Sooner Fire searching for title, answers on $75,000 fire engine

The Sooner Fire Department is looking for answers. In the meantime, the department continues to look at a “$75,000 paper weight.”

On Friday morning at the Board of County Commissioner’s meeting, David Franklin with the volunteer fire department says an investigation is under way in finding the proper title involving a recent purchase of a fire truck.

“We cannot get a title. The used car dealer is working us over on the title side of things,” Franklin said.

The fire department purchased a 2000 Spartan fire engine with a price tag of $65,000. In addition, the department added approximately an additional $10,000 of county funds for the fire truck’s accessories.

Franklin says the department waited several months to receive the title and once they did the title appears may have been “altered.”

Once the title was received it was dated 2016, City of Arlington.

“It seems like the truck is fine, but we have no title, no tag (and) no insurance. It’s a $75,000 paper weight right now,” Franklin told the commissioners.

Logan County Assistant District Attorney Lowell Barto, who was present at the meeting for a separate business item, says he’s looking into the matter and hopes to secure a title.

“This could lead to litigation. The facts are still under investigation,” Barto added.

The fire department purchased the truck following a June 4, 2018 accident on Interstate 35 that totaled their 1996 engine. Related article: Sooner fire truck crashes into cable barriers on I-35