Palmyra (MO) Fire Department covers about a 200-square-mile territory in a fire protection district that’s adding a second station to deal with residential growth in its coverage area, which necessitated the purchase of another engine. The department decided to go with a Pierce Manufacturing rescue-pumper that would serve an area that had been a long run from its first station.
Gary Crane, Palmyra Fire’s chief, notes that the department covers the city of Palmyra with 3,600 population, a number of small villages, and the West Quincy and Taylor areas with a total population of 7,000 now that it became a fire protection district. “In addition to the new Pierce rescue-pumper, we have two tankers (tenders), two engines, three brush trucks, one heavy rescue, and a chief’s vehicle, staffed by 20 volunteer firefighters,” Crane points out. “In our rural fire district we have a BASF chemical plant, a stored ammonia facility, an historic downtown, five schools, a grain elevator, two major highways, and two railroads that we have to protect.”
Mike Borgmann, salesman for MacQueen Emergency, who sold the rescue-pumper to Palmyra, says the department sought a rescue-pumper that had lots of storage, a large water tank, ladders under cover, and a roll-up hosebed cover. “They also wanted a 6-inch intake at the rear of the vehicle so they could draft more easily from a portable water tank,” Borgmann says. “The department also wanted cameras on both sides and the rear of the truck with a screen at the side-mount pump panel so the pump operator could view drafting operations no matter where the portable tank was located.”
Ken Sebo, pumper business development manager for Pierce Manufacturing Inc., says the Palmyra rescue-pumper is built on an Enforcer chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof, and seating for seven firefighters, six of them in Pierce PSV SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) seats, and with an EMS (emergency medical services) cabinet in the crew cab. Sebo points out the rescue-pumper has a wheelbase of 225 inches, an overall length of 24 feet 7-1/2-inches, and an overall height of 8 feet 11 inches.
Sebo notes that the Palmyra rig has heavy-duty frame rails, a TAK-4 independent front suspension, frontal impact protection, a Command Zone multiplex system, Gore-Tite roll-up doors over the full-height and full-depth compartments on both sides of the body, and a 19-inch extended front pumper with a recessed hose tray and a 2-1/2-inch discharge. “The rescue-pumper has a Waterous CXC20 1,500-gallons per minute (gpm) single-stage pump, a UPF® Poly® 1,000-gallon water tank, and two 200-foot 1-3/4-inch hose speed lays in removable trays in front of the pump panel,” he says.
Crane adds that Palmyra also had Pierce put the rescue-pumper’s ground ladders, pike poles, and hard suction hose in a tunnel through the center of the water tank, and added fender storage for a fire extinguisher and extra SCBA bottles, slide-out and tilt-down trays in the R3 compartment for hydraulic rescue tools, and roll-out trays and pull-out tool boards in the rest of the rig’s compartments. “The rescue-pumper also has a Will-Burt Night Scan Powerlite light tower with four FRC LED heads,” he says, “lighted Hansen hand rails, and FRC Spectra LED scene lights.”
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Ariz.-based journalist, the author of three novels and five non-fiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment editorial advisory board. He served 22 years with Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including the position of chief.
