Northfield Volunteer Fire Company put together a truck committee to look into replacing its aging rescue truck with a shorter, more nimble rig that could negotiate the tight residential driveways in the company’s coverage area. The committee developed the specs for the rescue, then spent the next two years researching rescues built by five manufacturers.
Jack Hodges, Northfield fire commissioner and truck committee chair, says Northfield’s previous rescue had a six-seat crew cab, but the new specs called for only five firefighters in the cab, and a shorter wheelbase on a single rear axle, not to exceed 30 feet in overall length. “We went to trade shows and checked out apparatus and the equipment they carried,” Hodges says, “and met with 4 Guys Fire Trucks, Marion Body Works, Spartan Emergency Response, Rosenbauer, and SVI Trucks. We also got the opportunity to drive demos built by all five manufacturers. In the end, we chose to have 4 Guys build our new rescue.”
Northfield is an all-volunteer fire company with 41 active firefighters, eight of whom are Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), and includes four junior firefighters, Hodges says. “We are a very rural area that serves as a bedroom community,” he says. “Our district is 12 square miles and covers a population of 2,800 in relatively hilly, wooded country, along with six miles of limited access highway.”
Ryan Crichton, Northfield’s chief, notes the committee’s specs made provisions for a small command area in the crew cab, with a pull-out desk opposite the middle seat. “The cab is set up for five firefighters, with four of them in self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats,” Crichton says. “We also needed room for our EMS (emergency medical services) equipment, so there’s a custom cabinet on the officer’s side of the body with a pull-out tray for our equipment. The Office of EMS at the Connecticut Department of Public Health sets the requirements of what we need to carry, which is almost everything on an ambulance except for the gurney.”
Jon Cares, chief executive officer of Granite Fire Apparatus Inc., who sold the rescue to Northfield, says Northfield’s truck committee had inspected some engines, tankers, and rescues that 4 Guys had built for departments in Eastern New York. “They came to us and told us they were interested in looking at what we had to offer, especially in terms of customization,” Cares points out. “Besides the custom pull-out desk and EMS cabinet in the crew cab, we also built a custom roll-out module in the R1 right front compartment that’s essentially a three-tier high cube on rollers with adjustable shelves covered by cargo netting and giving access on all four sides.”
Cares says the Northfield rescue is built on a Spartan Metro Star LFD chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof and a 15-foot walk-around body powered by a 380-horsepower (hp) Cummins L9 diesel engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission. Wheelbase on the rescue is 162 inches, overall length is 30 feet, and overall height is 9 feet 6 inches.
Besides the command center desk and EMS cabinet in the cab and the custom R-1 roll-out module, other features of the rescue include SCBA compartments in the wheel wells, two electric rewind reels for 250 feet of 10/3 electric cord, a 25-kW Onan PTO (power take-off) generator, a Will-Burt LED light tower, a rear traffic control light, and roll-up doors on all body compartments.
Hodges notes that the fire company was pleased that 4 Guys agreed to mount the company’s relatively new Will-Burt light tower on the new rescue. “They were very accommodating and easy to work with,” he says. The rescue also has heavy duty roll-out trays to hold the fire company’s Hurst Jaws of Life® eDraulic® 300 series spreader, cutter, ram, and extra batteries; two FRC Spectra LED detachable bipod pole lights; and four coffin compartments that hold rope rescue equipment, water rescue equipment, hazardous materials gear, rehab equipment, and ice rescue equipment.
In addition to the new 4 Guys rescue, Northfield’s other apparatus includes a 1995 Smeal pumper with a 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump and 1,000-gallon water tank; a 2015 Smeal pumper-tanker with a 1,500-gpm pump, a 2,550-gallon water tank, and 30-gallon foam tank; and a 2009 four-wheel drive Rosenbauer wildland engine with a 1,000-gpm pump, 763-gallon water tank, 30-gallon foam tank, and a pump-and-roll auxiliary pump.
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.
