Norris fire truck arrives days after approval
Norris Fire Chief Rick Roach stands with the new Pierce pumper truck the city purchased to replace the truck destroyed in a recent accident. The new truck arrived Monday morning (Jan. 19). (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Less than seven days after the Norris City Council gave final approval to buy a $410,000 fire truck to replace the one destroyed in a recent accident, the new one was delivered to the Fire Department on Monday.
“They brought it in on a flat-bed trailer first thing this morning,” Fire Chief Rick Roach said as he and other members of the Fire Department looked the truck over at mid-morning.
It also shouldn’t take long to get the 2026 Pierce Freightliner pumper truck into service, he said.
“We could have it ready to go by the weekend, depending on when we get the paperwork done, but at the latest it would be by the middle of next week,” Roach said.
The truck must be certified by the state before it can be placed into service officially, city officials said earlier.
The City Council approved the purchase during its Monday, Jan. 12, meeting, and the order was officially placed with the Memphis-based dealer the next day.
Roach said the dealer, Siddons-Martin Emergency Group, brought the truck to Norris on Monday from its Knoxville location.
It replaced the city’s only certified fire truck, which was destroyed in a Nov. 12 accident about two blocks from the fire station.
During a special meeting on Jan. 5, the council declared the loss of the fire truck to be an emergency under state law, which exempted the city from having to seek bids on a new truck. Usually, any purchase over $10,000 requires such a bidding process.
The brand-new Pierce pumper has a 1,000-gallon onboard water tank.
Much of the gear – including hoses – was saved from the crashed truck, and will be placed on the new one, Roach said.
“The Nov. 12 accident created an emergency situation that allows purchasing without competitive bidding,” City Manager Bailey Whited told the council on Jan. 5.
Included in the ordinance approving the purchase was an allocation of $30,000 from the city’s general fund to pay for the truck – which was what was left owing after applying the $302,330 insurance payout for the crashed truck and money already in the current fiscal-year budget for the Fire Department.
Roach told the council last week that the new Pierce pumper not only meets the Fire Department’s needs, but also “exceeds” them.
