A group of eastern Iowa firefighters might be saying “I told you so” after a fire today. Eldridge firefighters approached the city council last year and said they needed an aerial ladder truck — the town’s first — and an addition at the station where they could house it. They asked the city to help finance those items. But councilmen were cool to the idea. So, firefighters revised their wish list. On their own last fall, they bought a used 1977 ladder truck from the Newton Fire Department for $31,000. And they found an Eldridge business that would donate warehouse space, where the truck is kept. The aerial ladder helped pay its way this morning when firefighters used it to get onto the roof of a burning school bus maintenance building…where they cut ventilation holes in roof. No one was injured in the fire, which broke out about 8:30 following an explosion.
