CDBG Grant Provides Much Needed Truck to City of Clinton Fire Department

City of Clinton Fire Chief Jeremy Marshall described his emotions as “a sigh of relief” when the department’s new fire truck arrived on May 29.

The City was awarded a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant in November 2021 for purchase of a new truck.

Upper Savannah COG Workforce Development staff applied for and submitted the grant application to the S.C. Department of Commerce. The total project cost is $650,000, with the City of Clinton contributing a local match of $144,911.

The Spartan FC-94/Southeast Apparatus Extreme Duty Rescue Pumper was built by Southeast Apparatus in Corbin, Ky, and was driven down to Clinton last week.

“I had actually seen it up in Kentucky when it was being built,” Marshall said. “You name a problem, we’ve probably experienced it (at the City of Clinton Fire Department) in the last year. It was a sigh of relief.”

Funds were requested to purchase a new fire pumper to replace a 1995 International KME that was recently decommissioned due to transmission failure.

This truck ended its service in March 2021 and has since been sold at auction as surplus equipment. The vehicle was decommissioned with an estimated 8,800 hours and approximately 72,000 miles.

The new pumper provides the department with 1,500 gallons of water per minute and has a 1,000-gallon tank. This department and its responding units offer fire protection to approximately 547 businesses and 3,836 residential units throughout the city limits.

The City also has active automatic and mutual aid agreements with the Joanna, Sandy Springs and Renno Fire Departments as well as a mutual aid agreement with Laurens County Fire Service.

“We’ve had higher maintenance costs, growing population, growing hazards, increasing calls. We’re breaking (call) records every year,” Marshall said. “Our aging fleet was having trouble keeping up. We even had to borrow a truck from a neighboring department.”

The challenges the department has faced include a tragic accident that claimed the life of a fireman this spring in a 2008 pumper.

The department had 1,531 calls in 2023, including structure, grass/brush and vehicle fires, medical emergencies, motor vehicle accidents and other service calls including responses to fire alarms. The department now has four engines, a brush truck and three support vehicles.

Marshall said he believed the 2024 truck would go out for its first service call next week.

Upper Savannah COG Community Development Director Keith Smith and Assistant Community Development Director Brittany Hallman Enjoy Arrival of Clinton’s new truck