Next week, volunteer firefighters from the tiny Arkansas farming community will haul off Engine 2043, a 26-year-old water tanker the Alsip Fire Department had to decommission.
"We really need that truck," Big Flat Assistant Fire Chief Gerald Elsner said. "We were delighted to hear that Alsip is giving us the truck."
The deal was brokered by Alsip fire Lt. Rick Hiter, who visited the town about a year ago.
The Alsip Fire Department could no longer use the truck because a change in Illinois law prohibits open-cab trucks, said village administrator Jerry Marzec.
"No department up here will take it," Marzec said.
Alsip Fire Chief Chuck Geraci said trucks like Engine 2043 typically are auctioned off for no more than $2,000, after their usual 20-year life expectancy.
"I don't think we could've gotten $1,500," Geraci said.
A new tanker could cost the village upwards of $200,000.
And such tanker trucks, with their 1,000-gallon capacity, often are purchased by farmers.
"The (Alsip) village fathers didn't want a landscaper to get it and use as something other than a fire truck," Hiter said.
Although the engine and transmission are in good working order, other mechanical problems and nonmechanical issues have made Engine 2043 a liability for Alsip. The village has to pay for insurance for the vehicle, even though it remains parked at Fire Station No. 2.
"Rather than just getting rid of it, we thought this was a good thing to do with it," Marzec said.
Big Flat, with a population of 102 mostly elderly farmers, is much obliged to receive the truck, regardless of the problems, Elsner said.
"At least we're going to receive a truck that's worthy of repairing," he said. "If we put money into our truck, it would still be inadequate."
The Big Flat Volunteer Fire Department is not part of a fire district that bills town residents and the 555 other people the single truck serves. Yet the tiny town's economy can muster only an annual budget of $5,000 to pay for operations, Elsner said.
Elsner said the one truck Big Flat owns has only half the water capacity of Alsip's Engine 2043, and a broken electric pump.
"The electric switch that makes the pump work is inoperable," he said. "In a rural area like ours, we don't have very many fire hydrants. So this will do us a lot of good."
The diesel-powered Engine 2043 will be more powerful than the gas engine in the current Big Flat engine, Elsner said.
"We have a 1971 Ford gas vehicle," he said. "We've got some areas where, if we take our truck into, we've got to plan to have tow truck to pull us out."
Big Flat covers 25 square miles in north-central Arkansas, about 117 miles north of Little Rock, and 70 miles south of the Missouri state line.
The department also participates in a mutual aid program that can send the current truck as far as an hour away to nearby towns like Fifty-Six, Timbo or Mountain Homes, or to remote areas in the Buffalo River National Wildlife Area.
"Our towns are so spread out, we've got about 150 square miles to cover," Elsner said.
Geraci said Engine 2034 will make a good addition to Big Flat's firefighting efforts.
"If you've got a volunteer department that needs it, and the engine and transmission are in good order, they're welcome to it," he said. "It had a life expectancy of 20 years, and it gave us 25. And it can do a lot more."
