New fire trucks get warm welcome at GFD

GONZALES — A crowd of former firefighters, elected leaders, community members and eager children gathered at the Gonzales Fire Station on Thursday evening to welcome a couple of new pieces of firefighting equipment to the family. Mainly, Engine 33 and Tender 32.

“What the city has done to let us have these fire trucks means a lot to me,” remarked Fire Chief Keith Schmidt at the gathering. “It means a lot to these firemen that are all standing around here as well. We’ve come a long way.”

The official name of the event is a housing ceremony. It has its beginnings in the 19^th century and is meant to transfer the old to the new. The wheels are washed by the firemen, as was custom from the old horse-and-buggy days where the wooden spokes of the wheels had to be kept moist after each fire to prevent cracking.

Schmidt joked that in days past, it was easy to find out where a fire in town was. All one had to do was follow the line of broken down fire trucks leading to it. And as they watched the new, $700,000 Engine 33 be custom built over the last several months, he couldn’t help but reminisce about how they had to build a couple of the trucks they are now retiring, without that kind of money.

The old Tanker 32 was the marriage of a large fuel truck tank onto an existing truck.

“We put them together, painted it red and called it a fire truck,” Schmidt said. “And it fought a lot of fires. But we are going to be retiring it today.”

Near it was the new Tender 32, which came to be after the previous truck was involved in a crash. After a generous $120,000 grant from the Texas Forest Service, help from the city, insurance money and selling an older truck, Tender 32 became a reality. It holds 3,000 gallons of water, foam and a full compliment of ladders.

“There were a lot of pieces to get that truck put together, but obviously we’re extremely proud of that truck,” he said.

The crown jewel of the department is Engine 33, which Schmidt says carries “a tremendous amount of firefighting capabilities.” It can hold 2,000 gallons of water and two types of foam, which can be used for traditional structure fires or hydrocarbon types of fires found in 18-wheeler crashes. Recently, they have been training if such an event were to occur near Gonzales High School.

It also has a feature called “Compressed Air Foam,” which is a mixture of water and air that makes the water go further and creates a lighter hose that reduces firefighter fatigue.

“When that truck shows up in front of your house, it brings a lot of firefighting capabilities with it,” Schmidt said.

The custom-built Engine 33 was the envy of fire chiefs at its assembly facility in Appleton, Wis. Schmidt said that even the Baltimore fire chief said that he would love to have a fire house full of the models. From the siren and bell to the lights and Texas flag designs, everything on the rig was placed by Gonzales officials.

The final part of the housing ceremony involved having the firemen and those assembled push the new trucks into the station. But first, the old dogs took the new pups out for a spin.

“What we are going to do is have these old fire trucks teach these new fire trucks a little bit about our town,” Schmidt said. The trucks took off around the squares and then through a spray of water before arriving at the bay doors. If you heard a lot of sirens around 7 p.m. Thursday, this was the reason.

As councilmen and children gathered to help the firemen push the new trucks into the station, Schmidt again thanked the city for giving them the resources and the trust with such a large investment.

“It’s pretty impressive,” he said.