BEND, OR -- The Bend Fire Department is replacing its most commonly used fire trucks, this fall. Deputy Chief of Fire Operations Bob Madden conducted their final inspection earlier this week at the factory in South Dakota. "We have six new fire engines coming. We’ll be getting two a week over a three-week period. And, we’ll be doing our in-service training and anticipate to have our first ones actually in service, responding to calls, probably by late November."

The city originally hoped to replace the units several years ago, but the plan was delayed due to the economy. Madden tells KBND, "We didn’t get a lot of new equipment; they’ll pull in next to our old ones, we’ll take all of the stuff off of those and put them onto those. But, our higher technology equipment, I think is in the EMS equipment – our 12-lead EKG machines and things like that – that’s where probably the largest dollar amount is going into, is in that medical equipment."