Wauwatosa WI Fire Department Has New Apparatus on Road

Wauwatosa (WI) Fire Department’s newest fire engine went into service on October 11 and features a return to the traditional red color scheme with improved emergency lighting and a shorter turning radius.

The engine will be a first response vehicle based at Station 1 and replaces a 1991 engine. The truck will likely respond to a healthy proportion of the 5,500 calls the department will field this year, including a couple of dozen serious “working fires,” and 30 to 40 mutual aid calls, to help out other departments.

The truck, a Pierce Quantum model with a 450-horsepower engine, carries 500 gallons of water, 30 gallons of foam, medical aid equipment and supplies, air tanks for firefighters that are refillable at the truck from large supply tanks, 800 feet of hose to connect the truck to a hydrant, and 1,500 feet of attack hose. And it does 65 miles an hour.

At nearly 32 feet long, with a pump under the cab, and less than 11 feet high, and generally staffed by only three firefighters, it’s surprisingly compact. The engine, a return to traditional black on red from the lemon-lime color of recent purchases, cost $599,000, less than the $650,000 set aside for it in the 2012 city budget. In searching for an engine it liked, the department found one in O’Fallon, Mo., and ordered the same model, with a few custom tweaks, from Pierce Manufacturing of Appleton.

The department spent two weeks training drivers and firefighters in the use of it, using parking lots and city streets, and training on the hoses and other equipment.

For more information, view www.wauwatosanow.com

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