Turlock joins state’s emergency team, mans yellow fire engine

Firefighters in full dress uniforms and a beaming Chief Bob Talloni welcomed a new addition to the Turlock Fire Department engine bays, the city’s first state rig.

The big yellow engine will help out around Turlock, but its first allegiance is to large-scale emergencies wherever they happen in the state, Talloni said at a ceremony Thursday at the city’s main fire station.

Whenever called to respond, the engine and four Turlock firefighters will head out, all on the state’s dime, Talloni said.

“The bigger the moment, the bigger the Turlock Fire Department gets. We rise to any occasion,” Talloni said.

The Office of Emergency Services Engine 339 was on hand to shine for the cameras, but will take up residence at Station No. 2, closest to Highway 99, said Battalion Chief Bill Becker.

“This is set up for earthquakes and any time there’s a danger of structural collapse,” he said, adding one example would be when a vehicle hits a house.

Turlock was chosen because of the eagerness of its crews to take it on and the city’s location at the southern tip of an 11-county region, said Stanislaus County Fire Warden Dale Skiles.

“This was really a great location for another engine,” Skiles said. “This engine’s going to go.”

OES engine crews were called to four to six major fires last year, a particularly busy summer, but sometimes go to only one, said OES Region IV Assistant Chief Gary Humphrey.

“I have to say, in my years of OES transfers, I really think Turlock stood out above the rest,” Humphrey said. “I really appreciate that excitement, that engagement.”

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Turlock joins state’s emergency team, mans yellow fire engine."