Custom-Built, $221,000 Tanker/Tender Added to Lake City Fire/Rescue Arsenal

Lake City area fire fighting capabilities are state-of-the-art with Lake City Fire/Rescue’s recent acquisition of its most expensive and technologically-advanced piece of firefighting equipment.
Fittingly acquired during what promises to be an especially active firefighting season, local firefighters are ecstatic as they describe their new 2018 custom-fitted KTF350 tanker/tender which was added to Lake City Fire/Rescue firefighting arsenal last month.
The water transport is equipped with a 3,500-gallon stainless steel tank but, according to fire district manager Bill Hagendorf is so much more.
The tanker speedily and effectively transports an immense amount of water and, just as important, can quickly and effortlessly dispense it.
According to Hagendorf, an air-activated “quick dump” feature on the tanker allows all 3,500 gallons to be dispensed in just 52 seconds. Among the tanker’s equipment is a remote-control water cannon which can side spray while the truck is stationary or moving and shoot a precision stream of water several hundred feet.
The truck is equipped with a 500-gallon per minute pump which can deliver water while the vehicle is parked or moving.
Other accoutrements are three 200’ coils of hand lines with nozzles and 200’ of 1” line on hose reel which is particularly useful in grassfire situations.
Total cost of the tanker — the costliest piece of equipment in the local volunteer fire dept.’s history — was $221,531, the bulk of which was paid for through a highly competitive national Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant written by Fire District Manager Hagendorf in October, 2016.
As a result of the grant, the tanker was acquired without taxpayer expense and is termed by Hagendorf as a “win-win” situation. The tanker vastly increases the fire department’s firefighting capabilities and taxpayers, he says “came out way ahead.”
FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant dispenses
$310-million nationally, 15 percent of which

is allotted for fire equipment upgrades and the remainder for training.
The Lake City fire district’s request for funding was among 18,000 applications and, based on its strength, was among just 232 successful 2017 grant requests made to fire departments throughout the country. In Colorado, Lake City’s request was among just three other equipment upgrades funded by the program.
The FEMA funding covered 95 percent of the cost of the new tanker/tender, terms of the grant requiring a minimal five percent — $11,076 — which was locally matched. Hagendorf tells SILVER WORLD that the local match was paid for from proceeds of the sale of the fire district’s old water tanker to Gene Brown’s WebCo Excavation.
The old tanker, which could be used only for shuttling water in its 3,500-gallon tank, was a converted 1994 International tanker with a remarkable 640,000 miles previously used by Town of Lake City.
Hagendorf states that official notification of Lake City Fire/Rescue’s successful grant application was received in July, 2017, after which detailed specifications were worked up and the custom order was put out to competitive bid.
Klein Products based out of Jacksonville, Texas, was the successful bidder at $221,531, the manufacture process requiring Hagendorf to make two trips to Jacksonville, the first for a pre-build conference and the second a pre-delivery inspection.
Compared to the old fire district tanker which solely shuttled water, built-in features of the new tanker/tender with pump and water cannon allow it to also be used as a firefighting engine. The tanker’s rapid water dispensing capabilities make it useful in carrying water and fighting a variety of fire emergencies, including structural and automotive fires, as well as wildland fires.
The apparatus is equipped with a variety of firefighting hand tools and ladders, an on-board charger and air compressor, both mobile and hand-held radios, on-spot automatic chains, and a back-up camera.
Also invaluable in association with the truck’s air-actuated quick water dump is a 3,500-gallon capacity portable tank which can serve as a water reservoir for firefighters. The portable tank was filled and on display at the multi-agency wildland fire training held at Lake San Cristobal on May 5.