The borough purchased four new vehicles for a total of $2,187,000. They were delivered in late July and are currently being outfitted for active service.

The new arrivals include one ladder truck, two fire engines and a combination ladder/engine truck known as a "quint."

A ladder truck consists of a two-part assembly: A tractor and an attached trailer that contains at least one large aerial ladder along with other equipment.

Fire engines, by contrast, are single units that contain onboard water reservoirs.

The combination engine/ladder vehicle is referred to as a "quint" because it can serve up to five functions, including carrying ground and aerial ladders, hoses, pumping water from hydrants and pumping water from onboard reservoirs.

ERFD’s retiring fleet was composed of the same combination of equipment in addition to an emergency rescue vehicle. The rescue vehicle was not replaced.

The decision to replace the entire fleet came on the heels of a proposed budget that calls for sizeable municipal tax increases. But borough officials say the upgrades will save the borough money in the long run.

"We approved this purchase after looking at our maintenance forecasts for our old trucks," said Councilman Jeffrey Lahullier, who heads the borough council’s fire and emergency services committee.

"Our maintenance costs were increasing year after year, and with new trucks those costs drop down to [near] zero for the first year or two, so it was mainly a financial decision," he said.

The trucks were purchased through a $2.2 million bond, but the borough hopes to recoup as much as $600-$700,000 of that amount by selling the old fleet to other departments.

One of the borough’s old ladder trucks has already been sold for approximately $293,000 to the Fountain Inn Fire Department in Fountain Inn, South Carolina.

Lahullier said another out of state department has expressed interest in the ERFD’s Engine Number 2.

Some of communications equipment in the outgoing fleet will be reused in the new trucks.