The construction of a huge Amazon warehouse/distribution facility in a 1,000-acre industrial site was the trigger for Madison County (MS) Fire Services to begin a search for an aerial platform that could be used by one of its fire departments to protect the facility.
After checking out several aerial platform designs offered by various manufacturers, the county’s fire coordinator and board of supervisors chose to purchase a Rosenbauer King Cobra 100-foot aerial platform.
Minor Norman, Madison County’s fire coordinator, says the county has four career municipal fire departments and seven volunteer fire departments. When the county negotiated to get Amazon to take space in its 1,000-acre megasite industrial park, part of the deal was that it would secure a suitable aerial platform to protect Amazon’s warehouse/distribution facility.
1 Madison County (MS) Fire Services got this King Cobra 100-foot aerial platform from Rosenbauer to cover a huge Amazon warehouse/distribution facility being built in a 1,000-acre industrial park. (Photos courtesy of Rosenbauer.)
2 The King Cobra is powered by a Cummins 565-hp X15 diesel engine and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission and carries a Waterous CSUC20 2,000-gpm pump, a 500-gallon polypropylene water tank, and a 20-gallon polypropylene foam tank.
3 The rig was designed as a 9/11 remembrance truck and has the names of the 343 Fire Department of New York firefighters who died in the Twin Towers lettered in a band around the front of the cab.
department
Madison County (MS) Fire Services
Strength: Four career municipal fire departments; seven volunteer fire departments.
Service area: Madison County covers 742 square miles and has a population of 106,272. The county includes four cities: Canton, the county seat; Madison; Ridgeland; and Flora.
Other apparatus: Engines, water tenders (tankers), aerial ladders and platforms, rescue trucks, brush trucks, hazardous materials units, and numerous support and command vehicles.
“The board of supervisors formed a special fire district to cover that industrial area and will assign the new King Cobra aerial platform to whichever fire department gets the contract to cover the megasite fire district,” Norman points out.
Norman says the need for the King Cobra was obvious because the Amazon warehouse/distribution building, with 85-foot roofs, will cover more than 3 million square feet and have four floors. “Each one of the building’s floors is just over 750,000 square feet, so that’s why the truck was purchased,” he notes. As of this writing, the structure has not been completed, so the King Cobra has not been assigned to a fire department. Norman estimates that the Canton Fire Department, which has a station only 1.2 miles away from the megasite, is likely to get the contract to cover the complex and thus be assigned to run the King Cobra.
Roger Parker, Rosenbauer’s central regional sales manager, says the rig was a demo truck Rosenbauer had painted and decaled as a 9/11 remembrance truck for the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center attack. The King Cobra was designated Tower 343, has graphics of the fallen towers, and carries the names of all 343 Fire Department of New York firefighters who died painted down both sides of the rig. Rosenbauer exhibited the truck at FDIC International 2021 in Indianapolis, IN.
specs
Rosenbauer King Cobra 100-Foot Aerial Platform
- Rosenbauer Commander chassis and cab
- 100-foot, three-section aerial ladder platform with 8-foot articulating jib boom
- Seating for six firefighters in cab, five in H.O. Bostrom SCBA seats
- Cummins 565-hp X15 diesel engine
- Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission
- Waterous CSUC20 2,000-gpm pump
- 500-gallon polypropylene water tank
- 20-gallon polypropylene foam tank
- Akron 1,500-gpm wireless remote monitor
- All Whelen LED lighting
Donnie Weeks, Mississippi sales manager for Bonaventure Fire & Safety, who sold the Rosenbauer King Cobra to Madison County, says the county needed to get a truck in hand pretty quickly and couldn’t wait a year or more for one to be built, so it considered a demo unit. “We scheduled a trip to Rosenbauer’s Minnesota factory to inspect the truck and make any changes to compartmentation or equipment that Madison County wanted,” he says. “Minor Norman and his people were blown away with the truck and its 9/11 graphics, and you could see the pride on Minor’s face,” Weeks notes. “They decided to leave the truck as it was with Tower 343, the Twin Towers on the crew doors, and the names on the sides and adding the Madison County name and logo on the front doors and the aerial.”
Weeks adds that Madison County wanted the truck completely fitted with all necessary equipment so it could be put in service quickly. “They purchased the truck with all the equipment on it,” he says. “Hoses, nozzles, TNT Rescue hydraulic tools, hand tools, an assortment of saws, MSA self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), Super Vac fans, a stokes basket, ground ladders, and everything else. That truck is ready for anything to meet the needs of that new industrial center and the surrounding area.”
4 Madison County designated the new King Cobra as Tower 343.
5 The King Cobra features an 8-foot articulating jib boom at the tip of the aerial, 17 cubic feet of space in its platform with 45-degree corners, and an Akron 1,500-gpm wireless remote monitor.
Parker says the King Cobra is built on a Commander chassis with a 100-inch-wide cab and seating for six firefighters, five of which are in H.O. Bostrom SCBA seats, and has an extruded aluminum body. The truck has a 100-foot, three-section ladder with an 8-foot articulating jib boom that allows the operator to put the platform onto the ground about 10 feet in front of the truck. “You can load the platform from the ground and land it behind a parapet wall on a roof or 20 feet below grade under a bridge,” he says. “The tip load on the King Cobra is 1,000 pounds dry and 500 pounds wet.”
The wheelbase is 245 inches, the overall length is 47 feet 2 inches, and the overall height is 12 feet. Parker says the truck has a 24,000-pound Hendrickson Steertek™ NXT front suspension with parabolic springs, a 63,000-pound Hendrickson rear suspension, and 250 cubic feet of compartment space. The truck is powered by a 565-horsepower (hp) Cummins X15 diesel engine and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission; has four H-style outriggers with a jack spread of 17 feet 6 inches; and has hot dip zinc galvanized frame rails, torque box, ladder, outriggers, and battery box.
It has a Waterous CSUC20 2,000-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump, a 500-gallon polypropylene water tank, a 20-gallon polypropylene foam tank, and an Akron Brass 3486 1,500-gpm wireless remote monitor. The rig also has Rosenbauer’s EZ Load hosebed that can store up to 1,500 feet of 5-inch large-diameter hose and a retractable EZ Climb access ladder on the rear of the apparatus for firefighters to gain access to compartments on top of the apparatus body.
“The King Cobra is completely multiplexed and has Smart Aerial technology that includes obstruction avoidance, envelope control, automatic ramping control, and through its wireless remote control allows operation of the truck from more than 300 feet away,” Parker says. “The platform space is 17 cubic feet and has 45 degree angled front corners that allow the operator to snug it up to a building if needed.”
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.
