WORCESTER, Mass. – The Worcester Fire Department on Tuesday blessed five new trucks, including three ladder trucks and two engines.

The additions to the fleet will be replacing some of the older pieces of equipment, such as ladders at the Southbridge Street, Park Avenue and Franklin Street fire stations. The two engines will replace older ones at Southbridge and West Boylston Street.

Worcester Fire Chief Martin Dyer said the new equipment will help their response to calls in the city.

"A lot of times people say, ‘the firefighters got new firetrucks,’” he said. “The firefighters did not get new firetrucks, the community got new firetrucks. Our well-trained firefighters are going to be out on the streets using these engines to pump water, put out fires. The ladders can do so much work on putting the elevation you need on a scene to get to the fire, to get to different parts of the buildings, to get access to where we actually need to get."

Dyer said the new equipment cost about $7 million.