Brighton Area Fire Deptartment Buys $1.7M Worth of New Equipment

The Brighton Area Fire Department will soon get some new firefighting tools to replace aging equipment.

Fire Chief Larry Lane signed purchase orders Tuesday for three new major equipment pieces: A new aerial platform truck at $1.04 million and two new tankers for $726,000 total. The Fire Authority Board approved the purchases at its meeting last week. 

Lane said the fire department paid cash for all three pieces of equipment through its reserve fund, in accordance with the Fire Authority's policy of only making cash purchases. 

"We've done a very good job here at the board level of long-term planning and kept up with (new equipment) purchases," Lane said. "We held back on purchases until we had accumulated enough money to buy them."    

The aerial platform rig replaces a unit that is 22 years old. It will be housed at the city fire station at 615 W. Grand River Ave. One of the tankers replaces a unit that is 21 years old and the other is an additional piece of equipment for the fifth station on Chilson Road near I-96 in Genoa Township.   

All three pieces of equipment were purchased from Pierce Mfg. Inc. of Appleton, WI but the frames for the tankers were purchased from Freightliner Trucks of Portland, OR.

The Brighton Area fire Department includes the city of Brighton, Brighton Township and Genoa Township. It is administered by a fire authority created in 2001 with representatives from the city and two townships and operates on 1.25 mills.

A new, five-year levy was approved by voters last year and will be spread on property tax rolls for the first time this December.