Stevens County Emergency Services covers 720 square miles of a very rural fire district from two stations, with a full-time paid chief, and 15 volunteer firefighters. The department runs two wildland urban interface (WUI) engines, a rescue-pumper, two 3,000-gallon tankers (tenders), and two brush trucks, all of them four-wheel drive, but found it needed a wildland brush truck that could also serve as a mini tanker. Stevens County turned to Weis Fire & Safety to build that vehicle.
“We wanted the new truck to be a primary brush truck but with a much larger water tank than typical for a brush rig so we wouldn’t have to pull off the fire line and refill water as often,” says Rodney Kelling, chief of Stevens County Emergency Services. “Our new truck had to be four-wheel drive, and we wanted a bigger chassis which could hold a larger water tank. We also wanted as much storage capacity as possible, and a bumper turret so the vehicle could be operated by one firefighter if necessary.”
Mike Weis, owner of Weis Fire & Safety, says the new rig for Stevens County is a Weis Stallion 1500™ model built on a 2023 Freightliner M2 106 chassis and two-door cab, powered by a 350-horsepower (hp) engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, with a Hale HPX275-B35 pump powered by a 35-hp Briggs & Stratton gasoline engine, and a 1,500-gallon UPF Poly® water tank.
Weis says the Stallion 1500 has in-cab electronic remote start/stop pump engine controls, a Task Force Tips Tornado electronic monitor on the extended front bumper, two one-inch hose Kocheck lightweight booster whip lines with Task Force Tips QuadraFog adjustable gallonage pistol grip nozzles, two ground sweep nozzles, and a Hannay heavy-duty electric rewind booster reel.
He notes that the rig has a Kussmaul Pump Plus 2000 apparatus battery charging/conditioning system, a 20-inch wide walkway behind the cab, top mount pump controls with a 12-inch LED panel light, underbody slide-out tool storage, two underbody tool boxes, a 14-inch high aluminum dunnage tray with a vinyl cover, and a 14-inch high aluminum divided tray having a preconnect on one side and dead lay hose on the other, with a vinyl cover and web netting with quick release straps.
Lighting on the wildland pumper-tanker includes a Whelen LED light bar, a 42-inch HiViz FireTech Mini Brow LED combination spot/flood light, Whelen LED emergency lighting, three HiViz FireTech Mini Brow lights on the front and sides of the rig, nine LED work lights, and auto-on LED compartment lighting.
Kelling points out that Stevens County has used the vehicle quite a bit as both a brush truck and as a mini tanker. “We recently had a semi truck loaded with hay that caught fire and this truck was the first out on the scene,” he says. “They operated a 1-1/2-inch double jacket hose line and the Tornado bumper turret and were able to extinguish the fire. We’ve also used the wildland-pumper tanker on a couple of structure fires, too.”
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.
