Located just 20 miles north of Sioux Falls, S.D., the Dell Rapids Volunteer Fire Department originated in 1883 and fought the most-disastrous fire in the town’s history just five years later. This fire resulted in new ordinances that required more durable materials in downtown buildings, and which led to the red quartzite architecture that today is on display throughout the town’s historic business district.

The department is strictly volunteer and currently has 26 members, but has had as many as 30. It handles more than 200 calls each year and diligently follows new practices in fire safety and regularly sends it members to the state fire school.

Fire chiefs in Dell Rapids serve for a period of two years and I currently am in my second term. I’m a mechanic, but right now when I leave the station, I get into a combine and into the fields. I grew up on a farm and working the fields is something that I’ve never gotten out of my system. I farm corn and beans with my brother-in-law.

Fire suppression, including rural brushfires, has been the main objective of our department for many decades; however, we often are called to rescues, hazmat spills and gas leaks. Also, a major highway runs through the town and we’re only three miles from Interstate 29, so we also respond often to vehicle accidents and extrications. The town has an ambulance service and its protocol that when they get called, the fire department also responds.

The department — which has eight apparatus — currently is housed in a station retrofitted from a 1939 car dealership and garage. Dell Rapids has prioritized providing the fire department with a modernized station that will extend the effectiveness of our firefighters well into the future.

Bigger and Better

Speaking of our apparatus, the department had outgrown its previous rescue truck. Specifically, we needed more space on our truck because, while our coverage area hasn’t grown, the population of Dell Rapids is growing, which means that the department is responding to more incidents — and more types of incidents — than before. Consequently, we now have more rescue equipment than the previous rescue truck could hold could hold; in addition, we decided that we needed a truck that could carry water. A while back, another department responded to a rescue call and it actually was a car fire. That’s just one of the reasons that prompted us to put water on the truck.

The rescue calls to which we respond range from lift assists for the ambulance service to major accidents. We respond to just about anything and everything. Though the department doesn’t encounter many water rescues, it did respond to one recently in the nearby town of Baltic after the Big Sioux River swelled after all of the heavy rains we got this year. Also, we once were called to perform an ice rescue after a snowmobile plunged into the river.

Before we started to develop the specifications for the new rescue truck, we visited several neighboring departments to see what they were using. After doing quite a bit of research, a committee from our department explored what the department needed and wanted. In addition to additional storage space and the ability to carry water, it was determined that our rescue truck generally needed an updating, as it been a decade since the last time the department had purchased one.

We worked with Rosenbauer to finalize the specifications and ended up with a four-door cab and a 14-foot rescue body on an International chassis. The vehicle — which was purchased with money generated by a fundraiser and with funds provided by the county — features the following:

• ROM roll-up doors
• Slide-out trays for equipment;
• Aluminum frame, 12-unit SCBA rack
• Swing-out tool boards
• Storage module for airbags
• Whelen DOT LED lighting package
• Two Hannay cable reels
• An FRC floodlight

We are fortunate to have our own fleet maintenance man who also is a volunteer firefighter. I help him and we do most of our work at nights, in the evenings, on Saturdays and sometimes even on Sundays, depending on how much we have to do.

It’s difficult to identify the one thing of which we’re most proud regarding this new rescue truck, because we’re really pleased with it overall. However, we did specify a very nice lighting system for the top of the truck that is remote controlled for night rescue — it really lights up the area. We also are really proud of the way we designed the truck and the extra features we were able to include, particularly our air pack storage compartment, which is different from the way a lot of people carry them. Many people have commented that they are impressed with this compartment.

We selected Rosenbauer as our vendor because they are close — the company’s South Dakota division is a scant 15 miles away — but more importantly because they are really responsive. When we have a problem that we can’t handle ourselves, it’s frequently fixed the next day. We’ve bought several apparatus from this vendor over the years, dating back to when they were known by the moniker Central States. Once we bought a truck from another manufacturer and while it’s a decent truck, we always go back to Rosenbauer because they always have treated us so well.

We spent a lot of time looking at other rescue trucks to see what other departments had done, and that was worthwhile. I would encourage chiefs to do plenty of research, not only to find out what’s available, but also to effectively determine what the department truly wants and needs — which sometimes are two different things. We were fortunate — because of our close proximity to Rosenbauer — that we could visit their facility numerous times while our rescue truck was being built, and a few things were changed because of these visits.

Finally, it is vital to keep in touch with the people who are building your new apparatus. If it doesn’t look like what you want, or envisioned, tell them so that they can make the necessary adjustments. The secret to getting a great truck comes down to great communication.

— As told to Janet Wilmoth

Scott Ahlers has been a volunteer with the Dell Rapids Fire Department in South Dakota for 27 years and is currently serving his second two-year term as fire chief. Ahlers works full time as a mechanic and seasonally helps his brother-in-law farm.

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