By Alan M. Petrillo
The Fame (PA) Fire Company is one of three all-volunteer fire companies making up the West Chester (PA) Fire Department and serves as the ladder and rescue company for the department as well as being part of the Chester County (PA) Rescue Task Force. So when the fire company outgrew its 20-year-old rescue truck, it knew it wanted a larger rig that could handle all the equipment needed to be carried.
Bill Cummings, a Fame Fire Company lieutenant, says besides typical rescue work like extrications and handling motor vehicle accidents, the Fame volunteers also perform various technical rescues and swift water rescue. "One of the main things we required was that the rescue be built on a Spartan chassis," Cummings says. "With all our equipment, we outgrew our previous rescue, a Saulsbury single-axle walk-in with a crew cab. So, we knew we were going to have to go with a tandem-axle heavy rescue and still wanted the walk-in capability."
Cummings notes that other requirements set by the fire company were that the new rescue have a stainless steel body, be able to seat 10 firefighters with eight of those SCBA seats in the rear walk-in area, and be no longer than the company's aerial ladder at 43 feet overall length.
Fame Fire Company found everything it was looking for at CustomFIRE, which built its walk-in heavy rescue on a Spartan Gladiator chassis with a stainless steel subframe and body, powered by a Cummins 550-horsepower ISX 15 engine, and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission. Wayde Kirvida, CustomFIRE sales engineer, says the rescue has a winch mounted in the front bumper, driver and officer side winch receivers, a 35-kW generator, and an 85-cfm air compressor.
Kirvida adds that the rescue has encapsulated roll-up door protection, adjustable compartment shelving, roll-out and tip-down compartment trays, pull-out tool boards, roll-out hydraulic hose reel carriages, roll-out encapsulated hose roller brackets, wheel well SCBA cylinder and extinguisher storage, power rewind electric cord reels, and air hose reels.
Cummings notes that the front transverse compartment on the vehicle carries the fire company's Hurst hydraulic rescue tools with 32-inch spreaders and rams on both sides, and an eDRAULIC S700 cutter on one side, and an eDRAULIC spreader on the other.
The heavy rescue has LED marker lights, under-body and under-cab lighting, rear entry lighting, a cab roof brow light, Whelen flood lighting, FRC flood lights, Whelen LED warning lights, a Whelen Freedom light bar with Opticom, a Whelen traffic directing light bar, Whelen electronic siren and speakers, and dual air horns.
Cummings points out that the project took two years from specs through design to the final build, and that the $900,000 budget included the apparatus and all equipment. "The heavy rescue has shown rock solid performance for us," he says. "CustomFIRE and its staff were great to work with and very accommodating to us throughout the process."
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizona-based journalist, the author of three novels and five nonfiction books, and a