APPARATUS DELIVERIES
Ladder Company 6 of the Providence (RI) Fire Department operates its first rear-mounted aerial ladder truck, built by Emergency One. Providence is approximately 20 square miles in area with a population of 200,000.
According to Lt. Richard T. Deuso, the rear-mount has a 240-inch wheelbase, the same as that of the two telescoping platforms in the fleet. A restricted clearance of the apparatus door made it necessary to reduce the overall height to 10 feet nine inches. The overall length is 39 feet. The aluminum truck seats seven.
The ladder has no prepiped waterway. All of the equipment is enclosed within 20 tool and equipment compartments, according to Lt. Deuso, to protect the equipment from the elements. Special long compartments on each side of the truck store pike poles and other long tools. The truck carries 150 feet of ground ladders, including a 12-foot roof ladder mounted on the fly section of the 110-foot aluminum aerial ladder. The outrigger spread for the aerial is 11 feet. The apparatus is equipped with a 6-kw Onan diesel generator and has six 500-watt quartz floodlights (four telescoping, two on reels). (Photo by Mike Bakunis.)
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■ Lakeside, Arizona, is a resort community with residential and commercial occupancies. Paul E. Albinger, Jr., chief of the Lakeside Fire District, says that many of the residents of Phoenix and Tucson have summer homes in Lakeside. Population varies from 6,000 in the winter to 20,000 in the summer. The department serves 99 squaremiles. 50 percent of which is hydranted; the balance relies on a large tanker-relay system.
Its Pierce pumper serves as an all-purpose, advanced life support (ALS) engine company with five to six personnel. A manpowerefficient. safe, and cost-effective pumper was needed. The equipment’s configuration in the nine compartments allows all but the 62 feet of ground ladders and hard suction sleeves to be accessible from the ground.
The pumper is mounted on a Dash chassis and has seating for six. Spacious steps and large cab windows allow for optimum visibility when exiting the apparatus, according to the chief. The vehicle has a 204-inch wheelbase.
The pump is a Waterous CSUYBX 1500-gpm, single-stage with topmount control. The six-inch front intake has a seven-foot section of preconnected hard sleeve with Ken-Mar strainer, a low level strainer used for portable tank operations in rural areas that allows the pumper to draft to as low as three inches of water. The vehicle water tank holds 750 gallons.
Fire attack is addressed by two 1 Vi-inch crosslays and a 2’/2-inch preconnect off the rear. A 3‘/2-inch pipe from the pump feeds an Elkhart “Stinger” monitor rated at 1,000 gpm. A 3 ‘/2-inch valve with five-inch Storz connection is located on the driver’s side of the pump; 1,000 feet of five-inch hose is carried. One-hundred gallons of AFFF/ ATC is carried with two 95-gpm handline eductors and a Hydrofoam nozzle.
The unit hits a 6.5-kw Onan diesel generator with remote start from the cab or pump panel. Two 1,500-w’att Telelites and three 500watt portable floodlights are carried.
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a The Rosendale (NY) Fire District operates this rescue/command vehicle to respond to household medical calls, vehicular accidents, and all fires, according to Chief William Moylan. He says the closest ambulance in the district is 10 miles away, so this truck is fully equipped to stabilize patients until paramedics arrive. The 10-squaremile district is urban and rural and has a population of about 6,000. ‘The unit, built by Amthor’s, Inc., on an International Model 4900 chassis, has equipment to complement the district’s other vehicles, the chief says. The truck has an 18-foot aluminum body with 12 exterior and six interior compartments. Two additional compartments are in the extended front bumper, and there is seating for two in the cab and for four in the body. The vehicle wheelbase is 206 inches, and On-Spot automatic tire chains are mounted at the rear axle.
The command center features a Macintosh II si computer with CAMEO graphics program, a cellular phone, video equipment, highland low-band radios, and a map station.
For rescue and support functions, the truck is equipped with a front-mounted, six-ton Ramsey winch; a 15-kw Harrison hydraulic generator; 12 kw of fixed and extendable floodlights; 18 spare 4.5 SCBA cylinders with room for more; plus ladder and pike pole storage and an extensive complement of extrication, salvage, and ventilation equipment.
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■ The city of Bayonne, New Jersey, (population 70,000) is situated on six square miles of land and water and occupies a peninsula at the southern tip of Hudson County. The Bayonne Bridge joins it with the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is an urban/industrialized city, the north end of which is skirted by a spur of the New Jersey Turnpike.
Deputy Chief Thomas Lynch explains that the Bayonne FireDepartment startt-d gearing up for hazardous materials responses about 10 years ago with the purchase of a truck with a pickup chassis and a 12-foot cube-style body, originally intended to replace an air supply van. The new truck eventually became a mobile air truck and a haz-mat unit, but as time passed and inventory expanded, the unit became overloaded and some equipment had to be carried on other vehicles.
The haz-mat command vehicle in service today, built by Marion Body Works, Inc., combines a command center with a carrier for the bulk of the equipment used for haz-mat entry. The former truck now is a decontamination unit and a mobile air supply.
Two unique features of this truck, according to Lynch, are a double-room interior inside the 20-foot aluminum body and a 11/4 ton winch in the left rear exterior compartment. One room in the box serves as a command center and is equipped with a facsimilemachine; a cell phone; multiband and marine radios with special connections to the cab radio for emergency operation; a computer with ALOHA and CAMEO: and a C-5 SAM, weather command station. Stools with back supports insert into the floor.
The forward section of the body is separated from the command center by a sliding, aluminum partition. This section contains racks for haz-mat suits and a curbside door for independent access. It also has a squad bench that seats three and two backless stools for donning the suits. All stools are removable and arc stored in a cabinet.
The winch lifts a cylinder truck for the tether lines and slides out to lower the cylinders to the ground. The truck body has 10 exterior compartments and eight inside cabinets. (Photos by John M. Malecky.)
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■ The Farmington Hills (MI) Fire Department protects a population of 75,000 within a 34-square-mile area. The combination careervolunteer department has 15 full-time personnel.
According to Fire Chief Richard Marinucci, the Sutphen pumper was designed to provide the safety of a four-door cab and the ease of maintenance afforded by a tilt model. To protect the pump and ground ladders from the elements, they are in enclosed compartments. The vehicle has a 200-inch wheelbase to provide an ample hose bed. The extended length of the vehicle affords space for 14 storage compartments and a three-cylinder cascade system, which is mounted above the pump. The cab seats 10.
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Editor’s note: The Litchfield. New Hampshire, tanker described in the April 1993 issue of Fire Engineering was mistakenly identified as a rebuilt apparatus. The tanker is a completely new vehicle. Fire Engineering does not do write-ups of rebuilt vehicles.
