County gets a deal on new Bonny Doon fire engine

Santa Cruz County supervisors have authorized the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Santa Cruz County to purchase a new Type 1 fire engine that will be stationed at the McDermott Station in Bonny Doon.
It is the fourth “sister” engine Cal Fire will have bought in a two-year period in a scheduled replacement effort to modernize and standardize its fleet.
The engine costs $260,000 and will replace a 22-year-old Type 2 engine bought in 1987 that is stationed in Bonny Doon.
“We’re replacing the oldest engine in the fleet,” said Chief John Ferreira of the San Mateo-Santa Cruz Cal Fire Unit.
Despite being nearly new, the engine costs $150,000 less than a brand-new engine that would need to be ordered and assembled from scratch, a process that could take a year.
The Type 1 engine has a few thousand miles on it, because it was used as a demonstration engine, county general services director Nancy Gordon said, but a full factory warranty is included in the purchase.
“We got a really good deal,” Gordon said.
The engine, in Texas, should be delivered within a month.
Cal Fire had planned to replace a water tender, but the versatility of the Type 1 engine in battling wildfires — Bonny Doon has had fires the past two summers — made it a good choice.
Having four similar engines makes ordering parts and making repairs much more straightforward, too.
“It’s more about fleet management, maintenance operations and standardization,” Kathleen Lineberry, Cal Fire deputy chief, said.
Rob Caldeira, on behalf of the Bonny Doon Fire Team, submitted a letter to Santa Cruz County Supervisor Neal Coonerty asking him to vote for the purchase of the new engine. Coonerty did so at supervisors’ Dec. 15 meeting, when the request was approved.