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The purpose of the Fire Mechanics Section is to promote standardization of fire apparatus and equipment preventative maintenance, improve safety standards and practices, promote workshops, conferences, and seminars related to the purposes of this Section, and to promote cost savings through standardization of building and equipment purchasing and maintenance.

RECENT FIRE MECHANIC NEWS

Posted: Mar 7, 2017

In The News

TASK FORCE TIPS (TFT) has announced that Philip Gerace, former KME director of sales and marketing, has been named the company’s new vice president of marketing and will be based at the company’s worldwide headquarters in Valparaiso, Indiana. “This is one of those opportunities I couldn’t pass up, because TFT is a rare company that values its employees, takes great pride in the quality products it produces, and goes out of its way to serve those who serve,” Gerace explains.

“In the business world, you often come across those who say one thing and end up doing another as they grow. That isn’t true of TFT. This is a homegrown company that has maintained and built on the values it has had ever since the day the company started.” As with his earlier position at KME, Gerace sees himself first and foremost as a team member, “because if you’re part of the team, then you serve a critical role,” he explains. “A team can always develop more than an individual who is left by his or herself.”

OSHKOSH AIRPORT PRODUCTS, LLC, an Oshkosh Corporation company, has received an order for 24 Oshkosh® Striker® aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) vehicles from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The purchase includes 14 Oshkosh Striker 6x6 vehicles, seven of which are equipped with a 65-foot Snozzle® high reach extendable turret (HRET), and 10 Striker 4x4 apparatus.

The PANYNJ also purchased a Striker Simulator virtual reality training system. The vehicles will be placed into service at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark International Airport, LaGuardia International Airport, and Teterboro Airport. The Snozzle HRET features a hardened carbide steel tip, a perforated nozzle, and a forward-looking infrared camera. The vehicles’ firefighting systems include tri-agent capabilities featuring Halotron, dry chemical, foam, and water.

The Striker Simulator system depicts a nearly endless array of training scenarios for ARFF organizations. The virtual reality training system incorporates video footage and illustrated environments of Striker vehicles in action with views from both inside and outside of the cab.

KIMTEK® CORPORATION has announced the launch of its new Web site dedicated to the needs of firefighting agencies using pickups and flatbed trucks for off-road wildland firefighting. The new Web site, www.brushtruckskids.com, can be accessed directly or linked via the company’s main Web site, www.kimtekresearch.com.

The new site features the company’s FIRELITE Transport Series of fire skid slip-on transport units equipped with lifetime-warrantied copolymer water tanks, Honda-driven Darley-Davey pumps, Hannay reels, and Scotty Foam Systems. Available in multiple configurations, they feature all aluminum diamond plate construction and stainless steel piping and are available with storage areas, patient rescue areas, or fully enclosed brush fire equipment boxes and preconnected crosslay trays.

TRIDENT EMERGENCY PRODUCTS recently announced the UL listing of its Titan GP160 series foam pumps for fixed foam system applications under UL 448C - UL File #EX27082. The GP160 foam pump

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Posted: Mar 7, 2017

In The News

TASK FORCE TIPS (TFT) has announced that Philip Gerace, former KME director of sales and marketing, has been named the company’s new vice president of marketing and will be based at the company’s worldwide headquarters in Valparaiso, Indiana. “This is one of those opportunities I couldn’t pass up, because TFT is a rare company that values its employees, takes great pride in the quality products it produces, and goes out of its way to serve those who serve,” Gerace explains.

“In the business world, you often come across those who say one thing and end up doing another as they grow. That isn’t true of TFT. This is a homegrown company that has maintained and built on the values it has had ever since the day the company started.” As with his earlier position at KME, Gerace sees himself first and foremost as a team member, “because if you’re part of the team, then you serve a critical role,” he explains. “A team can always develop more than an individual who is left by his or herself.”

OSHKOSH AIRPORT PRODUCTS, LLC, an Oshkosh Corporation company, has received an order for 24 Oshkosh® Striker® aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) vehicles from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The purchase includes 14 Oshkosh Striker 6x6 vehicles, seven of which are equipped with a 65-foot Snozzle® high reach extendable turret (HRET), and 10 Striker 4x4 apparatus.

The PANYNJ also purchased a Striker Simulator virtual reality training system. The vehicles will be placed into service at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark International Airport, LaGuardia International Airport, and Teterboro Airport. The Snozzle HRET features a hardened carbide steel tip, a perforated nozzle, and a forward-looking infrared camera. The vehicles’ firefighting systems include tri-agent capabilities featuring Halotron, dry chemical, foam, and water.

The Striker Simulator system depicts a nearly endless array of training scenarios for ARFF organizations. The virtual reality training system incorporates video footage and illustrated environments of Striker vehicles in action with views from both inside and outside of the cab.

KIMTEK® CORPORATION has announced the launch of its new Web site dedicated to the needs of firefighting agencies using pickups and flatbed trucks for off-road wildland firefighting. The new Web site, www.brushtruckskids.com, can be accessed directly or linked via the company’s main Web site, www.kimtekresearch.com.

The new site features the company’s FIRELITE Transport Series of fire skid slip-on transport units equipped with lifetime-warrantied copolymer water tanks, Honda-driven Darley-Davey pumps, Hannay reels, and Scotty Foam Systems. Available in multiple configurations, they feature all aluminum diamond plate construction and stainless steel piping and are available with storage areas, patient rescue areas, or fully enclosed brush fire equipment boxes and preconnected crosslay trays.

TRIDENT EMERGENCY PRODUCTS recently announced the UL listing of its Titan GP160 series foam pumps for fixed foam system applications under UL 448C - UL File #EX27082. The GP160 foam pump

Read more
Posted: Mar 7, 2017

Custom Pumper Handles Foam Operations to Protect NJ Refinery

By Alan M. Petrillo

A New Jersey fire association, in need of a heavy-duty pumper to protect a refinery, recently received a grant from the oil company that owns the refinery to purchase a custom foam pumper.

The Department

The Colonial Manor (NJ) Fire Association is one of four all-volunteer fire agencies protecting the township of West Deptford, New Jersey, where it has the Eagle Point Sunoco refinery in its fire protection area. Colonial Manor also houses the Gloucester County (NJ) Foam Task Force at its station - an International chassis foam tender (tanker) holding 4,000 gallons of Universal Gold foam. “It was a long time in getting the grant from Sunoco to allow us to purchase the KME pumper along with a rescue-pumper for our neighboring Verga (NJ) Fire Company,” says Colonial Manor Chief Fred Lock, “but we were very pleased when it came through. It was a partial payment on the two trucks, and the township came up with the balance for the two vehicles.”

1 KME built this custom pumper for the Colonial Manor (NJ) Fire Association on a Predator™ Panther 4x2 long four-door chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for six firefighters.
1 KME built this custom pumper for the Colonial Manor (NJ) Fire Association on a Predator™ Panther 4x2 long four-door chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for six firefighters.

The Foam Pumper

Colonial Manor spec’d a custom foam pumper that ultimately was built by KME on a Predator™ Panther 4x2 long four-door chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for six firefighters. The rig has a 152-inch Challenger LH body that’s constructed of 3⁄16-inch-thick aluminum, is 32 feet long overall, is 9 feet 9 inches high overall, and has a wheelbase of 197 inches.

Powered by a Cummins 450-horsepower (hp) ISL9 diesel engine and Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, the KME pumper carries a Hale QMax-175 1,750-gallon-per-minute (gpm) single-stage pump, a 750-gallon UPF Poly water tank, an integral 30-gallon foam cell, a Feecon around-the-pump APH 1.5 foam system, and an Akron 95-gpm foam eductor. “We wanted two foam systems onboard the vehicle,” Lock says. “We wanted the capability to start a foam operation with the 30 gallons of foam on the pumper and then to use the additional 250 gallons of foam we carry on our rescue-pumper or the 4,000 gallons of foam off the county tender using the Feecon foam system. If we needed to operate out of a five-gallon pail or 55-gallon drum, we could use the Akron foam eductor.”

2 The new pumper replaces a 1989 Maxim/Ford pumper, shown at right, that the department has set up as a RIT unit. (Photos 1-2 courtesy of Colonial Manor Fire Association
2 The new pumper replaces a 1989 Maxim/Ford pumper, shown at right, that the department has set up as a RIT unit. (Photos 1-2 courtesy of Colonial Manor Fire Association.)

Lock points out that the new KME pumper replaces a 1989 Ford Maxim open-cab pumper “that was outdated per National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. Once we got the new KME, we set up the Maxim as our rapid intervention team (RIT) pumper for mutual aid into surrounding towns.” The new KME also pumper serves as the department’s RIT unit, having a Stokes basket compartment placed under the rig’s low-height hosebed.

Suppression

Ryan Slane, KME’s product manag

Read more
Posted: Mar 7, 2017

Custom Pumper Handles Foam Operations to Protect NJ Refinery

By Alan M. Petrillo

A New Jersey fire association, in need of a heavy-duty pumper to protect a refinery, recently received a grant from the oil company that owns the refinery to purchase a custom foam pumper.

The Department

The Colonial Manor (NJ) Fire Association is one of four all-volunteer fire agencies protecting the township of West Deptford, New Jersey, where it has the Eagle Point Sunoco refinery in its fire protection area. Colonial Manor also houses the Gloucester County (NJ) Foam Task Force at its station - an International chassis foam tender (tanker) holding 4,000 gallons of Universal Gold foam. “It was a long time in getting the grant from Sunoco to allow us to purchase the KME pumper along with a rescue-pumper for our neighboring Verga (NJ) Fire Company,” says Colonial Manor Chief Fred Lock, “but we were very pleased when it came through. It was a partial payment on the two trucks, and the township came up with the balance for the two vehicles.”

1 KME built this custom pumper for the Colonial Manor (NJ) Fire Association on a Predator™ Panther 4x2 long four-door chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for six firefighters.
1 KME built this custom pumper for the Colonial Manor (NJ) Fire Association on a Predator™ Panther 4x2 long four-door chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for six firefighters.

The Foam Pumper

Colonial Manor spec’d a custom foam pumper that ultimately was built by KME on a Predator™ Panther 4x2 long four-door chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for six firefighters. The rig has a 152-inch Challenger LH body that’s constructed of 3⁄16-inch-thick aluminum, is 32 feet long overall, is 9 feet 9 inches high overall, and has a wheelbase of 197 inches.

Powered by a Cummins 450-horsepower (hp) ISL9 diesel engine and Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, the KME pumper carries a Hale QMax-175 1,750-gallon-per-minute (gpm) single-stage pump, a 750-gallon UPF Poly water tank, an integral 30-gallon foam cell, a Feecon around-the-pump APH 1.5 foam system, and an Akron 95-gpm foam eductor. “We wanted two foam systems onboard the vehicle,” Lock says. “We wanted the capability to start a foam operation with the 30 gallons of foam on the pumper and then to use the additional 250 gallons of foam we carry on our rescue-pumper or the 4,000 gallons of foam off the county tender using the Feecon foam system. If we needed to operate out of a five-gallon pail or 55-gallon drum, we could use the Akron foam eductor.”

2 The new pumper replaces a 1989 Maxim/Ford pumper, shown at right, that the department has set up as a RIT unit. (Photos 1-2 courtesy of Colonial Manor Fire Association
2 The new pumper replaces a 1989 Maxim/Ford pumper, shown at right, that the department has set up as a RIT unit. (Photos 1-2 courtesy of Colonial Manor Fire Association.)

Lock points out that the new KME pumper replaces a 1989 Ford Maxim open-cab pumper “that was outdated per National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. Once we got the new KME, we set up the Maxim as our rapid intervention team (RIT) pumper for mutual aid into surrounding towns.” The new KME also pumper serves as the department’s RIT unit, having a Stokes basket compartment placed under the rig’s low-height hosebed.

Suppression

Ryan Slane, KME’s product manag

Read more
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Fire Mechanics Section Board

Chair

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Chair

Elliot Courage
North Whatcom Fire & Rescue
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Vice Chair

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Vice Chair

Mike Smith 
Pierce County Fire District #5
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Secretary

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Secretary

Greg Bach
South Snohomish County Fire & Rescue
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Director #1

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Director #1

Doug Jones
South Kitsap Fire & Rescue
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Director #2

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Director #2

Paul Spencer 
Fire Fleet Maintenance LLC
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Director #3

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Director #3

Jim Morris
Mountain View Fire Department
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Director #4

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Director #4

Arnie Kuchta

Clark County Fire District 6

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Director #6

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Director #6

Brett Annear
Kitsap County Fire District 18
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Director #5

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Director #5

Jay Jacks
Camano Island Fire & Rescue
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Legislative Representative

Posted: Oct 21, 2015

Legislative Representative

TBD
TBD
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Immediate Past Chair

Posted: Oct 20, 2015

Immediate Past Chair

Brian Fortner
Graham Fire & Rescue

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