4 April 2023
BUTLER COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) — Friday’s wildfires in Butler County were tough on the 10 fire departments called in, but especially for crews in smaller departments like Towanda.
Towanda Fire Chief Tom Pyle said two trucks had mechanical failures during the wildfires. He said it can get expensive to keep these older trucks up and running.
In one of the trucks the radio and water pump quit working and the other’s alternator stopped.
“The events, the terrain, the smoke, and the duration of the fire on Friday really contributed, I think to the failure of those two trucks,” said Pyle.
Two firefighters had to leave the wildfire to fix the trucks. They were able to fix one after four hours of work.
The trucks are past their lifespan, said Pyle. One is 33 years old, and the other is 34 years old.
“Anytime a piece of equipment goes out of service, you have less capability to fight the fire,” said Pyle. “That adds to the workload to everybody else, and there was a tremendous workload Friday.”
The Kansas Forest Service said many rural fire departments do not have the budget to buy new equipment, and even if they did, a lot of trucks are backlogged.
The Kansas Forest Service receives trucks from the federal government or military and gives them to small fire departments in need.
“It comes to them just as a cargo truck, and then they paint it up and equip it for firefighting,” said Eric Ward with the Kansas Fire Department.
Ward said it is a struggle to get a truck right now from the military.
“I have right now roughly 40 pending requests for trucks that we are not finding anything that we can get for them,” said Ward.
Currently, there aren’t a lot of trucks being processed for disposal by the military.
“If that local fire department loses capability, it is going to impact the ability to respond quickly and suppress the fire,” said Ward.
Ward said without those trucks, these fire departments will continue to spend money repairing old equipment.
He said the Kansas Forest Service is looking at multiple options to find new trucks but said it will most likely increase costs for the forest service and smaller departments.