Fire trucks can take between 24 and 32 months to manufacture. Lead times are very, very crucial.”

The two engines and one tender — which is what the fire services call a tanker truck — came available when the department that ordered them did not pick them up.

“These are brand new,” Darby said.

The two engines and tender also come with a three-year warranty. Repairs and maintenance for the department’s vehicles have been costly — one engine alone has had more than $184,000 in repairs over the last five years, and the total repair bill for the department has been more than $452,000.

While the road mileage may be low, Darby noted that the wear and tear includes the pumps because even if an engine is sitting still while in use, there are still plenty of other things in operation. Darby said the wear of one hour running the pump is equivalent to 30 miles on the road.

“That transmission and engine are still getting wear and tear,” he said.

The lack of operable vehicles also put the county at risk of having to shut down a station, Darby said. While not every insurance carrier relies on ISO to determine home insurance rates, the chief added, the ISO rating the county fire department receives is based on the entire county’s coverage, not just the coverage from a single station, so such a move could have affected homeowners’ policies across the county.

When the county opened its station on the Isle of Wight, the fire department got 67 calls from residents in support, and Darby estimated the savings for those residents was at least $67,000 in property insurance premiums.

The department has purchased response vehicles, when a fire engine may be not needed for an incident such as a medical call, but Darby said that doesn’t change the equipment his department needs to respond to such event as structure fires, vehicle fires and brush fires. The county department helped with the recent fire at Jesup’s Rayonier mill and with a 40-acre fire near Riceboro recently.

“It took a lot of units to put that out,” Darby said. “We had 15 additional structures to protect.”

Along with cutting the lead time down drastically, the county also is saving about $1.7 million with this contract, Darby added.

“This is a deal,” he said. The funds are coming from leftover proceeds from the county’s CIP, or capital improvement plan, as the new health department building comes in under budget. Those funds have to be expended within 18 months and only can be spent on capital items.

“We brought the most urgent items (to the CIP committee), and this was at the top,” county CFO Samantha Richardson said.

Darby also announced the fire services department received two grants totaling $35,000, including nearly $25,000 from the Firehouse Foundation. The grants will go toward purchasing safety items, such as traffic signs and vests, and will go toward the licensing of medical first responders within the department.