Pilot Knob Volunteer Fire Department provides fire, rescue, and emergency medical services (EMS) first response to the town of Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, and parts of Surry and Stokes counties. The department found itself in need of a new engine and chose 4 Guys Fire Trucks to build a new rescue-pumper.
Mike Bordeaux, president of Fire Choice Fire & Safety, who sold the rescue-pumper to Pilot Knob, says the fire department is a new customer for Fire Choice. “The chief approached us about a new rig and told us they wanted a do-everything vehicle, so after a lot of consultation and discussion, we came up with a 4 Guys rescue-pumper design for them.”
Bordeaux says the department wanted a rig that could handle fire suppression duties, vehicle rescue and extrications situations, and EMS responses in their coverage area. “They are a rural department that covers an interstate highway, so they needed space on the vehicle to carry their HURST Jaws of Life® eDRAULIC® hydraulic rescue tools, as well as space in the cab for an EMS cabinet to carry their medical gear,” Bordeaux points out.
Nate Callahan, mechanical engineer for 4 Guys Fire Trucks, says his company built Pilot Knob a side mount rescue-pumper on a Spartan Metro Star chassis and long four-door (LFD) cab with a 12-inch raised roof, powered by a 450-horsepower (hp) Cummins L9 diesel engine and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission.
Wheelbase on the rescue-pumper is 199 inches, overall length is 32 feet, 8 inches, and overall height is 9 feet, 8-1/2-inches. The rig has a front axle rated at 20,000 pounds, and a rear axle rated at 27,000 pounds. Callahan says the rescue-pumper’s cab is set up to carry six firefighters, five of them in H.O. Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats with IMMI SmartDock brackets. The cab also holds an EMS storage cabinet behind the motor’s doghouse, and a small refrigerator for rehab purposes on the back wall.
Callahan notes that the rescue-pumper carries a 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) Hale Qmax side mount pump, a 1,000-gallon water tank, two 200-foot 1-3/4-inch hose crosslays and one 200-foot 2-1/2-inch crosslay above the pump panel, a Hannay electric reel holding 150-feet of one-inch booster hose in the dunnage area, and an Akron Brass 3433 manual deck gun.
The 21-inch extended front bumper has 150-feet of preconnected 1-3/4-inch hose hooked to a reduced 2-1/2-inch valve in a covered compartment, and a 6-inch front suction intake with a Hale master intake butterfly valve (MIV).
The vehicle’s hosebed holds 1,000 feet of 5-inch large diameter hose (LDH), 400 feet of 2-1/2-inch hose, and two 250-foot, 1-3/4-inch hoselines preconnected to 2-1/2-inch discharges.
At the left rear of the rig is a covered compartment holding two 10-foot long, 6-inch hard suction hoses, and two 6-foot long New York hooks. The right rear of the rig has a covered compartment holding a 24-foot, two-section extension ladder, a 14-foot roof ladder, and a 10-foot folding attic ladder on the beam, and 10-foot and 8-foot pike poles. The rear compartment has a slide-out tray holding donut rolls of spare hose.
The rescue-pumper has four coffin compartments, SCBA bottle and fire extinguisher storage compartments in the rear wheel wells, a rear camera system, and a FireCom intercom headset system. Lighting on the vehicle includes Whelen LED emergency lighting, a LED RotoRay light, a HiViz FireTech LED brow light, HiViz FireTech LED scene lighting, and a HiViz FireTech LED rear traffic control light.
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.
