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Alan M. Petrillo |
Firefighter safety in mounting and dismounting apparatus, as well as when pulling hose and accessing equipment, was a major concern for the Philadelphia (PA) Fire Department when it chose a vendor for new pumpers.
Once the department performed its due diligence, it chose Spartan ER (then Spartan ERV) to build two pumpers that got it what it wanted in terms of safety and also performance.
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| 1 Spartan ER delivered two pumpers to the Philadelphia (PA) Fire Department that are built on Spartan Metro Star chassis and cab with a 175-inch wheelbase, an overall length of 31 feet 8 inches, and an overall height of 10 feet 5 inches. (Photos courtesy of Spartan ER unless otherwise noted.) |
Matching Specs to the Real World
Battalion Chief Robert Corrigan says that one of the challenges for Philadelphia in fire apparatus design is that it often is different on paper than it is in real life. “Our office of fleet management writes the specs and starts out with what we got last time and then moves on from there,” Corrigan says. “When these two pumpers came in with flat roofs, after getting firefighter input, we decided we needed more headroom, so we went to 10-inch raised roof models for the next four pumpers on the contract.”
Corrigan notes that the department worked closely with Campbell Supply, which he called “one of the best vendors in the country,” to work through the various safety options that Philadelphia wanted to incorporate in the new pumpers. “We had seen an increase in mounting and dismounting injuries in the department,” he says, “so we aggressively pursued all the safety features available. We went with LED lighted exterior grab rails and a low hosebed to assist with pulling hose because all of our 1¾-inch hoselines deploy from the rear of the pumper so firefighters can do that from the ground instead of the back step. It’s a very popular feature and one that was our first safety request in the design.”
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| 2 The Philadelphia pumpers built by Spartan ER each carry a Waterous CSU 1,500-gpm side-mount pump and a Pro Poly 500-gallon water tank. |
Brian Connely, account manager for Spartan ER, says his company worked closely with Philadelphia and Campbell Supply to get the hosebed as low as practicable. “We went with an L-shaped water tank that allowed the hosebed to be much lower than is typical,” Connely says. “We sent a team of engineers and design people to listen to the challenges they had on previous builds and talk with them about what we could offer. We wanted to stay away from the pitfalls they had encountered in the past and give them the kind of pumpers they needed.”
Connel