Rye’s City Council voted unanimously in its March 11 meeting to approve the purchase of a $1.47 million fire engine.
The new truck will replace Engine 192, a 2006 Seagrave Marauder with 85,400 miles and 9,410 engine hours that’s stationed at Milton Firehouse, covering all alarms south of Playland Parkway.
“The delivery timeline for this engine is 1,500 days,” said City Manager Brian Shea. “That’s a production timeline. We do not have to pay until delivery. However, we do have the reserve capacity to pay, if say, we get bumped to the front of the line by luck and they deliver it tomorrow. We can pay for this immediately.”
Shea said the City of Rye currently has $4.3 million in its capital expenditure reserves and $980,000 in the general vehicle replacement account, which covers the purchase of nearly all city vehicles except for fire trucks.
Rye’s City Council executed the agreement with Firematic Supply Company, the distributor of Pierce Manufacturing fire apparatus, in advance of the current engine’s expiration, accounting for the long wait times for delivery.
“Ideally, you wouldn’t be making these commitments five years in advance because of a bad production timeline,” Shea said, “but that’s just the reality of municipalities and fire apparatus.”
The National Fire Protection Association recommends replacing front-line fire engines after approximately 15 years of active service and fully retiring them from the fleet after 25 years. Engine 192 is roughly 20 years old and will go into reserves once the replacement arrives
“You want to align the replacement schedule with which apparatus are still in operations,” Shea said. “You keep an eye on repair timelines and frequency. You do try to align with national standards, although we get many more years out of our apparatus than the national standards would call for, which is a good thing.”
Public Safety Commissioner Michael Kopy said Rye Fire Department responses have increased each of the past three years, from 1,220 in 2023 to 1,363 in 2024 to 1,400 in 2025.
“I think that this is a big number,” Kopy told the City Council while discussing the new truck’s $1.47 million price tag. “I’m very, very cautions with the public’s money. I think you know that. But I also don’t want to make a purchase where we won’t get the length and longevity out of it.”
The department maintains a roster of two front-line fire trucks and one reserve. Kopy said the current reserve truck is a 1997 truck purchased from Tarrytown for $7,000 to $8,000.
