Waco Fire Department adds new fire truck, sets sights on new station

Waco Community Volunteer Fire Department recently added a new fire truck to its station and has plans to build a substation.

Brent Gordon, Waco fire chief, said the department received $500,000 in funding from the previous year’s state budget which was used toward the purchase of a new truck. He said the truck cost a total of approximately $530,000, and the department purchased another $90,000 in equipment. Some of the funds came from the county fire department budget, and Gordon said they also sold a truck to a fire department in Iowa and those funds were used for the majority of the different.

The new truck was put in service just before Christmas.

Gordon said the department also recently received $2.5 million more from this year's budget to build a substation.

He said they are still working out an exact location, but it will be near N.C. 150 close to the new 74 bypass and the shooting range.

He said there are some areas that don’t get the best insurance rating because of the distance of houses to the fire station and adding the substation will improve that Insurance Services Office rating. Gordon said fire departments go through an insurance inspection every five years and in order to get the highest score, a fire station needs to be within five miles of the houses they serve. Currently, there are some areas outside that five miles.

“We’re still in the process of identifying the best location with the property that’s available,” Gordon said.

He hopes to begin construction within a year and have the station in service within a year and a half to two years.

“We've already purchased all the equipment for the new station as far as the trucks and all,” he said.

The new fire truck will eventually be used at the substation.

Gordon said the fire department is thankful to Rep. Kelly Hastings, Senator Ted Alexander and Rep. Tim Moore for their help in securing funding.

He said they would not have been able to purchase the truck or plan the substation with just county funds.

Gordon said Waco isn't the only fire department to receive state funds, and that most of the departments in the county were also recipients from this year's state budget with some receiving over a million dollars.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Waco Fire Department adds new fire truck, sets sights on new station