APPARATUS DELIVERIES
Rather than replace its rusted 1976 Seagrave pumper, the Pattonville Bridgeton Terrace (Mo.) Fire Department gave it new life.
The pumper was remanufactured by Southern Coach Inc. and returned to the department in March of last year. The pumper’s steel body was replaced with aluminum; new doors were put on; the body was refabricated from the engine compartment rearward; a hydraulic ladder rack was installed; the pump was rebuilt; and a new booster tank and two high-sided compartments were added.
With the aluminum body, says Captain Bob Savant, the pumper should be able to stand up to Missouri’s rough winters. The 28square-mile district, in suburban of St. Louis, receives about 30 to 40 inches of snow each winter. Road salt used to melt away snow and ice apparently also ate away at the pumper’s steel body. Cost was the department’s main reason for having the pumper remanufactured. It would have cost roughly $160,000 to replace the pumper with a similar one; remanufacturing was about half that price.
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Most firefighting that the Troup (Texas) Volunteer Fire Department performs occurs in outlying, rural areas; it relies primarily on tankers for its water supply.
But the department needed to replace an aging minipumper, which was used to fight structural fires in town. A Wilson Fire Apparatus Inc. unit was delivered last summer. It has a Darley 1,000-gpm midship pump, a 750-gallon booster tank, and a Hannay electric booster reel, and it’s mounted on a Ford F-8000 chassis with a Caterpillar 3208T turbocharged diesel engine.
“There’s nothing fancy about it,” says Chief W.C. Spraggins. “But we did get what we wanted.”
While the Wilson apparatus is now the department’s first-line pumper, Spraggins says, the 30-year-old minipumper will be kept as a reserve unit.
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Photo by Dan Ranges
The Spring Valley (N Y.) Volunteer Fire Department wanted a pumper able to easily negotiate “tight-access spots” in the area’s garden apartments, three shopping malls, and even the New York State Thruway.
The TBC Fabrication Inc. unit the department received last April has proven extremely maneuverable and reliable, says Chief Walter H. Key, Jr.
“It was designed to do a job and it’s doing it for us,” says the chief, “That’s all we can ask.”
The pumper has a Waterous single-stage, 1,000-gpm pump and a 500-gallon water tank. Because a lot of flammable materials are transported through town, an Elkhart Stinger is prepiped and carried with an Elkhart Hydro-Foam HF-350 pick-up nozzle; the piping goes to a 20-gallon foam tank. The apparatus has six tool compartments and carries 1,000 feet of 5-inch hose and 500 feet of 3V%-inch hose.
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Photo by John M. Malecky
The Englewood (N.J.) Fire Department had firefighter safety and the city’s growth in mind when it drew up specifications for a new quint unit.
The Emergency One unit’s tower provides an element of safety for the user in many aerial operations by eliminating the need to climb a ladder. The 95-foot aluminum platform is rated for a 900pound payload capacity; its outrigger system has a spread of 13 feet. Two 300-cubic-foot tanks supply air to the bucket. The quint has a Hale Model QSMF single-stage, 1,500-gpm pump.
New construction in the city includes a 340-unit residential development comprising four-story buildings built on steep terrain.
“The buildings are fully sprinklered,” says Deputy Chief Douglas Baker. “But we were still concerned about being able to reach all areas of the development.”
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