Santa Cruz celebrates new fire engine during Wildfire Awareness Month – Santa Cruz Sentinel

Community members joined Santa Cruz firefighters Friday at Soquel Avenue’s Station 2 to celebrate the arrival of fire engine 3112 with a ceremonial “push in” of the new 24-ton vehicle. (Jessica A. York — Santa Cruz Sentinel)

SANTA CRUZ — From firefighters’ bushy mustaches to bell-ringing, the Santa Cruz Fire Department embraces the profession’s rituals as a reflection of its commitment to duty and honor, Fire Chief Rob Oatey said Friday.

Not the least of these traditions is the “push-in” ceremony, where firefighters and the public join forces to physically shove new fire apparatus into fire station bays as a nod to the days before fire suppression became motorized. In October, the city held its first push-in ceremony, celebrating the acquisition of a similar engine after pouncing on a discounted and non-customized “floor model” for use at the city’s Westside fire station.

Oatey said equipment such as the 2023 Pierce engine is more than a vehicle. “It literally is the lifeline that enables us to fulfill our mission of saving lives and protecting property,” he said.

With a state-of-the-art type 1 fire engine comes a “greener” future for the fire department, Oatey said. In a nod to the three city firefighters who have died from service-related cancer in the past 15 years, Oatey explained that firefighter breathing apparatuses and turnout gear are isolated and stored outside the cab.

“This engine is the first true ‘clean cab,’ which allows it to be the safest for our firefighters to prevent cancer,” Oatey said.

Friday’s event marked the second such push-in, this time at the department’s Station No. 2 on Soquel Avenue, where fire personnel and their family members celebrated the arrival of the city’s newest 24-ton fire engine. Although formally feted only that afternoon, the engine had already been pressed into meaningful service. Just three days earlier, station personnel rushed to a Grant Street apartment fire, where two people and their two dogs were rescued from an apartment complex with the help of the new vehicle and its 500-gallon water tank, onboard fire-suppressing foam system, 1,250-gallon-per-minute pump and 100-foot booster hose.

The approximately $850,000 custom-made engine’s arrival was some three years in the making. Councilmember Sonja Brunner said she held a special satisfaction in seeing the large red vehicle brightly visible across Soquel Avenue. Firefighters’ and community concerns about needing up-to-date and reliable fire apparatus stretched back to her first council campaign canvas in 2020, she said.

Fire engine 3112 arrives in the midst of the state’s Wildfire Awareness Month, which urges community members to prepare evacuation plans and supply bags ahead of large fires. On Thursday morning, Santa Cruz Fire Division Chief Tim Shields told the city’s Public Safety Committee of the department’s work to complete a citywide fire resiliency plan with the help of new grant funding and pending selection of a contractor.

The effort, which will invite partnerships between the city fire, park and recreation, water and public works departments, which includes planning to protect residents, the city’s large supply of open green spaces and critical city infrastructure, among other focuses.

One key component of the plan, Shields told Councilmembers Sonja Brunner and Martine Watkins, will be a five-year vegetation management plan spelling out a timeline for area upkeep and efforts to restore native species. Vegetation management strategies such as use of grazing goats will also be considered, he said.