There’s a ladder truck in the bay at Stockton Fire Station No. 7 for the first time in more than a decade.
The North Stockton station, which had been without a truck since the city’s 2012 bankruptcy brought massive cuts to the Stockton Fire Department’s budget and staffing, celebrated the arrival of its new ladder truck during a dedication ceremony in the final days of March.
“Last year, one of my highlights was voting to do this, and to bring back this truck,” said Michael Blower, the district’s representative on the Stockton City Council. “A big win for the people of Stockton, a big win for the people of District 3.”
The station featured a single engine when it opened in 1974 and, in 2006, expanded to fit a second truck. But the city’s financial crisis led to the loss of the ladder truck, leaving the station to rely on other truck companies and resulting in longer response times for some of the more than 4,000 calls each year.
Brandon Doolan, Stockton’s deputy fire chief, explained the decision to upgrade the North Stockton station off Hammer Lane rather than boost another of the city’s 13 other stations.
“Geographically, it’s a good location and the infrastructure is here, right?” he told Stocktonia, adding that there’s only four trucks covering the city, with North Stockton being the farthest from other vehicles.
“When we have fires or the truck company at Robin Hood was tying up on a call or they’re downtown training, it required us to take either Truck 2 or Truck 3 and send them north to make sure we had something up here to cover.”
This new truck is outfitted with rescue ropes and a 106-foot aerial ladder, plus a hydraulic extrication tool, often referred to as the “jaws of life,” which is used to pry apart the wreckage of crashed vehicles to free people trapped inside.
“The department is going through a huge growth period right now, with lots of hires happening over the last six, seven years,” Doolan said.
The North Stockton station operates around the clock, with seven firefighters rotating on three shifts. Firefighters work two straight days, then have four days off.
In addition to Blower, Mayor Christina Fugazi, Vice Mayor Jason Lee, councilmembers Michele Padilla and Mario Enríquez, interim City Manager Steven Colangelo and San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors Chairman Paul Canepa attended the March 24 ribbon-cutting ceremony.
For more information, go online to the City of Stockton’s website at www.stocktonca.gov/firestations or call 209-937-8827.