Changing of the Guards - Tanker 10 & Tanker 4
In September 2020 the department gave its final goodbye to Tanker 10, a 1986 Mack 4-Guys Tanker after 34 years of service to the town of Ridgefield. It was an emotional moment when it made its last exit out of the station for its final time. Tanker 10 was an important piece of apparatus for the department. It carried 3500 gallons of water to numerous fire scenes both in Ridgefield and to our surrounding communities. Tanker 10 was the last manual transmission truck in the fleet and definitely had some of the best drivers ever to sit behind the wheel. Three members, two of which are currently still active and one member who is now Honorary, carried the responsibility of driving this elaborate truck over the years.
Steve Main, Evo Falcinelli, and Gary Frulla shared a large portion of the driving responsibilities of this truck. You could count on one of the three members to be operating this truck at the scene of a structure fire. The dedication, pride, and care they gave to Tanker 10 was unsurpassable. As echoed in the words of Chief Tim Pambianchi, “I have never seen three members devote the amount of time that these three members did in taking care of that truck, training new members on how to drive and operate it at calls.” Throughout its life in the Ridgefield Fire Department, Tanker 10 stood in a class of its own, later being sold to a private collector of Mac trucks. As the chapter closed on Tanker 10, a new story would begin with the placing of Tanker 4 into service at the RFD.
As Tanker 10 was spending its final days in Ridgefield, the new Tanker 4 was in the final building stages to be delivered to the Ridgefield fire department by 4-Guys Fire Apparatus out of Pennsylvania. Tanker 4 would be the replacement for Tanker 10 and was a custom tanker built on a Spartan chassis with a 4-Guys tanker body. Tanker 4 is the newest piece of fire apparatus in the fleet, being placed into service in September 20 20. Tanker for carries 2500 gallons of water, is equipped with a 1500 gallon per minute pump, carries up to five firefighters with SCBA seating, has a folding tank for water supply operations, and has the latest and greatest innovations and operations for modern day fire tankers. Tanker for now serves as the lead tanker for the volunteers, responds “first due” to all structure fires and all mutual aid assignments. The Ridgefield Fire Department has always maintained a fleet of two tanker trucks to supply large amounts of water during a fire scene because of the lack of pressurized hydrants in the community.
