T-L Photos/JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH Bethesda Fire Chief Neil Hunt reaches for some equipment as members of the department look at the new 70-foot ladder truck that was delivered Friday.

BETHESDA — When Harry Sutphen delivered a shiny new fire engine to the Bethesda Fire Department in 1927, he probably didn’t know that history would repeat itself.

It did just that on Friday, though, when his great-grandson, Harry Sutphen, delivered a custom-built ladder truck to the station on Spring Street.

About 20 department members and village officials watched and applauded Friday morning as the department took delivery of the vehicle. Chief Neil Hunt said the bright orange SP70 vehicle, marked boldly with the village name and “Station 18,” cost $850,000.

It has a 70-foot ladder and will be used in response to “any and all structure fires” as well as for rescue calls and alarm drops, according to department public information officer Richard “Dick” Quinlin. He said it can be used as both an aerial truck to help firefighters get above the smoke and flames at large structure fires and as a pumper to provide water to douse a blaze, regardless of whether the ladder is needed.

“We needed it for structure fire purposes,” Hunt said, noting that within Belmont County only a few other departments have such apparatus. “It replaces a 32-year-old truck that had maintenance problems.”

Other departments with aerial capability include Barnesville, Martins Ferry and the Cumberland Trail Fire District. According to the department’s Faceboook page, it took about eight months of planning to design Bethesda’s new vehicle and another nine months for it to be built.

“It will be very helpful, especially with the manpower shortage,” Hunt added, saying that few people are willing to invest the time and effort to become firefighters these days.

He said the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had little impact in Bethesda on people’s willingness to get or remain involved.

The Bethesda Fire Department was founded in 1915. That makes the organization about 25 years younger than the Columbus-area Sutphen Co. that provided its first and most recent fire engines.

“We’re a 130-year-old family company,” the younger Harry Sutphen said as he strolled through the Bethesda firehouse and looked closely at the 1927 Chevy Sutphen that his ancestor delivered to the community nearly a century earlier.

A dash plate on the antique “Deluge Fire Engine” states that it was sold by C.H. Sutphen & Sons and featured a “wax and gum treated fire hose” and “Sterling Siren Alarm Accessories.”

Today Sutphen Co. has six sales and service locations, mostly in central Ohio with one in Pennsylvania. It also sells vehicles through other dealers both in the United States and internationally.

Hunt said the Bethesda Fire Department is conducting a $500,000 fundraising campaign to help offset the cost of the truck. So far, he said, members have raised about $100,000. Anyone who would like to contribute to that effort should call 740-484-4573.

Any resident 18 or older who would like to join the department as a firefighter or emergency medical technician can call that same number.