'Hot Off The Press' from the East Haddam Volunteer Fire Department

Each month, the East Haddam Volunteer Fire Department responds to incidences of fire alarms, smoke investigations, structure fires, motor-vehicle accidents, water rescues, wires down, mutual-aid to other towns, and more.

A dedicated group of East Haddam residents are consistently 'at the ready' when tragedy strikes, protecting properties and saving lives.

'Hot Off The Press' is a monthly report that's compiled to inform our community of the department's monthly activity. This month, we give you an introduction and description of one of the trucks ('Truck of the Month') from the fleet of fire apparatus used for investigation and rescue purposes.

Photos: 'Truck-of-the-Month'

'Tanker 3-15' is a 1995 Peterbuilt-4 Guys fire apparatus, equipped with a 2,500-gallon stainless steel elliptical holding tank and a 500 gallon-per-minute water pump. It's powered by a Caterpillar-3406 horsepower diesel engine and an Allison automatic transmission.

An officer's side poly-plastic 'drop tank' or portable pool, has the capacity to hold 3,000 gallons of water at the location of a fire.

The primary function of the tanker is to supply water to the initial 'attack engine' at the scene. Once the drop tank is deployed and filled, this truck is used to 'shuttle' or transport water from the 'draft site' or water supply area, back to the scene of the fire. It is also used to feed other tankers with water when mutual-aid is required from other departments during a shuttle-operation.

The East Haddam Volunteer Fire Department responded to the following incidents for the month of May :

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT:  583 Town Street, Sunday, May 1 at 1:48 p.m.

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT:  Hamburg Road, Tuesday, May 3 at 4:04 p.m.

FIRE ALARM:  74 Great Hillwood Road, Wednesday, May 4 at 11:03 a.m.

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT:  Route 149, Monday, May 9 at 6:04 a.m.

FIRE ALARM:  67 River Road, (Gillette's Castle), Tuesday, May 10 at 9:23 a.m.

FIRE ALARM:  Benjamin Lane, Tuesday, May 10 at 2:18 p.m.

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT:  Route 82, Sunday, May 15 at 3:25 a.m.

SMOKE INVESTIGATION:  Creamery Road, Sunday, May 15 at 9:51 a.m.

GOOD INTENT CALL:  2 Southwinds Road, Monday, May 16 at 12:01 p.m. (Canine incident, turned over to local veterinarian.)

VEHICLE FIRE:  5 Matthews Drive, Monday, May 16 at 2:41 p.m.

FIRE ALARM:  106 River Road, Monday, May 23 at 7:33 p.m.

WIRES DOWN:  Town Street, Wednesday, May 25 at 1:19 p.m.

WATER RESCUE:  Route 149, Thursday, May 26 at 6:12 p.m. (Person fallen into Connecticut River from a canoe, rescued by another boater.)

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT:  8 Mitchell Road, Thursday, May 26 at 7:11 p.m.

FIRE ALARM:  4 Hall Kilbourne Road, Friday, May 27 at 2:59 p.m.

WIRES DOWN:  129 Stockburger Road, Friday, May 27 at 3:47 p.m.

LANDING ZONE FOR LIFESTAR: (Mutual-aid for Salem) 18 Alexander Drive, Saturday, May 28 at 8:32 a.m.

SMOKE INVESTIGATION:  42 Old Kentwood Road, Sunday, May 29 at 9:28 a.m.

FIRE ALARM:  12 Norwich Road, Monday, May 30 at 12:46 p.m.

MEDICAL ASSIST:  Hopyard Road, Monday, May 30 at 1:18 p.m.

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT:  Route 149, Monday, May 30 at 3:22 p.m.

MUTUAL AID: (For Old Lyme) Tuesday, May 31 at 7:15 p.m.