Baytown Fire Rescue was trying to catch up on its vehicle replacement schedule after COVID and, faced with long lead times, decided to purchase two Pierce rescue-pumpers at the same time—the first time the department had made a dual purchase.
Baytown Fire Rescue covers the 45-square-mile city of Baytown; 25 square miles of the Chambers County Improvement District; and another 15 square miles of an emergency services district for fire, rescue, and emergency medical services (EMS) as well as all other hazards. “We run a regional hazardous materials team,” says Ron Roberts, Baytown’s assistant chief of logistics, “as well as a regional urban search and rescue (USAR) team, a marine division, a wildland division, and a high-angle rescue team.”
Roberts notes, “We changed our spec on the new vehicles to rescue-pumpers because our Station 1 is a high-angle rescue station where one of the rigs would go, and that one carries our tripods, Stokes basket, backboards, and rope rescue equipment.” Roberts adds that the department removed all gasoline-powered tools on both rescue-pumpers and replaced them with battery-powered fans, saws, other hand tools, and a Genesis Rescue Systems battery-powered hydraulic combi tool.
1 Pierce Manufacturing built two rescue-pumpers on Velocity cabs and chassis with seating for seven firefighters for Baytown (TX) Fire Rescue. (Photos 1-4 courtesy of Pierce Manufacturing Inc.)
department
Baytown (TX) Fire Rescue
Strength: 165 full-time paid firefighter/paramedics, seven stations.
Service area: Provides fire, rescue, high-angle technical rescue, hazardous materials response, USAR, marine, and EMS to the 45 square miles of the city of Baytown with a population of 80,000 residents and 40 square miles of two other emergency services districts.
Other apparatus: Seven engines, one tower ladder, one Pierce hazardous materials truck, three one-ton pickup trucks pulling hazardous materials trailers, several brush trucks, and one fire/rescue boat.
Ken Sebo, pumper business development manager for Pierce Manufacturing Inc., says the two rigs are built on Velocity chassis with Model 7010 100-inch-wide cabs with 10-inch raised roofs and seating for seven firefighters, six of them in Pierce PS6 self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats, and are powered by 455-horsepower (hp) Cummins X12 engines and Allison 4500 automatic transmissions. “Each rescue-pumper has side roll and frontal impact safety packages, half-height doors with a two-step egress into the cab and the ability to open over Jersey barriers on highways, dark gray window tint on the crew cab windows, and Pierce One-Eleven mirrors that provide enhanced visibility and aerodynamic styling.”
The rigs each have TAK-4® independent front suspensions and carry 2,000-gallon-per-minute (gpm) Waterous CSU pumps, Control Zone™ pump panels, 750-gallon polypropylene water tanks, 25-gallon foam tanks, and Husky® 3 foam proportioning systems. The rescue-pumpers have 218-inch wheelbases, 35-foot overall lengths, and 9-foot 10-inch overall heights.
2 The Pierce rescue-pumpers for Baytown have Pierce One-Eleven mirrors for enhanced visibility and half-height doors with the ability to be opened over Jersey barriers on highways.
3 Each rescue-pumper has a 2,000-gpm Waterous CSU pump, a Control Zone pump panel, a 750-gallon water tank, a 25-gallon foam cell, and a Husky 3 foam system.
4 The extended front bumper on each rig has dual hose trays with two 2½-inch discharges with 1½-inch adapters.
5 Baytown firefighters place hand tools in their mounts on one of the new rescue-pumpers. (Photo 5 courtesy of Baytown Fire Rescue.)
specs
Pierce Velocity Rescue-Pumpers
- Velocity® cabs and chassis with 10-inch raised roofs and seating for seven firefighters
- TAK-4® independent front suspensions
- Leaf spring rear suspensions
- Cummins 455-hp X12 engines
- Allison 4500 EVS automatic transmissions
- Command Zone™ electrical systems
- Waterous 2,000-gpm midship pumps
- 750-gallon water tanks
- 25-gallon foam cells
- Husky™ 3 foam proportioning systems
Cory Frankum, sales representative for Siddons-Martin Emergency Group, who sold the two rescue-pumpers to Baytown, says the bodies on the rigs are 171 inches long with standard size compartments on the left side and full-depth compartments on the right side. “Hatch compartments run the full length of the body, with Stokes basket storage on the right side and ladders fully enclosed on the left side,” Frankum points out. He notes that the rescue-pumpers each have dual hose trays in their extended front bumpers with two 2½-inch discharges with 1½-inch adapters.
Frankum says the pump houses on the rescue-pumpers offer improved serviceability with integrated speedlay configuration. “There’s full access to the forward area of the entire pump house when the two 1¾-inch speedlay trays are removed,” he observes. Each rescue-pumper also has a 2½-inch crosslay above the pump panel, a Hannay hose reel with 200 feet of one-inch booster hose in the dunnage area behind the officer’s position, and a Task Force Tips (TFT) Crossfire deck gun with an 18-inch TFT Extend-A-Gun fitting, he adds, while the hosebed holds 800 feet of 3-inch hose, 1,000 feet of 5-inch large-diameter hose, and 300 feet of 2½-inch hose covered by an aluminum treadplate hosebed cover.
Roberts notes that the mirrors give the rescue-pumpers a very different look but that, “The view from them is so much better than a traditional side-mounted mirror. The driver can see the front bumper as well as the sides of the truck, giving him a good view on three sides of the rig.”
Roberts adds that Baytown Fire Rescue bought all new equipment and tools to outfit each of the rescue-pumpers. “We didn’t want to experience any downtime for those times when we had to go to a reserve truck, like when the rescue-pumper might have to go in for servicing.”
Lighting on the Pierce rescue-pumpers includes three Whelen Freedom IV 21½-inch LED light bars with the outboard light bars mounted at 30 degrees, a Whelen LED emergency light warning package, a HiViz FireTech 72-inch LED brow scene light, FRC Spectra LED scene lights on each side, and six Whelen LED traffic directing lights at the rear.
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.
