The pumper sent by the Vernon Fire Department to the Bowman Community Fire Department in Texas has been at its new home for about a week.
And John Strekski, the chief there, said this week the department not be happier.
The fire truck, a 1989 Sutphen/Ranger pumper, had been in service locally since it was purchased in 1990. The town agreed to sell it the Bowman Community Fire Department, located in Archer County, Texas, halfway between the north Texas city of Amarillo along Interstate-40 and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro Plex area, for $16,000. It is replacing much older truck.
Mounted on a flatbed truck, the pumper rolled out of the firehouse lot on Hartford Turnpike across from the police station at about 3:30 p.m. on March 21. A short time earlier, it pulled out of its bay at the local station on Prospect Street for the last time.
Chief William Call and a contingent of firefighters paid what Call affectionately calls "the old girl" a farewell and it began the 1,700-mile journey west.
It arrived at the bowman department on March 28.
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