Kansas

[MFD76]

It has been refreshing to see Wichita spec a Pierce PUC with a low hosebed.  It seems to be very rare, for some reason, but I'm glad to see that WFD has some folks that still think about fireground efficiency and safety.  I'm anxious to hear how they feel about them.  Any idea on price tag for the pumpers?

 

It took quite a lot of work. The firemen and officers really wanted standard pumpers and were not thrilled about the PUC design. They also did not want the fake grill. As most of us know CF Cab Forward fire apparatus don't have grills and should not have the over the road truck look we have been plagued with for the last twenty years as CF cabs became obslete. As you said this is not normal for a PUC. Most PUC come in the over the top high hose bed with large rescue body. They went back and forth a number of times with the dealer and mfg to get this. One issue that has risen since delivery is although low the bed is not deep. It was believed they would have more depth. The depth issue it a two part problem from the water tank to the PUC design. So this poses a small problem for the hose bed bundles. It will mean the bundles and supply will be higher than planned. WFD has worked very hard over the last few years to return to rear hose lays. They have two dead beds one 2.5 finished with a wye and 1.75 bundle and  3" finished with a wye and 2.5 bundle. So you can pull past for the Truck and pull the bundle or reverse out to the plug and dump the bundle at the curb.  WFD is extremely concerned about fire ground efficiency. As many departments spec machines that treat firefighting as a secondary or last resort. The WFD has taken the opposite approach and designed and reconfigured existing machines into aggressive fire attack machines with the focus on fighting fire. After all we don't go to as many fires anymore but you better have a machine and men that can perform at top speed and efficiency when we do take a fire. They want to make sure when fires occur they have a quick efficient way to get the first and second line in service. I am extremely proud of what they have accomplished. I will check on the price with some close friends that played a key roll on the committee. 

 

The Truck is the other impressive accomplishment. The firemen had very little say in the last Tower Ladder order in 2003-2006. Thus they ended up with quints with poor ground ladders and poor fire ground ability to accomplish effective truck work. Over preceding years since the crews modified the older towers for additional equipment by removing hose and other non truck items. The committee pushed for a dry Truck but lost, quite a lot of time has passed from the last dry trucks. The last dry aerial trucks were purchased by the WFD in 1975 and retired between 2003-2006. This is the first step toward a dry truck. They will be evaluating how often the pump is used so hopefully the next order will be dry. As we know pump panels and tanks are a waste of a perfectly good throughway compartments for tools. Some of positive the features it only carries 200 gallons of water. The pump panel is very basic only two valves for the front bumper and two for the officer side LDH and 2.5 discharge and the hand wheel for the fly pipe. The drivers side discharges were speced with gates at the valves on the lower panel. The front bumper is designed for two 1.75 pre-connects. They wanted compartment by the pump panel to hold their roof hooks and trash hooks. So as the truckmen exit the cab the hooks are easy to access. This is whey the front bumper holds the hose and is designed so eventually tools could be stored there instead of hose. The ground ladders are also impressive 2 two section 28ft, 1 three section 45ft, 2 twenty foot roof, 2 sixteen foot roof, 1 two section fresno. It has a small bed for five inch LDH. They also specced a Stang Intelligent manual "getto" monitor in the basket. They researched the and found its flow exceeded what others could provide. This took special approval as Pierce has not placed one on a tower ladder in a number of years. Overall it is a start in the right direction for the department that focuses on aggressive interior fire attack with aggressive truck work. 

 

The black over red was a big surprise. They originally were going to be the Traditional WFD solid RED with the large triple stripe and this order having painted roll ups. They switched the color at the pre build conference after viewing a number of machines on the floor. They decided to go with a basic stripe and the black over red. With the change to a more basic stripe the savings covered the cost of the paint change. There are mixed feels as WFD tradition is solid red, however I believe feelings are changing as they look very nice.

 

See you soon brother.

 

Stay Safe,

Rick