DONNA — It was a day of celebration here as the Donna Fire Department welcomed the arrival of its newest fire truck with a so-called “push in” ceremony Wednesday morning.
The department’s firefighters were ecstatic as the custom-built ladder truck gleamed in the diffuse morning light. And the city name “DONNA” glowed with warm red light from the center of the truck’s mirror-finish steel grille, just above a festive Christmas wreath.
Those firefighters, led by longtime Fire Chief David Simmons, would soon gather in front of that grille to partake in a centuries-old firefighting tradition.
“This tradition goes back to the 1800s… when the fire departments didn’t have engines like this,” Donna Mayor Pro-tem David Moreno said to the crowd of firefighters and fire chiefs who had gathered from neighboring departments to help celebrate.
“The apparatus, the firefighting equipment was pulled by horses and so when they got back to the station, the firefighters got together (to put the apparatus away),” Moreno said.
Even after the invention of the combustion engine, however, fire departments have continued to hold push-in ceremonies as a way to christen new apparatus and bless the difficult work that their crews will face.
“We’re very excited about this piece of equipment,” Donna City Manager Carlos Yerena said after the ceremony.
“It takes a special person to be a fireman and they do a lot for our community. We want to recognize that. What a better way to recognize it than by being able to get them the equipment that they need, he said.
For Donna, the ladder truck is the first major equipment acquisition the department has made in years — one that was sorely needed.
“We’re a small department, but we have a heavy (call) volume,” Chief Simmons told the crowd. He explained that the department is responsible for protecting some 95 square miles.
To date, the Donna Fire Department has responded to over 1,200 calls for service — 862 inside the city limits, and 465 additional calls throughout Hidalgo County.
Among those calls has been July’s catastrophic fire at the Don-Wes Flea Market, which completely leveled the Winter Texan shopping hotspot.
The blaze was so large, Simmons quickly had to reach out to neighboring departments for mutual aid.
Within moments, companies from Weslaco, Edinburg, Mercedes, San Juan, Elsa and other fire departments came to Donna’s aid, deploying massive resources to the scene and getting the fire under control in about seven hours.
And while Donna relied on help from its neighbors then, it has often been the one to provide help to others.
“We do work hand in hand with the other cities. We have a mutual aid agreement with our neighboring cities and throughout the entire county,” Simmons said.
“Wherever we’re requested, we’re gonna go ‘cause we’re here to support each other,” he said.
With the acquisition, Donna becomes the seventh department in Hidalgo County with a ladder truck, according to Weslaco Fire Chief Antonio “Tony” Lopez.
The other departments include Weslaco, San Juan, Pharr, McAllen, Mission and Edinburg.
The truck was built in Louisiana to Donna’s specifications, Simmons said.
“This is a 77-foot ladder. It’s a Ferrara Cinder. And it’s custom built from the ground up,” he said.
According to the Ferrara Fire website, the Cinder model truck includes a Cummins L9 engine with an Allison 3000 EVS medium-duty transmission.
The extruded aluminum cab is also equipped with a reinforced roll cage and customized compartments.
“We spent three days up in Louisiana, actually picked it up, put it on a lift. And we (went) underneath it and we inspect(ed) everything,” Simmons said.
“It’s all hand-built. And it’s all special,” he said.
As Chief Simmons wrapped up his comments Wednesday morning, his firefighters began to gather at the truck’s front bumper.
A driver climbed up into the cab and activated the truck’s emergency lights, then cranked the engine.
A moment later, Simmons and his firefighters guided the fire truck inside Donna’s fire station, just as countless firefighters before them had pushed in their apparatus in the days before the horseless carriage.
