Erie County has added two fire trucks to its available assets for its Fire Academy. The trucks were introduced on the grounds of the county’s Emergency Services facility on Broadway in Cheektowaga.
They are donations by the Bowmansville Volunteer Fire Association and the Colden Fire District, each providing the county one fire truck.
“They're going to be used a lot, and they're going to train the firefighters of today and also those of the future to protect our community,” said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. “It really is greatly appreciated, and these things are not cheap. A new one costs around a million bucks at least.”
Both fire trucks were built in the 1990s, but those donating the units say there is plenty of life left in them. They also come with plenty of stories.
Tom Trzepacz, assistant chief with the Bowmanville Fire Association, explained his company first bought the truck from Spring Brook Fire Company in Elma after theirs was damaged in an accident.
“On a personal level, my uncle Don Trzepacz, who was a county fire instructor, and state fire instructor, he was one of the commissioners that purchased this truck,” he said. “So, it was kind of a special truck when it came over to Bowmansville for a lot of us. And then certainly it became one of our own and has helped us out on many incidents. We're happy to see it continue on for training for Erie County and for the fire service.”
Chris Couell, Deputy Commissioner of Fire Safety for the Erie County Division of Homeland Security, noted that receiving the fire trucks ends the Fire Academy’s need to borrow fire trucks from working fire companies for training exercises.
“We would always have to reach out to all those departments in the county and ask them to have somebody come volunteer their day, the whole day, to bring an engine out, to bring a truck out, to supply us with that vehicle. It puts a burden on those fire departments to have to have somebody come out with us all day and take that piece of apparatus out of service,” he said.
Couell added that the trucks would be put to use beginning with the first course of a program called Beyond the Smoke. He describes the course as one during which trainees learn about fire behavior, survival skills and saving firefighters’ lives. The program is sponsored by the Arno Foundation, named in honor of the late Jason Arno, a Buffalo Firefighter killed in the line of duty on March 1, 2023.
“These two engines are going to be a big part of that course coming up next weekend,” Couell said.
