Special Delivery Alan M. Petrillo
The Liberty Township (OH) Fire Department is located southwest of Columbus and north of Cincinnati, covering a 37-square-mile district from two stations.
Its fleet consists of an engine, a rescue-pumper, an aerial ladder platform, and three advanced life support (ALS) ambulances, with the fire suppression rigs all built by Sutphen Corp. When it came time to retire the department’s 2004 Sutphen 110-foot Magnum aerial platform quint because of its age, Liberty Township again chose to go with a Sutphen aerial.
The rig that the department had Sutphen build is a SPH 100 aerial platform on a Sutphen Monarch heavy-duty custom chassis with a 73-inch four-door cab and 10-inch raised roof. “We decided to eliminate the water tank on the new vehicle,” says Duane Price, Liberty Township’s assistant chief and chairperson of its truck committee. “By not putting a water tank on the rig, we were able to carry three more ground ladders, which is important to us because we don’t always have the ability to get our aerial platform in front of a house or apartment building because of long, narrow driveways or long setbacks. We almost doubled the extension ladder capacity on the truck, which allows us to throw more ground ladders on a building.”
The new aerial platform carries one 35-foot two-section extension ladder, two 28-foot two-section extension ladders, two 24-foot two-section extension ladders, a 20-foot roof ladder, a 16-foot roof ladder, and two 10-foot folding attic ladders in two enclosed ladder tunnels and a 16-foot roof ladder affixed to the side of the aerial. “On our old platform, the ladders were carried on the outside of the rig,” Price notes, “but with the new truck, they are kept clean and out of the elements in the ladder tunnel.”
1 The Liberty Township (OH) Fire Department had Sutphen Corp. build this SPH 100 aerial ladder platform. (Photos courtesy of Herb Fire Equipment.)
department
Liberty Township (OH) Fire Department
Strength: 60 paid full-time firefighter/paramedics; two stations.
Service area: Provides fire suppression, rescue, and emergency medical services to a population of approximately 40,000 people in a 37-square-mile coverage district.
Other apparatus: Sutphen engine, 1,500-gpm pump, 1,000-gallon water tank; Sutphen rescue-pumper, 1,500-gpm pump, 750-gallon water tank; three Horton ALS ambulances, one each on Ford F-550, Ford F-650, and Freightliner chassis.
Price points out that the interior of the aerial platform’s cab matches those on its Sutphen engine and rescue-pumper. “The cab is set up for five firefighters,” he says, “with four of them in H.O. Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats. There’s also a big emergency medical services (EMS) cabinet in the cab just inside the crew door on the road side that holds the paramedics’ EMS equipment, along with hazardous materials monitoring equipment and thermal imaging cameras.”
Andy Herb, president of Herb Fire Equipment, who sold the Sutphen aerial platform to Liberty Township, says the new truck’s huck bolt, 304 stainless-steel body was an important feature for the department, as was the ample amount of LED scene lighting installed on the rig. He notes that the vehicle is b
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Posted: Jan 13, 2023
Pierce—Minnetonka (MN) Fire Department PUC pumper. Enforcer cab and chassis; Cummins L9 450-hp engine; Pierce PUC 1,500-gpm pump; UPF Poly 500-gallon water tank; 30-gallon foam cell; Pierce Husky 3™ single-agent foam system. Dealer: Brad White, MacQueen Emergency, Apple Valley, MN.
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The town of Alfred is putting a 1995 Freightliner FLD70 on the auction block and taking bids from the public, wjbq.com reported.
The nearly 28-year-old truck has a Cummings diesel engine, a 1,000-gallon tank and 46,409 miles on it, the report said.
So far, there have been 42 bids with the highest at $99,000, according to the report.
Check out the fire engine on Municibid.com.
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Elon’s municipal leaders learned recently about the temporary loss of a fire engine, which encountered some maintenance issues on Monday – and ran off the road while it was being hauled off to the repair shop by a tow truck, alamancenews.com reported.
A fire official reported to the town council Tuesday that the engine’s run of bad luck began when its driver noticed something wrong with the vehicle’s brakes on the way back from an emergency call Monday morning, the report said. A wrecker was called to take the three-year-old engine in for a tune up.
The tow truck driver apparently lost control of his own vehicle and wound up in a ditch – dragging along the town’s fire engine behind him, the report said.
The fire official conceded that it’s unclear just how much damage the fire engine sustained in this accident. It appears to be repairable. The department will put its backup engine in service in the meantime.
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