The following is an archived video story. The text content of that video story is available below for reference. The original video has been deleted and is no longer available.

Local business making custom fire trucks

SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – South Haven has been playing host to some firefighters from Pittsburgh who came to town to pick up five new fire engines.

Spencer Manufacturing has been building custom trucks for decades and after months of work, the ones heading to Pittsburgh were being tested one last time before heading out.

“In today’s economic climate it’s very difficult to buy five fire apparatus at the same time,” said Pittsburgh Asst. Fire Chief Tom Cook.

The custom built trucks are all Michigan made from start to finish.

“We build the components that hold the tools and from there we paint it,” said Garrett Spencer of Spencer Manufacturing. “We have thousands and thousands of hours into these, we started last year in the spring and summer and have been working on them since then.”

Pittsburgh has worked with Spencer Manufacturing twice in the past. The company builds around 20 trucks a year, mostly for departments in the state.

“We have a three year contract with them to make up to nine,” said Cook.

Despite this being a three million dollar project, Pittsburgh Fire says it is Spencer’s reasonable prices that allow the department to keep trucks current.

“We’re running more and more EMS calls so the rigs are on the road more frequently,” said Cook.