The Empire Hook and Ladder Company, part of the Pottstown (PA) Fire Department, is donating an old reserve fire engine to Western Montgomery County Career and Technology Center, WFMZ.com reported.

The fire department knows firsthand how having real-world training can make all the difference when the heat is on. So when one of their trucks reached the end of its lifespan, they used it to help the next generation. It will be put to use as part of the school’s protective services program, the report said.

Empire bought the fire engine in 1984, back when its firehouse was still at Chestnut and Franklin streets, according to the report. The crew says it stood the test of time. It was in service for nearly four decades, all the way up until last year.

Now it’s being given a second life in the classroom.

Los Angeles Fire Department has the first all-electric fire truck in the country — the third in the entire world. Check out its features, NBCLosAngeles.com.

By Alan M. Petrillo

KME has delivered a second tractor drawn aerial (TDA) to Summerville (SC) Fire Rescue, two years after the first KME-built TDA arrived in town.

The rig is what Cameron Marler, apparatus sales representative for Safe Industries, who sold the TDA to Summerville, calls a “true truck, a straight TDA with no pump and no tank.” The 101-foot AerialCat™ TDA is built on a KME SSX™ LFD (long four door) cab and chassis with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for six firefighters, five of them in H.O. Bostrom Series 550 SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) seats, an AXIS Smart Truck Vehicle Monitoring System, a 101-foot Steel-Safe™ aerial ladder, and an EZ-MRS™ Aerial Maintenance Reduction system.

Overall length on the TDA is 58 feet 5 inches, overall height is 11 feet 5 inches, with a tractor wheelbase of 162 inches, and a trailer wheelbase of 343 inches. The front axle has a gross axle rating of 22,000 pounds, the tractor’s rear axle rates at 31,000 pounds, and the trailer axle has a rating of 23,000 pounds, Marler points out. The rig has a Steertek NXT front axle assembly, and is powered by a Cummins 656-horsepower (hp) X 15 diesel engine, and an Allison 4500 EVS automatic transmission.

Jason Behler, KME sales application engineer, says the Summerville TDA has a 101-foot vertical reach, a 94-foot horizontal reach, a 2.5 to 1 structural safety factor, a 500-pound unrestricted tip load, a 14-foot outrigger stance, a minus-7 degrees to plus 80-degrees elevation range, and a 7-inch display at the control console. The tiller cab features a no post windshield, he notes, and a green light on top of the body is visible from the tiller cab for better tiller operator orientation.

Roger Wnek, Summerville’s maintenance coordinator, says Summerville covers a population of 52,500 people from five fire stations staffed by paid firefighters and a small number of volunteers running five engines, two TDAs, a light/air heavy rescue hazardous materials unit, and BLS ambulance units, with three engines and a Sutphen aerial platform in reserve. “We’re the seventh largest city in South Carolina, being an outlying suburb of the city of Charleston,” Wnek said. “We cover three counties — Dorchester, Berkley and Charleston, and serve 19,000 households spread over 18 square miles of agricultural, woodland, open space, residential, commercial and industrial areas.”

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