Members of the Pocatello Fire Department ceremonially pushed their new fire truck into the garage at Fire Station One on Whitman Street on Wednesday night to commission the new apparatus.

It’s one three new fire trucks the Fire Department received this month.

Fire Chief David Gates said the ceremony marked the first time, to his knowledge, that new city fire trucks have been commissioned by push-in ceremonies. He learned about the ceremony while attending acceptance testing of the new trucks.

“It’s a tradition that fire departments started way back in the day of horse-drawn carriages,” Gates said. “When they got a new fire wagon, they pushed it in. The lore is that it gives good luck to the apparatus.”

The new trucks were purchased on a 10-year lease.

“Basically, when this lease expires, we’ll be in the position to replace these fire trucks again in 10 years,” he said. “It’s a perfect cycle.”

According to Gates, national standards suggest that a fire truck shouldn’t stay in service for more than 20 years.

The oldest trucks in Pocatello’s fleet, which are currently used as reserve trucks, have been in service for over 25 years, having been purchased in 1993.

With the introduction of these new trucks, the trucks currently in reserve will be sold as surplus, and the current front-line trucks, which were purchased at different times throughout the early 2000s, will move to reserve.

Gates said reserve trucks are kept for two reasons.

“It allows us to staff for large emergencies beyond our normal capability in large events like the Charlotte Fire,” he said. “The other purpose for reserve engines is to have an engine available to run front-line calls if another truck needs to be taken out for service or repairs.”

The new trucks feature a larger motor and chassis, which Gates believes will be an essential feature, given Pocatello’s terrain.

“Our rationale was that in Pocatello, we have very steep hills,” he said. “This larger engine will navigate those hills with less stress on the engine, which I think will allow the engine to last longer and allow a quicker response time in these difficult to reach areas.”

The trucks also have a new body style that offers more storage capability for the ever expanding number of specialized tools Gates said fire crews are usually carrying.

Each of the new fire engines cost around $650,000, according to Gates, and should serve as front-line trucks for a full decade.

Three of the four fire stations within Pocatello will receive a new truck, so they will each have one front-line truck and one reserve truck. Fire Station One has a ladder truck, which while slightly different than a fire engine can still function as a front-line fire truck, Gates said.

He added that purchasing all three trucks at the same time will make it easier for the fire crews to acclimate to them.

“The benefits of buying three at the same time is that they’re all the same,” Gates said, “so if a firefighter works on any of them, it’s consistent.”

Though the new fire engines are much more difficult to push than a horse-drawn carriage, Gates said the fire crews were excited to receive their new engines and commission them with the age-old ceremony.