The Shenandoah County (VA) Department of Fire and Rescue Services has taken delivery of two identical pumper-tankers, except for the color schemes, built by Midwest Fire Equipment for Conicville Volunteer Fire Department and New Market Fire and Rescue.
Joe Hlushak, Midwest Fire’s project manager, says each of the pumper-tankers is built on a Kenworth T880 chassis and two-person cab powered by a 500-horsepower (hp) Cummins X15 diesel engine, and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission. He says the rigs have a Hale Qflo 1,250-gallon per minute (gpm) split shaft pump, an APR 3,000-gallon polypropylene water tank, and an All-Poly tank and body construction. Overall length on the pumper-tankers is 33 feet 5 inches, and overall height is 10 feet 11 inches.
Bill Streett, deputy chief of operations for Shenandoah County, points out the county has 10 fire departments covering 525 square miles on a combination system with 75 paid full-time firefighters, and the rest volunteers across the 10 departments. “Our role is oversight, coordination and assistance,” Streett says. “The individual departments purchase their own apparatus, but we’ve put together various specifications committees and specs the departments can use depending on the type of apparatus they need.”
Streett notes that Conicville had previously used tractor-drawn tankers, but over the years found that only a limited number of firefighters could drive such a vehicle. “Their existing tanker was starting to develop leaks, so they needed to make a change. As for New Market, a pumper-tanker was the next phase of their apparatus replacement program, so they went with the standardized spec we had developed.”
Streett adds that while the county has common specs for Type 1 engines, tankers, pumper-tankers and ambulances, the use of those specs is optional, and not mandated among the county’s 10 fire departments.
Hlushak points out that the two pumper-tankers each has a two SCBAs (self-contained breathing apparatus) in a curb-side compartment, two 1-3/4-inch hose cross lays, a 3-inch discharge with a 4-inch LDH (large diameter hose) connection, an Elkhart Brass Company 1,250-gpm Vulcan deck gun with stacked tips and a Task Force Tips 18-inch Extend-A-Gun, a 10-inch square Newton swivel dump valve at the rear, a full width and length hose bed, and a Zico portable drop tank carrier.
He says the rigs each have a Federal Q siren, a Rear View camera system, a Kussmaul Pump Plus 1200 system with auto-eject, and Whelen 500 series tank level lights. Lighting on the pumper-tankers, Hlushak notes, includes a Whelen LED warning light package, six Whelen LED M9V2 combination scene/flasher lights, and a Hi Viz Fire Tech LED mini brow light.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Ariz.-based journalist, the author of three novels and five non-fiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment editorial advisory board. He served 22 years with Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including the position of chief.
