Bentonville (AR) FD Gets E-ONE Titan 4×4 AT ARFF Truck

E-ONE built this Titan 4x4 AT ARFF truck for Bentonville (AR) Fire Department. (Photos 1-3 courtesy of Banner Fire Equipment)
E-ONE built this Titan 4×4 AT ARFF truck for Bentonville (AR) Fire Department. (Photos 1-3 courtesy of Banner Fire Equipment)

The Bentonville (AR) Fire Department staffs seven fire stations in the city’s 34 square miles, including one station near Louise M. Thaden Field, a general aviation municipal airport with a 5,500-foot runway that is home to a variety of civilian and vintage military aircraft. Bentonville is also known as the birthplace of Walmart, which has a headquarters campus in the center of town and contributes to a lot of activity at the airport.

“Thaden Field saw a lot of activity about six years ago after Steuart Walton bought Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Museum in Washington,” says Kevin Boydston, deputy chief of operations for Bentonville Fire Department. “Steuart and Tom Walton then built a number of hangars at Thaden Field for World War II aircraft, helicopters, and even a MIG-29.”

The Titan 4×4 AT, right, shown with one of Bentonville’s E-ONE Type 1 pumpers.

The department had been responding to calls at Thaden Field with a couple of rapid intervention units built on Ford F-550 chassis but, with the increased aircraft presence at the airport, decided it needed a larger Class 4 aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) truck.

“The fixed base of operations at Thaden Field has 4,500 activities annually, and with all the World War II aircraft that are designed to carry a lot of fuel and armaments, we needed a vehicle with more fire suppression power,” Boydston points out. The department went to E-ONE because it had designed a Class 4 Titan™ 4×4 air transportable (AT) ARFF truck for the U.S. Air Force that fit the department’s needs. “We loved the height, wheelbase, and maneuverability of the vehicle.”

Bentonville’s E-ONE Titan 4×4 AT has Akron StreamMaster II monitors on its roof and bumper turrets.

Zach Schultz, international and government sales manager for REV Fire Group, says Bentonville’s move to a larger Class 4 ARFF truck from the smaller rapid intervention units offers them much greater capabilities in dealing with aircraft emergencies. He says the Bentonville unit is built on a custom E-ONE Titan chassis with an extruded aluminum body, powered by a 500-horsepower (hp) Cummins X12 engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission.

The rig has a 1,000-gallon water tank, a 140-gallon foam tank, and a 500-pound dry chemical system, with a Darley PSP 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump.

Bentonville firefighters exercises both turrets on the Titan 4×4 AT. (Photos 4-6 courtesy of Bentonville Fire Department)

Tom Pour, sales representative for Banner Fire Equipment, who sold the Titan 4×4 AT to Bentonville, says the rig has a dual-agent booster reel with 100 feet of 1-inch hose, a roof turret with a joystick-controlled 12-volt Akron StreamMaster II 3482 nonaspirating monitor with an Akron 5177 nozzle that delivers 375 to 750 gpm, and a bumper turret with a joystick-controlled 12-volt Akron StreamMaster II 3482 nonaspirating monitor and an Akron 4040 AkroChem nozzle that delivers 375 to 750 gpm.

Boydston adds that Bentonville Fire’s other apparatus include five E-ONE top-mount pumpers; an E-ONE Bronto 137-foot aerial platform quint, E-ONE and Pierce rescue trucks, an E-ONE hazardous materials unit, Polaris and Honda special response vehicles, two Polaris trail rescue vehicles, and four ambulances.

The Titan 4×4 AT sits between two vintage World War II aircraft at Thaden Field.

He points out that the department carries Hazard Control Technologies F-500 encapsulator agent in the Titan 4×4 AT’s foam cell and Purple K in its dry chemical tank. “We have 800,000 gallons of fuel transported through Bentonville from a fuel farm just outside the city and have used the F-500 encapsulator agent on a number of incidents,” Boydson says. “It’s non-corrosive and doesn’t gel, and has proven very effective for us.”

Bentonville’s Titan 4×4 AT responds to a plane down off the runway at Thaden Field.

ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizona-based journalist, the author of three novels and five nonfiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board. He served 22 years with the Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including in the position of chief.

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