Following a lengthy shakeout period that ended Tuesday, the city's biggest secret — a brand new, bright red, nearly $1 million aerial tower truck — may join the Laconia Fire Department fleet by the end of the week.
The department took possession of the E-ONE HP 100 Platform two weeks ago and on Tuesday personnel completed their training on the truck with a series of exercises around the city to simulate the different types of duties it may have to perform.
"We've been keeping it a big secret," joked Chief Ken Erickson as the truck was put through its paces Tuesday, first at the former Freudenberg-NOK engine parts plant in the Lakes Business Park, then at a multi-story dwelling on Lakeside Avenue, and finally at the Naswa Resort.
Manufactured by E-ONE of Ocala, Fla., Laconia's new "Ladder 1" was ordered in January and cost $879,000, of which city taxpayers picked up $779,000 and a federal grant covered the balance.
According to the manufacturer, the HP 100 Platform goes farther and wider than a typical 75' ladder truck while being narrower. It has a 100' vertical reach and a 91' 6" horizontal reach.
Unlike the department's current E-ONE ladder truck — which, at 20-years-old, was long in the tooth and expensive to maintain, said Erickson — the aerial tower ends with a partially enclosed platform, not just a bare ladder tip.
The platform has a capacity of 1,305 pounds when water is not running through the affixed 1,250 gallon-per-minute hose; 805 pounds with water running.
Featuring an all-extruded aluminum body, the aerial tower is 11'10" tall; has space for up to 200 feet of ground ladders, and includes pneumatic extrication equipment built into its front bumper.
In 2008, the Laconia City Council bonded $950,000 for a new aerial truck. At the time, Erickson said the current Ladder 1 was almost 20-years-old with the equivalent of 300,000 miles on it. The truck, he said, was "constantly sitting around at its maximum weight of 50,000 pounds, which strains the axle, transmission, chassis, wheels ... we keep splitting wheels and breaking axles."
Despite those drawbacks, the old Ladder 1 still has some life in it and a volunteer department from Vermont will be purchasing it for $20,000, said Erickson.
The new Ladder I is getting used to its new home at the Central Station.
The new aerial tower offers improved operation and safety for both the public and the firefighters manning it, the chief added, explaining that the platform at the end of the ladder, which has a door that allows easy egress and ingress, is a significant improvement over the previous ladder truck.
Deputy Chief Deb Pendergast said the hose on the platform delivers 25 percent more water and the flow can be directed as a far-reaching stream or as a "fog."
E-One employees were in Laconia all last week teaching city firefighters how to operate the truck, she said, while New York Fire Department veteran Mike Wilbur — whom Pendergast called "one of the country's leading truck operators" — was here this week to teach them the fine points of aerial devices.
