KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — New firetrucks that aren't reliant on houses are the main feature of a new Rural Metro wildland team. Instead, the new trucks can store up to 2,000 gallons of water that sprays from the front and back of the truck.
The trucks also have four-wheel drive, making them more nimble than a traditional firetruck. It helps them navigate areas in forests or other rough kinds of terrain they may encounter in wildlands.
Captain Phillip Rettig leads the wildland team and said these changes take a big stress off of the department.
"Say there's a fire in a field. Where before we would have to keep extending hoses from one of the other trucks to see if we could catch it that way, eventually were going to run out of hoses. These trucks can go off-road, pump water while moving, and catch the fire without putting hoses on the ground at all," said Rettig.
The department spent months training in Oregon, where wildfires are common. One takeaway from the training was that community engagement is important. New classes will be happening where the department will educate community members on how to prepare for a wildfire and prevent them from happening in the first place.
Captain Phillip Rettig says that the department is working on being able to send out red flag warnings to community members when weather conditions could signal wildfires.
In early last April, Knox County faced multiple brush fires. The captain said that these trucks could have absolutely helped them in taming them.