By Alan M. Petrillo
Rosenbauer has fulfilled a 12-vehicle order for the Boone County (MO) Fire Protection District with the delivery of two heavy walk-around rescue trucks. The heavy rescues complete the Rosenbauer order that previously included seven rear-mount pumpers on Rosenbauer Commander chassis with Waterous S100 1,250-gpm pumps, 750-gallon water tanks, and compressed air foam systems (CAFS) and three 1,500-gallon tankers (tenders) on Freightliner chassis.
Josh Creamer, Boone County's assistant chief, says the voters of the district approved a 2014 bond issue to get the 12 vehicles. "We first bought the pumpers and tankers, and ended up with two possible vendors," Creamer says. "Rosenbauer got the contract and ultimately delivered all 10 vehicles. For the two rescues, the committee reopened the bidding and set up meetings with a variety of vendors."
Creamer notes that the committee wanted to keep things simple on the rescues, standardize where equipment was located, and make functional improvements in the equipment layout compared with their previous squads. "We tried to accommodate a similar squad style in keeping with that which our volunteers already were qualified on," Creamer says. "We wanted the design and handling of the equipment to be the same.
Boone County Fire Protection District is the largest fire district in square mile size in the state of Missouri at 500 square miles, running out of 15 stations, staffed by approximately 200 volunteer firefighters. The district has 15 engines, 10 tankers, 14 brush trucks, and light response units for EMS. "Our department surrounds the city of Columbia, which is the county seat and the home of the University of Missouri," Creamer points out. "The city runs an all-quint concept on its own and mutual aids with us for aerials, while we provide them with tanker shuttles and support. Our department runs an average of 4,500 calls a year."
Brian Franz, vice president and owner of Sentinel Emergency Solutions, which sold all the rigs to Boone County, says the heavy rescue units are on Freightliner M2 chassis and extended cabs and are powered by Cummins 350-horsepower ISL 9 diesel engines and Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmissions. "They have 20-foot walk-around rescue bodies," Franz notes, "and two exterior cabinets in the extended cab, accessible from inside and outside, hold turnout gear for the driver and officer."
Franz says that each of the rescues has a Will-Burt Night Scan NS4.5-9000 OPT light tower, an Onan 25-kW generator and a FanAir PTO-driven 85-cfm air compressor. "They have room for a lot of cribbing and plywood storage on the rescues, four coffin compartments on top of each one, two hydraulic reels, two air reels with 200 feet of hose, and two electric cord reels," he adds. "Price per vehicle without equipment was $376,507."
In terms of the Will-Burt light tower, Creamer says that the department wanted quartz