GULF SHORES, AL – On the heels of attaining a Class 1 ISO Public Protection rating, Gulf Shores Fire and Rescue is bringing two new trucks on board.

One of the trucks, a Rosenbauer Commander Rescue Pumper, is already at Station 1. The other is on a tour of the state being shown off at other departments by Rosenbauer. The pair cost the city more than $800,000.

“We got a unique thing on them,” Fire Chief Hartly Brokenshaw said. “We have what they call Greenstar technology. So when you pull up to a scene the engine will run for five minutes. After five minutes it will shut down and a smaller generator on the truck starts and keeps the big engine from running and cuts down on the carbon footprint. You can set the timer how you want.”

He said it’s part of a new effort in the city to implement green technologies around town.

“That was an extra the mayor and council wanted to do on this one,” Brokenshaw said. “As far as I know we’re the only ones in the state that has this.”

The new trucks will be somewhat of a hybrid vehicle loaded with medical as well as firefighting equipment.

“They’ve got the jaws on them, they’ve got advance life support systems, they’ve got all the fire equipment, too,” Brokenshaw said. “The majority of the cities are doing that.

“It’s the same one we use for fighting fires. That’s so you’re not having to get in and out of vehicles and have some equipment here and some there. It all goes to the same place.”

It will be a few weeks before the new trucks become front line vehicles. Once the engines are deployed one will operate out of Station 1 at the city hall complex and the other out of Station 2 on West Beach.

The second engine was scheduled to arrive on Friday and work would begin on getting them ready to use.

“We train on them and we still have to mount a lot of our equipment on them,” Brokenshaw said. “It will be at least two weeks after we get them both here that they’ll be going into service.”

One of the older trucks has already been sold and the other will be sold or donated, Brokenshaw said.