South Metro Fire Rescue is proud to introduce the organization’s first tractor drawn aerial to the fleet, the department said on its YouTube channel. The TDA went into service Tuesday, Sept. 24, at Station 34 in Lone Tree, Colorado.

This new tiller, known as Ladder 34, replaces both Tower 34 and Heavy Rescue 34. Both pieces of apparatus were scheduled to be replaced to meet SMFR’s goal of replacing special operations apparatus at the 20-plus year mark.

Instead of needing two replacements that would cost the department millions of dollars, South Metro combined two pieces of apparatus into one with the new tiller. Ladder 34 is the first tractor drawn aerial to be seen on Denver Metro Area roadways in 20 years.

SMFR received Ladder 34 from Pierce Manufacturing within the last month after years of planning and preparing for this unit to meet the needs of the community. This tiller was specifically designed to be housed at Station 34 in Lone Tree and to be able to maneuver the streets with good sight lines for the engineers and operators driving and guiding the apparatus.

Dynamics such as tighter streets, complex access for buildings, and many multi-story residential structures allowed for Pierce to manufacture a tractor drawn aerial that can operate safely and effectively in the district.

South Metro also took into consideration that Ladder 34 can perform as a primary response unit as well as offering specialty support on calls needing heavy rescue and technical rescue capabilities. Tools that used to be on Rescue 34 are now being housed on Collapse 45. The new Collapse unit was added to the SMFR fleet in the last couple of years with help from a grant. Now, both Collapse 45 and Ladder 34 will be able to respond on technical rescue and heavy rescue calls with equipment spread across both units.

Specifications

Chassis	Velocity®
Body	Ascendant® 107’ Heavy-Duty Tiller Aerial Ladder
Actual Overall Height	11′ 8″
Engine	Cummins X15
Horsepower	605 hp
Front Suspension	TAK-4® Independent Front Suspension
Rear Suspension	Air
Electrical System	Command Zone™
Pump	Waterous Midship
Pump GPM	1500 gpm
Tank	Water
Tank Size	300 gallons
Generator	Harrison Hydraulic
Generator KW	6 kW

By Alan M. Petrillo

The Fairview, New York Fire Department wanted to replace an older aerial ladder with a new vehicle that had a greater amount of compartment space, as well as a pump and a water tank to satisfy its Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating. Fairview chose Rosenbauer to build a truck that fit its particular needs.

“We needed an aerial quint with a pump and a good size water tank to take care of our ISO rating,” observes Rob Ridley, Fairview’s deputy chief, “because half of our fire district doesn’t have a municipal water supply. We also wanted to maximize the compartment space on our new truck, and needed a vehicle that would be easier to set up in some areas of our district where we had difficulties with our prior truck.”

Blake Garrison, president of Garrison Fire & Rescue, who sold the truck to Fairview, says the rig is built on a Commander™ chassis with an EXT extended aluminum body and cab with seating for six firefighters, five of them in self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats, and a 109-foot Viper™ four-section wireless controlled steel aerial ladder. He notes the rig has a 23,000-pound Hendrickson parabolic spring front suspension, a 54,000-pound Ridewell RD-202S rear suspension, a 236-inch wheelbase, an overall length of 42 feet 3 inches, an overall height of 12 feet, and is powered by a 500-horsepower (hp) Cummins X12 engine, and an Allison 4000 EVS transmission.

Garrison points out that the Fairview quint has a Hale Qmax-XS 1,500-gallon per minute (gpm) pump, a 500-gallon water tank, and four out-and-down outriggers with a 15-feet 6-inches jack spread and outrigger plate spotlighting, with the aerial controlled by Rosenbauer’s Smart Aerial™ system that allows operating safely over a short jacked side of the truck.

Ridley says the quint has two 200-foot 1-3/4-inch hose crosslays, one 2-1/2-inch hose

Special Delivery Alan M. Petrillo

West Hancock Ambulance Service covers approximately 200 square miles of the western part of Hancock County, a mostly rural district that encompasses five towns: Britt, Woden, Crystal Lake, Kanawha, and Corwith.

West Hancock operates out of a single station in Britt with three ambulances staffed by four full-time paid paramedics, one full-time paid driver, and 20 volunteer drivers and emergency medical technicians (EMTs).

Jennifer Vaske, the director of West Hancock and also a paramedic, says the ambulance service wanted to replace a 2009 Type 3 ambulance, so it checked out what ambulance makers had to offer and chose Wheeled Coach to build it a new rig. “The difficulty was that we placed the order for the ambulance during the COVID pandemic, so it took three years for us to get the new rig,” she points out.

Mindie Simons, sales manager for Feld Fire, who sold the ambulance to West Hancock, says the Ford shutdown of light truck chassis during the pandemic caused quite a holdup on ambulance production. Ultimately, she found a work-around to the drought of light truck chassis. “There is a local auto dealer, Pritchard Automotive, that handles a lot of utility trucks on Ford F-550 chassis, so we gave them the spec of what we needed for an ambulance, and they filled an available spot and placed the order with Ford,” Simons says. “Wheeled Coach had approved the spec, and the chassis was delivered directly to them in Orlando. With the COVID situation, we had to be creative, and by going through Pritchard, we cut about four to six months off their wait time.”

Simons says the completed Wheeled Coach Type 1 is built on a Ford F-550 4×4 chassis, powered by a 6.7-liter diesel engine, with dual alternators, a Vanner LifeSine® inverter, and Liquid Spring front and rear suspensions. Wheelbase on the rig is 193 inches, overall length is 25 feet 5 inches, and the patient module is 170 inches long with

Sarah Cutler
The Idaho Statesman
(TNS)

On the evening of July 6, Meridian resident Shawn White was floating down the Boise River with his son. Around 5 p.m., they passed under Boise’s 9th Street bridge — and suddenly, White was struck by a Boise Fire Department boat, according to a tort claim White filed with the city.

The boat forced White under the water, according to the claim, filed Sept. 11 by Dylan Orton, White’s attorney. The claim was obtained by the Idaho Statesman in a public records request. Tort claims are typically filed as precursors to a lawsuit.

“Mr. White was, essentially, run over by this Boise Fire Department boat,” Orton wrote, alleging “negligence” on the part of the department. Fire department personnel apologized to White after the collision, according to the claim.

Orton did not respond to emails requesting comment. Lynsey Amundson, a spokesperson for the department, declined to comment on pending litigation.

The claim did not specify how much White intended to seek in damages, but said Orton would seek “fair compensation for medical expenses, physical pain and suffering, mental anguish and emotional trauma.” The claim estimated that White’s medical costs to treat injuries to his shoulder, knee, back and ankle would exceed $10,000.

©2024 The Idaho Statesman. Visit idahostatesman.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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The Akron Fire Department made the following Facebook post recently:

The fire department will hold a ribbon cutting on its newest station, Akron Fire Station No. 12, soon. The department plans to move Ladder Truck 9 to the newly built station in order to cover more of Northwest and West Akron and reduce the double coverage seen in its present location on Dodge Avenue.

This decision was made by Akron Fire leadership after careful consideration of five key areas: community risk assessment, geographic coverage, operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and safety enhancements.

“We believe this move will result in better coverage for more of our residents as well as other benefits like improved operational efficiency, improved response times, better Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating, and more. As always, safety remains the top priority for the city of Akron and the Akron Fire Department and this move is a direct reflection of that commitment.”

Akron Fire Fighters Association Local 330 responded to the move with the following Facebook post:

“Your ladders are specialized pieces of equipment. At a house fire, ladder companies are primarily responsible for search and rescue, ventilation, securing utilities, and other tasks.

“Without question, many areas of the city would benefit from a ladder being within a few minutes of every home. However, the reality is, Akron only has four ladders. Currently they are positioned to allow almost even responses in any direction from their stations.

“Shifting the ladder to station 12 may allow us to cover more of a total area but the reality is that it shifts further away from the densely populated areas, areas of vacant housing, high-rise buildings… the areas where it is needed most.

“Local 330 disagrees that this will have a positive effect on response times. Certain areas of the second map, highlighted in red, will not have a ladder within six minutes.

“Again, we are not saying that any one life is more valuable than the other. Ideally, stations 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, and 14 would all have a ladder in those stations. With only four ladders in the city, they should be in the best location possible.

“This move would be bad for public safety. There is still time to correct this. Don’t wait until someone is seriously injured or worse.”