New leadership. New personnel. New vehicles.

As the department moves into 2026, it anticipates the delivery of a major new unit called a tower ladder.

And it awaits its share of the revenue from the new tax to support emergency medical services. That revenue will eventually enable the department to add nine more firefighter/paramedics and build a second firehouse on the city’s west side.

In March 2025, Matt Price became the fire chief, replacing Steve Hergenreter who retired after 36 years of service.

-Messenger file photo by Bill Shea
Fort Dodge Fire Chief Matt Price, left, presents the Award of Valor to Firefighter/Paramedic Kyle Porter in April. Porter was honored for holding together two ladders to help a woman escape from a third floor window during a Nov. 17, 2024, fire at 1107 Central Ave.

Price came to Fort Dodge in October 2022 to serve as assistant fire chief. He had been a captain and emergency medical service supervisor for the Johnston-Grimes Metropolitan Fire Department. He began his fire service career as a volunteer firefighter in Dallas Center

In addition to getting a new chief, the department added three firefighter/paramedics — one for each shift. Price said adding them made it possible to reduce expensive employee overtime.

“We traded overtime for people,” he said. “That got us more people every day.”

The department now has 42 of what Price calls “line staff” (captains, lieutenants and firefighter/paramedics), five paramedics who are not firefighters and four administrative staffers (chief, fire marshal, EMS supervisor and administrative assistant).

Some heavily used vehicles were replaced with newer ones in 2025. They included two new ambulances on Ram chassis and a Chevrolet Tahoe used by the captain or lieutenant who is in command of the on-duty shift.

-Messenger file photo by Bill Shea
Fort Dodge Fire Chief Matt Price moves a hoseline during an April 16, 2025, blaze at 1524 Fourth Ave. N. When firefighters arrived at the scene, a detached garage, the backyard, a tire in the yard, part of a tree and the back half of the house were in flames. No one was injured. The fire started outside the house, but the exact cause was not determined.

The three new rigs look remarkably different from the department’s other vehicles because they feature a red and black paint scheme and a new style of lettering.

“We wanted to have our own identity and our own stuff that was unique to us,” Price said.

The lettering style and a new Fire Department patch were designed by Iowa Central Community College student Kelvin Baez, with help from Jacob Zweibohner, the coordinator of the college’s graphic design program.

An even bigger unit with that red and black paint job could be backing into the firehouse as soon as March.

The new truck is called a tower ladder. It has a boom that extends 100 feet into the air with a large basket or bucket at the end of it. Firefighters will stand in the bucket to put out fires and make rescues.

“It will give us a lot more capability,” Price said.

It will replace an aerial ladder truck now in use. That ladder truck, delivered in 2006, will be kept as a reserve unit.

New self-contained breathing apparatus are also to be delivered this spring. The self-contained breathing apparatus are the air tanks and face pieces that allow firefighters to breathe while working in smoke or poisonous gases.

A $325,000 federal Assistance to Firefighters Grant paid for the new breathing apparatus, according to Price.