Chief Lindsay Holm, left, and Deputy Fire Chief Paul Perry with the new pumper truck "Engine 22" at the Fire Hall Friday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Honouring an old tradition

NB Fire Dept. welcomes new fire truck with “pushing-in” ceremony

Mar 10, 2023 | 5:19 PM

It was an exciting day for the North Battleford Fire Department Friday as members held an open house to welcome in their new fire truck.

Clockwise from top left: Fire Chief Lindsay Holm, the “pushing-in” ceremony, the blessing of the fire truck, and Mayor David Gillan at Friday’s ceremony. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

“I’m super excited to put this engine in service,” North Battleford Fire Chief and city director of protective services Lindsay Holm said.

The purchase was a few years in the making.

To bring in the new truck, local first responders as well as North Battleford Mayor David Gillan, Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill and other participants took part in what’s called a “pushing-in” ceremony, to move the new truck into the fire hall.

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The new fire truck, which costs about $761,000, is a significant investment for the community and community safety.

“City council has been good in making sure that the citizens are protected with a replacement cycle on our fire engines,” Holm said. “We’re required to replace a fire engine after 20 years of service. The engine that we are replacing is hitting that age. So, we had to get a new engine to replace it.”

The event included a bagpiping ceremony to commence the festivities.

Before the truck was “pushed in,” it was splashed with water as part of a “wetdown” ceremony. Then, Indigenous Elder and Knowledge Keeper Alvin Baptiste held a smudging ceremony to bless the truck and pray for the protection of the first responders and the community.

The apparatus push-in ceremony harkens back to the days in the early 1900s when a fire engine was drawn by horses.

The new fire truck is called “Engine 22.” The number is significant to Holm personally, as he said the first fire truck he used when he joined the fire department as a firefighter in 2000, was also called Engine 22.

“Engine 22 is the first truck that I rode to my first structure fire,” he said. “I thought it was only fitting to number that [new] engine the same.”

“This truck is going to serve our city for 20 years, and it’s going to do a great job – just like [the old truck] Engine 22 did in the past,” he said.

Holm said the new truck is has a much larger water pump capacity.

“The old truck that it’s replacing was a 1,050 gallon per minute pump. This one will pump 1,250 gallons per minute. So, it can pump more water, allowing us to be more effective,” he said.

The new truck also has a lot more space to carry additional equipment.

Holm said the old fire engine truck will be taken out of service and put up for sale, now that the new replacement has arrived.

North Battleford Mayor David Gillan was glad to see the new fire truck finally here.

“It’s been a number of years in the planning,” he said. “We’re very proud today to have the new Engine 22 replacing the old Engine 22. It was a very large investment, but of course the safety of our citizens is a top priority for our council.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow