The Bronson Volunteer Fire Department in Iowa is a small volunteer fire department covering a rural district from two stations with a 2008 Crimson pumper, a rescue truck, a 1991 F700 tanker, two brush trucks, an ambulance, and a Polaris wildland/rescue utility terrain vehicle (UTV). But the department’s tanker was getting up in age and didn’t carry enough water for Bronson’s current needs, so it was decided to replace the rig.
“Besides the F700 tanker showing its age, it only had a 750-gallon per minute (gpm) pump and a 1,500-gallon water tank,” observes Devan Amick, Bronson’s chief. “Plus, it’s a stick shift transmission, which a lot of firefighters don’t feel comfortable operating. We wanted an apparatus that could carry 3,000 gallons of water, which is critical to us in our rural setting, have more storage than our previous tanker, a bigger pump, and be able to carry rescue equipment.”
Dale Derner, Toyne’s Midwest regional sales representative, who sold the rig to Bronson, says the department wanted a vehicle that was multifunctional. “They liked the design and layout of the Toyne,” he says, and chose us to build their pumper-tanker-rescue.” Derner notes the new rig for Bronson is built on a Kenworth T480 chassis and two-door cab with a bolted and painted stainless steel body with compartments covered by swing-out doors, powered by a 380-horsepower (hp) Paccar PX9 engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission.
Wheelbase on the new pumper-tanker-rescue is 243 inches, overall length is 35 feet, 8 inches, and overall height is 10 feet, 11 inches. Derner says the rig has a Waterous CSPA 1,250-gpm side mount pump, an UPF Poly® 3,000-gallon water tank, an ICI SL Plus water tank gauge, a Fire Research PumpBoss pressure governor, a rear Newton dump valve with a manual swiveling chute, a rear 2-1/2-inch direct tank fill, 6-inch intakes on the left and right of the pump, and a 2-1/2-inch intake on the left side.
Amick points out that Bronson’s new rig carries 1,000 feet of 5-inch large diameter hose (LDH) and 400 feet of 2-1/2-inch hose in the hosebed, has two 200-foot crosslays of 1-3/4-inch hose on top of the pump panel, 100 feet of one-inch hose on a booster reel in the rear compartment, two 2-1/2-inch discharges on the left side, a 3-inch and 2-1/2-inch discharge on the right side, a 2-1/2-inch rear discharge, and a Akron 3462 Forestry monitor on the front bumper. “With the bumper monitor, we can drive a highway and spray into the trees or hillsides to stop a fire from the roadway,” Amick says.
He notes the vehicle carries a Syntex 1,500-gallon portable tank in a slide-in compartment on the left rear of the rig, an engine’s complement of ladders and pike poles in a ladder tunnel on the right side rear, two 10-foot hard suction sections in a slide-in tunnel on the right side, four self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) packs in a side compartment, and six SCBA bottles in wheel well storage along with a pull-out speedy-dry tray. Lighting on the rig includes Code 3 LED warning lighting, FRC LED 900-Q65 scene lighting, FRC LED SPA530-Q20 telescoping lighting, and ILI LED compartment strip lighting.
“We’ve used this truck on multiple structure fires and also on mutual aid assisting with water supply, and it has performed very well for us,” Amick says.
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.
