Members of the Dorchester Fire Department have completed training on a new piece of equipment: a 2022 Argo Aurora 850 was purchased this year with funds from the Dorchester Fire Fighters Association and the Village of Dorchester. The vehicle cost nearly $36,000 plus taxes and fees, and will be used for off-road operations, including marsh grass fires.

“We mainly bought it for off-road rescue,” says Dorchester Fire chief Greg Partridge.

Partridge says the vehicle can take firefighters into the woods or the marsh, and can hold a stretcher to transport a patient, if need be. A trailer can be attached to transport a pump to difficult-to-reach fire locations. Partridge says the Argo will be able to move firefighters to such areas much faster than on foot.

Where firefighters would previously have had to lug in gear, the Argo will be able to save time and effort. And time can make a big difference in fighting a fire, says Partridge. Using the Argo, “you can get ahead of the fire and slow it down or turn it in a different direction,” says Partridge.

Partridge says the Argo seemed like a good choice for Dorchester Fire because other area fire departments do not already have one. Fire departments rely on mutual aid agreements, meaning each department can call in help and equipment from neighbouring departments.

“The departments around us have different pieces of equipment,” says Partridge, “and no one has one of these. So we thought we’d do something we could use to help other departments as well.”

Training was completed on Monday night, after the Argo was temporarily out of commission for a regularly scheduled oil change, and a small repair covered by the warrantee.

The purchase was approved by the Village of Dorchester back in 2021, and cost shared with the Dorchester Fire Fighters Association who paid roughly half of the cost after fundraising efforts in the community, such as the weekly NB Firefighers 50/50 draw.

Partridge says the 50/50, in which different fire departments in the province compete against each other for the biggest uptake, has been successful during the pandemic, but he’s looking forward to the department getting back into more in person fundraisers in the future.

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