Flagler County Fire Rescue hosted a traditional ‘push in’ ceremony on October 29 at Station 62 located in Bunnell.
A traditional “push in” ceremony consists of pushing a new apparatus into the fire station bay to bring it into service and ready to run calls.
“In the fire service, we try to stick with tradition to preserve the past, said Fire Chief Michael Tucker. “Fire service was built around horse and carriage and back in the day they would come back from a call and the crews would push the apparatus back into the bay by hand.”
The new rescue, housed at Station 62 cost $224,485 and was purchased from Ten-8 Fire and Safety. It is a 2021 Ford F450 gas powered Braun Chief XL Ambulance with state of-the-art features.
Battalion Chief Brady Berry, Lt. Clay Merritt, Lt. Dylan Pontorno, Lt. Jon Moscowitz, Kyle Lockwood, Jason Feldman, and Jonathan Kaye were on the Apparatus Committee. The final inspection of the rescue was performed at Braun’s Factory in Ohio, along with Flagler County’s Fleet Manager Chet Lagana and Firefighter Kyle Lockwood.
Commissioner Andy Dance, Commissioner Greg Hansen, and City of Bunnell Manager Alvin Jackson, were in attendance alongside many Fire Rescue staff and Fire Chief Michael Tucker. “It was a pleasure to help design the ambulance that will aid in safely delivering emergency medical care to the citizens of Flagler County,” said Firefighter Kyle Lockwood.
This tradition is symbolic to the fire service. “When we get a new apparatus, we honor traditions like this and all come together to push our new rescue into service”, said Tucker.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Hooray ! There are no words to describe riding in an ambulance, wondering if you are going to die, but having faith you will make it because of great trained caring dedicated fire rescuers but without the necessary , up to date equipment available to them, all their caring and skills are sometimes just not enough to save a life. I would have loved to be there to ‘welcome’ this new fabulous addition to us all which will surely help savings lives and will be worth more than its weight in gold….