By Alan M. Petrillo
Tempe (AZ) Fire Medical Rescue has taken delivery on its second Rosenbauer 101-foot Cobra Aerial Platform, a rig on which the department made a number of changes to the location of tool mountings, as well as placement of hydraulic extrication equipment compared to its first Cobra.
“Our first Rosenbauer Cobra 101-foot aerial platform was an emergency purchase in 2015 when we bought a demo unit because we needed a truck in a hurry,” says Michael Atkinson, Tempe’s deputy chief. “With the latest Cobra, we mirrored that first purchase, but then added a number of features and changed the locations and mountings of some equipment to make the vehicle our own.” He adds that the newest Cobra replaces a 2004 E-ONE F114 Bronto Skylift ladder.
Chuy Quintino, Tempe’s senior fire mechanic, says the department made changes to where and how many of the truck’s tools were located, as well as to where the extrication equipment was located. “We have a rescue style front bumper with two hydraulic hose reels located outboard on the bumper,” Quintino says, “and a compartment in between them to hold the Genesis Rescue Systems hydraulic rescue tools, with the entire bumper covered under a continuous lid.”
Atkinson points out that Tempe’s two Rosenbauer Cobra aerial platforms are co-manned with ladder tenders. “The ladder tenders are a Type 1 pumper that carries extrication equipment, and a Ford F-550 chassis ladder tender with extrication gear,” he says. “The Cobra crews have the ability to use the extrication equipment on their own truck, or to take the ladder tenders if necessary. The trucks and ladder tenders are manned by the same crew, so they determine which rig to take. If it’s a structure fire or a below- or above-grade rescue it would be the Cobra.”
Chad Horn, the salesman at Velocity Fire Apparatus who sold the newest Cobra to Tempe, says the truck is outfitted with Rosenbauer’s Smart Aerial system with a single joystick control, and a wireless remote option. “The Cobra has an auto leveling feature,” Horn points out, “and also an all-jacks-up option that raises all four jacks at once, so the truck comes down in a smooth motion instead of rocking from side to side.” The Cobra has four H-style jacks with a 17-foot, 6-inch jack spread, he adds, “which can be short-jacked through the Smart Aerial technology to allow the truck to operate 360 degrees, depending on the elevation of the aerial.”
The platform on Tempe’s Cobra aerial has two electronically-controlled Akron Brass 2,000-gpm monitors.Horn notes that the rig is built on a Rosenbauer Commander chassis and cab with seating for six firefighters in H.O. Bostrom Sierra 500 seats, five of them in self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats. “We customized the body of the truck for Tempe’s needs, with the rescue-style front bumper, a shorter depth hose bed instead of the EZ Load hose bed, a traditional pedestal to control