Suffolk (VA) Fire & Rescue covers a 430-square-mile district in the Hampton Roads area that includes an urban core in the city of Suffolk, suburban areas, and rural farmland with a total population of 100,000 residents. Since 50% of Suffolk’s coverage area is non-hydranted rural land, the department needs a robust water carrying capacity among its apparatus.
Michael Barakey, says Suffolk Fire & Rescue has 10 fire stations staffed by 340 full-time paid firefighters, running 11 engines, four aerials, four pumper-tankers, two heavy rescues, four brush trucks, an assortment of ambulances and medic units, a regional mobile communications bus, a rehabilitation bus, a mass casualty transport bus, and a 35-foot fire/rescue boat for use on the James River that leads to Chesapeake Bay.
Barakey notes that when he came to Suffolk Fire & Rescue in 2018, the department had three elliptical tankers built between 1999 and 2001 on commercial chassis. “We decided to change from commercial chassis to dry side custom chassis pumper-tankers still carrying 3,000 gallons of water but also being able to work as a pumper for those times a when the rigs are cross-staffed,” he says. “They are very similar to our engines in terms of equipment and compartmentation, except the pumper-tankers are on tandem rear axles.” He adds that the department was so pleased with the first Pierce pumper-tanker it got a few years ago that it decided to purchase a second rig nearly identical to the first.
Ken Sebo, Pierce Manufacturing’s pumper business development manager, says the rig is built on an Enforcer four-door cab and custom chassis with 10-inch raised roof; has seating for four firefighters, three of them in USSC Valor self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats with hands-free air cylinder brackets; and features an EMS cabinet on the crew cab’s back wall. The truck is powered by a 500-horsepower (hp) Cummins X12 engine and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission. Wheelbase on the pumper-tanker is 220½ inches, overall length is 36 feet 2½-inches, and overall height is 9 feet 9 inches.
Sebo points out that the rig has 1,500-gallon-per-minute Waterous CSU pump, a 3,000-gallon water tank, two 1¾-inch hose crosslays of 200 feet each, 100 feet of 1¾-inch hose in a covered compartment in the front bumper, two Fireman’s Friend 3-inch direct tank fill valves with one set up for a 2½-inch hose and the other with a 5-inch Storz fitting, a 2,000-gallon Fol-Da-Tank portable water tank in a Zico powered Quic-Lift rack on the driver’s side, and three Newton 10-inch dump valves (one on each side and the third at the rear), along with Zone Defense cameras at each dump valve that transmit to a screen in the cab so the driver can monitor a water dump.
He says the pumper-tanker’s hosebed holds 500 feet of 5-inch large diameter hose (LDH), 500 feet of 3-inch hose, and 300 feet of 1¾-inch hose, while under the hosebed on each side are enclosed compartments for two 10-foot lengths of hard suction and an assortment of pike poles and hooks.
The pumper-tanker has a Federal Q2B siren on the front bumper, a HAAS traffic alerting system, Retrac heated remote-controlled mirrors, and a Command Zone™ electrical system. Lighting on the rig includes a Whelen Freedom IV LED lightbar, a FireTech Vista brow light, Whelen M9 LED warning lights, and FireTech LED scene lights, both fixed and telescoping models…