
The Jersey City Fire Department has always used two-stage fire pumps in its engines because of the many high-rise structures in its protection district. When the department got the go-ahead to purchase new pumpers, it went to E-ONE to build four custom pumpers with two-stage Waterous pumps.
“We’ve always run two-stage pumps because we need to pump in both volume and pressure,” says Henry Diguilio, Jersey City’s deputy chief. “We have some buildings that are 100 stories tall, so pressure is very important to us with our new pumpers. In fact, we have an order in with E-ONE for another new pumper with a three-stage pump in it to help us to get ahead of the high-rise curve.”
Mike Purvis, director of sales for E-ONE, says Jersey City’s pumpers are built on Typhoon chassis and extreme duty long cabs and 12-inch Vista raised roofs with extruded aluminum bodies and seating for five firefighters each, four of them in USSC Valor vinyl-covered self-containedbreathing apparatus (SCBA) seats (officer, rear-facing seat behind the officer, and three forward-facing seats), along with an emergency medical services (EMS) cabinet behind the driver’s position. Purvis adds that the crew cab entry doors extend to the top of the roof to maximize entry and exit to the cab.

Tony Amoroso, president of Absolute Fire Protection, who sold the engines to Jersey City, notes that the Jersey City pumpers have 201-inch wheelbases, 32-foot 8-inch overall lengths, and 10-foot 2-inch overall heights and are powered by 500-horsepower (hp) Cummins X12 engines and Allison 4500 EVS automatic transmissions. He adds that the rigs carry Waterous CMU 2,000-gallon-per-minute (gpm) midship pumps, 500-gallon L-shaped water tanks, Waterous valves with flywheel handles, and electric valve indicators.
Diguilio points out that the pumpers don’t have handlines off the sides of the rig but off the front and rear. “The extended front bumper has a gated Akron intake valve and a 2%-inch discharge reduced to take an 1%-inch hoseline,” he says. “The hosebed is set up for four hoselays: 750 feet of 1%-inch hose, 750 feet of 2-inch hose, 750 feet of 2%-inch hose, and 1,000 feet of 5-inch large-diameter hose (LDH) supply line-all double jacket.”
He adds that each engine also has an Akron 3433 deck gun monitor; side trays for 5-inch LDH lines to a hydrant; ROM rollup doors over the compartments, with the exception of slam doors over R3 and R4 that hold high-rise packs; ground ladders stored in a through-the-tank compartment; and three 10-foot and one 8-foot hard suction sections that allow the rig to draft out of the Hudson River when necessary.
Diguilio says that the department added a microbe-killing ultraviolet light system to the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems on the rigs; increased the cramp angle on the Meritor front end to maintain a turning radius needed for downtown Jersey City; and added a Reyco Granning air ride suspension to the rear axle. He notes that all the E-ONE custom pumpers are set up identically with pump panel equipment and discharge locations being the same in each instance. “It makes it very easy for a firefighter to transfer from one rig to another,” Diguilio observes.
Amoroso points out that lighting on the pumpers includes Whelen LED emergency lighting, Whelen LED mini lightbars, and Whelen LED scene lighting.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizonabased 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.