Paterson (NJ) Fire Department is experiencing a lot of congestion in the city, with tight streets loaded with parked cars on many roads, and new buildings going up with ground floor parking garages that only allow one parking space per apartment on the four upper stories, meaning more cars and trucks are spilling out onto city streets to find parking spots.
Mike Cleenput, Paterson’s deputy chief, says “With all these five story buildings, the garage overflow is going onto the streets, with vehicles parked corner to corner on every street. We’ve had a lot of hits on midship pumper compartments while making tight turns with our top-mount pumpers, and we wanted a smaller apparatus to combat those situations.” Cleenput notes the department chose Ferrara to build side-mount pumpers that would reduce the wheelbase and overall length, and provide a low hosebed to keep firefighters from having to get on top of the rig.
Paul Christiansen, apparatus manager for Firefighter One, who sold three side-mount pumpers to Paterson, says the pumpers are built on Cinder chassis and cabs with seating for five firefighters, four of them in H.O. Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats with SecureAll™ brackets, with an emergency medical services (EMS) cabinet behind the driver’s seat. The rigs each have a wheelbase of 188 inches, an overall length of 32 feet one inch, an overall height of 9 feet, and are powered by a 450-horsepower (hp) Cummins L9 engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission.
Christiansen notes that each pumper has a Ferrara extruded aluminum body, ROM roll-up compartment doors, a Hale Qmax 1,750-gallon-per-minute pump, and a 750-gallon polypropylene L-shaped water tank for a low hosebed, which, left to right, holds 200 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), 200 feet of preconnected 1-3/4-inch hose, and 500 feet of 2-1/2-inch hose split into two preconnected 250 foot lays. There’s also one 2-1/2-inch hose crosslay over the pump panel, 200 feet of 1-3/4-inch hose in a front bumper compartment, and an Akron Brass Apollo 3426 deck gun with a StreamShaper nozzle and quad tips.
Cleenput says that the low hosebeds are an effort to reduce the frequency of firefighters having to climb up into the hosebed. “They also are helpful when laying in hose, because the LDH comes off lower instead of flying out from the top, which means we’re seeing straighter lays,” he says. “As for working off the back of the pumper with hand lines, we found that crosslays had become inefficient in tight streets. Going off the rear of the engines is preferred, and it’s tactically better because drivers are pulling past fire buildings, allowing rear hoselines to be quickly and efficiently deployed, and also is helpful in getting ground ladders off the pumpers and deployed on the structure.”
Some other changes that Paterson made with the new Ferrara rigs from its prior pumpers include the EMS cabinet in the crew cab, color coding all hand lines and discharges, and adding a quick attack portable monitor at the rear. “We had kept EMS equipment in the R1 compartment, but had issues with heat and dirt getting in there,” Cleenput observes. “We also changed out a rear 2-1/2 to an 1-3/4-inch line because we had so much 2-1/2-hose off the rear; we color coded all discharges with the corresponding hose color; and put an Akron Brass Mercury Quick Attack LE portable monitor on 150 feet of 2-1/2-hose on the left rear on all pumpers.”
Lighting on the Paterson pumpers includes Whelen 600 LED emergency warning lights on the sides and rear, Whelen LED Freedom IV mini light bars, Whelen LED Micro Pioneer lights on the body, two 12-volt Whelen LED scene lights, one each side of the body on the forward corners, and a Whelen LED B6 rear beacon.
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.
