On Monday, January 9th, 2023, at 2:44 pm, Turlock Fire personnel near the intersection of Lander Ave and Fourth St, Turlock, were driving Squad 32 when they heard an unusual popping sound from the engine compartment, which is located directly underneath the passenger cab.
Immediately after, they noticed smoke. Firefighters quickly grabbed two fire extinguishers from the back of the fire engine, raised the passenger cab to access the engine compartment, and extinguished the fire, keeping it contained to just the engine compartment.
Neither member of the crew of three suffered any injuries and the cause of the fire remains unknown.
Squad 32 was taken out of service until repairs can be made. Mechanics will be assessing the damage over the next few days to determine its extent and costs to repair.
Squad 32 is a 2016 Rosenbauer Commander that was custom-made for the Turlock Fire Department and put into service back in April 2017, originally as an engine but then as a squad, essentially an engine with some extra rescue and structure stabilization equipment, a little more than a month later in June 2017. It came in at a cost of about $650,000 and is housed at station 2, which covers the southwest quadrant of the city, a primarily industrial area with some commercial and residential.
A truck has been temporarily put into service at station 2 which will affect firefighting capabilities as trucks don’t have any onboard water tanks, which means that firefighters will have to wait for an engine to arrive before beginning fire attack. Response times might also be slightly affected due to the large size of the truck.
