The Chapala municipal government hasn’t exactly reinvented the wheel, but with some out-of-the-box thinking has pieced together two used vehicles to beef up the fleet of the local Civil Protection and Fire Department.
The ingenious Unidad Ligera (light unit) fire truck is the composite of a 2009 model Ford F-350 cab chassis and the back end of the department’s broken-down compact pumper truck that was officially rolled out at a short ceremony on Thursday, March 5 at the steps of Chapala City Hall.
Chapala Parish Priest Enrique Monteon Curiel was on hand at the event to bless to vehicle. Representatives of the Ajijic Rotary Club were also there to provide Civil Protection/Fire Department chief Lorenzo Salazar Guerrero with a large supply of work tools.
The municipal government spent 300,000 pesos in purchasing the second-hand Ford, fusing the functional rear segment of the older pumper with a holding capacity for 1,200 liters of water, and carrying out a complete paint job. The estimated cost of buying a new truck of this type runs from 700,000 to one million pesos, according to Octavio Aguirre Curiel, head of the city council’s Public Security Commission.
The upgrade of the Unit 194 truck gives Chapala firefighters greater ability to respond efficiently to fire and accident emergencies, especially those that occur on narrow village streets and other points of difficult access. With the revival of the small-size pumper, the Fire Department is now operating with a full fleet of five vehicles that also includes a full-size fire engine, a compact urban rescue truck, an ambulance, and a pickup used for administrative tasks.