Highlands County Fire Rescue (HCFR) in Sebring, Florida, upgraded its fleet recently by adding three new brush trucks and a command unit.
Brush 7, Brush 19, and Brush 41 were ordered from Chemical Container Corporation, Warrior Brush Truck Division, in Lake Wales, Florida. Each unit cost $186,905. The trucks were delivered in August 2024 and were in service in September.
The new units are built on Ford F-550 cab and chassis with 400-gallon water tanks, including 10-gallon Class A Foam systems. The rigs’ bumper turrets are provided by Task Force Tips and are capable of front ground sweeps.
The three new brush trucks were ordered in accordance with the department’s equipment replacement strategy and replaced a 1985 Chevy C20, a 1996 Chevy 3500, and a 1999 F-350. All three older units were retired.
Battalion Chief Billy Kingston said the older units were replaced due to age, reliability, and as part of its equipment replacement strategy.
“The (new) units have been deployed to the north, central, and south parts of our county to provide additional coverage,” Kingston said. “The units are easy to deploy with limited personnel and also allow for impact to areas with urban interface. The (new trucks) can reach areas of our urban interface environment that the previous units could not.”
He adds that the trucks carry 100 more gallons of water than previous units, have foam capability, ground sweeps, and that the front monitors can be controlled remotely from inside the cabs.
Division 1 Command Unit
Another addition to the fleet is the department’s new command unit, a 2024 Ford F-250 ordered from Alan Jay Fleet. The truck, which cost $64,571, was also delivered in August 2024 and was in service in September.
The new truck replaces a 2007 Ford Explorer, which, according to Kingston, was used primarily as a staff vehicle. The new truck is made for the on-duty supervisor for daily operations and incident command responsibilities.
JONATHAN MILLER, web editor of FireApparatus.com, has been a journalist for 30 years working for newspapers, both in print and online, and was the director of digital media at a business magazine.
