FORT HALL — The Fort Hall Fire Department has recently acquired four new fire trucks to provide better emergency services to the community.

Fire Chief Eric King of the Fort Hall Fire Department said they have 14 emergency vehicles. Many of them have different capabilities.

The new fire trucks are a 100-foot ladder truck, a heavy rescue truck and two water tenders.

King said the department’s old trucks were becoming too expensive to maintain. He said the old ladder truck that they replaced was particularly expensive to take care of.

“Hopefully it will decrease the maintenance bill for what we have,” he said about acquiring the new fire trucks.

King said the new heavy rescue truck is a better truck for their needs. It is larger and is able to fit more people than the Fire Department’s previous rescue vehicle.

“We’ve outgrown our past rescue truck,” he said. “It was too small and we were overloading it. It was a safety concern.”

King said the new water tenders are able to hold more water than the older ones. He said the new water tenders would be especially helpful when responding to areas that don’t have good water supplies.

“We have the potential to take about 10,000 gallons (of water) with us,” King said in reference to responding to fires with the new water tenders.

Looking beyond the new fire trucks, the future is even brighter for the Fort Hall Fire Department. Construction on a new Fort Hall fire station across Widowville Road from the current station is expected to start this summer and a new ambulance is expected to arrive in the fall.