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A small Utah town received a big Christmas gift last night as four volunteers drove into town with a brand new fire truck. It's the first new fire engine ever for the community, and it has has already come to the rescue.
The new Pierce Fire Pumper is moving into its new home at the Woodland Hills Fire Department after the firefighters drove it from the factory in Florida. For many years, the fire department has relied on used and donated trucks.
"We were desperate in having some sort of protection that we could depend on and was safe for our firefighters to use. It will start when we come to the fire house, and that's important," Fire Chief Dorel Kynaston said.
A few hours into their 3,000-mile journey, the firefighters came upon on a traffic accident and became the first responders to the injured.
"They were like, ‘Call 911!' And when they saw the engine they said, ‘Wait, they are already here.' And I said, ‘No, we're not here. We're not locals, so you need to still call,'" volunteer firefighter Trevor Andersen said.
The Woodland Hills firefighters helped out until local firefighters arrived, and then the two teams spent time getting acquainted. "We started talking to them there, and after everything was cleaned up, we exchanged patches and looked at each other's fire equipment and shared stories," Andersen said.
The firefighters say the best part of the trip was not the scenery, but meeting people across the country. "People around the country love firefighters, and that was evident and quite touching. But people were really interested in our equipment and impressed by the way it looks," Kynaston said.
Now their new truck is home, the firefighters are ready to come to the rescue of their community.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
