CENTERBURG — The Eastern Knox County Joint Fire District has received $450,000 to purchase a new rescue vehicle to help the county’s first responders protect area residents from fires and other disasters. The new vehicle will provide service to the villages of Danville and Brinkhaven, and Brown, Jefferson, Howard, Union, Harrison and Butler townships. The fire district covers 186 square miles.

Chief Larry Stimpert said that for the EKCJFD, a new vehicle is a much-needed addition to an aging fleet of service vehicles. The newest vehicles in its fleet are from 2007 and 2008. The rest date from the early 1980s through 1999.

“The rescue [vehicle] we have now is from 1993,” said Stimpert. “We have a verbal commitment on [a new one] but there’s one more document to be signed before it becomes official. But it’s going to be a rescue/engine. We’re going to get rid of our old rescue and do away with an old engine we have. It will kind of kill two birds with one stone.”

The new vehicle replacing two old ones will have the advantage of using less fuel and reducing maintenance from two vehicles to one, said Stimpert.