North Whidbey Fire and Rescue will soon add two new engines to its fleet.
In compliance with insurance regulations, NWFR is replacing two firetrucks that are more than 15 years old with a used 2008 firetruck and a used 2010 firetruck.
“We’ve bought four used ones now,” said NWFR Chief Marv Koorn.
At the beginning of 2013, the district started looking at purchasing engines to replace old ones and ended up buying two used 2009 firetrucks.
Koorn said the fire district kept its eyes on the market as far as what was available, leading to the purchase of two used engines this year.
Koorn said the district purchased the engines at 30 to 37 percent of their original prices when the engines were new.
The 2008 engine, which will arrive in Oak Harbor in a couple weeks, was purchased for $105,000 and will have nine years of life left under the insurance regulations.
The 2010 vehicle, which arrived in Oak Harbor Thursday, Oct. 2, cost the district $285,000 and has 11 years of life left.
The 2010 engine will be at the Zylstra Road station and was put into use Tuesday, Oct. 7.
The engines the newly purchased ones are replacing were sold to Cottonwood, Idaho, where they will continue to be used as firetrucks.
Also recently purchased by NWFR are two new tender pumpers, also in compliance with insurance regulations. One will go to the Silver Lake Station, which does not currently have an engine, to fill the requirement for both an engine and a pumper. The other tender pumper will go to the Monroe Landing station.
“This is all geared toward either keeping or bettering our insurance rates,” Koorn said of the purchases.
The current district rating is a six, on a scale of one to 10, where one is the best.
“I think there’s only one in the state of Washington that’s a one,” Koorn said. “For a rural district, six is a good rating.”
However, Koorn said the district is hoping the rating will change to a five.
“We’re hoping to get to a five, which would lower everybody’s home insurance rate,” Koorn said.
Their insurance will re-rate them Nov. 5, and the better the score the lower the rates will be. Keeping their fleet of engines newer than 15 years is one way to do that.
