Northumberland (PA) Hook & Ladder Company’s 30 volunteer firefighters are celebrating the organization’s 150th anniversary this year, and recently put in service a new heavy rescue truck built by Rescue 1.
“We cover an area of one square mile with a 2,900 population that includes a commercial business district with some older buildings, two assisted living facilities, and some light industrial businesses,” says Steve Swinford, Northumberland’s chief. “We replaced a 1997 Central States/HME rescue truck where we had run out of room for our equipment. We kept a similar layout on the new Rescue 1 truck, but on a much larger vehicle.”
Brad Turk, regional sales manager for Rescue 1, says Northumberland’s new walk-around heavy rescue is built on a Spartan Metro Star chassis and extended medium four door (EMFD) cab with seating for eight firefighters, five of them in H.O. Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats. The rig is powered by a 450-horsepower (hp) Cummins L9 engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, and has a wheelbase of 210 inches, an overall length of 34 feet 7 inches, and an overall height of 10 feet 8 inches.
Turk points out that the Northumberland heavy rescue has a 24-inch extended front bumper with a recessed 9,500-pound capacity Warn winch with 100 feet of synthetic rope, winch receivers at the rear and on both sides of the rig, a six-bottle air cascade system, and a Sidewinder single-bottle fill station in the R3 compartment.
Jamie Spiegel, co-owner of Phase 2 Vehicle Specialties, who sold the heavy rescue to Northumberland, says the rig has a 25-kW Onan generator, a Will-Burt Night Scan light tower with two 600-watt Sirion LED light heads mounted on the cab roof to allow more space on the body for coffin compartments, as well as Whelen LED M9 and M6 emergency lights, a Code 3 LED light bar, a HiViz FireTech LED brow light, and HiViz FireTech LED Guardian scene lights.
Turk adds that the new rescue has fold-down steps on the officer’s side of the body to allow firefighters to sit and rehab, and also a slide-out tray at the rear of the truck with a 2,000 pound capacity that holds a Little Giant ladder, cribbing, as well as 8×8, 6×6, 4×4 and 2×4 shoring.
Swinford notes the new rescue runs a lot of mutual aid with surrounding municipalities. “We run our rescue behind our 100-foot E-ONE aerial ladder, and decided to put a ladder complement on the rescue to make it a truck without a stick, where we can use it in place of a truck if necessary,” he says. The rescue carries a two-section 28-foot extension ladder, a 16-foot roof and a 10-foot folding ladder in a slide-in compartment, and a 24-foot extension and 14-foot roof ladder in a ladder box on top of the rig that has rollers to allow the ladders to slide off the rear of the truck, Swinford adds.
Swinford points out, “We have been first on the scene at mutual aid motor vehicle accidents where there’s a car fire, so we put a TRIMAX 30 compressed air foam system (CAFS) on the new rescue so we can make an effort at extinguishing the fire before an engine arrives. The system has a tank in a coffin compartment and is piped down into the L3 over wheel well compartment where there’s a hose reel with 100 feet of hose that’s powered off of the air cascade system.”
The heavy rescue’s L1/R1 compartment is transverse, he says, with two side-by-side trays that slide out 70% on each side, holding Paratech® struts and Res-Q-Jack® stabilization equipment in one tray, and SCBAs for the driver and two firefighters in jump seats in the other.
Swinford points out that the new truck’s L4 compartment holds Holmatro Pentheon battery-powered hydraulic tools in Polytech trays that tilt and deploy at waist height. “We have 50 Series and 60 Series Spreaders, 50 Series and 60 Series cutters, two rams, and a pedal cutter,” he observes.
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.
