The Napa City Fire Department is getting a belated Christmas present: A brand new fire engine.

The $280,000 piece of equipment was made possible through a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, Napa Fire Chief Tim Borman said.

“Napa Fire Capt. Charlie Rhoads wrote the grant for $225,000, which was awarded to us last November,” Borman said. “The city has to contribute $55,000, which will have to come from our apparatus fund.”

The new engine will be used to fight wildland fires, Borman said.

“This engine is able to go off road into rugged terrain. The engines — pumpers — we have now are geared to fight residential structure fires,” he said. “We can use the new one for fires in Montecito, Coombsville, Hagen Road and Browns Valley areas — any place where there is mixture of wildland and structures. We have needed a wildland engine for quite some time, but have not been able to budget for it.”

Borman said the money for the wildland engine had to be cut in 2004 because of the budget crunch. “We are very cautious about cutting anything from our apparatus budget.”

The city fire department has seven fire engines, which pump water and carry a small amount of firefighting equipment. It also has one truck that carries a 105-foot ladder, rescue equipment and other large pieces of equipment such as the Jaws of Life.

Four of the engines and the truck are fully staffed and ready to go on a second’s notice. The others are used for backup.

It also has the Office of Emergency Services engine, which is on call for the entire state.

“If we are called on for the OES engine, we have to be ready to roll within a half hour anywhere in the state,” Borman said. “If needed we can also use it as reserve engine locally.”

Borman said the city also plans to replace two 1986 open-cab engines. “When we do that all of our fleet will be closed-cab engines. We are in pretty good shape. But we also take very good care of our equipment.”

This is not the first successful grant written by Capt. Rhoads. He also was responsible for obtaining grants for rescue and breathing equipment for the department.

“Capt. Rhoads has helped us get more than $650,000 in grant funds,” Borman said.