By Alan M. Petrillo

The Belton, Missouri Fire Department was looking to purchase a 2,000-gallon tanker with a relatively small footprint because it didn’t want an oversized vehicle. After researching several tanker makers, Belton chose to go with Danko Emergency Equipment to build a pumper-tanker with 50% more water than they were first seeking, yet with a manageable overall length and height.

The fire department protects the city of 20,000 people, and also contracts to protect an adjoining rural area bringing its total protection area to 33 square miles. John Sapp, Belton’s fire chief, says the district is a mix of single family and multi-family residences, commercial structures, and some light industrial businesses. “The department has 54 employees, 48 of whom are paid full-time firefighters,” Sapp points out. “We have two stations that house our new pumper-tanker, a Precision pumper, a Pierce 107-foot Ascendant aerial ladder, two brush trucks, three ambulances, a battalion chief, and a reserve pumper.”

Sapp notes that Belton Fire had not dealt with Danko before, but after they checked out a demo pumper-tanker Danko had built, decided to sit down and talk with them about building a rig for Belton. “At first we started talking about a pumper-tanker with a 2,000-gallon water tank,” Sapp says, “but the Danko people showed us how we could get a 1,000-gallon per minute (gpm) pump and a 3,000-gallon tank on a tandem rear axle vehicle that would be only slightly longer than a 2,000-gallon model.”

Steve Borts, Danko sales representative who sold the pumper-tanker to Belton, says the rig is built on a Freightliner M2 106 chassis and two-person cab, with a 220-inch aluminum body, a 194 inch wheelbase, a 29 foot 5 inch overall length, and a 9 foot 8 inch overall height. He adds that the pumper-tanker is powered by a 360-horsepower (hp) Cummins engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission.

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