Brian Rokos
The Press-Enterprise
(TNS)

These cats have serious fangs.

While the saviors of the biggest snowstorm to hit the San Bernardino Mountains in years have been the volunteers organizing food giveaways, and the emergency workers assisting trapped or ill residents and clearing roads, the mechanical heroes have been the San Bernardino County Fire Department’s snowcats.

These go-everywhere vehicles that ride on tank tracks answered hundreds of the 1,500 calls for firefighters’ help during the height of the storm, including 12 fires, lugging firefighters, paramedic and rescue equipment as well as fire hoses and nozzles when there were no other means to reach homes and businesses.

The powerful snowcats roll over deep snow and up and down berms at steep angles.

“You’re not limited to roads,” said Capt. Don Whitesell, who has operated snowcats for 20 years. “You can actually veer off-road cross country, you can get into some places that maybe the road wouldn’t be passable, maybe there are trees down, lines down. You can create your own road along the way.”

The versatility means the snowcat crews don’t have to wait for a plow to clear the roads.

“We have yet to have someone call 911 and we have not been able to get to them, and that is thanks in no small part to the snowcats,” said Eric Sherwin, a county fire spokesman.

Whitesell has seen firsthand the reactions of those who have been rescued.

“Most of them were amazed that we were able to get to them. For a lot of people, it was a last-ditch effort to try to get rescued. They didn’t know how it was going to happen,” Whitesell said. “There was a feeling of defeat and hopelessness until we rolled up. Their demeanor changed because they realized they were not abandoned, they were not alone.”

Friday’s storm brought rain to all but the highest elevations, and next week’s system is forecast for more of the same, so the county is transitioning to the more typical response of sending fire engines to calls. But the snowcats are still being used to access backcountry areas such as campgrounds and off-road areas where fun-seekers get stuck in snow, Sherwin said.

The county’s fleet of eight snowcats is housed at fire stations from Wrightwood to Forest Falls. There is room for two people in the cab and 10 in the bay, including patients on stretchers. They don’t have water pumps but can get closer to burning buildings than fire engines and hook up their hoses to the engines’ water supply. The snowcats are equipped with 10-foot-wide plows. Each vehicle costs around $100,000.

Firefighters train for a minimum of 20 hours on the snowcats, first on roads and then on more difficult terrain. Some operators have logged hundreds of hours behind the wheel, which resembles a video game control. The snowcats can travel up to about 25 mph and turn on a dime by braking one track and engaging the other.

Although the snowcats weigh more than five tons, they don’t sink in the snow because the wide tracks displace the weight over a large footprint, Sherwin said.

“Probably one of the coolest pieces of equipment to drive,” Whitesell said, “because it makes access in some very difficult areas that we normally wouldn’t be able to get to. It’s something we don’t get to do every day and when we do operate them, it’s usually because of extreme need.”

Plus, Whitesell acknowledged, it’s fun.

“The crazier, the more mechanical, the better. This is right up my alley. As soon as I got into this field, one of the nice things about being in this division, we have a lot of things like this we operate in some extreme environments,” he said.

Those include fire boats on the lakes and rivers and all-terrain vehicles for the mountains and deserts. Whitesell has operate

The Grand Junction Fire Department issued the following news release Wednesday, March 8:

Grand Junction Fire Department has received delivery of our newest fire engine manufactured by Pierce. The apparatus will go into service at Station 8 Thursday and features exciting technology that can reduce the risk of collision by up to 90%, improving the safety of first responders traveling to emergencies and motorists sharing the same roads.  

Engine 8 comes equipped with Safety Cloud developed by HAAS Alert. The technology alerts travelers to upcoming and unexpected hazards sooner and more effectively than lights and sirens alone. The Safety Cloud technology delivers digital alerts that notify vehicles of approaching or upcoming emergency response vehicles. When emergency lights are activated by first responders, drivers receive real-time digital alerts to slow down and move over. Notifications are delivered by apps, navigation systems, and mobile devices up to 30 seconds in advance of the responding emergency vehicle. Vehicles that will receive alerts include Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, RAM, and Alfa Romeo.

• Sheffield Township (IN) VFD Installing HAAS Safety Cloud Technology on Fire Trucks

The Port Washington Common Council last week agreed to buy a new pumper truck for the fire department, but it will be three years before it sees the $975,000 vehicle, ozaukeepress.com reported.

The truck, which will replace two engine trucks, won’t be delivered until 2026, officials said.

A city official said that it’s unusual for the city to order a vehicle without having the funding in hand, but noted that the city won’t be paying for it until 2026, when it will be in the city’s capital budget, the report said.

Pierce Manufacturing of Appleton (WI), which is building the truck, told the city the cost would increase by $28,328 if the vehicle was ordered after March 1, and the vendor, Cummins Diesel, was also expected to up the price in 2026 because the vehicle would require a new motor to be introduced that year to meet new emission standards, officials said, according to the report.

The Brushy Mountain Fire Department’s new 2022 Freightliner tanker fire truck arrived at the station March 3, journalpatriot.com reported.

The new truck holds 2,000 gallons of water, which is double the capacity of the 1984 fire truck it replaced, the report said.

A Brushy Mountain fire official said it was purchased for about $370,000, with about $260,000 of it borrowed, the report said. The department has conducted numerous fundraisers to help pay for the new truck and is continuing these.

This tanker will replace a 1984 GMC 1000 gallon truck, which the department is putting up for sale for $12,900 or best offer.

Hampton Volunteer Fire Company took delivery of a used tanker truck, the company said on a Dec. 22 Facebook post.

The truck needs to be equipped and lettered, and then it will be placed in service, the company said. With the addition of this tanker, HVFC will now have an engine rescue truck and tanker truck on each end of town to best provide fire protection services to our districts and neighboring districts.

HVFC also posted recently that it is donating a truck to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Alpha One Fire & Rescue.

If anyone would like to donate towards the transportation of the truck you can do so online at www.gofundme.com/f/fire-truck-transport-expense or checks can be sent to the Hampton Volunteer Fire Company Inc.