The Crown Point (IN) Fire Department provides fire suppression, rescue, and emergency medical services (EMS) response to a suburban city of 40,000 residents from a single station staffed by 52 paid firefighter/paramedics running an engine, an aerial ladder, and three advanced life support (ALS) ambulances. The department has been a Pierce Manufacturing customer for more than 30 years, so when it needed to replace a 17-year-old Pierce pumper, it naturally turned again to Pierce for a new rig.
“We have been adding more staff, so we changed how our rigs were designed in terms of carrying equipment,” Mark Baumgardner Jr., Crown Point’s fire chief says. “With the advent of battery-powered hydraulic tools, there is no need for hydraulic reels and hoses and pumps, which opens up a lot of compartment space on an engine. We wanted a new rig with high compartments on both sides and coffin compartments on top to give us the maximum amount of storage space for equipment.”
The rescue-pumper has a Pierce PUC 1,500-gpm pump and a UPF Poly 750-gallon water tank.
Ken Sebo, Pierce’s pumper business development manager, says Pierce built a rescue-pumper for Crown Point on a Velocity® cab and chassis with seating for four firefighters, three of them in Pierce PS6 self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats, powered by a 450-horsepower (hp) Cummins L9 engine and Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, with a TAK-4® independent front suspension and an air ride rear suspension.
Sebo says the Crown Point rescue-pumper has a Pierce PUC™ 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump, a UPF Poly® 750-gallon water tank, a HAAS Alert collision avoidance system, and a Clearsky Intelligence™ Connectivity Solutions network. Wheelbase on the rig is 209 inches, overall length is 34 feet 6 inches, and overall height is 10 feet 10 inches.
The rig carries 150 feet of preconnected 1¾-inch hose in a covered compartment in the extended front bumper.
Dave Polkow, apparatus sales representative for MacQueen Emergency Group, who sold the rescue-pumper to Crown Point, points out that the rig has two 200-foot crosslays of 1¾-inch hose, one 200-foot crosslay of 2½-inch hose, 200 feet of 2½-inch hose dead lay, and four slots for pike pole storage that are protected behind a roll-up door. The rig also has 150 feet of 1¾-inch hose in a compartment in the 22-inch extended front bumper, a Task Force Tips Crossfire deck gun, and a Hannay electric hose reel