Orleans, VT—KIMTEK Corp, FDHP-300 rugged and easy to use, our FIRELITE® Transport FDHP-300 series skid units are made for budget-minded departments looking for a quality, low cost brush truck to add to their fleet of apparatus. These no nonsense wildland firefighting slip on skid units will get the job done on road or off road. They are designed to have a low profile and low center of gravity. The FDHP-300 series has a rescue capability to carry a patient in off road rescue situations. Available in 125-, 160-, and 200-gallon configurations.

All FDHP-300 series fire slip on units come complete with an electric rewind Hannay 4000 series reel and Scotty Around the Pump class A foam system with 5 gallon foam cell. The rescue area has stainless steel grab bars and a large hose storage area under with tailgate.

For more information, visit www.kimtekresearch.com and www.brushtruckskids.com.

CHARLOTTE, MI—Spartan Emergency Response secured an add-on order for the Lincoln (NE) Fire Department for seven Spartan Star Pumpers. The additional order comes just two years after a previous order from the city’s fire department for four top-mount pumpers and two 105-foot aerials from the fire apparatus manufacturer.

The city’s ongoing relationship with Smeal, a Spartan ER brand, is part of Lincoln’s commitment to expand, improve, and modernize its fire protection assets. The Lincoln Fire Department currently operates several Spartan fire trucks and maintains an established relationship with the local Spartan team through its dealer, Feld Fire.

“We support the men and women on the front line who protect and serve the community, as well as the administration’s dedicated efforts to expand fire and rescue within the city,” said Todd Fierro, President of Spartan ER. “By taking part in the growth of the Lincoln Fire Department, we align with the goals of the City to positively impact and better serve the community with our brand’s reputation and focus on prioritized safety.”

The Spartan Star Pumpers, built in Brandon, South Dakota, are equipped with a stainless-steel tubular body structure, improving structural stability. The Star Pumpers feature the Vibra-Torq body-mount system, which reduces vibration and provides a smoother ride, longer vehicle life, and less maintenance, which serves to minimize downtime. The pumpers’ exteriors are painted with the Company’s precise, nine-step paint process, which delays corrosion, rust, and other oxidation from weather and environmental corrosives.

Spartan has ties to the Lincoln area through its acquisition of Nebraska-based Smeal Fire Apparatus Co. in December 2016. Founded in 1955, Smeal and its subsidiaries, U.S.T. and Ladder Tower, are leaders and innovators in fire truck manufacturing and vehicle technology, offering a full line of aerial ladders and platforms (including Squrt^®, TeleSqurt^®, and Snorkel^®), tractor-drawn aerials, pumpers, stainless steel tankers, and wildland urban interface vehicles.

For more information, visit www.spartanmotors.com.

By Alan M. Petrillo

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) Fire Shelter Subcommittee, comprising federal, state, and local wildland firefighters, wildfire safety specialists, fire management officers, and other fire shelter users, has recommended to the NWCG executive board to continue using the 2002 wildland fire shelter instead of deploying any of the new prototypes that had been field-tested in several jurisdictions during the 2018 wildland fire season.

Wildland fire shelter prototypes for equipment operators and line firefighters were tested during the 2018 fire season. From left, prototype shelter for equipment operators and its carrying case, prototype shelter for line firefighters and its case, and the current issue 2002 fire shelter and its carrying case. (All photos courtesy of U.S. Forest Service's Missoula Technology & Development Center.)

The executive board's decision to keep the current fire shelter in use comes after 40 wildland firefighters carried one of two new fire shelter prototypes for “wear testing” as part of the Fire Shelter Project Review, administered by the USDA Forest Service National Technology and Development Program, and initiated in 2014 to identify possible improvements to the fire shelter system.

The NWGC had selected four new fire shelter prototypes for wear testing from 60 prototype fire shelter designs that had shown improved performance in lab tests. Wear test prototype fire shelters were issued to every federal agency in NWCG, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish & Wildlife, U.S. Park Service, and CAL FIRE, says Tony Petrilli, fire shelter project leader for the US Forest Service's Missoula Technology & Development Center. "For line firefighter shelters we issued them to Interagency Hotshot Crews from California, Idaho, Arizona, and the Northern Rockies to evaluate the durability of the shelters.

"The wildfire environment is very rugged, and fire shelters must be carried by wildland firefighters for years yet still be functional when needed," Petrilli points out. "We gave them to the crews that could give them the most use and abuse. Other federal agencies and CAL FIRE got their hands on prototype shelters to use and check out too."

An Interagency Hotshot Crew firefighter works a fire line while carrying a prototype wildland fire shelter.

Forty fire shelters for line firefighters and for equipment operators were part of the field testing, Petrilli says, with 20 prototypes going to hotshot crews and 20 shelters to equipment operators. "They were tested from June through September 2018, which is the solid part of the fire season," Petrilli points out, "but there were no actual deployments of the prototype shelters."

The biggest job that a fire shelter has to do is be carried around by a wildland firefighter all day, every day, all season long, Petrilli notes. “That doesn’t lend itself to the use of a lot of materials that can withstand high temperatures because of weight, bulk, durability and toxicity," he says.

After the wear tests, the prototype shelters were returned t

Arlington (TX) Fire/Rescue, 100-foot aerial platform. Gladiator EMFD cab and chassis; Cummins X15 565-hp engine; Waterous CPK2 300-gpm PTO pump.