Tappan Fire District protects the four square-mile hamlet of Tappan in Rockland County that has approximately 8,000 residents in 2,500 suburban homes, as well as a commercial and industrial area, and two major highways. The district formed an apparatus committee to look into purchasing a new pumper, but things took a dramatic turn after a long discussion about the district’s current needs and the future.
“We started out talking about replacing a pumper with another pumper,” observes Raymond Slavin, one of Tappan’s fire commissioners. “But after a lot of discussion about future needs of the district, and with limited staffing, especially during the day, we wanted to get an apparatus that could do everything and cover all the bases. The idea of a quint that we could respond first due and put in front of a building to serve either as a pumper or an aerial device had a lot of support.”
Slavin noted that until a few years ago, the district was running three Mack pumpers and a Mack rescue truck, but these days the district runs a 2016 Spartan pumper with a 1,500-gallon-per-minute pump and a 750-gallon water tank, and a 1990 Mack CF pumper with a 1,500-gpm pump and a 500-gallon water tank, along with its new first due apparatus, a 2023 Seagrave Meanstick 75-foot aerial ladder quint.
“While we had a horse-drawn ladder cart in 1907 when we were first established, this is our first-ever aerial device,” Slavin says. “We chose the 75-foot aerial ladder quint for its single rear axle and shorter wheelbase because we had to keep the truck as small as possible to negotiate many of the narrow roads and streets in our district. Before we bought it, we measured a few hundred homes and businesses in our district with a laser and determined that the 75-footer fit our needs perfectly.”
Slavin continues, “We found we have 67 cul-de-sacs in our district, so having a single apparatus with an aerial, pump and water tank in front of a building was important. Also, there are 50 residential and commercial structures where we couldn’t reach the roof with ground ladders.”
John Cockerill, sales representative for Hudson Valley Fire Equipment, who sold the Seagrave Meanstick to Tappan, says the quint is built on a Marauder chassis and cab with seating for six firefighters, five of them in H.O. Bostrom DuraWear-covered self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats with Smart Dock brackets. The quint is powered by a 500-horsepower (hp) Cummins X12 diesel engine, and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission.
Cockerill notes the quint has a Waterous CMU 1,500-gpm pump, a 500-gallon water tank, two 200-foot 1-3/4-inch hose crosslays and one 250-foot 2-1/2-inch hose crosslay, a 4-inch discharge on the right side pump panel, 100-feet of 1-3/4-inch hose in an extended front bumper compartment, and an Akron Brass 3480 1,000-gpm storefront monitor with a 1578 nozzle and quad stacked tips at the end of the ladder.
At the rear of the truck, the hosebed is split on each side of the turntable, with the left side holding 700 feet of 4-inch large diameter hose (LDH), and on the right side, 300 feet of 2-1/2-inch hose, and 300 feet of 1-3/4-inch hose.
The rear of the quint has two bays holding ground ladders, he points out. The left compartment holds Duo-Safety three-section 35-foot and two-section 24-foot extension ladders, six pike poles, and six New York roof hooks of various lengths. The right side bay holds Duo-Safety two-section 28-foot extension, 15-foot combination, 14-foot roof, and 10-foot folding attic ladders. A Duo-Safety double-ended roof ladder is mounted on the aerial.
Lighting on the Seagrave quint includes Whelen LED warning and scene lights, Whelen LED Pioneer Plus flood/spotlights, a Whelen LED 36-inch traffic advisor, two Whelen LED Rota-Beam warning beacons at the rear, and Whelen LED combination warning and scene lights at the tip of the aerial.
Cockerill points out that the Tappan quint is very maneuverable. “The overhang of the aerial tip is flush with the front bumper of the truck,” he says, “and the rig drives like a pumper.”
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.
