Submitted Photo Minot’s newest fire truck is shown at Station 4, where it was activated Nov. 8.

A new fire engine arrived at the Minot Fire Department this month, the first of three trucks the City of Minot is investing in to update its fleet.

The city last acquired a new truck in 2016. It added two trucks that year, along with one in 2015.

The latest truck, which went into service Nov. 8, is assigned to Minot’s Station 4 on 55th Street in southeast Minot, near Nedrose School.

The city’s $576,041 cost for the engine was reduced by half with the receipt of a grant through a Volkswagen settlement fund. The grant fund was created after the Environmental Protection Agency found in 2015 that Volkswagen cars were cheating U.S. emissions testing.

As a condition of the grant, Minot was required to retire and destroy a fire engine that did not meet current emission standards. The city had a 1997 truck on reserve status that was eliminated.

“That truck served us for 25 years very well,” Capt. Shane Gillis of the department said. “We kind of outgrew it. It’s just at the end of its life, so it wasn’t a big loss having to destroy that one.”

The department also moved its next oldest engine, a 2010 model, into a reserve role with the arrival of the new engine. The department has three engines and a ladder truck, with a reserve ladder truck and reserve engine and other smaller, specialized vehicles. The airport also has a fire engine.

The Minot City Council this month approved the $737,076 purchase of a new airport fire truck using federal CARES Act money. It will replace a 1992 model, Gillis said. 

With the updates, all fire engines in the city will meet the more environmentally friendly emission standards.

It could be some time before the airport truck arrives, though. Gillis said the lead time to have an engine built stretched from a year to 18 months on the city’s most recent truck, and going forward, the expectation is for a two-year wait. Costs also have risen significantly due to inflation, he said, noting the city saved about $200,000 in ordering the new truck when it did.

Another new fire engine is scheduled to arrive next spring to serve Fire Station 5, under construction along Fourth Avenue Northwest on the city’s western edge. The station is projected to open next June.

That fire engine is the same 2022 E-ONE-manufactured engine as the recently acquired model, and it cost the same.

Gillis said the biggest improvement with the newer engines is the larger cab, designed to carry more equipment than the 1997 truck had to carry.

“In ’97 we were focused on fire suppression. Now we carry hazmat equipment. We carry a lot of medical equipment. It’s just become more of an all-hazards department,” Gillis said. “Things have changed. We are a busier department than we were. Our call volume is up.”

Despite the greater demands, the department intends for these newest engines to be around for a long time.

“The goal is that they will last 25 years, just like this last one,” Gillis said.