The Eastpointe Fire Department covers a five-square-mile city district on the border with Detroit, Michigan, from a single station with 21 paid full-time firefighters who run 6,500 fire, rescue and emergency medical services (EMS) responses annually. The department decided to replace an aging 100-foot aerial platform quint that was costing it a lot in maintenance, and chose KME to build its new aerial platform quint.
“While we don’t have a large amount of commercial structures in our district, we do run a lot of automatic mutual aid with our truck, which serves the southern end of our county,” Joe Zangara, Eastpointe battalion chief, says. “We determined that KME was the organization that was most accommodating to our wants and most willing to customize cabinets and other equipment.”
Tim Besser, KME’s sales manager, says the rig KME built for Eastpointe is a 102-foot midmount AerialCat platform quint on a Predator medium four door (MFD) cab and chassis with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for four firefighters, three of them in H.O Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats mounted at a 45-degree angle for more shoulder room, and a 3/16-inch aluminum body. He adds that there’s a 56-inch-tall and 48-inch-wide EMS cabinet on the back wall of the cab.
The AerialCat is powered by a 605-horsepower (hp) Cummins engine and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission. It has a 2,000 gallon-per-minute (gpm) Waterous S100 pump and a UPF Poly® 300-gallon water tank.
Elkhart Cobra RF remote controlled monitor, an Elkhart Scorpion manual monitor, and a TFT VUM.
Besser notes the 102-foot aerial platform has two doors in 45-degree positions. It has two monitors: an Elkhart Scorpion manual monitor, and an Elkhart Cobra RF remote controlled monitor, along with a Task Force Tips Valve Under Monitor (VUM). “The aerial has four H-style jacks with an 18-foot jack spread and the truck can be short jacked,” Besser observes. “It has a 1,000-pound dry tip load and 500 pounds wet, and will flow up to 2,000-gpm anywhere the aerial is positioned.”
Chris Payette, president of Payette Sales & Service, who sold the platform quint to Eastpointe, says there are a number of elements on the rig that the Eastpointe firefighters particularly liked. “They were impressed by the safety systems and air bags on the truck, and liked the extra compartment space, and the fact that the hose storage system still allowed them space to carry 300 gallons of water,” Payette points out. “Also the overall height of 11 feet was another big point with the department because of the height of their apparatus bay doors.” Payette adds that the wheelbase on the truck is 261 inches and its overall length is 48 feet 9 inches.
Payette notes that the truck’s ground ladders are stored on beam in a slide-in compartment from the rear, and include a Duo-Safety two-section 35-foot extension ladder, a two-section 28-foot extension ladder, 20-foot and 16-foot roof ladders, and a 10-foot folding attic ladder as well as six pike poles in tubes.
Zangara says his firefighters like that the aerial can be pulled out of its cradle and set down on the ground without extending the ladder. “In addition, there is a lot more working space in the platform than on our previous aerial,” he says, “and climbing the aerial ladder is like climbing stairs, which is much safer for the firefighters.”
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.
