The Reno City Council accepted a grant from the William N. Pennington Foundation worth $783,155. The money is half of what is needed for the city to buy a new ladder truck for the Reno Fire Department. The city will match the grant to buy the truck, which includes all the necessary equipment.

"This is a huge boost for the fire department," Chief David Cochran, Reno Fire Department said. "We've had this need for awhile."

RFD had four ladder trucks before the recession, more than 10 years ago. Today, only one of them is operating. At 12 years-old, it is the newest ladder truck in the fleet. Two others are getting long-term repairs. 

"We need to get back to four," Cochran said. "Probably by the time we get back to four, we're actually going to need five and that's where I would like to go."

Cochran says the custom-made trucks take 14-16 months from when they are ordered to when they are delivered. That means the ladder truck will be in use in the fall of 2019, at the earliest. The fire chief says it's extremely important to get more ladder trucks because of their abilities in rescue operations.

"Over three stories or more, a ladder can be the most effective, most efficient, safest way to perform a rescue and life safety is our number one job," Cochran said.

Cochran says any building of five stories or more is considered to be a high-rise and the number of those are growing in Reno, increasing the need for more ladder trucks.

"They go to every fire we go to," Cochran said. "Reno has almost 80 high rises. More than Sacramento. A ladder truck is what you need at an occupancy like that, not to mention our hospitals an other buildings over three stories tall."

Reno's operational ladder truck is based at Station 1, which is also gets the most call volume in the city. Along with fires, the ladder truck goes to every extrication car crash because it carries so many specialized rescue tools like the 'Jaws of Life,' medical equipment and hydraulic pumps.

"We can put the bumper of the truck right up close to the wrecked vehicle, as close as we can get it, and they're all pre-plumbed," Captain Dan Tilzey, Reno Fire Department said. "The hoses are already hooked up."

Cochran says some of the RFD trucks are more than 20 years old and some engines are more than 30 years-old. That is why the city council will discuss replacing the 120-vehicle fleet within the next seven to 10 years.

Cochran also wants to add more staffing to the fire department. There are currently 213 line personnel. He says RFD should have 250-260 of them, based on Reno's needs, but hiring more firefighters has been challenging during the economic recovery.

"We're looking at staffing going back to 1999 levels and we literally are running twice the number of calls that we ran in 1999, with that same number of firefighters," Cochran said.

If the city is able to hire more firefighters and improve the fleet and equipment, Cochran says public safety will also improve.

"When they don't know who to call, they call the fire department," Cochran said. "We need to be prepared for anything. It's not always predictable but we need to be ready to handle whatever's thrown our way."

The city's share of the cost for the new ladder truck will come from two sources. $700,000 will come from the capital improvements fund. The remaining $83,155 is already in the fire department's operating budget.