Lima’s New Fire Truck Takes Safety to New Heights

LIMA – A new fire truck purchased by the Lima Fire Department will help keep the town and village of Lima and its volunteer firefighters safer than ever.

According to Lima Fire Chief Jim Pribanich, the new truck, a 1996 Spartan quint aerial, is a good fit due to its tall ladder and multiple safety features.

“We’ve been looking for aerial trucks for, I’d say, a good six months, and Lima is a small community so it’s tough to find a deal that fits our budget and fits our community,” said Pribanich. “We searched the countryside high and low and just by miracle found one right in our backyard that was for very good price.”

Lima paid $75,000 for the truck, which is a fraction of the $1 million or more it would cost to purchase a new aerial according to Assistant Fire Chief Rusty Taillon.

The new aerial will be especially effective for dealing with taller buildings in town.

“With Elim Bible Institute and some of the larger buildings downtown it was just something that was definitely necessary for our community,” said Pribanich.

The truck came from the Fishers Fire Department, between Mendon and Victor. Though it is 20 years old, Pribanich says that it is a significant upgrade from Department’s former ladder truck.

“The old truck is aged,” said Pribanich. “It’s getting tough to get parts. It’s reached antique status before we were done with it.”

In addition to replacing the old truck, the new Spartan has updated equipment and important safety features that will make it safer for firefighters to perform emergency procedures in high places.

“Our old truck was simply a ladder truck with a hundred-foot ladder on it,” said Pribanich. “This truck has a hundred-foot ladder and has a water pump on it, so it’s kind of a two in one. The main thing for us is it has a lot of safety features that just didn’t exist when our old truck was put together.”

Village Mayor Carl Luft said that Lima has Chief Pribanich and a building committee to thank for the research and purchase of the new truck.

“It has taken several months for the truck committee of the Lima Fire Department to search out all the available trucks around the area and try to find the best buy and the best fit for the village and town of Lima, and they finally located this one in Fishers here, and they negotiated and got the very nice truck to update our fleet of fire vehicles,” said Luft.

Pribanich was also very appreciative of the Fishers Fire District and all of their assistance in securing the new truck for Lima.

“The Fishers Fire District has bent over backwards to help us and be understanding of budget constraints,” said Pribanich. “So they’ve just been absolutely awesome in the help.”

The truck is not yet in service, but Taillon said it will be once some final maintenance has been completed and firefighters have received driver training.