According to a report from The Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa (AL) Fire Rescue’s (TFR) Station 2 and Station 12 each house some of the TFR’s most unique and largest trucks that provide special rescue and firefighting capabilities. 

Station 2, located on Paul W. Bryant Drive, has housed the department’s first and only tiller truck, a type of tractor-drawn aerial apparatus, since 2017.

The TFR’s Truck 32 was purchased for $1 million and was dedicated in memory of former TFR Chief Bob Delbridge. The truck is 58 feet long and uses two drivers to operate the front (the tractor driver) and the rear (the tiller operator). It is equipped with a 107-foot steel-frame ladder and other rescue tools and equipment, such as road rescue and extrication equipment as well as ground ladders.

TFR Lieutenant Glen Hansford said the truck’s unique design makes it “highly maneuverable,” which is “paramount,” since Station 2’s primary response area is comprised of newly constructed neighborhoods, narrow streets, and other features that could pose navigation issues for other ladder trucks. 

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According to a report from The Post Star, members of the Penrhyn Engine & Hose Company (PEHC) in Granville, New York, know the importance of being able to train using real-world, real-life situations and obstacles, such as crawling through a smoke-filled house in search of a hidden mannequin.

On Tuesday, March 16, PEHC Chief Austin Perry led a group of new and experienced volunteers in the frigid cold to practice search and rescue in a house next to their station they acquired in a county tax foreclosure auction.

The house had been abandoned for years, but the PEHC now has full ownership, and they plan to repaint it and make structural repairs for repeated training.

The house is in a convenient location for members, and should help with making sure will draw many for training. It should keep his current members interested and, hopefully, attract new members to bolster the ranks.

There are other training sites, but if PEHC members go to one of the more centralized locations, there’s the risk that there will be a fire in Granville while they’re gone. So, having a house next door affords them the opportunity to train more without worrying about fire coverage.

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By Alan M. Petrillo

Once BRW Architects received the contract to build a new station for Flower Mound (TX) Fire Department, it faced challenges in terms of siting the new station, sizing the facility, and property drainage issues. However, working with the department and a nearby private school, BRW was able to overcome those challenges and build Flower Mound a new station that met all the department’s needs.

“The site of the new neighborhood station was to be on land of just under an acre that was donated to the city a number of years ago when there were smaller space requirements for fire stations,” says Stephen Hilt, BRW senior director. “The department would have liked a three-bay station on the site, but that was not possible in that space, and putting in drive-through apparatus bays on the new station also was a challenge because the site sloped 12 to 14 feet from the front to the back of the property.”

To solve the problem of the sloping site and give the apparatus enough space to exit the station without bottoming out, Hilt’s design team turned the apparatus bays 90 degrees to the street, allowing them to get the proper grade for exiting, Hilts says. “The station is surrounded by upper middle-class residential housing on three sides, and the Coram Deo Academy to the south,” he notes. “Another challenge was the drainage of the site because there was no storm drainage available, but we were able to get an easement from Coram Deo Academy to get drainage to a nearby creek.”