The Cookeville Fire Department’s new ladder truck remains on order, with arrival set for June, 2026.
Fire Chief Benton Young said one of the city’s ladder trucks needs to be replaced as it is from 2008. Young said order was placed in July of 2023 but long wait times have become standard in the industry ever since the pandemic.
“The whole point of getting a spare is so we don’t have any issues in the future,” Young said. “And they change these about every ten or fifteen years is what they recommend for apparatus to go be placed on reserve because of safety issues and updated equipment and the technology just gets updated.”
Young said the department already has reserve trucks it uses when a truck needs to be serviced, but those vehicles are standard fire engines without a ladder on them. Young said the ladder truck that is being replaced will be kept as another reserve vehicle once the new one arrives.
“After COVID I guess supply issues and whatever got them behind and they have never really caught up,” Young said. “And the actual build time, they will start building here in the next few months so it’ll take about a year to build it.”
Young said the truck was originally expected to take another year to arrive but the company providing it had a slot open up that will allow the city to get its truck a year sooner. Young said the new ladder truck costs some $2.2 million.
“We have a team here that we put together and they’ll spec it out as far as the bill goes and they’ll walk through with the manufacturer all through this process,” Young said. “And they’ll make a couple site visits with the manufacturer while it’s being built to make sure everything’s doing as their supposed to on their side and if we need to make any changes on our side as far as the specs go on it.”
The post Cookeville Fire Truck Coming, Arrival Set For ’26 appeared first on News Talk 94.1/AM 1600.