The Utah Fire and Rescue Academy has a new team member. It comes in the form of a 1986 FMC fire engine that the Layton City Fire Department donated on the 13th of this month.
When Layton’s Fire Department recently purchased new firefighting equipment, they decided to donate the sleek red machine to the Emergency Services Department at UVU instead of selling it to another fire department in the area.
“We felt the (UVU) Fire Academy could find a better use for it than to sell it. Other agencies in our state had the money to purchase such a vehicle, so we thought that was a better option, (one that) could benefit everyone,” said Ryan Eckardt, Battalion Chief at Layton’s Fire Department.
The academy’s recent addition will be used by students in the Recruit Candidate Academy (RCA), which assists students in preparing for careers in firefighting and in pursuing emergency services degrees offered at UVU.
With the new addition, the Fire Academy now has four fire engines, in addition to their ladder truck.
“Well, we have twenty students in our day class, for example, and we typically have five students per engine, but now we can make another crew,” said Dave Harding, Support Services Manager at the Utah Fire and Rescue Academy, on how the new engine would benefit RCA students.
With the added opportunity this new member of the UFRA team has created for its students, we are bound to see more growth in the Emergency Services Department at UVU.
