VIDEO: The Anchorage Fire Department officially celebrated the arrival of its newest fire truck Monday by ceremonially rolling the new Truck #1 into the downtown station. “It’s great,” AFD fire chief Doug Schrage said. “The truck it’s replacing has been a reliable vehicle. This one is eight or nine years newer.”
That truck in question, the old Truck #1, joined the fleet in 2017 and is being replaced after just eight years — a relatively short lifespan compared to the typical 15 years of frontline service followed by 10 years of reserve service.
Its early replacement allowed AFD to recoup some of the cost of buying a new truck. “What typically happens,” Schrage explained, “is when we replace one, it goes to auction and it might get two or three or four thousand dollars for it. So, they have virtually no value left.”
Schrage said that the original truck, purchased in 2016 for around $1.1 million, sold to a suburb of Cincinnati for around $715,000. Schrage said he anticipates the new Truck #1 to serve a more typical 25-year career. Its replacement comes with several key upgrades.
