To better meet the prospect of fires occurring in tall buildings, Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company, No 1, has acquired a quint-style fire truck, a flexible piece of fire apparatus that serves five functions — ladder truck, pumper truck, water storage, ground ladders, and fire hoses.

Hawleyville Fire Chief John Basso and Cliff Beers, who is the fire company’s president, displayed the vehicle, which is garaged at the Hawleyville firehouse at 34 Hawleyville Road (Route 25). Acquiring a fire vehicle with a ladder mounted on it for Hawleyville has long been in the planning stages.

A key feature of the vehicle, which will have the radio call sign “Quint 330,” is the 75-foot-long telescoping power ladder that it carries atop its roof.

During the past several years, Hawleyville has experienced significant growth with the construction of numerous multistory condominium and rental apartment buildings. When ongoing construction projects are completed, there will be more than 550 multifamily dwellings in multistory buildings at four separate complexes there.

Also, a spate of commercial growth has included the construction of two medical office buildings and a large child daycare center. Planned are a major medical office complex off Mount Pleasant Road as well as a cavernous warehouse off Hawleyville Road.

Quint 330’s power ladder will be a great aid to Hawleyville volunteer firefighters when responding to fires at tall structures, according to Chief Basso and President Beers.

Firefighters typically position ladder trucks next to burning structures to get an advantageous elevated ladder position from which to pour water down onto a fire. Also, the truck’s extended ladder provides firefighters with direct access to the upper reaches of a building.

Hawleyville’s Quint 330 is similar to the Sandy Hook Fire & Rescue Company’s quint-style truck, which it put into service in September 2005. Sandy Hook’s Emergency One quint truck, which is garaged at its Riverside Road firehouse, also has a 75-foot power ladder. Newtown Hook & Ladder has long had a ladder truck as part of its apparatus. Its truck, which caries a 105-foot power ladder, is garaged at its Church Hill Road firehouse.

Hook & Ladder’s ladder truck, which was purchased new, is owned by the town. Hawleyville’s and Sandy Hook’s quint trucks, however, are owned by those respective fire companies.

Sandy Hook and Hawleyville firefighters purchased used quint trucks because of the very high prices of new vehicles.

Hawleyville purchased a 2003 Pierce Enforcer quint truck from the Town of Monroe. The vehicle had been used by the Monroe Volunteer Fire Department. The 49,000-pound vehicle has a 500-gallon water storage tank. Its pumper can move 1,500 gallons of water per minute. It is powered by a 450-horsepower diesel engine. The truck has a 10-kilowatt generator. The vehicle carries 1,000 feet of five-inch diameter fire hose.

Chief Basso said Quint 330 will be the first fire truck to respond to most emergency calls within the Hawleyville fire district. Besides the driver, the truck will carry five firefighter passengers. The truck will carry multiple ladders, a gas-detection meter, and two thermal-imaging cameras.

Quint 330 will be put into service after Hawleyville’s Engine 332 is sold to some other fire company. Engine 332, which was formerly owned by the town, has been in service in Newtown since 1979.

The Hawleyville firefighters purchased Quint 330 for $350,000, including principal and interest.

Chief Basso said he expects that Quint 330 will be put into service in several weeks, after Hawleyville volunteer firefighters receive training in its use. About 15 firefighters will get that training, he said. Besides calls within the Hawleyville fire district, Quint 330 would respond to calls in the town’s other four fire districts, if requested, and also to out-of-town mutual aid calls.

Faced with the rapid growth of Hawleyville, the quint-style truck equipped with the 75-foot power ladder is a vehicle that Hawleyville firefighters need now, Mr Beers, said.

“We’re trying to position ourselves for the future,” Chief Basso added. “Each (volunteer) department has different needs. We needed a ladder truck,” he said.

Hawleyville firefighters displayed Quint 330 in the town’s Labor Day parade. The fire company was the last unit in the line of march.

The fire company owns the vacant site at 30 Hawleyville Road that formerly held the US Post Office. The fire company, organized in 1925, is holding that real estate for potential future use.