Though the Winston-Salem Fire Department’s newest fire truck takes two people to drive and is an impressive 58 feet long, it boasts a better turning capacity and can deliver more water than other ladder trucks in the city.
The tractor-trailer tiller truck, as it is officially known, is housed at Station 1 at 651 N. Marshall St.
The station got the new truck in November, with the 15 firefighters based there training for two months on how to drive the truck. It’s been in service for the past two months, with firefighters getting used to the new vehicle, which is styled like a tractor-trailer rig, said Capt. Shawn Scruggs. One driver sits up front in the cab; the second driver is on the back section of the truck and steers the back end of the rig.
It replaces a straight-frame aerial truck that was at Station 1, which is the busiest station in the city, Scruggs said. That truck is going to a less busy station in the city.