Volunteer Fire Chief Jesse Pelkey shows the problem with the city’s rescue truck, which has mixed antifreeze with oil in its engine.
PERU – This city’s volunteer fire department relies more on mutual aid from surrounding communities as two critical vehicles are in disrepair.
“We should trust ourselves,” said Carlton Brooks, a volunteer firefighter. “We shouldn’t rely on Hinsdale and everyone else to come and take care of us.”
Volunteer firefighters are doing their best with improvised solutions, but there isn’t much of a choice.
The Peru Fire Department fire truck’s emergency brakes do not work properly when carrying a load, making the rig unusable by state regulations. The city’s rescue truck has had a mixture of oil and antifreeze under the hood indiscriminately, and its transmission now also needs repair.
Peru Fire Chief Jesse Pelkey said firefighters avoid operating any of these vehicles if they can — the engine can’t be on the road, after state inspection, and the rescue truck always it’s a bet
Steven Wall is one of the Peru Fire Department volunteers who has been responding to calls in his own vehicle since the department’s rescue truck needs repairs.
Meanwhile, volunteers with emergency medical training have been responding to calls using their personal vehicles. Steven Wall, one of the department’s members with emergency medical training, always keeps a bag of life-saving equipment in a compartment in the bed of his truck.
Chief Jesse Pelkey shows the emergency kit he keeps in his vehicle to respond to medical calls while the city’s rescue truck needs repairs.
The volunteers have also tied two ladders to the sides of the water tank, one of the vehicles in better condition in their shop. Firefighters will need them if they’re responding to a chimney fire, Wall said, a common call for this time of year. But they would be better served to respond to it in the engine.
Two ladders remain strapped to the Peru Fire Department’s water tanker, removed from its fire engine so the volunteer department can continue to take chimney fire calls.
As is usual in a volunteer department in a small town, they have been doing. But they can’t do everything. They have relied more on mutual aid services in Hinsdale and other nearby cities, adding precious minutes when a quick response could be vital, Pelkey said.
“Right now, with [the engine] not being usable, it puts us at a huge disadvantage,” said Logan Brooks, one of the department’s captains, and brother of Carlton Brooks. “It’s also more stress on mutual aid towns to have to come to us, which means a long response time and a greater risk to the villagers.”
Pelkey will present the department’s case to the Board of Selectmen at 6 p.m. Tuesday, detailing the team’s problems and how much it could cost to replace them. He hopes that as many residents of the municipality as possible can express their opinion on the future of the department. The meeting will be at City Hall, 3 East Main Road.
Finding replacement parts for both vehicles, the 2002 engine and the 1995 rescue truck, has been a nightmare. The engine manufacturer, the American LaFrance, has gone out of business. Pelkey has been in constant contact with mechanics and vendors to try to get new materials, he said.
He has been trying to fix the engine brakes since November. Similarly, when the rescue truck had a cracked windshield last year, it took four months to get a replacement panel.
Pelkey estimated it would cost the city about $30,000 to fix each of the vehicles, though those figures were subject to change.
But a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity could make repair options a moot point. Pelkey has found a new rescue pump, fresh off the line, a vehicle that would solidify the department’s ability to respond to fires and medical calls and minimize the possibility of having to make further repairs to equipment that they could buy second. hand
Buying a used vehicle could present problems down the road, Pelkey said. The municipality bought the engine about two years ago, having no idea it would have braking problems. The current selections of used vehicles on the market could offer more of the same.
The new vehicle is currently available for just over $600,000, Pelkey said, but the price will increase if the city waits until another one is manufactured. It would also push back the city’s timeline by two years waiting for it to become available; if they moved to that new engine now, they could have it by May, Pelkey said.
Pelkey said the city’s use of the new engine, based on its past call volumes, would make it last for decades. The question, as he will pose it to the city, is simple.
“Do you want an eight-year Band-Aid or do you want a 30-year fix?” Pelkey said.
Chief Jesse Pelkey checks out the Peru Fire Department’s water tanker, one of the city’s most reliable vehicles. Attached to its sides are two ladders that used to be on the department’s fire truck.
However, the need to respond is growing. Pelkey said the city’s call volume has effectively doubled, from 42 in 2021 to 85 last year. Since Jan. 1, the department has had 19 calls, on pace to surpass that total by the end of 2023.
The new apparatus would also be used in mutual aid efforts in surrounding towns.
This would be the first new fire truck purchased by the city since the department was created. Most of their engines so far have been bought second-hand from other departments.
Pelkey to Pelkey, it’s money well spent. Updating or repairing equipment as needed is the only way to keep the department’s 12 volunteers safe.
“I want to know when my [volunteers] going into a fire, which I’ve done everything I can to have them protected as much as possible,” Pelkey said. “They do this for free … life safety is No. 1.”
It’s also about keeping your friends and neighbors safe, Logan Brooks said, which takes on greater meaning in a city like Peru. As Carlton Brooks said, it means something different when you hear an address from dispatch and know who lives there.
“For small towns, it’s a familiar thing,” Pelkey said. “It’s families helping families.”
From left: Captain Logan Brooks, Heath Brooks and Carlton Brooks, all brothers; Heather Brooks, her mother; Chief Jesse Pelkey; and Steven Wall are off the Peru Fire Department.
