To all ages, a bright red engine is the quintessential symbol of a fire department’s presence and the protection it provides the community. When a new engine joins a department, it’s welcomed as a new and valued member of the team.
The San Marino Fire Department will be doing just that at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 13, at Fire Station 91, 2200 Huntington Dr., with a special dedication ceremony to commemorate the addition of a replacement fire truck for Engine 91. Fire Chief Mario Rueda, along with San Marino Mayor Steve Talt and the City Council, will join the Public Safety Commission and the Fire Department in the ceremony.
Members of the community are encouraged to participate in the customary tradition of transferring water from the old engine to the new, which for the fire service represents life as well as being ever-ready to protect. After the water has been transferred, the new engine’s sirens will sound. There will also be a “housing ritual” which can be traced back to the 1800s, when horses were the true horsepower of the engines. Community members will also be able to assist in pushing the engine backward since the horses of old are unable to do so.
“I really wanted to take the opportunity to have a formal way of acknowledging the community support, so we selected this way of dedicating the fire engine,” Rueda told The Review. “I felt like this was one way people could participate and be a part of it and get a chance to see their investment in public safety.”
According to Rueda, the new fire engine will enable the city of San Marino to provide improved service with advanced firefighting technology that will benefit not only residents and visitors to San Marino, but also residents across the San Gabriel Valley as part of current automatic and mutual aid agreements.
He stressed that in responding to vehicle accidents, structure fires, and medical emergencies such as heart attacks, time is of the essence and the new engine will help ensure that pressing needs are met. The previous engine was 10 years old and Rueda harbored concerns over its reliability.
“The new engine really provides a much stronger sense of reliability and in the business of emergency, you can’t really afford to not be 100 percent reliable,” said Rueda.
The fire engine was ordered in October 2017 and was manufactured by Pierce. Underneath its glossy red exterior resides a 1,500 gallon per minute water pump, a 500 HP Detroit Diesel engine, a 500 gallon water tank and a 20 gallon foam tank. The new Type 1 engine is larger and has more horsepower than the previous one, which will reduce the response time for San Marino’s firefighter/paramedics. With the new addition, the city will have no need to add or replace any fire engines for another 10 years, enabling the city to make other necessary capital improvements, according to Rueda. The new fire engine cost approximately $698,000.
Serving approximately 14,000 residents and over 4,500 homes and commercial properties, the San Marino Fire Department is a modern “all risk” public safety agency.
