By Alan M. Petrillo
Fire departments and agencies that protect wildland urban interface (WUI) areas, which can be found in many states around the country, faced more than 70,000 wildland fires in 2016 that burned more than 3 million acres. The United States Forest Service estimates that 44 million homes and about one third of the residences in the United States are potential targets of wildland fires because they sit in the wildland urban interface.
Facing those kinds of statistics, department chiefs, officers, wildland fire managers, and firefighters took the opportunity at the recent annual Wildland Urban Interface conference sponsored by the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) at the Peppermill Resort in Reno, Nevada, to talk with wildland apparatus manufacturers and climb over wildland and WUI rigs that might someday be in their fleet.
HME Inc. displayed a Type 3 side-mount wildland pumper that it built for the Nevada Division of Forestry on an International chassis with a 500-gpm pump, a 500-gallon water tank, a 30-gallon foam tank, and a Hale EZ-Fill foam system. The rig is powered by a Cummins 330-hp ISL 9 diesel engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission.
The Nevada Division of Forestry Type 3 has a pair of two-inch gated foam jumpline discharges on the front bumper, two gated two-inch foam crosslays at the pump panel, a 2½-inch pump panel discharge, a 2½-inch gated foam discharge on the officer's side, and a 2½-inch inch gated discharge and 2½-inch inch foam discharge at the rear of the rig.
The rear of the Type 3 also has a 2½-inch inch direct tank fill connection, a 2½-inch, and a 4-inch intake at the pump panel, while the right side has a 2½-inch intake. The vehicle also carries a three-section 20-foot extension ladder.
HME also displayed a Type 6 pumper built on a Ford F-550 4x4 Super Duty chassis with a 1,500-gpm single-stage midship pump, a 500-gallon water tank, and a 25-gallon foam tank. The rig carries a Kubota AYX 24.8-hp 150-gpm pump for pump and roll, as well as 40 cubic feet of hosebed space and 139-cubic inches of compartment storage. The HME Type 6 has a 6-inch suction, 6-inch discharge, and 2½-inch foam discharge on the officer's side.
Boise Mobile Equipment (BME) exhibited a Type 3 Heavy, which carries a designation as both a Type 3 and Type 4 wildland engine, that it built for the Platte Canyon (CO) Fire Department. The rig is on an M2-106 Freightliner® 4x4 chassis with a Darley® JMP 500-gpm two-stage pump, an 800-gallon water tank, a 30-gallon foam tank, and a FoamPro® 1601 foam system.
Glenn Baley of BME, says the Type 3 Heavy serves as a multipurpose emergency vehicle, being used for both wildland firefighting and for initial attack on structure protection. The vehicle is powered by a 350-hp Cummins ISL diesel engine, an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, has full pump-and-roll capabilities, an all steel body construction with aluminum compartment doors, Whelen emergency and scene lighting, a Baja Design 20-inch combo LED light bar, and a Code 3 backup camera.
Baley says that BME recently delivered a Typ