There have been some requests for more of the contract equipment I have incidentally posted in some of my wildland related posts. I'm finally getting around to that, but thought it should be opened up to any and all private contract fire equipment, not just wildland.
Honestly I'm not really sure what this includes but I'm thinking commercial working equipment, so definately private fire support equipment like canteen services, fire clean up / salvage etc, but not private antiques used for musters, parades etc.
The intent is to show off some of the behind the scenes stuff that many may never see.
I'll start with one of the ones everybody likes to see roll into fire camp, the mobile shower unit. This one belongs to AAA Mobile Showers.
Interior of the El Dorado unit. This is an older unit, the seperate stalls are step up from the old days with just an open shower room, but not as nice as some of the latest units with completely seperate shower rooms / changing areas. This unit was set up for a logistics class I took, so I was able to get interior photos of the unit. Typically people frown on bringing cameras into the shower area.
Finally, you need a place for all the dirty water.
These large water bladders are the usual method for collecting the grey water which are then hauled off in tanker trucks to the local disposal facility (at least that is where I assume it goes).
Ex BLM Unimog now operated by a private contractor.
Sorry about the fuzzy photo, due to the heavy smoke conditions the lighting was like late evening at mid day so I tried using the low light setting, big mistake. It is an unusual engine though, so thought it worth including.
02-23-2013, 07:15 PM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2013, 07:17 PM by Aaronw.)
Contract type 3 engine built on a Ford F550 and operated by A-1 Fire Services of Lolo Montana.
This is a classic contractor engine written to comply with the letter of the contract, cramming 10 lbs of fire engine into a 5 lb sack. Type 3 engines carry 500 gallons of water, and have a minimum of a 250 gpm pump so are usually built on a larger medium duty chassis. If the chassis holds out it looks like a rather practical no frills engine to me.
02-23-2013, 07:24 PM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2013, 07:24 PM by Aaronw.)
Contract type 3 engine operated by Outback Firefighting of Montana. This again shows the ingenuity of some contractors, the black box behind the cab that resembles a sleeper is the water tank.
While locally provided water trucks are common, not all contract water tenders have primary jobs. Oshkosh and FWD 4x4 and 6x6 trucks are very popular as water tenders with contract firefighting companies.
A large water tender built on an Oshkosh 6x6 chassis, operated by Tarhee Wildfire of Idaho.
02-23-2013, 07:51 PM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2013, 08:00 PM by Aaronw.)
While contract companies are in the business to make money, it is not always about being cheap. Some take a lot of pride in their equipment. This was a lovely Oshkosh 6x6 operated by Carlton out of Northern California. The driver was the owner and personally took a hand in building up the truck. The truck was obviously well maintained and was decorated with many hand painted murals.
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