Oshkosh Airport Products has delivered five Oshkosh Striker 6×6 aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) trucks to Aeroports de Montreal (ADM) in Quebec, Canada.
Jack Bermingham, business unit director of airport products for Oshkosh, says that ADM was seeking to modernize its fleet and bring its trucks up to the latest aircraft firefighting standards. Bermingham says the units delivered include three Striker 6×6 ARFFs with high reach extendable turrets (HRET) and two Striker 6x6s with hydro-chem compatible roof turrets.
Bermingham notes each of the five Strikers is powered by a 670-horsepower (hp) Scania DC18 V8 Tier 4 Final engine, and an Allison 4800 EVS automatic transmission, and has a Waterous CBQB 2,000-gallon-per-minute (gpm) single-stage pump, a 3,170-gallon water tank, 444 gallons of foam, 250 pounds of dry chemical, an electronic foam proportioning system, and an Eco EFP onboard foam testing system. “We also customized a unique lighting packing in the rigs, including a Will-Burt LED light tower, back-lit all compartments with blue LED lighting, and installed multilingual labeling and displays in both English and French Canadian,” he points out.
M. Richard MacDonald, ADM Fire Service’s Chief of Operations and Security, notes that two Striker 6×6 ARFFs with HRETs and one Striker 6×6 with a roof turret are housed at YUL Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, which serves 21 million travelers annually, and one Striker 6×6 with an HRET and one Striker 6×6 with a roof turret are at YMX International Aerocity of Mirabel, which is mostly a cargo airport.
MacDonald points out that the ARFF fleets at both airports were getting toward the end of their useful lives, and that ADM was faced with significant overhaul or replacement of the units. “We got the backing of everyone involved and decided to replace the whole fleet at the same time in order to modernize it and standardize equipment at both airports,” he says. “We let all ARFF truck makers know of our intentions, and chose Oshkosh because of a working relationship we have with them, and that they were willing to customize the trucks for us. They set our trucks up so they can be operated by one person, and installed four thermal imaging cameras in each one.”
Jamie Zimmerman, sales manager for Commercial Emergency Equipment Company, the Canadian dealer, says each Striker has Oshkosh’s TAK-4 all-wheel independent suspension and a rear steer axle, a 50,000-British thermal unit (BTU) winterization package, a dual agent swing-out hoseline, two 1-3/4-inch hose crosslays of 200 feet each, PAC tool boards, an electric ladder gantry for ground ladders, an Onan 10-kW hydraulic generator, a 360-degree camera system, and a Safety Vision digital recording system.
Zimmerman says the HRET Strikers each have a 50-foot Snozzle with a piercing tip, and a K Factor alignment system and hydro-chem capabilities, as well as a FLIR MD-325 forward looking infrared system at the tip. He adds that the two Strikers with roof turrets each have hydro-chem capabilities from the turrets. All the Strikers also carry a low attack/high volume bumper turret, he says.
Bermingham says lighting on each of the Strikers, besides the Will-Burt Night Scan light tower, includes four rigid brow lights, six FRC Spectra Max 3 LED scene lights (three each side), FRC Spectra Max LED scene lights mounted at the rear, Whelen M7 LED perimeter warning lights, Whelen LED top stand-by lights, two Whelen Mini Freedom IV LED light bars, two Whelen R416 Rota-beam LED upper rear warning lights, Whelen M6 LED Safe to Approach lights, Whelen M2 LED red/amber front skid mount lights, HiViz FireTech LED blue compartment lighting, and a Whelen CenCom Core vehicle control system.
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.
