The Greeley Fire Department has replaced a 1990s era commercial chassis and cab vehicle with a new state-of-the-art walk-in hazardous materials response truck built by SVI Trucks.
Tim Logston, Greeley’s apparatus captain, observes that the truck committee noted that the department’s 20-year replacement schedule meant it should retire a 1997 International hazmat truck with a new model. He says the department received two quotes for a new rig through a cooperative purchasing plan and chose the bid from SVI trucks “because it gave us everything we wanted in our new hazmat truck.”
Ben Ojinaga, Greeley’s assistant chief, points out the department covers 64 square miles in Weld County from seven stations and a fleet of seven engines, two aerial ladders, one rescue squad, one hazmat rig, two water tenders (tankers), two Type 6 brush trucks, one rescue truck, and a collapse rig. Greeley is an all hazards department, he adds, that includes hazmat, dive, wildland and drone teams, which responded to 18,629 calls last year, with approximately 226 of those involving hazardous materials.
Ojinaga says Greeley’s hazmat team is made up of Greeley firefighters who receive specialized training as Colorado State Technicians. “The team is the designated emergency response authority for hazardous substances in all areas of Weld County except on highways, where State Patrol has jurisdiction and we work jointly,” he says. “Team personnel are also available to provide training.”
Jason Kline, Colorado/Wyoming sales manager for SVI Trucks, says the hazmat rig built for Greeley is on a Spartan Metro Star chassis and cab with a 24-inch raised roof, powered by a Cummins L9 diesel engine, and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission. Wheelbase on the rig is 251 inches, body length is 22 feet, overall length is 40 feet, and overall height is 11 feet, 9 inches.
Kline says the truck has a cab-to-body walk-through connection, a 32-inch by 88-inch slide out room extension, a Dometic Penguin II Low Profile air conditioner, two Carefree Mirage awnings, Amdor roll-up compartment doors, Slidemaster steel slide out trays, and a rear access folded ladder.
“There’s a single door curb side to access the back of the cab,” Kline points out, “which gives access to an area that has a desk and communications equipment for the incident commander, along with two other work stations.” He adds that in addition to the driver and officer seating positions, there’s a firefighter seat in the crew cab, and two person seating area in the slide out that are crash rated and have three point harnesses.
Logston notes that the new hazmat rig has Area Rae portable remote sensors that can be placed outside the vehicle and can communicate back to the truck through monitoring points in the body of the hazmat truck, allowing the department to set up a perimeter miles from the hazmat truck. Other equipment on the truck includes a Red Wave system and a PendarX 10 system that identify chemicals and materials, a chem set, chlorine kits, and a computer software system that can operate 12 programs. He adds, “We hope to add air sensing and drone monitoring capabilities in the near future, to capitalize on the use of the drones that we carry on our Battalion 2 vehicle.”
Ojinaga says that his hazmat technicians set the truck up to be operational at all levels for up to 12 hours without assistance from other resources. “We recently had an ammonia leak in a beef processing plant that turned into a mass casualty incident (MCI),” he says. “We transported 30 persons to the hospital and were able to work with the plant staff to isolate the product and shut it down. We had to do a lot of air monitoring and ventilation there to protect the 3,000 workers at the plant.”
Kline says that lighting on the hazmat truck includes Whelen LED emergency and M9 series scene lighting, and OnScene Solutions Access LED compartment lighting. The rig also has a Hannay electric cable reel, and a David Clark intercom radio 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.
