Santa Barbara’s newest ladder truck in service with the longest reach in the department’s history
John Palminteri
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Santa Barbara City Fire Department put its newest and most sophisticated fire apparatus into service Friday. It is a truck with a ladder reach of 107 feet.
“This apparatus is capable of reaching the tallest building in the city, which is the Granada Theater,” said Santa Barbara City Fire Chief Chris Mailes.
The truck was ordered in 2022 in anticipation of future needs.
It has a cost of $1.67 million. If it were to be ordered today, the price would be $2.28 million.
The crew from the previous truck transitioned their equipment after a morning ceremony, which included pushing the truck into the station house (with engine assist). That is a tradition.
This vehicle will be able to handle fire calls for all mid-rise or high-rise buildings primarily in the city of Santa Barbara, but also on mutual aid to Montecito and Carpinteria which do not have a ladder truck. “Having an aerial ladder attached to an apparatus that can extend over even a smaller building. It is by far the safest for the crew to operate. So that ladder goes up quite often,” said Mailes.
There are four in the county with the next closest in Goleta. The other two are in Solvang and Santa Maria.
“This rig has to be really, really maneuverable up to the narrowest streets of Santa Barbara,” said Mailes. It also has to make its way into the State Street promenade or for example, behind the Granada Theatre.
Fire Captain Bob Kendall said many response functions will not change, but there is a learning curve with some of the new designs and technology. “They learn mostly the equipment and everything that’s on it when they go to their engineer task. They learn how to operate it and operate safely, effectively, quickly.”
The truck has battery powered equipment stored in the side compartments.
It has a “clean cab” that will be free of fumes that could lead to health problems.
The fire truck was build by Pierce Manufacturing in Wisconsin. A special team from the fire department went back in person to make the precise order for the needs of the Santa Barbara community.
From the order and manufacturing, the rig was delivered to a site in Ontario for final testing and then it came to Santa Barbara.
It will operate out of Station 1 on Carrillo Street.