A Watershed Year For Do-It-All Vehicles

By C. Peter Jørgensen
Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Magazine

The Fire Department Instructor's Conference Trade Show was full of new stuff this year — everything from software to new apparatus models to innovative equipment and components.

FirePrograms Software, for instance, has come out with a comprehensive Apparatus To Web Interface that provides wireless integration to a fire department's records management system at headquarters.

The data is transferred by a wireless Internet connection so data after each run, plus any maintenance issues detected by the system, are immediately transferred to a Web site that can be accessed by authorized personnel. No more need to enter data manually or multiple times.

The company also produces an inventory management system that will be useful to both large and small departments. "Is it Rescue 1 or Ladder 2 that carries that exothermic torch for cutting steel bars off jail cell windows to rescue prisoners during a fire?" The system will tell firefighters immediately where to look.

New apparatus models that hit home runs came from Pierce and Ferrara. Pierce introduced a line of Contender-Responder quick-build pumpers to be produced at its Bradenton, Fla., plant. Pierce also came out with a 100-foot all aluminum aerial platform with below-grade operation capabilities to compete with the very successful E-ONE similar model HP-100.

Braun Industries, known for its ambulances, has the latest entry in the all-purpose vehicle field with its new Patriot Fire/Rescue/Transport ambulance built on a Spartan Furion chassis. (Crimson introduced one last August.)

Sooner or later this concept will catch on to replace the mini-midi pumper, first-out vehicle for rural fire departments. It just makes sense (and the Crimson version has a full-sized rear-mount pump.)

The Braun Patriot is something special with a compressed air foam system, 250 gallons of water and 10-gallon foam cell feeding booster type reels. With CAFS you can get away with these 1.5-inch lines and deliver four to five times the fire knockdown power of a conventional hose line.

Anybody who has worked with CAFS or seen the demos is instantly converted. It puts out fire fast. So 250 gallons for quick attack really is plenty. It clearly IS equivalent to 2,000 gallons of plain water. You don’t believe it until you see it in person, but the Braun Patriot also serves as an ambulance-rescue vehicle with patient transport compartment and separate PTO-driven hydraulic pump for extrication tools.

The Furion mid-sized chassis makes this all possible. It is just the right size for a do-it-all single unit that will handle 80 percent of initial calls whether they be for fire attack, rescue or EMS.

Ferrara — which has been getting a lot of ink on these pages — introduced its own version of a near universal rescue-pumper, the MVP (Multi Vocational Pumper). It can handle fire attack, rescue, hazmat and everything else with its high-capacity, well thought out compartmenting.

The MVP can come equipped with a 2,000-gpm Hale Q-Max pump and up to 1,000 gallons on-board water, plus an integral foam tank.

Ferrara also introduced a mid-line custom chassis, the Ember, which can be ordered with up to a 425-hp diesel. It is one attractive looking pumper. It will compete with Seagrave's first truly new offering in years, the Sentinel mid-range custom pumper, again a truck that can carry 1,000 gallons for the rural non-hydrant served areas.

The Crimson Legend series is another mid-range custom with high-capacity water, carrying up to 1,600 gallons and a 1,250 or 1,500-gpm pump on a short wheelbase on an International chassis.

See more in this issue about all the new apparatus. We may have missed something in this overview, but with the new apparatus highlighted here, 2009 will be seen as a "watershed" year for high-capacity, do-it-all vehicles especially suited to the suburban and rural markets.

Pricewise, these new offerings compete with the high-end commercial chassis vehicles or entry-level commercials, but they pack plenty of power — and carry a lot of water — to replace what used to be called the midi-pumper built on Ford F-550 and F-650 and similar sized chassis. It is a new era in the concept of what NFPA terms the initial attack vehicle.

As an added high-value option, most of these bodies can be built with the nearly indestructible Plastisol custom-molded bodies. Established a year ago in America by Alan Saulsbury, the Dutch-imported Plastisol technology can be configured any way the buyer wants, including the water tank being built as an integral part of the body.

KME showed a slick new all-Plastisol cab and body aircraft rescue firefighting (ARFF) vehicle that was custom designed and looked like something from the new space age.

Rosenbauer America, not to be outdone in the innovations arena, introduced a new hydraulically lowered large-diameter hose side-stack bed available on new aerials. It's the first unit that brings the bed to knee height for easy reloading of hose on quints.

The company also displayed a new side-mounted pump panel with a recessed platform for the operator to get him off the roadway. This Safe Scene Pumper is sure to be adapted further to make the operator's area almost as convenient as on a top-mount pumper.

And Rosenbauer showed a European-designed pumper called the Compact, again along the lines of the new medium-sized units mentioned above. Expect to see an American-made version this summer at the Dallas IAFC show.