The South Metro (CO) Fire Rescue Authority was looking to replace a tandem-axle-heavy rescue and a midmount aerial platform quint with a single vehicle that could perform fire suppression, aerial, and rescue duties. South Metro found the answer in a Pierce 107-foot Ascendant tractor-drawn aerial (TDA) quint that it outfitted to also serve as a rescue truck. It is the first-ever tiller for the department.
South Metro is a quint department with 650 paid full-time firefighters operating out of 30 stations covering 294 square miles and a population of 550,000 people. “We wanted a vehicle that could serve the purpose of two vehicles, and yet was limited by the length in our Lone Tree station,” says Brett Pickford, South Metro’s battalion chief. “But, we got what we wanted with the Pierce tiller quint rescue.”
Jenny Bloemer, Pierce’s senior business development manager of aerial products, says the Ascendant 107-foot tiller for South Metro is built on a Velocity chassis with a 70-inch cab set up for four firefighters, three of them in self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats. She says the wheelbase on the rig is 363 inches, the overall length is 61 feet 4 inches, and the overall height is 11 feet 8 inches.
Bloemer points out that the rig is powered by a 605-horsepower (hp) Cummins X15 engine and an Allison 4500 Gen 6 automatic transmission, has TAK-4® independent front suspension and an air ride rear suspension, and carries a 1,500 gallon-per-minute (gpm) Waterous pump and a 300-gallon water tank. She adds that the Pierce standard full-length trailer has three large transverse compartments set over the frame rails; two electric Hannay reels over the trailer’s gooseneck, each of which holds 200 feet of 10/3 electrical cable; and a 6-kW Harrison Hydra-Gen hydraulic generator.
She adds that the quint has two 200-foot 1¾-inch single-stack crosslays, an Akron Brass 3486 StreamMaster II remote-control monitor that can flow 30 degrees upward, and an Akron 2½-inch discharge under the monitor.
She says the Duo-Safety ground ladder complement in the rear compartment includes one 35-foot two-section extension ladder, one 28-foot two-section extension ladder, one 24-foot two-section extension ladder, two 16-foot roof ladders, one 16-foot two-section ladder, one 8-foot roof ladder, and one 10-foot folding ladder, along with eight pike poles. A 17-foot Little Giant Revolution ladder and Stokes baskets are in compartments on the trailer under the aerial forward of the boom support. There’s also a Colorado hook and a 16-foot Duo-Safety roof ladder on the fly of the aerial.
Duane Doucette, president and owner of Front Range Fire Apparatus, who sold the tiller to South Metro, says the department checked out tillers at fire departments in Riverside; Anaheim; and Fairmont, California, before buying the Pierce rig. “This is the second Pierce tiller in Colorado,” Doucette says, “with the first one going to Greeley Fire Department in 2009.”
Doucette says that Front Range’s people spent a lot of time with South Metro firefighters in laying out the compartments. “We had to make sure that everything fit in its proper space,” he points out. “Weight was a concern on the truck because of all the rescue equipment they would be carrying.”
Pickford says some of that rescue equipment includes trench panels, Paratech struts, airbags, cribbing, and Holmatro Pentheon battery-powered tools that include two spreaders, two cutters, and two rams. He adds that the department also added a 9,500-pound winch with Kevlar synthetic cable in the rig’s front bumper that can be set up for rope rescue work, winch receivers on each side of the truck, and a Pierce LyfePulley system at the tip of the ladder.
The quint has stabilizer placement cameras and a rear-vision camera for when the rig is in reverse. Lighting on the rig includes Whelen LED emergency lighting, a Whelen 72-inch LED Freedom IV lightbar, a HiViz FireTech 72-inch brow light, and Whelen Pioneer LED scene lighting.
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.
