By Hoodland Fire, The Mountain Times
Hoodland Fire has made an important investment in community safety by acquiring a new Type 3 wildland interface engine which arrived last month. This acquisition was made possible through the careful financial planning and savings accumulated in their Apparatus Reserve Account over the past few years.
The fire engine was built on a four wheel drive Freightliner chassis by Boise Mobile Equipment (BME). BME specializes in building wildland fire apparatus and is a major supplier to wildland fire agencies and structural fire departments throughout the country. It is very common for fire apparatus to be custom designed and built to meet the specific needs of the agency. At the moment, that can mean build times as long as four years for specialized rigs due to backlogs at the manufacturers. In the wildland fire apparatus world, vehicle design is based on nationally developed specifications that meet the needs of the Federal agencies along with one of the biggest users of these types of vehicles, the State of California. Knowing that development and refinement of this type of rig has been ongoing for years, Hoodland Fire chose to purchase a standard variation without any significant customizations.
Boise Mobile Equipment builds a number of “stock” units while also building customized rigs. Several stock units were available for purchase when Hoodland Fire was ready to buy, which meant they were able to procure a brand new unit that was nearing completion, lowering the delivery time from years to a couple of months. This also reduced costs due to lower engineering fees. Fortunately, the stock rig was coming in the color red, which essentially matches the department’s existing paint scheme, but it will be missing the white cab top that most other HFD vehicles have, as there wasn’t time to include that paint specification prior to completion.
The biggest difference between a vehicle designed for wildland fire use and one designed for structural fires is mobility. Structural fire engines are designed to arrive at the location of the fire and set up for stationary pumping operations and support crews with a supply of hose, tools and equipment. Wildland fires by their very nature move, sometimes quickly, necessitating an agile vehicle that can pump water to extinguish fire even while on the move. This is referred to as pump and roll capability.
Hoodland Fire already has three “Type 6” wildland apparatus. These are smaller units, and while they are very agile, they don’t have the same capabilities as the new vehicle. Two of the existing rigs carry 400 gallons of water and one carries 300 gallons – all of them pump about 125 gallons a minute and carry a crew of two. The new engine carries 500 gallons of water, has a main pump that can pump 500 gallons per minute and a separate auxiliary pump used for pump and roll operations that can deliver 275 gallons per minute. Crew size can be up to four personnel, and more hoses and equipment can be stored on the rig, including a ladder that will allow firefighters to reach rooftops of structures and clear them of debris, a prime fuel source for embers.
The need for these capabilities was demonstrated this year on the Service Fire near Fossil. The Clackamas County task force, including a Hoodland Fire unit, was positioned to defend a large log structure from the quickly advancing fire. A Type 3 engine from Clackamas Fire was able to draw water from a lake to supply its own hose lines and provide water to the rest of the task force, enabling them to prevent the fire from destroying the structure and other surrounding buildings. The smaller pumps on Type 6 apparatus do not have that ability.
The new engine is currently undergoing outfitting with equipment, and crews are engaged in training sessions to familiarize themselves with the engine’s capabilities and features. Once outfitting and training are complete, the new engine will be placed in service. It will replace an aging 1996 Type 3 Engine, which lacks the ground clearance and pump and roll capability present in the new engine. It has served the district well but has become increasingly less reliable.The members of Hoodland Fire are excited to have this powerful new tool to help combat the increasing threat from wildland fires.