The Campbell County (WY) Fire Department, an agency that covers 4,800 square miles in northeastern Wyoming, has taken delivery of a front walk-in hazardous materials truck built by SVI Trucks.
J.R. Fox, Campbell County’s deputy chief, says the department is a combination fire department with 33 paid full-time firefighters and 50 volunteers running out of 10 stations. Fox notes the department also is one of several agencies providing hazardous materials and special operations response in a five-county area of Wyoming. “This new SVI hazmat truck replaces a 1994 Ametek walk-through hazmat truck and a state-issued tractor-trailer hazmat unit,” Fox points out. “We only have staffing for one hazmat team, so it didn’t make sense for us to have two hazmat vehicles. Also, a lot of the equipment on the two vehicles was redundant. The state didn’t have any plans to replace the tractor-trailer unit, which was showing its age, so we went to SVI Trucks to design a new hazmat unit to replace our walk-through and gave the tractor trailer hazmat unit back to the state.”
Jason Kline, SVI’s sales manager for Colorado and Wyoming, says Campbell County had several requirements in the new hazmat rig. “They wanted an interior space where their personnel could get dressed in their hazmat suits, a research/command area, and a large capacity for storage of equipment,” Kline says. “It was a challenge to put all those elements together on the truck and still keep the vehicle maneuverable, but we were able to do so on a single rear axle chassis.”
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1 SVI Trucks built this front walk-in hazardous materials truck for the Campbell County (WY) Fire Department. (Photos courtesy of SVI Trucks.)
department
Campbell County (WY) Fire Department
Strength: 33 paid full-time firefighters, 50 volunteer firefighters; 10 stations.
Service area: provides fire suppression and rescue services covering 4,800 square miles in northeastern Wyoming, including the city of Gillette and all of Campbell County. The department is one of eight departments that provide technician-level hazardous materials and special operations response in a five-county area.
Other apparatus: 13 Type 1 pumpers; one aerial ladder platform; 13 Type 4 wildland engines; 19 Type 6 wildland engines; nine tenders (tankers).
The resulting hazmat truck is built on a Spartan Gladiator ELFD chassis and cab with a 20-inch raised roof, Kline says, powered by a Cummins 565-horsepower (hp) X15 diesel engine and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission. Wheelbase on the rig is 250 inches, overall length is 38 feet 8 inches, and overall height is 11 feet 7 inches.
Kline notes that the rig has a slide-out crew area behind the two-door cab that holds a research area for the crew with desks, chairs, cabinets, a SmartBoard interactive display with LCD (liquid crystal display) flat screens, a printer, and two Havis computer docking stations. “That area can be shut off from the body behind it by a sliding door so the personnel working in the research area can isolate themselves from any operations being conducted in the back,” he says. “The SmartBoard TV is mirrored to a large screen display in the rear of the body so the crew back there is aware of what’s happening in the research area.”
2 The Campbell County hazmat truck is built on a Spartan Gladiator ELFD chassis and cab with a 20-inch raised roof.
3 SVI built a lift-up stairway on hydraulic cylinders at the rear of the vehicle to access the coffin compartments on top. Slide-out trays for heavy equipment are in a compartment under the stairway.
4 The driver and officer positions in the hazmat truck’s cab.
5 The rear section of the walk-in truck can be closed off from the research/command area by a sliding door.
Fox says that while the department wanted as much compartmentation as possible on the new hazmat truck, it also needed an interior area for personnel to stay warm or cool, depending on the weather, and also for some of the more sensitive equipment, like various detection monitors. “SVI built a lift-up stairway on hydraulic cylinders at the rear of the truck to access three coffin compartments on top of the truck,” Fox says.
“The coffins hold booms, pads, stingers (4-inch aluminum pipe with cam locks on the ends to drill into a tanker to offload what it’s carrying), hand tools, and equipment not affected by the heat or the cold. SVI built poly trays that slide in at the top of the coffin compartments for our decontamination equipment,” Fox says. “When the stairway is raised, we have access to a compartment underneath it that has slide-out trays for our heavier, bulkier items; our chlorine kits; and an A-frame ladder.”
specs
SVI Trucks Front Walk-In Hazmat Truck
- Spartan Gladiator ELFD chassis and cab with 20-inch raised roof
- 250-inch wheelbase
- Overall length: 38 feet 8 inches
- Overall height: 11 feet 7 inches
- Cab/body walk-through connection
- Slide-out crew area
- Walkway step compartment with power lift-up door
- Command Light KL series light tower
- Carefree Mirage lateral arm acrylic patio awning
- OnScene Solutions aluminum heavy-duty cargo slides
He adds that besides the seating for the engineer and officer in the cab, there are two self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats in the research area. “Our hazmat truck is cross-staffed with two firefighters, and we augment the team with hazmat technicians who are [transported] on our engine companies,” Fox says.
Kline says the Campbell County hazmat truck has a Chelsea heavy-duty transmission-driven power takeoff (PTO), an Onan 20-kilowatt generator, a Quadra Manufacturing Bigfoot leveling system, a Command Light KL Series light tower, a Carefree Mirage lateral arm acrylic patio awning, OnScene Solutions aluminum heavy-duty cargo slides, two LISTA drawer cabinets, Whelen LED emergency lighting, and Whelen LED scene lighting.
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.
