Overton County has just received a brand-new John Deere fire-fighting dozer.
Assistant State Forester for Fire and Emergency Operations Wade Waters said that the upgraded equipment is part of a 4-year replacement cycle for these dozers across the state.
“The life that these machines have is pretty rigorous,” Waters said. “And so we need them to perform the safety of our firefighters and the safety of our community, (that’s our) number one priority, and we need to make sure we have high-quality, reliable, and well-,maintained machines to get out and do the work.”
Waters said that some dozers were getting up to 16 or 17 years old. He said that the new units are EPA compliant, as well as additional air filters to manage smoke inhalation and additional fans and cooling elements.
Waters said that these dozers will play a key role in keeping both the firefighters and the community safe.
“We do have fires in the Upper Cumberland,” Waters said. “And not to get too in the weeds, but there is kind of a historic channel of fire on the east side of Overton and up and down the Cumberland Plateau, historically that’s a high fire occurrence area. It’s also difficult terrain, and we need capable operators with capable machines being able to traverse the landscape and get around these fires and try to contain them as quickly as we can.”
Waters said that when the state finishes this replacement cycle plan, they will end up with 112 new, state-of-the-art dozers in their fleet.
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