Over the weekend, the Cathedral City Fire Department placed a new fire engine in service. The new piece of apparatus will be responding out of Station 411 on Date Palm and Buddy Rogers Ave. This has been a long awaited process, and we are glad to introduce E411 to the citizens of Cathedral City. E411 is a 2008 Pierce Quantum, Type I apparatus. The new fire engine is state of the art and meets all of the current national standards.

 

The City Council authorized the purchase of the new engine at the November 08, 2006, City Council meeting. The fire engine was a planned expenditure, and was purchased through the City’s Equipment Replacement Fund. We were originally approved to purchase a 2006 American La France, Type I engine. The department was on track to have a new pumper delivered in late 2007 to replace an aging piece of apparatus. A 1987 Pierce Telesquirt was going to be used as a trade in, as it had exceeded its life expectancy. It was in need of repairs that created a fiscal drain on the maintenance budget. The cost to repair the fire engine would have exceeded its value. In October 2007, the department was notified by American La France that the pumper construction had not started, and would not be completed in time, due to fiscal issues by the manufacturer.

On March 12, 2008, the Cathedral City, City Council authorized the selection of a new vendor to be used for manufacturing the fire engine. The city was able to piggyback with the City of El Centro Fire Department’s purchase bid specifications to save valuable time and money.

We are extremely thankful to all of those involved for their hard work to make this a reality. You can rest assured that we have received an apparatus that will provide many years of service.