Alan M. Petrillo
Not many firefighters agree on the perfect design for a rescue truck, chiefly because the design depends on a fire department's particular needs. Thus, manufacturers are turning out a wide variety of rescue truck styles, from traditional walk-around rescues that serve as huge toolboxes to walk-in rescues that offer interior access, to combination units and rescue-pumpers. In effect, a rescue truck design these days is up to the imagination of the department and its vehicle manufacturer.
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(1) Pierce Manufacturing built this tandem-axle combination
walk-in and walk-around heavy rescue truck for the Bound
Brook (NJ) Rescue Squad. (Photo courtesy of Pierce
Manufacturing.)
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Transition
Eddie L. Smith, director of the emergency vehicles group at VT Hackney, says that the economy and technological changes in the past few years have affected the design and definition of a traditional rescue truck. "Not many decades ago, a rescue truck was an anomaly in fire departments except in large city departments," Smith says. "Many fire departments didn't do auto extrication, technical rescue, or hazardous materials work. But as they started doing those activities, we saw rescues go from a squad that was a small truck carrying some tools and first-aid equipment to today's heavy rescues where sometimes manufacturers are hard pressed to get all the equipment on the truck that the department wants."
Smith thinks that tight budgets and staffing cuts have caused a transition from heavy rescues to rescue-pumpers and combination vehicles. "I don't think heavy rescues will go away any time soon but believe we'll see more of their use with regional response teams."
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(2) The Jessup (PA) Hose Co. turned to KME to build this
walk-around rescue truck that includes a Burner Fire Control
stored energy compressed air foam system (CAFS). (Photo
courtesy of KME.)
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As an example of a traditional heavy rescue still being in favor, Smith points out a heavy rescue Hackney recently built for the Ayden (NC) Fire Department, a small bedroom community that also protects a large DuPont industrial plant. "That rescue is on a Spartan MetroStar chassis and carries a cascade air system, rehab equipment, air bags, hydraulic rescue tools, a full ground ladder complement, a 25-kW Harrison hydraulic generator, a light tower, and high-amp cord reels to extend their lighting well beyond the truck. That vehicle is ready for anything."
Smaller Options
On the flip side of rescue truck design, some departments are opting for smaller and lighter rigs. Todd Nix, apparatus consultant for Unruh Fire, says that when the economy tanked in 2008, a lot of fire departments moved toward smaller chassis rescues. "They turned to Fords and Dodges, particularly the Ford F-550 chassis with a crew cab," Nix says. "Many of those trucks carry a medium-duty Hale HBX 200 or Darley 2BE 200- to 250-gpm pump on them and around 300 gallons of water. With a 10-foot rescue box, we can still get all the extrication and medical equipment on the vehicle so that it becomes a multipurpose unit for the department."
Nix says that the smaller rescues are being purchased by fire d