When there is an emergency, calling 9-1-1 is what we instinctively do. Within minutes, assistance is on its way to help, whether it is a fire, accident or medical call. Reece Chambers, 41, a lieutenant with East Jefferson Fire-Rescue (EJFR), is one of those dedicated professionals who often answers the call and renders aid.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2018 7:16:55 AM - SOURCE: Port Angeles Peninsula Daily News

By Alan M. Petrillo

The Luxemburg (WI) Community Fire Department is a previous customer of Marion Body Works, having purchased an engine, a rescue squad, and two tenders (tankers) from Marion. So when Luxemburg started having lots of mechanical issues with a non-Marion-built engine and decided to replace it, the fire department went to its tried-and-true apparatus manufacturer.

Todd Prellwitz, owner of Emergency Vehicles Services, who sold the Marion engine to Luxemburg, says that the fire department checked out the vehicles at his department [Clintonville (WI) Fire Department] and then learned that Marion had a demo unit on the production line. "After looking at the Marion trucks in my fire department, they went to Marion and worked to modify the design of the demo, changing the engine to the specs the department wanted to see on their unit," Prellwitz says. "They changed several things, like a preconnected low-level suction hose in a special compartment on the rear of the vehicle, adding swing-out tool boards in some compartments, and changing to Whelen LED warning lights and Whelen LED scene lighting."

Lew DuChateau, Luxemburg's chief, says the department wanted a custom chassis and cab with seating for six firefighters, a 1,500-gpm Hale Qmax pump, a 1,000-gallon UPF Poly III water tank, an integral 20-gallon foam tank, a FoamPro 1600 Class A foam system, ladders on top of the rig in a rack to allow more compartment space, a generator for lighting, a front suction, and roll-up doors. "We got everything we wanted on the new engine from Marion," he says.

The Luxemburg Community Fire Department protects 140 square miles of three full townships, two partial townships, and the village of Luxemburg with 32 volunteer firefighters from one fire station. Besides the new Marion pumper, the department has a 75-foot quint aerial ladder with CAFS, three tenders, a rescue truck, and a brush vehicle. While the village is hydranted, the rest of the district, which is mostly rural, is not. The district has a population of about 2,600 in residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural areas.

Shane Krueger, sales manager for Marion, says that Marion installed a Zico single-arm hydraulic ladder rack on the right side of the pump in order to allow for more compartmentation, which the department requested. "We also put on Whelen PF2 LED scene lights for them, as well as a Whelen LED warning lights," Krueger says. "They also had us install preconnected LDH in a well on the curbside pump panel."

The Marion pumper has 150 feet of 1¾-inch hose in the rig's front bumper, two crosslays of 200 feet of 1¾-inch hose midship, as well as 200 feet of preconnected 2½-inch hose with a Task Force Tips Blitzfire nozzle at the rear. The pumper's hosebed holds 600 feet of five-inch LDH, and 600 feet of 2½-inch hose.

DuChateau points out that the pumper carries a set of HURST Jaws of Life hydraulic rescue tools, including a spreader, cutter, and set of rams powered by a gas power unit, plus a 150 feet of electric cord on a reel at the right side of the vehicle's dunnage area.

"This pumper has worked very well for us," DuChateau says. "Our quint runs first out and drops its LDH halfway down a driveway. The Marion engine b

By Bill Adams

I brought more tradeshow photos to morning coffee to show the Raisin Squad. The jacks on a new Pierce aerial device caught their attention prompting these comments: The rubber cup’s busted. Its some kinda sales gimmick. Ain’t seen nuthin like that in 40 years. Another Squad member asked a Pierce representative at the show to explain it. I was there but can’t remember what the rep said. The other Raisin wasn’t too sure either, so I contacted Pierce. Its just not right saying someone’s rig looks like it’s busted without given them a chance to explain. 

Lisa Barwick, Pierce’s director of business development, answered my question. “The Ascendant 100-foot Aerial Tower has integrated ground pads that streamline the setup time for firefighters by eliminating the need to manually throw ground pads at the fire scene. The integrated aluminum ground pads are permanently attached to the stabilizers using a unique positioning cam design. This cam allows the ground pad to be rotated and repositioned if necessary, avoiding obstacles such as curbs or manhole covers, prior to the stabilizer contacting the ground. When work at the fire scene is complete and the stabilizers are being stowed, these cams will automatically rotate the ground pad back to its proper orientation so that it properly stows underneath the vehicle.” 

The few sane and rational Squad members understood the Pierce concept. It is a pretty good innovation. Raisins incapable of reality continued with a tirade about city service ladder trucks not needing jacks, the benefit of no cab roofs on aerial ladders, and secret fetishes for wooden ground ladders—especially bangors and crotch poles (https://www.fireapparatusmagazine.com/articles/2014/05/cantankerous-wisdom-glove-boxes-and-crotch-poles.html).

Another morning, one Raisin looking at a fire journal advertisement asked how come there are so many different models of custom cabs and chassis. That started a week-long opinionated discourse pitting the old against the very old. I mentioned there are not too many apparatus chassis makers left. Mack, Maxim, Crown, Hahn, Ward La France, American La France (again), Pemfab, Pirsch, the original FWD, Grumman, the original Hendrickson, and Duplex are no longer. He replied “You old fool—that’s not the question. How come each manufacturer has so many models?” I said Mack only had one model of cab-forward rig—the C-Model, which was replaced later by the CF. An American La France (ALF) aficionado said ALF also had just one style until it added the Pioneer—not a popular design. Seagrave followed its single popular cab with the equally unpopular Invader series. Both the Pioneer and Invader looked like military crash trucks. My nemesis said, “We ain’t livin in the past; we’re talkin about today’s rigs.” Depending on how you count them, there are seven to nine domestic manufacturers of custom cabs and chassis: Pierce; Rosenbauer; Spartan; Sutphen; Seagrave; HME Ahrens-Fox; and the REV group, which currently consists of E-ONE, Ferrara, and KME.

One computer literate member came in the next morning with all sorts of data found on individual manufacturers’ Web sites. There’s no way of knowing if his information is correct or up to date or if h

The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and Pierce Manufacturing Inc., an Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK) company today announced the winners of the 2018 IAFC Fire Chief of the Year awards. Volunteer Fire Chief, Herbert Leusch, of the Glen Echo Fire Department in Bethesda, Maryland, and career Fire Chief, Joanne Hayes-White, of the San Francisco Fire Department are this year’s honorees.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs