West Berlin, New Jersey Fire-Rescue found itself being called to more and more motor vehicle accidents where it needed more capabilities than just the small portable pump on its rescue truck. So the department decided on a rescue-pumper that could handle all of the fire and rescue situations it encountered.
Hank Birkenheuer, West Berlin’s chief, says the department has one paid staff member and 20 active volunteer firefighters operating out of a single station housing a 2018 Pierce 100-foot rear-mount aerial quint, a 2007 Seagrave engine, and a 2001 Seagrave rescue truck that it wanted to replace. “We decided to go with a one-punch package with our new truck, so we bought a Seagrave rescue-pumper that can handle a lot of different fire and rescue situations,” Birkenheuer notes.
He says the new Seagrave rescue-pumper is built on a Marauder chassis with a 141-inch cab and seating for six firefighters, five of them in H.O. Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats with IMMI brackets. The rig has a 176-inch rescue body, and is powered by a 450-horsepower (hp) Cummins diesel engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission. The vehicle has a 21,500-pound front axle, and a 31,000-pound rear axle with a Neway air ride suspension.
Todd Fell, regional sales manager for Seagrave, points out the West Berlin rescue-pumper has a 2,000-gallon per minute (gpm) Waterous CSU two-stage pump, a 500-gallon L-shaped UPF water tank on a stainless steel cradle, a Trident air prime dual control, and a Fire Research PumpBoss pressure governor. Fell says the rig’s body has full depth and height compartments on both sides, lift-up compartment doors, and 20-inch high rooftop compartments accessible from the rear for a Stokes basket, backboard, and a 17-foot Little Giant M17 ladder.
Fell says the side-mount rig has two cross lays holding 1-3/4-inch preconnected hose, running board recessed pockets on each side, an extinguisher pocket on each side, a 2-1/2-inch discharge and 2-1/2-inch auxiliary inlet on each side, a 4-inch discharge with an electric valve on the right side, two 2-1/2-inch discharges on the left rear of the vehicle, and a one-inch hose booster reel in the dunnage area.
A Duo-Safety two-section 24-foot extension ladder, a 14-foot roof ladder and a 10-foot folding attic ladder are housed in a through-the-tank compartment, Fell points out, and the divided hose bed, left to right, holds 250 feet of preconnected 2-1/2-inch hose, 300 feet of preconnected 1-3/4-inch hose, 800 feet of 5-inch large diameter hose (LDH), and 500 feet of 3-inch hose.
The rescue-pumper’s 18-inch extended front bumper has a 5-inch intake, a 1-3/4-inch discharge, a recessed siren, two recessed compartments, and a receiver tube for a winch. The rig also has additional receiver tube on each side to take a 9,000-pound Ramsay winch.
Birkenheuer says that when his truck committee was spec’ing out the vehicle, it first chose a 1,500-gpm pump because they thought it would offer more compartment space. “But we found out there was very little difference in size and cost by going with a 2,000-gpm pump, so that’s what we chose,” he says. “We also went back to hinged doors for the extra space gained inside the compartments, and they also offered us mountable surfaces on the inside of the doors.”
Fell adds that the rescue-pumper has fender storage for six air bottles and one fire extinguisher, electric receptacles in the compartments, an electric cord reel, and a 3.6-kilowatt Harrington Stinger generator above the pump module. Lighting on the vehicle includes two Fire Research Spectra Max 28,000-lumen 12-volt brow lights, a 12-volt Fire Research Spectra LED 20,000-lumen light on each side of the cab, Fire Research Spectra LED 120-volt scene lights on both sides of the body, and two Fire Research Spectra LED lights at the rear of the rig tied into the reverse circuit.
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.
