The Edwardsville (IL) Fire Department covers a total response area of 32 square miles that includes the city of Edwardsville with a population of 27,000, plus the 15,000 student population of Southern Illinois University. The department also covers an adjacent fire protection district. Three Edwardsville fire stations are staffed by 36 full-time paid firefighters running a rescue-pumper, two engines, and an aerial ladder.
“We needed to add to our fleet because our 75-foot aerial ladder doesn’t make the reach on some of the campus buildings, nor on some of the low-rise structures that have grown up in our community,” says Chief Brendan McKee. “Sentinel Emergency Solutions brought out a 101-foot Rosenbauer King Cobra articulating aerial platform and showed us its capabilities and we liked it a lot, so we decided to go with a King Cobra.”
Steve Williams, apparatus sales specialist for Sentinel, says Rosenbauer had a King Cobra demo unit just starting production that Edwardsville was able to modify to its needs by changing the warning lights, adding some platform equipment, and adding a preconnect on the rig. Williams says the 101-foot King Cobra has an 8-foot articulating boom platform; all galvanized aerial sections, torque box and outriggers; and is built on a Commander chassis and EXT body. There is seating for six firefighters: driver, officer, and two rear-facing and two forward-facing firefighter seats, which have self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) brackets.
The King Cobra has a Rosenbauer N80 2,250 gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump, a 500-gallon water tank, and a 20-gallon foam cell, Williams notes. The truck has two 1¾-inch hose and one 2½-inch hose crosslays as well as a 300-foot 2½-inch hose blitz line in a removable tray in a transverse compartment ahead of the pump panel and an Akron 3486 electric and wireless control StreamMaster II monitor on the platform.
Williams adds that the rig has four out-and-down H-style outriggers, with the two front outriggers located in front of the pump to give the truck a larger stance footprint and greater stability. In addition, Williams says, there’s a tilt switch inside the cab that allows the driver to tilt the platform upward when approaching a stop light or going downhill, affording greater visibility.
Ground ladders carried in a slide-in compartment at the rear include a 35-foot three-section extension ladder, a 24-foot two-section extension ladder, two 16-foot roof ladders, a 10-foot folding ladder, and a 17-foot Little Giant ladder, along with two D-handle pike poles and six round handle pike poles.
McKee points out that the city of Edwardsville was one of the drivers for the formation of a county technical rescue team, so the department added a Stokes basket mount and a rappelling/hoist eye that can handle a 500-pound load on the platform, which already had a parapet ladder mount. “We have a lot of buildings with parapets in our coverage area, so the parapet ladder function is very helpful,” McKee says, “and the articulating jib is versatile because it can go 12 degrees below grade, which would be very helpful if you had a semi truck hanging off of a bridge where we could lower the articulating boom and make access to the vehicle.”
McKee says all of Edwardsville’s apparatus have a tool box built into a compartment, and that there was enough room on the King Cobra to put two of them on the rig, located in the L1 and L4 compartments. “This truck has proven itself to us both in rescue situations and pumping,” McKee observes. “We love the remote control that allows a single person to do the setup and operation, which has proven to be excellent in short-staffing situations, and the Smart Aerial system that has safeguards built in for controlling the aerial.”
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.
