Quote:Things have turned around for Rockford.. I have a friend who is on there and he said it was very shaky at best for a while with the city and management. Yes the Spartan/ Darley was former Elmhurst Il engine 2
The only negative lately has been the lost of the staffing contract to man the airport's ARFF equipment. They were just informed it was awarded to a private contractor. This impacts I believe six personnel total, so hopefully with retirements, etc. no one loses a job.
Other good news, they're working on a new Station 3 as new road work is making the current station essentially unusable. New training props at the academy (Station 6) are also in place and are very nice.
Thanks for the info.! Much appreciated! I recall reading a profile on Rockford Fire about twenty years ago in "Fire Apparatus Journal" when they had several Ford C pumpers, a Mack CF quint and the Seagrave tiller. I'm going to have to dig that issue out and read it again sometime.
As far as losing the contract for staffing the airport ARFF apparatus, after doing some research on the 'net, it said that the City of Rockford was charging the airport $1.2 million a year, and that the airport hired a private company out of Green Bay, Wisconsin for $600,000 a year.
Do you happen to know why onlyRED trucks.com hasn't been updated in quite awhile? There's a lot of good Rockford footage on there but it seems like Larry's been taking a break. Hopefully he's been working on getting pics and videos up of the new rigs soon.
09-03-2013, 09:24 PM (This post was last modified: 09-04-2013, 11:00 PM by npfd801.)
Quote:Thanks for the info.! Much appreciated! I recall reading a profile on Rockford Fire about twenty years ago in "Fire Apparatus Journal" when they had several Ford C pumpers, a Mack CF quint and the Seagrave tiller. I'm going to have to dig that issue out and read it again sometime.
As far as losing the contract for staffing the airport ARFF apparatus, after doing some research on the 'net, it said that the City of Rockford was charging the airport $1.2 million a year, and that the airport hired a private company out of Green Bay, Wisconsin for $600,000 a year.
Do you happen to know why onlyRED trucks.com hasn't been updated in quite awhile? There's a lot of good Rockford footage on there but it seems like Larry's been taking a break. Hopefully he's been working on getting pics and videos up of the new rigs soon.
Rockford was a very heavy Ford C user, and has been a commercial chassis user for engines for many years until this recent batch of purchases. There were two Mack CF quints at one point, both Pirsch built. One was refurbed (painted white over red from slime, enclosed cab added, RPI did the work I believe) and at some point became Quint 5 when the station was moved to the far east side. (Station 5 is a few blocks from my home, and I used to particularly enjoy hearing the old Mack rumble by the house.) Also interesting to me is their shift from medium duty Freightliner and IH ambulances to F series units. From a guy that I'm good friends with, the new Engine 1 has been particularly trouble prone, and supposedly out of service almost as much as it has been in service.
The airport staffing thing will be interesting to watch. Station 7, which houses all the ARFF stuff in a newer addition, also houses Engine 7 and some reserve Rockford apparatus. The airport, I believe owns the building. At one point, when the two parted ways previously, they ran a company out of a nice facility some distance away on Sawyer Road, which is now the fire department maintenance facility. This changes their response distance to the airport and I'm not sure that the facility is really ready to be inhabited by a fire company again... Not to mention that for the $1.2 million yearly they had two dedicated personnel to ARFF but they also had another full engine company in house on airport property, as well as all the personnel city wide. We should also mention a very good command staff to run incidents. I don't think the airport board saw the entire picture. Then again, I don't know the details of the new contract so we shall see.
The onlyredtrucks site is owned by a local resident that I believe retired fairly recently, and travels quite a bit now. Much of the content is also provided by his brother, if I'm not mistaken, who splits his time between Rockford and the Philippines. I'm sure this is why we see nothing in the way of updates.
Another commercial chassis pumper that Rockford ran was a Darley/Ford Cargo, which was Engine 3. Not the best looking rig but less expensive than a custom chassis.
I hate to hear when a brand new rig is out of service more than it's in service, as you were saying about Engine 1. Hopefully Pierce is cooperating and that the bugs can all be worked out soon.
09-04-2013, 11:07 PM (This post was last modified: 09-04-2013, 11:14 PM by npfd801.)
Quote:Thanks, npfd801!
Another commercial chassis pumper that Rockford ran was a Darley/Ford Cargo, which was Engine 3. Not the best looking rig but less expensive than a custom chassis.
I hate to hear when a brand new rig is out of service more than it's in service, as you were saying about Engine 1. Hopefully Pierce is cooperating and that the bugs can all be worked out soon.
The old Engine 3 was certainly unique. Pretty sure it is gone from the reserve pool. I sold a pumper to Chadwick, IL which still has a Ford Cargo Darley pumper as their second out engine, but with a large enclosed pump panel and crew area. I believe Thomson, IL also still has a Ford Cargo with an Alexis body, also with an enclosed top mount panel.
Being the geek that I am, I always thought the engine that replaced the Cargo at E3 would have been a fun rig. Freightliner chassis, but they ordered a heavier chassis with a 410 horse Cat C13 since they wanted to stick with Cat engines and the Cat C7 was no longer available. There isn't much to Rockford's basic engines, I'll bet it is a rocket ship... http://www.jeffersonfire.com/Site/pdf_fi...09_web.pdf
Joliet got 2cheif buggys and the new engines8, 9 are in the shops getting equipment mounted and they got new brush truck their waiting on the skid to show up its at station six
I just saw this rig getting onto State Route 16 tonight while I was on the way home from work here in Gig Harbor. Right in front of it was a Ford Expedition from Clallam County Fire District 2, so I'm assuming that's its new home, about as far north and west as you can get without going to Alaska.
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