Friday, December 22, 2023–8:22 a.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

If you attended the Rome Christmas Parade this year, you may have seen the Rome-Floyd County Fire Department’s newest addition.

The new ladder truck is in service and answering calls.

County Manager Jamie McCord spoke a little bit about the new truck during a recent Floyd County Commission meeting.

It’s a great piece of equipment,” he said. “It’s a very expensive piece of equipment, but as Commissioner [Scotty] Hancock said it’s an insurance policy to protect the community. It will protect downtown among other structures throughout our community, even industrial and commercial facilities out in the county.”

McCord used a recent woods fire on Mt. Alto as an example of why having new equipment is important, stating that if you don’t have adequate resources you can have significant loss of structures or loss of life.

McCord also praised the cooperation between the city and county when it comes to fire protection.

“It’s really good to have this joint agreement with Rome,” he said. “We do get along quite well with that, and it’s a win-win. The fire department doesn’t have any limits or lines. They go to the structure fire or to the location of the incident and just handle it.”