Freedom Engine Not So Free Of Bugs
After the September 11th, 2001 attacks destroyed dozens of New York City fire apparatus, east Tennessee responded with a huge public drive. In all, we raised 940 thousand dollars, nearly a million dollars to buy New York City a new Ladder Tower. I don't think a soul would begrudge one red cent we provided New York City in a time of need.
I know that a lot of us had in our mind's eye- the vision of 14 Truck racing to the scene of a blaze, or pumping thousands of gallons of water onto some burning building. I thought it was saving lives and property. But for a year-and-a-half, 14 Truck has been idle...out of service because of one problem or another with the brand new truck.
Seagrave Fire Apparatus Company was chosen to build the rig. FDNY has several pieces from this company, and would be famliar with the city's stringent specifications.
Seagrave started building fire apparatus in the late 1800's.
(www.seagrave.com)
There's been a problem.
The truck - designated 14 Truck by the FDNY, was paired with Engine 35 in Harlem.
But it has spent several months off the road in one shop or another.
One source tells me the total is around eighteen months, but I could not confirm the exact amount of time in the FDNY and Seagrave shop. The manager I talked to was reluctant to tell me an exact length of time, but confirmed it was "months".
The latest problem, he says, was a bad swivel. That's the turntable-like mechanism that allows the ladder and platform to swivel around 360 degrees to reach windows for rescue, and to put streams of water into upper levels, or on top of fires. It took ten weeks to repair. A new swivel had to be made, and that is a big, heavy piece of solid metal that has to be machined to close tolerances.
The good news is that 14 Truck, "The Freedom Engine" is expected to be back in service Thursday.
To be generous to the manufacturer, it might be good to remember there was a demand for a lot of fire engines in a short amount of time. This might have caused production mistakes. And the FDNY shop administrator I spoke with says the department is negotiating with Seagrave to get an extension on the warranty because of the list of problems.
And I understand from another source that 14 Truck is not alone in the list of Seagrave pieces that might be turning into FDNY "Shop Queens", to borrow an aviation phrase for a plane that requires a lot of work, all the time.
Fire engines last a long time. Even in New York City. Let's hope they can get this one straightened out so it can provide the years of service Tennesseans expected from their dollars, dimes,and pennies.
