Canton (CT) Fire and EMS protects a 25-square-mile town that has no hydrants on its north half. Most of its southern half is covered by hydrants. When the department decided to replace a 1991 pumper-tanker, it wanted to get a rig with a water tank larger than the 1,500 gallons it currently had and also wanted a much larger pump. Canton Fire and EMS turned to 4 Guys Fire Trucks to satisfy its needs.
“We wanted to go up to a 2,500-gallon water tank, and a 2,000-gpm pump,” says Jonathan Gotaski, Canton’s assistant chief. “We needed the larger water tank to cover the northern half of the town and also wanted a 2,000-gpm pump to keep up with our ladder, which has a 2,000-gpm pump on it. In the end, we got what we wanted from 4 Guys, and the vehicle is only two feet longer than our previous pumper-tanker.”
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Jon Cares, owner of Granite Fire Apparatus Inc., who sold the pumper-tanker to Canton, says the department is a long-time customer of Granite Fire. “We’ve sold four 4 Guys apparatus to Canton,” he observes, “a tanker, twin pumpers, and this pumper-tanker. We went through their official bid process and were pleased when they chose us as their vendor. They told us they liked that 4 Guys vehicles are well built, safe, and well engineered, and that they get the customization they want.”
Cares says the pumper-tanker is built on a Spartan Gladiator MFD (medium four door) chassis and cab with seating for six firefighters—five in SCBA seats, with the driver’s SCBA in a left side compartment. The rig is powered by a Cummins 565-hp X15 diesel engine and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission. Wheelbase is 208 inches, overall length is 34 feet 7 inches, and overall height is 10 feet 5 inches.
Mark Brenneman, assistant sales manager at 4 Guys, notes the pumper-tanker carries a Hale Qmax-XS 2,000-gpm pump, UPF Poly 2,500-gallon water tank, Akron manual valves, an Elkhart Brass relief valve, Hale master intake valves on the left and right 6-inch suctions, a 10-inch square Newton stainless steel electric dump valve with manual slide at the rear, a 10-inch square Newton electric dump valve with automatic electric slides on each side between the tandem rear wheels, and two 2½-inch Fireman’s Friend check valves fitted with 5-inch Storz connections at the rear.
Brenneman says the pumper-tanker is set up to carry two 1¾-inch cross lays of 150 feet each, one 150-foot 2½-inch crosslay, two 2½-inch discharges on the left side, two 3-inch discharges on the right side, 2½-inch discharges on the left and right front of the hosebed, and an Akron deck gun on a Task Force Tips Extend-A-Gun.
Gotaski adds that the hosebed on the rig carries 400 feet of 3-inch hose, 3,200 feet of 5-inch LDH, and 250 feet of 2½-inch hose with a Task Force Tips Blitzfire nozzle. “We also have a 3,000-gallon Husky portable water tank in a through-the-tank tunnel accessible from the rear,” he says, “a left side rear tunnel holding two six-inch by 12-foot hard sleeves and two pike poles, and a Zico ladder mount on the top right of the pumper-tanker holding a 28-foot two section extension ladder and a 14-foot roof ladder.”
Brenneman says the lighting on the pumper-tanker includes Whelen LED M6 quad clusters at the rear, TecNiq LED headlights, Whelen LED warning lights, a Whelen LED Edge light bar, Whelen LED lights in the dunnage area, Whelen M6 LEDs on the cab and M7 LEDs in the wheel wells, a Whelen Pioneer LED brow light, and six Whelen Pioneer LED scene lights (two each side and two at the rear). The rig also has a Magnavox Voyager backup camera.
Gotaski notes that the pumper-tanker serves as the department’s first-due apparatus for water supply and also as its mutual aid apparatus. “There’s enough compartmentation on this vehicle for a lot of equipment to enable us to make it a multifunctional truck,” he says. “It drives and handles great, and we’ve had a lot of success with it.”
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.
