The Lebanon Fire Department wanted to take a different approach to what an engine should be after reviewing a great deal of historical information about the structure fires the department had dealt with. The resulting engine it built is on a beefed up Ford F-554 4×4 chassis that the department retrofitted into a Type 1 pumper.
“Most of our structure fires are room and contents fires that we handle with one or two hose lines,” says Sam Schneider, Lebanon’s chief. “We have another engine with a 2,000-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump and an aerial ladder with a 2,000-gpm pump, so we didn’t need more pumping power with the new engine.”
Schneider says Lebanon went to Precision Fire Apparatus for the Ford F-550 chassis, who sent the chassis to DBL Design in Texas, a firm that specializes in truck conversions with heavy-duty wheels and tires on medium duty series trucks, especially with its Severe Duty Ford F-554 Super Single conversions. “DBL upfits the chassis to increase the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle, installs Super Single wheels and tires, and beefs up the brakes and suspension, all under Ford’s authorization so the Ford warranty remains in effect,” he points out.
Lebanon’s beefed up Ford F-554 has a Hale 1,000-gpm rear-mount pump, a 300-gallon water tank, a Hannay electric reel holding 200 feet of one-inch hose, and two cross lays above the rear wheels each holding 200 feet of 1-3/4-inch hose. The cross lays are 2-1/2-inch capable, Schneider notes, with the discharges having been necked down by adapters. “We didn’t need to carry a lot of water on the new engine because we are on a municipal water system with hydrants every 600 to 800 feet,” he says. “In addition, two engines go to every fire, even vehicle fires.”
Schneider says the Type 1 F-554 has an Akron Brass telescoping deck gun with both fog and smoothbore nozzles, and carries 600 feet of five-inch large diameter hose (LDH) in its hose bed. “The engine has a two-door extended cab with seating for four firefighters,” he notes, “and we are running a clean cab concept rig, with four self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) packs in compartments, one on the driver’s side, and three in the rear of the body on the officer’s side.” He adds that the rig carries emergency medical services (EMS) cabinets in the cab behind the front seat. “This is a front line vehicle running out of Station 1, the busiest of our three fire stations,”
The Type 1 Ford F-554 has a 26-foot three-section extension ladder, a 12-foot roof ladder, and a 10-foot folding ladder, in two slide-in compartments accessible from the rear of the rig. One of the compartments also holds 6-foot and 10-foot-long fiberglass pike poles.
The vehicle, which has an inverter, a Hannay electric reel with 200 feet of electrical cord and a rear backup camera, has lighting that includes a Whelen Freedom IV 50-inch LED light bar, a Whelen LED warning light package, a Whelen LED traffic advisor, and FRC Spectra LED telescoping scene lights.
“We’ve run to multiple structure fires with this pumper,” Schneider says. “It’s been the first apparatus on scene for all of them and has performed very well. It handles anything that we’ve thrown at it, and we’re extremely pleased with the rig.”
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.
