The Mountain Home Fire Department is getting ready to part with one of its ladder trucks, but has not found anyone willing to take the vehicle off the city’s hands.The fire department is expecting to receive a refurbished 2015 Sutphen ladder truck in July from Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus in Union Grove, Ala. Once that truck arrives, the department will take its 1984 Grumman Aerialcat ladder truck out of service. The vehicle has been part of the fire department’s fleet since 1987.
Brindlee Mountain employees will take the Grumman back to Alabama when they deliver the Sutphen and attempt to sell it on behalf of the city. Mountain Home Fire Chief Kris Quick said the fire truck dealer has already warned him that there would not be any buyers on the vehicle.
Grumman Emergency Products, a subsidiary of aircraft manufacturer Grumman Aerospace Corporation, closed its doors in 1992. Because of that, replacement parts for the 34-year-old the Aerialcat are almost nonexistent. When the Sutphen was purchased in May 2020, it was believed that the fire department’s Grumman Aerialcat was one of only three still on duty in the United States.
Quick says maintaining the Aerialcat isn’t easy.
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The Grumman and its 104-foot ladder would be of limited use to volunteer fire departments operating in rural areas that lack the multi-story buildings the Aerialcat is designed for. A market does exist for decommissioned firetrucks as collector’s items, but those buyers are focused on vehicles from the early 1900s and don’t have a lot of interest in vehicles originating in the 1980s.
The Aerialcat weighs 67,000 pounds, meaning the vehicle cannot be driven on public roadways unless it is being used as an emergency vehicle. That restriction eliminates a private business like a tree-trimming service from using it.
Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus will list the truck on its website, for 30 days. Quick says the firetruck dealer will ask for $5,000 for the Aerialcat.
Quick says if no buyer is found after 30 days, then Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus will probably begin selling off individual parts of the truck to any Grumann Aerielcats still in service.
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Towing a truck the size of the Aerialcat to Alabama would normally cost several thousand dollars, but Brindlee Mountain is picking up the ladder truck for free since it was already towing the Sutphen truck to Mountain Home.
The 2015 Sutphen had been in service with a fire department in New York state until earlier this year, and is in the process of being refurbished and repainted. Fire department officials will inspect the truck in early July, and expect to have it in Mountain Home around July 10.
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