Cutchogue Fire Department introduces new ambulance, first-ever tanker truck

The Cutchogue Fire Department has added two new vehicles to its fleet: a PL Custom Medallion Series Type III Modular Ambulance and the first tanker truck in the department’s history.

The new ambulance replaces the department’s oldest, which was originally built in 1997 and re-chassised in 2015. While it’s much newer, the ambulance is a spitting image of the other existing vehicle, which Chief Mike Boken said was done intentionally to make learning it easier.

“We were able to go and have the new ambulance set up identical to the other vehicle,” he said. “That way you don’t have to remember any new locations in dire situations.”

The ambulance — which cost $460,000 — does, however, have more space in the back, is a little taller and longer, and has a Ford F550 chassis with four-wheel-drive, hopefully making travel easier.

Chief Boken said the department typically has roughly 20 EMTs and nearly 400 calls each year that require an ambulance. Though it went into service roughly three weeks ago, the new one has barely had to be used so far. When asked how many times it’s gone out, he chuckled.

“Just once,” he said.

The department also welcomed its first-ever tanker truck two weeks ago.

The $562,000 truck comes with a 4,000-gallon poly water tank, a deck gun, a booster reel, a 4,000-gallon folding portable tank, a 1,500-gallon-per-minute pump, a breathing apparatus, a rear dump chute, and more.

“We can use this vehicle in other capacities, other than a truck that carrries water to the scene,” Chief Boken said.

Chief Boken said the tanker was long overdue, and it mitigates some of the water supply issues the department deals with in the fire district’s northern parts north of Route 48 and to the Long Island Sound. There are some houses on Alvahas Lane and Oregon Road — for example — that need at least 3,000 feet of hose to set up an adequate water supply.

He said it can also be difficult to get properly-trained members to leave work, or wherever they are, in time, and this new tanker helps cut down how many responders are needed.

“We have the town landfill and other material processing plants we have to respond to and available water is a distance away,” he said. “It may take time to get our equipment to the scene sometimes. The tanker that we purhcased only requires two members to operate.”

Department members have been and will continue to participate in numerous trainings over the next month to become familiar and proficient in the unit’s operation, and it is still being outfitted with equipment. Chief Boken hopes it can be placed in service soon.

“Although it’s a new piece of equipment that we have never had in the department, I feel it will prove itself as a valuable piece of equipment to the residents of the Cutchogue Fire District,” Chief Boken said.

Cutchogue Fire Department also debuted its new apparatus bay earlier this year, allowing rows of fire trucks to be housed together in one space — a far cry from the previously cramped, uneven quarters that were falling apart.

The new $16 million headquarters received its certificate of occupancy in January and hosted its first chicken barbecue over the weekend.