League City Fire upgrade moves ahead with 'rehab' truck

League City's Volunteer Fire Department got the city council's approval
recently to purchase a new "rehabilitation" truck that will help keep
firefighters hydrated and supplied with air at drawn-out fire scenes.

"Basically what it is, it carries water, it carries small-calorie
intake-type items to get us boosted back up, might be crackers or cookies
that are in small packs," says Captain Michael Cornitius. The truck will
also include a toilet and air supply with which firefighters can re-fill
their tanks.

The truck would replace a 7- or 8-year-old vehicle that was converted to
serve similar needs a few years back, Cornitius says. Once it's officially
purchased, at a price not to exceed $500,000, it will take more or less a
year to be delivered from the contractor, Super Vac Inc., of Loveland,
Colorado.

The purchase is the latest in a gradual project begun in 2006 to update
League City's fire trucks. Some of the department's apparatus dates back as
far as 1992, Cornitius says.

"They are older and we are having maintenance issues," he adds. "It's just
those long-term items that are going to fail at that point. It's becoming
less cost-effective to replace those parts than to buy new apparatus."

The city has already purchased two new pumpers, and three more are due to
come in this year.