The Fort Worth (TX) Fire Department recently took delivery of this pumper built on a Commander 4000 cab and chassis and featuring an EXT body. One aspect that Fort Worth has been designing into its rigs for many years is accessibility for emergency vehicle technicians. The order included six pumpers.

Fleet service technicians will have little trouble accessing the pump on this engine. Fort Worth spec'd rear-mount pumps.

The 1,500/720 pumper was built with access in mind. Equipment storage is still a critical part of the design, but Fort Worth wanted the vehicle's systems to be accessible, as shown above. This is the pumper's Waterous Eclipse ES compressed air foam system (CAFS).

Other features of the rigs include  Cummins L9 450-hp engines; Waterous S100D/C20 1,500-gpm rear-mount pumps; UPF Poly 720-gallon tanks; 30-gallon foam cells; FoamPro 2001 Class A foam systems; Waterous Eclipse ES CAFS; Rosenbauer Green Star IRT; 8-kW diesel-powered generators; Super Vac Knight KL408A-W1 light towers; V-MUX electrical systems with two displays; and extruded aluminum bodies with Robinson roll-up compartment doors.

I finally got a chance to try out W.S. Darley & Co.'s FLAIM Trainer™. I had hoped to give it a go at FDIC International 2018, but couldn't find a time when the line was short. I went through two simulations. I've never used any virtual reality equipment before. I'm not a gamer, so it was all new to me. The environment was easy to acclimate to. The system provides feedback right away when you're done. Thankfully my time to completely extinguish the kitchen fire simulation was 26 seconds. The aircraft fire was a little more difficult and took a little longer. 

The realistic nozzle reaction impressed me. As I opened the nozzle, it felt as if the line was charging and I immediately had to adjust as the system simulated nozzle reaction. The applications for this type of training system were apparent right away. Not all departments have training facilities where they can conduct live burns to develop the skills firefighters need for the real thing. This system is one answer.

FLAIM Trainer is a firefighter training simulator that provides an immersive virtual reality environment combined with a patented haptics feedback system, breathing apparatus, and heated personal protective clothing to provide a unique training experience. FLAIM Trainer can be easily integrated into a broader training program for firefighters, complementing and extending current training systems. The base solution is configurable to support customer specific scenarios, and performance monitoring. For more information, visit www.darley.com.