Woburn firefighters say pickup truck won't cut it as fire engine

WOBURN, Mass. — Woburn firefighters are concerned about how they answer calls when one of their fire trucks breaks down and they're worried the public's safety is at risk.

At the Woburn Fire Department, the concerns surround what happened Thursday with an engine truck.

According to firefighters, it went out of service for 5-6 hours because of an issue with the truck's batteries. That meant it couldn't go out on calls and the answer is what frustrated firefighters like Brian McLaughlin.

"The administration had put the crew working out of this station into one of our adminstrative staff's pickup trucks," he said. "They were responding to calls in a pickup truck."

It doesn't have water or the jaws of life.

"If your home is on fire, you don't want three guys coming to watch your home burn with you with a pickup truck because there's nothing they can do," McLaughlin said.

He worries it will happen again, just adding to a list of items that he says need fixing -- including the old fire stations.

When we asked the mayor of Woburn about it, he said he was surprised to hear of any issues.

In a statement to Boston 25 News, Mayor Scott Galvin said:

"The city has appropriated $600,000 to begin the process of building a new central fire station, consolidating and updating remaining stations."

The mayor says the pickup truck was only meant to handle medical calls.

But firefighter McLaughlin says a different plan needs to be in place should it happen again.

"We would do the same and we have done that. This piece here covered one of our neighboring communities while mechanics worked on one of their trucks. We're happy to send it and they would be just as happy too so that everyone is protected," McLaughlin said.

Boston 25 News asked the mayor if that's an option in the future, but had not heard back before the time of this posting.

Cox Media Group