Excerpts from illinoistimes.com:

After spending $1.2 million on a new firetruck, the city of Springfield found out it is one inch too tall to fit under the viaduct near the main fire station.

“It’s too tall to fit under the Capitol Avenue underpass. So, anytime we have to go west from downtown, we can’t go that way. Normally, that’s OK – unless there’s a train – and then we either have to go all the way down to Stanford or all the way up to Sangamon,” said Kainan Rinaberger, who heads Springfield Fire Fighters Local 37. “In the past when rigs have been designed, it’s been a collaborative process. But this time it was the previous chief and administrative chief who designed them on their own,” he said.

The predicament has caused quite a bit of finger-pointing and the discontent has climbed each rung of the administrative ladder until it reached the desk of the city’s newly elected mayor.

The city recently took delivery of the new ladder truck and two engines. The mayor is quick to point out that the vehicle orders – and their design specifications – were made by the previous administration. During the next year, SFD is slated to receive one more ladder and five more engines. And firefighters are upset about the process.

During her first week in office, the new mayor replaced Fire Chief Brandon Blough with Ed Canny, who had been serving as the fire marshal.

“We’re not just responding to fires and EMS calls anymore. We’re responding to almost everything that is considered an emergency. … For example, in the past we didn’t have equipment for structural collapses or trench rescues. We didn’t carry a ton of equipment on a fire apparatus back then. A fire apparatus now has to be multifunctional,” Canny said.

But this comes at a cost. The bigger rigs have more trouble navigating down tight alleys and streets as well as fitting under low bridges and viaducts, he said.

Canny said the new firetruck will likely serve the city for at least two more decades. So, firefighters will need to train for alternative routes to avoid heading west on Capitol Avenue. In the event of a long, slow train chugging down the Third Street corridor, a firetruck stationed on the west side of town may need to be dispatched eastward, he said.

He added that viaducts on Dodge Street, Hazel Dell Road and Cockrell Lane are too low for even some of the city’s older firetrucks to pass beneath. So, the department has long had to plan alternate routes to avoid such obstacles.

The Third Street rail corridor may be relocated as soon as 2025, Canny noted. After that, the Capitol Avenue viaduct will no longer serve as a barrier to the new truck.

But, in the meantime, it stands as an accident just waiting to happen, Rinaberger said.

“The way we operate normally is to have the same people on the same piece of equipment every day. So normally you’re going to have the same three drivers on all three shifts. … But people come and fill in and they may forget they can’t go that way anymore and they will run that new truck into that old bridge.”

thanks Rob

Tags: chicagoareafire.com, Springfield Fire Department, Springfield Fire Fighters Local 37