Manufacturers are incorporating more electronics and technological advances into their fire apparatus, making the vehicles easier to operate, safer, and able to accomplish their tasks faster and more efficiently.
John Schultz, general manager of pumpers for Pierce Manufacturing Inc., says that many fire departments are looking to automate many of a vehicle’s functions on a fire scene. “Some departments choose to go to a preprogrammed sequence of scene lighting,” Schultz says, “and may also choose to automatically make sure all cab windows are closed when the vehicle’s parking brake is engaged to prevent carcinogen exposure inside the cab. These and other functions can be programmed through our Command Zone™ multiplex system.”
Schultz notes that Pierce’s new Volterra™ platform of electric vehicles is on the cutting edge of technology in fire apparatus. “The vehicles use an Oshkosh patented parallel-electric drivetrain, have integrated onboard batteries, have an internal combustion engine for continuous and uninterrupted power to the pumping or drive system,” he says, “and produce zero emissions and reduced noise.”
1 Pierce Manufacturing Inc. built this Volterra™ on a Pierce Enforcer™ custom chassis and cab for the Madison (WI) Fire Department, powered by a 155-kW hour battery pack, specially designed to meet Madison Station 8’s daily duty cycle. (Photos 1-3 courtesy of Pierce Manufacturing Inc.)
2 Pierce’s aerial products can be built with automated leveling and stabilizer deployment options, with the deployment shown on a control screen.
3 Pierce offers a camera system that an aerial operator can use to view where the stabilizers will be placed to avoid obstacles.
Bob Schulz, Pierce’s general manager of aerials, says technology plays an important role in Pierce’s aerial products. “With the advance of sensor technology, collision avoidance is an important issue where we want to give the operator the most amount of flexibility yet keep operating the vehicle in a safe manner,” Schulz points out. “With our different body configurations, we have to design for different collision avoidance zones but still have a manual override for those cases involving life safety where the operator needs to get out a few inches more.”
Schulz adds that Pierce aerials can be built with automated leveling and stabilizer deployment options, where a single button operation deploys stabilizers with integrated ground pads and levels the vehicle front to back and side to side. Pierce also offers a camera system that the operator can use to view where the stabilizers will be placed to avoid obstacles.
“We also work with partners like HAAS Alert to implement their responder to vehicle and responder to responder technology,” he says. “The HAAS Alert’s Safety Cloud is a cloud-based collision mitigation service that sends real-time digital alerts to drivers in their vehicles as they approach first responders en route or on scene at accidents. The goal is to connect responders and their vehicles to the communities they serve and avoid collisions.”
Mark Fusco, vice president of sales and marketing for Rosenbauer, says the two main examples of Rosenbauer incorporating technology into its vehicles are its RT fully electric fire truck and a new rear-mount pumper that exclusively includes the SAM™ Control System.
“SAM is an integrated, total water flow control system that manages the truck’s pump, tank, intakes, and discharges,” Fusco says. “With our new partnership with IDEX Fire & Safety, we are offering SAM exclusively on Rosenbauer rear-mount pump applications.” With SAM, pump operators can quickly and efficiently use saved presets to set discharge pressures, and even before charging lines the system automatically opens the tank-to-pump valve so water is in the pump and ready to go, he adds.
The Rosenbauer RT electric fire truck uses a completely new drive concept that enables a lower center of gravity and a more balanced axle load distributing, allowing the RT to have excellent cornering ability and thus reducing the risk of accidents, Fusco says.
The RT has a charging capacity of up to 150 kilowatts (kW) for purely electric emission-free, short-range operation, even when used frequently in big cities, Fusco points out. The RT has two 50-kW high-performance high-voltage batteries built into the superstructure of the vehicle, one of which is horizontally built into the floor of the truck between the front and rear wheels and the other of which is positioned vertically between the cabin and the tank or body of the truck. Fusco notes that when the RT comes to a standstill, the engine is automatically deactivated, and the lighting and equipment are powered directly by the batteries.
The RT’s cockpit and crew cabin were redesigned to ensure the greatest possible interaction between crew members, Fusco says. The step-in cockpit has a rotatable driver and commander seat, and since there is no doghouse, the crew cab is not spatially isolated from the cockpit. Using the Rosenbauer EMEREC system, the fire crew is continuously fed data such as incident reports, building blueprints, and camera images and can communicate with one another and the operations center.
Roger Lackore, senior director of product development for REV Fire Group, says technology plays an important role in many of REV Fire Group’s products. He cites Spartan Emergency Response’s Smart Reach™ Multi-Stance™, a patented Smeal® ladder and outrigger control system that offers a 360-degree, no-dead-zone functionality, allowing Smeal aerials to be adapted to the scene while maintaining full reach.
Lackore says the operator can set up the outriggers to any reach that the fire scene will accommodate. Then the dynamic load chart shows the appropriate load for the side of the apparatus that personnel are working from—250 pounds, 500 pounds, or 750 pounds. He notes the system allows firefighters to set up each of the four outriggers at various lengths and tip loads to accommodate tight spaces at fire scenes. “Multi-Stance allows the aerial to accommodate the full tip load of 750 pounds on one side of the truck where outriggers are fully extended and a decreased tip load on the other side if the scene does not allow the outriggers to be fully extended,” he notes.
4 Rosenbauer makes the RT electric fire truck that has two 50-kW high-performance, high-voltage batteries built into the superstructure of the vehicle and is currently building an electric pumper for the Los Angeles City (CA ) Fire Department. (Photos 4-5 courtesy of Rosenbauer.)
5 The interior of the RT’s cockpit and crew cabin was redesigned to ensure the greatest possible interaction between crew members.
6 W. S. Darley & Company offers a tethered drone package for fire trucks that can improve an incident commander’s situational awareness at an emergency scene. (Photo 6 courtesy of W.S. Darley & Company.)
Other technology used on REV Fire Group apparatus includes the REV SmartFlo™ integrated pressure governor system that can feature one-button pump shift, auto-tank recirculation, auto tank-to-pump opening, integrated foam system control, a camera display from other areas around the apparatus, and the Spartan Omni control system that allows an operator to open and close valves remotely using control screens.
Peter Darley, executive vice president and chief operating officer for W.S. Darley & Company, notes that when new technology is introduced, it must be tested and made firefighterproof to be reliable when used in a fire product. “We want to make a lot of things automatic with our pump systems,” Darley says, “so we have an automatic direct tank fill feature so if the vehicle is connected to a water source like a hydrant, the operator won’t have to worry about how much water he has at any given point. We also build a lot of compressed air foam systems into our pumps, where our AutoCAFS controls the balancing of air, foam, and water by pushing a single button.”
Darley adds that as fire trucks are being more technologically connected, with a lot of data arriving and going out, situational awareness has become a bigger issue. “We offer a drone package for fire trucks that is easy to deploy; is tethered so it has power to it and can send data back to the pumper; and can improve the situational awareness of the incident commander, who can see what’s happening overall on the scene—where firefighters and apparatus are located and what’s happening on the roof,” Darley says. “We’re also working on putting better high-intensity lighting on a tethered drone that would essentially be like putting up a light tower.”
Mark Brenneman, assistant sales manager for 4 Guys Fire Trucks, observes, “What’s amazing is how quickly we take digital technology for granted. There’s very little analog on fire trucks anymore; it’s all electronic. And technology is being used to prevent inadvertent mistakes, like the Diamond Logic program on the International four-wheel-drive chassis that will not allow the truck to go into pump gear if the transfer case is engaged. It has to be in neutral.”
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizona-based journalist, the author of three novels and five nonfiction books, and 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.
