Both of the Bulloch County Fire Department’s two ladder trucks, useful for reaching upper floors of the relatively few tallish buildings out in the county, are out of service this week, as county commissioners heard during their Tuesday meeting.

Neither of the trucks is exactly new. With an eye in part to protecting industries in the Bruce Yawn Commerce Park at the I-16 interchange and at other industrial parks and sites, the county government in September 2024 ordered a used 100-foot ladder truck. Described at the time as “new to us,” it was a 2009 E-One “stick” truck, so called because it has no platform or bucket at the end of the automatically telescoping ladder.

When negotiations between Bulloch County and Statesboro city officials for an extension of the longstanding intergovernmental fire service agreement broke down at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, this and other apparatus purchases became part of the BCFD’s expansion to serve the former “Statesboro Fire District” outside the city limits. Since July 1, 2025, the Bulloch County Fire Department’s service area encompasses all of the county outside of Statesboro.

Purchased for about $600,000 and with almost $242,000 spent on a separate order to equip it, the 100-foot ladder truck was delivered in the first quarter of 2025 and displayed at BCFD Station 3, also known as the Register Fire House, at an open-house event that May.

Meanwhile, the county purchased a three-acre lot, including a house, off Georgia Highway 67 out past the Fairgrounds for $850,000 in April 2025. The house was renovated for firefighter lodging, training area and offices, and the county spent about $176,000 for construction of a steel building for fire engine and ambulance bays, creating BCFD Station 16, and the ladder truck and its crew were assigned there when the new station was ready.

But this truck with the longest reach in the BCFD fleet has recently been out of service because of suspension problems.

“We bought a used 2009 out of Texas, I guess a year and a half ago,” county Fire Chief Benjamin Tapley told the commissioners. “It’s been a good truck for us; it is a 2009. It had some suspension work done to it in Atlanta about nine months ago. We’re having some more suspension work done on the front end.”

The department was having some consultants come in to look at what could be done to repair the truck in the county shop, he said.

’87 model down too

“When we don’t have the 2009 in service, which is a 17-year-old truck, we run out of our 1987 model LTI ladder truck, a 75-foot quint,” Tapley said. “It has been pretty good for us until recently. It’s at the shop now; we’re looking for parts. So we’re kind of at a standstill. Again, it’s a 1987 model, so soon to be … a 40-year-old truck.”

(A quint is a multipurpose truck, supposedly with five different functions. Usually, it’s a pumper truck with a water tank, an attached “aerial” ladder and some stored ground ladders and a length of hose.)

Having an operable, staffed long-reach ladder truck contributes to the Bulloch County Fire Department maintaining, and potentially improving, its Insurance Services Office, or ISO, public fire protection rating, Tapley acknowledged.

“We get credit for our ISO for having a staffed ladder company and having it running. Right now they’re currently operating out of a spare engine (meaning a standard fire truck). So right now, we don’t have an operable ladder truck in the county,” he told the commissioners.

Could call on SFD

“Now obviously, if we ever needed it, we could, you know, activate our mutual aid agreement with the city and request them to come out and help us,” Tapley added. “But right now we’re just trying to work with the county shop to get those repairs done, because we do need it. We need it for our operations, need it for ISO points, for the next ISO. … So we’re in a tough spot right now.”

When the county government ceased paying special property tax revenue collected from the five-mile district for service by the Statesboro Fire Department, the city administration also ended the automatic aid agreement between the two departments.

However, the SFD and BCFD then made a mutual aid agreement with approval from the city and county elected officials. The difference is, with “automatic” aid, the departments responded to any significant structure fires in each other’s service areas without being asked. With “mutual” aid, a request for aid is expected in response to a specific incident.

Incidentally, Statesboro’s city government in the fall of 2024 placed an order totaling a little over $3.67 million, for both a new Sutphen 75-foot ladder truck and a new Sutphen 100-foot aerial platform truck. The truck with the 75-foot reach was the one rolled into new SFD Station 3 during its opening ceremony Tuesday.

Phoned for an update Thursday, Tapley said that emergency vehicle techs at the county shop were working on the 1987-model truck, trying to find parts for it, and “have a game plan for how to fix the suspension” on the 2009.

“So hopefully in a couple of weeks we’ll have one of them back in service,” he said. “But it’s highly important that we get that so that we’re running calls with them.”

Seeks newer used

Meanwhile, he has asked the county administration’s help with finding another ladder truck so that the department will have a newer spare.

“If we could find even – again, I’m going to say a used truck because the timeline now for a new one is still 36 to 48 months before a new one could get here – so any help would be appreciated,” he told the Board of Commissioners and staff.

In the past two to three years, the department, with funding support from the commissioners, has expanded its staffing and the number of fire stations staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by career firefighters.

It now has 16 fire stations. Six of them are now staffed 24/7, including Station 1, which is paired with the Emergency Medical Service headquarters on Grady Street in Statesboro, Station 2 in Portal, Station 3 in Register, Station 7 in Brooklet, Station 9 at Clito, and Station 16 off Fair Road/Highway 67. The other 10 are volunteer stations.

The department is currently working on getting Station 17, off Georgia Highway 119 North in the Eldora area, in operation.

Nine newer engines

Although the ladder truck situation is problematic, the county has purchased eight new or late-model, regular fire engines for the department in the past five years, and a Tapley said a ninth, brand-new engine is scheduled for delivery in October.

So the BCFD has 16 main trucks assigned to the stations, plus four reserve trucks, one brush truck, eight tanker trucks and the two currently out-of-service ladder trucks.

County ISO status

Effective Sept. 1, Bulloch County outside Statesboro has an ISO public fire protection rating described as “Class 4/10.”

The ISO, a private company that supplies information to the insurance industry, issues the ratings on a scale of 10 to 1, where a “10” is no recognized public fire protection and a “1” is the best available.

Previously, the Bulloch County Fire Department provided a split 4/4Y rating within five road miles of its stations. Areas in the county more than five miles from any station had a “10” rating, and still do, although there are fewer such areas since more stations have been added.

But what was eliminated this year was the “4Y” distinction, where the “Y” indicated a somewhat lower degree of reliable service to locations within five miles of a station but not near a “creditable water source” such as a hydrant or designated pond. The BCFD expanded its use of tanker trucks to fill those former gaps.

Meanwhile, Statesboro’s city Fire Department now provides an ISO Class 1 public fire protection rating, but only for its service area, to Statesboro’s city limits.