APPLETON, WI—Pierce Manufacturing Inc., an Oshkosh Corporation company, has received an order for 14 firefighting apparatus from the City of Riverside, Calif. Fire Department. The purchase includes eight Pierce® PUC™ pumpers, two Pierce Ascendant® 107-foot tillers, one Ascendant 107-foot tandem axle ladder, one wildland brush truck, and two water tenders. The 14 apparatus in this order represent the majority of the department’s future frontline fleet.
“We are honored and excited to be selected by the City of Riverside Fire Department for an order of such magnitude,” said Jim Johnson, president of Pierce Manufacturing. “Riverside is a diverse community—with a wide range of firefighting and emergency response challenges—and we look forward to providing the department with state-of-the-art vehicles to meet its needs long into the future.”
The Riverside Fire Department serves 325,000 citizens from 14 fire stations. The city features residential neighborhoods, mid to high-rise office towers, a commuter airport, wildland/urban interface areas, a rail system (carrying over 100 trains every day), a major freeway network, and a wide range of industrial assets.
Tony Perna is a battalion chief for the Riverside Fire Department. “Last year, the citizens of Riverside voted on a ballot measure for a one percent sales tax increase—with a priority to support the needs of its first responders—and it passed with a 61 percent approval,” said Perna. “It was great that the community stood behind us. These new vehicles will greatly enhance our response capabilities.”
All custom apparatus in the order feature the compact PUC 1,500-gpm pump configuration. “We’ve evolved into an all hazards department, and continue to need more tools and equipment for our daily operation,” observed Perna. “Our current pumpers have approximately 150 cubic feet of equipment storage, but with the PUC body we’ll be close to 300 cubic feet of storage, or double the amount of our current apparatus.” The new pumpers will, for example, have room to carry contaminated turnout gear in an exterior compartment so it isn’t inside the cab with the firefighters. “This will give us a little more elbowroom in the cab and decrease firefighter exposure to possibly toxic substances, and that’s very important to us.”
The eight Pierce PUC custom pumpers, two Ascendant 107-foot tillers and Ascendant 107-foot tandem axle ladder are built on the Arrow XT™ custom chassis.
The Pierce Type 3 wildland truck will respond to emergencies in the city’s wildland urban interface. It will be equipped with a 500-gallon water tank, an engine-mounted diesel pump, a Husky™ 3 single-agent foam system, extra hose-carrying capacity, and storage compartments for wildland firefighting tools and equipment. “With the addition of four-wheel drive, this apparatus will help our firefighters when they’re out in the field fighting wildfires,” added Perna.
Each in the pair of identical water tenders included in the order features a 2,100-gallon capacity, a 1,000-gpm PTO-driven single-stage pump, crosslays, and equipment storage compartments on both the driver and passenger side.
South Coast Fire Equipment, a Pierce dealer headquartered in Ontario, California, provides local ser