East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service acquire new fire engine

The technical term for the fire engine is a Volvo FLL-15 Fire Appliance which Bexhill Fire and Rescue Manager John Owen said the service were due, after many appliances were destroyed in the massive explosion and fire at the Marlie Farm firework factory fire last year, in which two fire fighters tragically lost their lives.

During the course of the fire East Sussex fire and rescue services lost a total of nine fire appliances, three special vehicles and five cars along with all the equipment contained within the vehicles.

The new fire appliance is state of the art and won't be loitering around as it's 280 brake horse power will be indispensable in an emergency situation.

John added: "It only does around a mile a litre but it reaches the highest European standard requirements. On board it has sat nav equipment and dedicated ground monitors, which is something we've never had before with an in cab touch screen computer. This means that we just have to tap in the address and it shows us exactly where we have to go. There's also a lot of information about buildings and such in the town as well which, if we are dashing off to a fire, information about the building concerned is vital."

In addition the appliance holds around 1,800 litres of water and there's room for six fire fighter's on board.

Whilst the insurance from the damage caused by the Marlie fire has paid for some of the equipment, John explained that this only amounted to around 30% of the total cost, with the rest being made up from emergency funds and taxpayer's money.

He said: " Obviously a considerable amount of taxpayer's money has been used to buy this new piece of equipment and we are delighted to have this much needed new appliance here as the one it has replaced was quite old."