By Alan M. Petrillo
The Alexis (IL) Fire Protection District, one of the largest in the state of Illinois, covers 247 square miles that encompass parts of two counties and all of four townships. Its coverage area ranges from a commercial and residential area in the town of Alexis to wide expanses of rural homesteads and farms, several grain elevators, and an underground natural gas storage facility.
The district has 50 volunteer firefighters on its rolls, operating out of three stations with two engines, a tanker (tender), and two brush trucks running from the main station in Alexis, staffed by 25 volunteers; two pumpers and brush truck handled by 15 volunteer firefighters in North Henderson, Illinois; and two pumpers and a brush truck stationed in Gerlaw, Illinois, run by 10 volunteers.
When faced with replacing an aging pumper-tanker, the fire district chose to go with a triple combination design: a pumper-tanker-rescue from Alexis Fire Equipment Co., which happens to have its manufacturing facility down the road from the fire station. J.R. Lafferty, Alexis chief, says the district wanted to replace a 1967 pumper that had a dump valve at the rear. "We wanted our new pumper to have a dump valve too so we could quickly empty the 1,000-gallon water tank at our rural operations," Lafferty says. "We have a lot of gravel roads in our fire district, so we can't use big water tankers, especially in the spring because of soft ground."
In addition to the pumper-tanker combination, Alexis Fire Protection District wanted rescue capabilities on its new apparatus. "We have a major highway two miles west of the town of Alexis," Lafferty points out, "so we are going to a lot of wrecks and motor vehicle accident calls. We wanted the new truck to be able to carry our TNT hydraulic rescue tools."
The resulting vehicle built by Alexis Fire Equipment is on a Freightliner M2 106 four-door chassis with a cab seating five firefighters, powered by a Cummins 350-hp ISL 9 diesel engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, according to Jeff Morris, president of Alexis Fire Equipment. Wheelbase on the vehicle is 266 inches, overall length is 33 feet 10 inches, overall height is 10 feet one inch, and gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) is 44,600 pounds.
Morris notes that the rig has a top-mount Waterous CXS 1,250- gpm pump, a 1,000-gallon water tank, a Newton 10-inch square electric dump valve with a 36-inch manual extension, an Akron Apollo 1,250-gpm deck gun with stream shaper and stacked tips, six 2½-inch discharges, and two 1¾-inch Mattydale preconnects.
The pumper-tanker-rescue has a Progressive Dynamics on-board battery charger with a VIAIR air compressor, a Whelen electronic siren, five Akron Revel LED scene lights (two each side and one at the rear), one Akron Revel LED brow light,