Hagerstown-Jefferson Township (IN) Volunteer Fire Department, a small fire department in a rural Indiana community, was having difficulty staffing its apparatus during the day, a situation that many volunteer fire departments around the country are experiencing. The department needed to replace its walk-in rescue truck, and one of its engines was getting elderly, so it decided to combine two trucks into one and buy a new rescue-pumper. The department chose Toyne to build that truck.
Rick Cole, Hagerstown-Jefferson Township’s chief, points out that when the department responds to motor vehicle accidents it has to run two rigs, its rescue and a pumper to the call, but with the new Toyne rescue-pumper, it only has to staff a single vehicle. “Our new Toyne rescue-pumper carries all the rescue equipment that we had on the old rescue, like our TNT hosed hydraulic extrication tools, a cutter, spreader, two rams and a combi tool, and also our Holmatro struts,” Cole says.
Jeff Murray, fire truck salesman for Donley Safety, who sold the Toyne rescue-pumper to Hagerstown-Jefferson Township, says the rig is built on a Spartan Metro Star LFD chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for six firefighters, five of them in SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) seats. The rescue-pumper is powered by a 400-horsepower (hp) Cummins L9 diesel engine and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, and has a Waterous CS 1,250-gallon per minute (gpm) pump, a UPF Poly® 750-gallon water tank, a 25-gallon foam cell, and a FoamPro 2001 Class A foam proportioning system.
Cole says one of the department’s objectives was to make the rescue-pumper as easy to use as possible for the firefighters. The extended front bumper has a 5-inch intake with a hard suction hose hookup, as well as a 150-foot 1-3/4-inch hand line in a hose well. Cole says at the rear of the truck, the department carries two 200-foot 1-/3/4-inch hand lines, one 200-foot 2-1/2-inch hand line, and 750 feet of 3-inch hose in the hose bed, covered by an electric retractable hose bed cover.
Murray notes that the rescue pumper also has a master intake, a 2-1/2-inch intake, and two 2-1/2-inch discharges on the left side, a master intake, a 4-inch discharge and a 2-1/2-inch discharge on the right side, two 1-3/4-inch cross lays, and an Akron Brass Company StreamMaster monitor with a 12-inch riser. He says that the rig’s bolted, painted stainless steel body was lengthened because the department wanted to carry a 35-foot extension ladder on the truck, along with a 14-foot roof ladder, a 10-foot attic ladder and pike poles in an enclosed compartment accessed from the rear.
The rescue-pumper has an exterior-access EMS (emergency medical services) compartment on each side of the crew cab, an in-cab Firecom radio system with mounted headsets, a backup camera, storage for seven SCBA bottles in the wheel wells, a slide-out speedy dry compartment in the wheel well, slide-out and swing-out tool boards in compartments, a Toyne custom slide-out multi-drawer tool box, and coffin compartments on top of the rig.
Lighting on the rescue-pumper includes Whelen LED warning lighting, Whelen LED scene lights, Whelen PFCH LED telescoping lights, a Whelen LED Arrowstick, a FRC LED brow light, and ILI LED strip compartment lighting.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Ariz.-based journalist, the author of three novels and five non-fiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment editorial advisory board. He served 22 years with Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including the position of chief.
