Springfield Township Volunteer Fire Department needed a multipurpose vehicle to serve as its first out pumper and also as a mutual aid rig to respond with neighboring departments. The department checked out several manufacturers and their products and made the decision to go with a pumper-tanker built by Spencer Manufacturing.
Steve Marvel, Springfield Township’s chief, says the department covers a 36-square mile area with a population of 4,500 from a single station with 18 volunteer firefighters. “We cover six miles of Interstate 94 that runs through our district, as well as state highway 20, where we see a lot of motor vehicle accidents (MVAs),” Marvel says. “The district is mostly residential, with some commercial and light industrial.”
Marvel notes that the department recently added three bays onto its station, so that all apparatus are protected inside, instead of some of them under a pole barn. Besides the new pumper-tanker, Springfield Township also has a 2018 Sutphen pumper, a 2001 Ferrara Igniter pumper, a 2014 HME 3,000-gallon tanker, a 1999 S&S 2,100-gallon tanker, a 2014 HME mini-pumper/rescue, a brush truck, and an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) first responder vehicle. “We only have one hydrant on a well in the middle of town, so we have to bring as much water as possible to our calls,” Marvel observes.
The pumper-tanker that Spencer Manufacturing built for Springfield Township is on a Freightliner M2 112 chassis and two-door cab with a aluminum body powered by a 450-horsepower (hp) Cummins L9 diesel engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, says Ben Bregg, Spencer design engineer. The pumper-tanker has a Hale QMax XS 1,500-gallon per minute (gpm) side-mount pump, an APR polypropylene 3,000 gallon water tank, a 30-gallon foam cell, a Hale SmartFOAM 2.1A single agent foam system, a Trident dual air primer, LED tank level gauges, and a FRC pressure governor.
Bregg notes that the new rig has two 1-3/4-inch hose and one 2-1/2-inch hose cross lays above the pump panel, a 2-1/2-inch discharge and a 5-inch inlet preconnected with a 6-foot hard sleeve and strainer on the extended front bumper, a Fireman’s Friend™ fill valve at the rear of the rig, and three Newton 10-inch dump valves, one on each side and one at the rear of the vehicle.
Marvel points out that Springfield Township uses its tankers as mobile hydrants. “At a fire, we’ll hook a tanker onto the back of an engine, so our tankers become our hydrants, instead of using portable dump tanks,” he points out. “We also chose to have foam on this vehicle because it’s our all-around truck that has everything on it needed to attack a structure of MVA fire. All the preconnects are foam capable.”
Marvel adds that the new pumper-tanker has a Task Force Tips Blitzfire monitor, a Bauer 6,000-pounds per square inch (psi) cascade system with a single bottle fill station, a Zico electric portable tank storage rack, topside coffin compartments accessed by a Spencer rear access ladder, D&S hose bed covers, wheel well air bottle storage, and through-the-tank, ladder, pike pole and suction hose storage. All compartments are covered by ROM roll-up doors.
The rig also has a FRC three-camera monitoring system, a Federal Signal Q siren, a Whelen electronic siren and speaker, and a Pro Power battery charger with a Kussmaul auto-eject unit.
Lighting on the pumper-tanker includes a Whelen LED warning light package, Whelen LED scene lighting, and a Whelen LED Traffic Advisor.
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.
