VIDEO: The Maui Fire Department now has new tools in its arsenal that will help it save lives, thanks to a donation of two new tanker trucks. MFD chief Brad Ventura calls the new trucks “workhorses.” The new tanker trucks aren’t your typical fire trucks. They’re called “Big Dog” fire trucks because they can go where some trucks can’t.
The new Howe and Howe Technologies Big Dog 4×4 wildfire tanker trucks are built for wildland firefighting, have four-wheel drive and higher ground clearance, and carry 1,250 gallons of water. The Maui County Council unanimously passed a resolution on Friday, March 20, to accept the trucks to help with wildfire prevention and containment.
“These trucks are going to be received with so much gratitude and humility, and this is just part of what they’re donating to us,” said Ventura. It’s all thanks to the Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit started by Frank Sayre and Laura Mallery-Sayre, who lost their son Danny, who was 25 years old in 1997, when he was hiking on Hawaii Island.
Since then, it has been the Sayre’s mission to help fire departments save lives so fewer families experience the pain and loss they did. Over nearly three decades, they have raised more than 30 million dollars and partnered with organizations like Hawaii Community Foundation and the Bezos Family Foundation to give fire departments what they need.
“These are our game-changer fire trucks,” Malley-Sayre said. “We have them on the Big Island. We have five. They were very instrumental on August 8th in fighting the nine fires that we had on the Big Island. So it wasn’t just Maui that had the 90-mile-an-hour winds and the downed power lines. We had them as well.”
