Many fire departments and districts around the country have technical rescue vehicles and tractor-drawn trailers to handle specialized rescue situations that go beyond the capabilities of a traditional rescue truck.
By Alan M. Petrillo
Technical rescue trucks often carry collapse and trench rescue equipment, urban search and rescue (USAR) gear, hazmat gear, high-angle rescue equipment, water rescue and dive gear, or an assortment of those types of equipment needed for specific disciplines.
Although the latest technical rescue rigs being built are used by departments and municipal task forces across United States and from the Canadian to the Mexican borders, the equipment they are carrying and their specific missions vary by locality.
Kevin Arnold, rescue and specialty vehicle product manager for Ferrara Fire Apparatus, points out that technical rescue vehicles are usually very different from each other. "It might be a USAR truck, hazardous materials truck, a command vehicle, dive truck, or a combination of those that define its mission," he says, "but in the end it still is pretty much a big rescue vehicle-a specialized toolbox on wheels."
Disaster Response
Arnold says that technical rescue vehicles often are designed to respond to natural disasters. "Their use seems to revolve around disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, and flooding conditions," Arnold says. "After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, departments and fire districts went wild buying technical rescues and command trailers."
Arnold points out that technical rescue vehicles can be either self-propelled or tractor-drawn trailers, and the type purchased by a fire department or municipal entity depends on how the vehicle will be used. "Typically, a technical rescue vehicle will sit somewhere and not be used a lot," Arnold observes. "So, many fire departments choose to base their technical rescue equipment in a trailer that will sit for a while until needed yet can be pulled by a variety of vehicles."
Slide-Outs
Ferrara built a technical rescue vehicle for San Francisco, California, Arnold says, that doubles as the mayor's mobile command center, complete with several slide-out sections. For Louisiana's homeland security agency in West Baton Rouge, Ferrara built a technical rescue on a tandem-axle Freightliner chassis that also duplicates the agency's dispatch center in the truck with three slide-out sections, Arnold says.
Slide-out sections are popular in combination technical rescue and command vehicles, says Scott Oyen, vice president of sales for Rosenbauer. "Technical rescues need a lot of storage room to haul all the equipment that departments want to put on them," Oyen says. "When there's a command center built into the vehicle, you need the slide-outs in order to provide the space necessary for them to function. We're building a technical rescue and command vehicle right now that has the incident command inside with four slide-out sections and a lot of electronics gear, while the technical rescue equipment is stowed in compartments around the outside of the vehicle."
Equipped for All Hazards
Oyen notes that Rosenbauer recently built a technical rescue vehicle with a 35,000-pound gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) for an East Coast fire department that was set up to carry four different rescue tool systems. "There were also multiple mobile winches on the rescue, which is very common for technical rescue vehicles, as well as coffin compartments across the top and a stairway to get up there," Oyen points out. "The vehicle also carries hazmat and confined space gear, as well as other technical rescue equipment."
Shane Braun, sales and marketing manager for rescue products at Pierce Manufacturing, calls large technical rescue vehicles "Swiss Army knives" for fire departments. "They are usually able to do everything with that one vehicle," Braun points out. "Fire departments can't afford to buy a truck dedicated to only one type of technical rescue response so they try to do it all with one truck-collapse rescue, rope work, trench rescue, USAR, and hazardous materials."
Braun notes that Pierce recently built a technical rescue unit for the Colorado Springs (CO) Fire Department that is a walk-in rig, with a large crew cab and walk-in area for equipment storage. Pierce built a different style technical rescue for the Chesapeake (VA) Fire Department: a walk-around type with a big crew cab area. "Both of those vehicles carry similar complements of equipment to handle a variety of technical rescue situations," Braun says. "Colorado Springs has more rope and below-grade rescue equipment, but Chesapeake's technical rescue carries an air compressor with a full breathing air system and lots of electrical cord and hydraulic tools."
Bob Sorensen, vice president of SVI Trucks, says SVI recently built a technical rescue truck for the Loveland (CO) Fire Rescue Authority. "It responds to every fire call and supports all other operations, as well as doing technical rescue work," Sorensen says. "It has ladders to support truck operations with a 35-footer, two 28-foot ladders, and a 14-foot roof ladder, along with pike poles, that store down through the center of the vehicle."
The Loveland technical rescue is set up to handle collapse and heavy vehicle rescue extrication, swift water rescue, and high- and low-angle rescue, Sorensen says. It's built on a Spartan Gladiator chassis with a 23-foot body and seating for six, has an overall length of 38 feet, and is powered by a Cummins 500-horsepower diesel engine and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission.
Truck vs. Trailer
Ed Smith, director of the emergency vehicles group at VT Hackney, agrees that for the most part, technical rescue vehicles tend to spend a lot of their time sitting, rather than on active calls. "But, it's critical for a department to have the capability to handle the types of situations that technical rescue vehicles are designed for," Smith points out.
Smith notes that technical rescue trucks are more popular right now compared to trailers for several reasons. "Trailers are more expensive than the typical truck because of the separate set of axles and the frame," Smith says. "Also, there's a lot more sheet metal on a trailer because it's a larger vehicle. But if space is a concern, most states limit a straight truck to 40 feet, although some allow 45 feet under exemptions. But with a trailer, you can go to 65 feet long because it articulates."
Robb Watkins, former manager of the St. Louis (MO) Metropolitan Search and Rescue System and retired task force leader, says the regional response system purchased Hackney tractor-drawn technical rescue trailers for its USAR teams. "Instead of a heavy rescue toolbox loaded with personnel, we use trailers to maximize the equipment space," Watkins says. "The personnel show up at the scene in other fire trucks-firefighters on duty or volunteers from their own fire districts."
The Hackney-built St. Louis technical rescue trailers are designed to carry all the tools needed for various technical rescues with the exception of lumber. "Each trailer has a 40-kW generator and an Ingersoll Rand air compressor for breathing air," Watkins notes. "They are set up with rescue equipment to handle structural collapse, high-angle, confined space, and trench rescue situations."
John Grussing, retired administrator for the Normal (IL) Fire Department Illinois State Response Team, says his technical rescue team is Division 41 of MABAS, the Chicago-area Mutual Aid Box Alarm System. His team uses a Hackney-built trailer that carries high-angle, confined space, structural collapse, and trench rescue equipment. "We have 20 paid firefighters on our team with backgrounds in the trades-carpenters, welders, and others-who also have gone through several hundred hours of specialized training," Grussing says. "Our technical rescue team can be sent statewide, depending on the type and severity of the incident."
Grussing says his technical rescue team has taken its Hackney trailer to a wide assortment of calls, from a person with a medical issue trapped inside a grain elevator to rescuing workers trapped on a huge windmill power generation unit. "We've also done a lot of building collapse work besides the high-angle rescues," Grussing says. "After an F4 tornado destroyed homes and offices in Washington, Illinois, we were tasked with searching several square blocks for victims. "
He points out that the technical rescue trailer carries "everything from fiber optic cameras and acoustic listening devices to pneumatic struts for shoring and trench work and a bevy of high-angle rope equipment, from simple rappelling gear to complex trolley systems. There's approximately $350,000 worth of equipment on our technical rescue trailer," he adds.
Joe Messmer, president of Summit Fire Apparatus, says his company recently delivered a 46-foot-long technical rescue trailer to the Hamilton County (OH) USAR Team. "The design of the trailer was such that it has fiberglass-reinforced RoPack mini crates that are forkliftable," Messmer says. "Shoring material can be very heavy, so the team decided it was easier to haul it around with a forklift. This is the first technical rescue trailer I've seen that carries its own forklift."
Messmer notes that it took extra engineering to design the technical rescue trailer. "Because of the added weight, the trailer has both side and rear doors," he says. "There are eight doors per side, plus the rear door, and each is 52 inches wide."
Todd Nix, apparatus consultant for Unruh Fire, notes that purchasing technical rescue vehicles always reverts back to money. "Shrinking budgets mean that departments have to do more with less, so we are seeing collapse and hazmat and other rescue functions going on one large truck or trailer," Nix says.
Unruh Fire recently built a USAR technical rescue trailer for the Hutchison (KS) Fire Department, Nix says, a 30-foot trailer with a 24-foot box that's pulled by an International tractor. "There's a lot of interest in technical rescue trailers by larger fire departments," he adds, "and most of the smaller departments go with smaller specialty trailers."
Mutual-Aid Organizations
Shane Krueger, national sales manager for Marion Body Works Inc., says he has seen the growth of technical rescue vehicle use through mutual aid organizations like MABAS and other state-controlled agencies. "These are the organizations buying technical rescue vehicles, and they are using them for multidepartment responses," Krueger points out.
Krueger says that Marion built a dozen technical rescue trucks for MABAS on a hybrid commercial/custom chassis that were air units carrying cascade air systems and fill stations or carrying technical rescue equipment centered on building collapse, trench rescue, and dive rescue. Marion built the units on International 4400 to 7400 chassis.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizona-based journalist and is a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment editorial advisory board. He served 22 years with the Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including in the position of chief.