BEACON – The Lewis Tompkins Hose Company of the Beacon City Fire Department is the recipient of $125,000 in state funding in the 2021-22 budget.
The fire department and Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson (D, Newburgh) showed off the new pumper truck they purchased, which had a total price tag of $640,000 and will allow them to retire two, 20 plus-year-old trucks the company had been using.
Jacobson said during budget negotiations, he was able to secure funding for Beacon and consulted Mayor Lee Kyriacou regarding where it could be best utilized, which ended up being the fire department.
“I know how important the fire department is. I know how hard you guys work. I know that you have volunteers that don’t get paid, that help out as well as with the paid firefighters and it’s something that people just take for granted,” said Jacobson. “The firefighters here, they’re always heroes because when there’s a fire, they don’t run away from the fire. They run towards the fire,” he said.
Beacon used to have three working fire companies; that has now been reduced to two with an imminent transition to Lewis Tompkins Hose to be the city’s central fire department.
Fire Chief Gary Van Voorhis said the acquisition of this pumper truck will allow the city to reduce the cost of the transition.
“Each bay you build in the firehouse costs money, so if we go from a five-bay to a four-bay that’s tremendous savings,” said Van Voorhis. “The main thing is about the apparatus. It’s not just about buying the apparatus, but it’s maintaining it for years. Everything is very, very expensive. I mean, an oil change on a fire truck is a thousand dollars,” he said.
This pump truck is expected to serve the city for at least the next 25 years.
