The Mountain Home Fire Department has found a buyer for a ladder truck that it originally thought would not sell.
Fire Chief Kris Quick says the city has reached an agreement to sell the department’s 1984 Grumman Aerialcat ladder truck to Scrap Daddies Recycling for $6,000. The Grumman, which has been with the city since 1987, will be replaced in the fire department fleet with a 2015 Sutphen ladder truck when it arrives later this month.
Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus will tow the Sutphen truck to Mountain Home for delivery, and the firetruck dealer had planned to tow the Grumman back to Union Grove, Ala., and attempt to sell it online for the city. Last month, Quick said that Brindlee Mountain representatives had warned him that they did not anticipate readily finding a buyer for the aging Grumman.
Grumman Emergency Products, a subsidiary of aircraft manufacturer Grumman Aerospace Corporation, closed its doors in 1992. Because of that, replacement parts for the 34-year-old the Aerialcat are almost nonexistent. When the Sutphen was purchased in May 2020, it was believed that the fire department’s Grumman Aerialcat was one of only three still on duty in the United States.
Quick says the fire department received a handful of sealed bids for the Grumman, with Scrap Daddies Recycling’s offer of $6,000 being the highest. The city was planning to ask for $7,500 for the truck when it on sale online, but was prepared to let it go for $5,000.
The 2015 Sutphen had been in service with a fire department in New York state until earlier this year, and is being refurbished and repainted by Brindlee Mountain. Quick said fire department representatives will travel to Alabama Wednesday and Thursday to inspect the ladder truck. If that inspection goes well, Quick said he hopes to have the Sutphen ladder truck in Mountain Home the following week.
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