Chris Peterson
Hungry Horse News, Columbia Falls, Mont.
(TNS)

Nov. 12—In a ceremony harkening back to the old days, the Columbia Falls Fire Department pushed its new fire truck back into the hall last week.

The ceremony dates back to the 1800s, when fire engines at the time were drawn by horses and had to be pushed back into the hall after a fire.

The Thursday night ceremony drew about 60 current and former firefighters, their families and friends as they put the rig in neutral and slowly pushed it back into the hall with longtime firefighter Ron Ross at the wheel.

The $785,000 brand new HME engine was purchased cooperatively by the city and rural fire departments.

“The new truck combines two engines into one,” fire chief Karl Weeks told the crowd.

The all-purpose rig is loaded to the gills with equipment to fight just about any fire, or to respond to just about any emergency. A firefighter can enter the hall and be ready to fight a fire fully equipped with a self-contained breathing unit in just over a minute.

The truck holds 1,000 gallons of water, has several hose lays, includes extrication equipment like the Jaws of Life, an assortment of axes and pry bars, foam to fight Class A fires (like wood and grass) and foam for class B (like gasoline) and equipment to fight chimney fires

Its big pump can deliver 1,500 gallons of water a minute from a hydrant and all of the electrical equipment, like saws and fans are now battery operated with rechargeable batteries.

“It will be the first truck out of the station,” on calls, Weeks said.

Weeks thanked the city and the rural district communities for their support in making the purchase possible.

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The truck replaces engine 431, which will stay in service as it was sold to Blankenship and Engine 433 which will be used out of the rural district hall on Highway 2.

The truck is adorned with new decals and also has a Columbia Falls Wildcat on one door.

© 2025 the Hungry Horse News (Columbia Falls, Mont.). Visit www.flatheadnewsgroup.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The post MT Department Welcomes New Rig with Ceremonial Push into Hall appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

I thought this last part would be a piece of cake. Wrong again. At a recent social function of past-our-prime players and older but still active volunteers, the “too old” debate intensified. Raisin Squad members added their biased opinions at subsequent morning coffees.

Many of the discussions linked the lack of volunteer staffing with whether or not to keep old people as active interior firefighters. Some inferred that members getting older is the sole reason some departments can’t staff their apparatus. Sure, blame the white hairs because the fire department hierarchy has not objectively looked into the future. The real argumentative people found fault with every proposed and attempted solution, including some that’ve been around since World War II.

• Cantankerous Wisdom: How Old Is Too Old, Part 1
• Cantankerous Wisdom: How Old Is Too Old, Part 2

One young squad member said these articles should differentiate between a mandatory retirement age for firefighters and meeting a department’s minimum physical and mental acuity requirements. He’s right, but its fun to occasionally stir-the-pot.

Part-Timers

For many years, volunteer departments have supplemented daytime staffing shortages by employing part-time help—specifically an apparatus driver. Gotta make sure at least one truck gets out the door. Kudos to recognizing the problem, however, having one rig with one person responding and possibly nobody else showing up to fight the fire can be problematic to downright disastrous. Granted, some departments have had career drivers working 24/7/365 that has worked well for them. Those stories should be shared.

As daytime volunteer availability has worsened, additional part-timers have been hired–probably to satisfy employment laws and insurance regulations, many are legally employed as laborers, station managers, mechanics, groundskeepers, maintenance workers, IT specialists, janitors or various other monikers. Its feasible only part-timers are crewing responding apparatus during weekdays. I applaud the hiring entities for addressing the situation, but there can be drawbacks.

When volunteer departments first started hiring part-timers they were often older department members, often recently retired from a full-time occupation. Keeping it in the family was a norm. Whether part-timers had to maintain a department’s membership requirements for training, attendance, and physical fitness was—or still is—up to individual departments. I know a lot of old people so no judgment or accusation is made.

This statement will no doubt draw the ire of many older part-timers: “When the tones drop, if part-timers are going to perform the duties of active interior firefighters (or EMS providers if applicable), they should meet whatever has been established as the minimum qualifications established for that particular department.” 

Career firefighters

Electric vehicle (EV) firefighting apparatus are showing steady growth around the country, from EV pumpers to EV aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) trucks.

Fire departments purchasing such EV rigs are discovering they may need to install a new electrical infrastructure in the station that houses the apparatus or upgrade its existing electrical systems, while others choose to site their EVs in newer stations that have the necessary electrical infrastructure.

Roger Lackore, senior director of product development for REV Fire Group, says the company wanted to develop an all-electric pumper designed in the North American style and created the E-ONE Vector electric pumper to achieve that goal. Lackore says the Vector has three double-stacked battery packs—one ahead of the rear axle on each side and one centered behind the rear axle, each having 109 kilowatt hours (kWh) of storage, for a total of 327 kWh—driving an 800-VDC operating system.

1 A 120-kW DC fast charger is shown charging a Mesa (AZ) Fire & Medical Department E-ONE Vector™ electric pumper. (Photo 1 courtesy of E-ONE/REV Specialty Vehicle Segment.)

Lackore says that the Vector has three electric motors—one that takes the place of a traditional diesel engine in driving the rear axle in a normal split shaft operation, a second motor that powers the vehicle’s 12-volt electrical and air conditioning systems, and the third motor for driving the pump, with each motor having its own inverter. “In terms of charging the Vector’s batteries, we recommend using a 120-kilowatt (kW) direct current (DC) fast charger as the best option for being able to turn the vehicle around quickly after a run,” Lackore points out. “Charlotte (NC) Fire Department is in the process of building a new station for their Vector electric pumper and are putting in a 120-VDC fast charger there to take care of the vehicle’s charging needs,” he says.

Lackore says that E-ONE offers an optional Cummins D series engine on the Vector, which E-ONE calls a range extender, because it’s not connected to the drivetrain or pump but only to an electric motor that generates power to charge the batteries. Once the batteries discharge to a certain point, Lackore observes, the range extender will automatically begin to charge the batteries and then shut off at a preset limit. The Vector also uses regenerative braking to help recharge the batteries.

Todd McBride, RTX program manager for Rosenbauer, says its RTX electric pumper has two electric drive motors—one at the front of the vehicle and one at the rear, giving the RTX an all-wheel-drive ability as a standard configuration. McBride says that the RTX has three 132-kW batteries that develop a total peak output of 360 kW and provide 490 horsepower (hp). It also has a 300- hp backup diesel engine that can be used to recharge the batteries, if necessary, he adds.

“The RTX is designed to handle 90% of its calls on battery power only,” he points out. “We’ve found that 20% of time on calls the diesel backup will automatically engage, and if the unit is in a pumping operation, it will take over pumping and begin to charge the batteries. But if not pumping, it will take over all electrical operations on the vehicle and begin charging the batteries.”

McBride says that Rosenbauer recommends a level 3 DC charger to maintain the RTX’s batteries. “A level 3 charger’s minimum is 50 kW and can go up to 350 kW,” he points out. “Reports from fire departments using the RTX show that about 98% of their calls are being handled on battery power alone, so a 50-kW to 60-kW charger is sufficient based on that data.”

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