Fire-ravaged snowplow fleet ready for work again

By McKenzie Romero

Deseret News

SANDY - After a devastating fire wiped out half of Sandy's snowplow fleet last week, city officials announced Friday they are again fully equipped to handle any upcoming storms.

The city has retrofitted a number of 10-wheel vehicles - some from its own fleet, many loaned from other cities and the Utah Department of Transportation - with plow blades, controls and salters to clear Sandy's streets of its next snowfall, said Paul Browning, assistant public works director.

The city has also borrowed a few plows.

"There have been tests this week," Browning said. "Our fleet shop was not damaged in the fire, so we spent Sunday, Monday and this entire week getting all of our equipment operational."

Browning said he's also glad for the weeklong reprieve from winter weather that gave the city time to get "back in business."

Mayor Tom Dolan said the city has been grateful for the steady string of offers from other communities to help or to loan equipment since last week's fire, including some that came Thursday.

"We have such great sister cities and in our interlocal agreements that all stepped forward," Dolan said. "It's a tragedy that happened, but we're working through it and think there will be no loss of services to the residents. That's our committment to them."

The Sandy City Council has already approved the purchase of 11 new snowplows to replace those destroyed in the Jan. 27 blaze, the mayor said.

City officials have discovered Sandy has "better insurance than we thought we had," and the city isn't even facing deductibles on the purchase of the new trucks, Dolan said.

Damage to the building is still being assessed, Browning said, though estimates remain between $4 million and $5 million.

Fire investigators say an electrical failure sparked a small blaze in one of the city's 10-wheel vehicles, which quickly spread to the rest of the fleet in the Public Works Building.

More than 100 firefighters from several agencies were called to the blaze, which erupted in the middle of the night. All 11 snowplows, half of the city's fleet, that were stored in the building were destroyed and remained buried Friday under the building's collapsed roof.

Crews managed to save about half the building, including office space and storage for other city vehicles.

"In many ways we were fortunate, even though we lost a lot, but we're on our way back and everything will work out well," Dolan said.

Contributing: Peter Samore

Email: mromero@deseretnews.com

Twitter: McKenzieRomero

Credit: By McKenzie Romero Deseret News