Alta Fire designs and builds custom engines for wildland and emergency response. Last week, the company delivered fire trucks to Utah, leaving one behind to help crews battling the Cottonwood Fire, currently the largest wildfire burning in the United States.Watch to learn more about Alta Fire. Emmett's Alta Fire builds engines now fighting the nation's largest wildfireAlta Fire landed in Emmett because the building had the electrical capacity needed to run the laser and other heavy machinery that other locations could not support.Michael Serber, who handles sales and helps drive the design direction at Alta Fire, spent 33 years with Cal Fire, retiring as a battalion chief. In his final years on the job, he was responsible for purchasing fire engines, which gave him deep familiarity with the fire apparatus industry. After retiring, he worked as a salesman for another company before partnering with Alta Fire.He said the work is therapeutic in a way that retirement alone never could be."When you've spent your whole life in a fire department and then you leave, a lot of people talk about a little bit of withdrawal. It allows me to be around these guys the fire departments and still get to be part of something. But be retired from it. So for me, this is like therapeutic to be able to spend time around these engines, to spend time with the departments, talk to the crews, and hang out with them. It's like I'm kind of still part of it even though I'm not the one out there doing it," Serber said.Every truck is built individually rather than on a production line, with the entire team hands-on throughout the process. Serber said that approach creates a built-in quality check."Each truck is produced in a singular fashion so that the entire group of people here that are working on them are all hands on with the truck, and it allows a backup system to where if one of our people missed something or is struggling with a section, another person is able to be right there with them," Serber said.The result, he said, is a truck built to last."We're building them a little bit over the top as far as how heavy-duty they are, but we just feel like that extra amount is what also gives that extra amount to those firefighters out there for security, that these trucks aren't going to break down," Serber said.Serber said every truck that leaves the shop carries a piece of the team with it."I still have a bit of pride in what I'm seeing and what they're doing with it, and it's just something that you get your heart and soul into," Serber said."It's very prideful to me to be able to look at a truck and go, this is a quality that I would have expected if I was buying them. And I wouldn't do this if I couldn't feel that way about the truck," Serber said.With wildfire season intensifying across the West, Serber said the responsibility runs in two directions: toward the firefighters and toward the homeowners they are trying to protect."If I was talking to a bunch of new recruits, I'd tell them, hey, keep one foot in the black, guys, be safe out there. For the homeowners, do your due diligence on your own homes. Have a clearance, look at your vegetation around you, make sure you're doing the thing so that the firefighters can be successful when they do come," Serber said."They're going to put their lives on the line to protect your property and your life, do your side of it, and prep the area and be ready for them so that they can be successful," Serber said.Emmett neighbor Doug Welch helps shape each vehicle from the ground up, using precision equipment to get parts ready fast. He said the work carries meaning beyond the shop floor."It's nice knowing that we're producing something that's getting used to help take care of the community," Welch said.Alta Fire is still a growing operation, and Welch said the team has bigger ambitions."Right now we are still a small supplier, and we're hoping to really build it," Welch said.Each build is also an investment back into the community, with plans to hire more local workers and eventually partner with local schools.For more information on Alta Fire, you can visit their website by clicking here. ...read more read less