The Collingswood (NJ) Fire Department provides fire, rescue, and emergency medical services (EMS) to a 2-square-mile borough densely populated with residential structures, rental properties, and a large commercial business district. It has a staff of 17 full-time paid firefighters operating from a single station. The department wanted to replace a nearly 20-year-old engine that was having mechanical issues and was seeking a quick turn around time for delivery.
“We checked out several vendors and were concerned about the long delivery times for getting a new custom pumper,” Chief Geoffrey Joyce says. “Then we talked with Campbell Supply Company about a quick-delivery program vehicle from Spartan Emergency Response (ER) that would allow us to choose several different options on the rig. We were able to pick the chassis, cab and body style, and pump that we wanted as well as a few other options, and the truck only took 10 months from order to delivery.”
Michael Robertson, district sales manager for Campbell Supply Company, who sold the rescue-pumper to Collingswood Fire, says the rescue-pumper is built on a Spartan Metro Star medium four door (MFD) cab and chassis with a 10-inch raised roof; has seating for five firefighters, four of them in H.O. Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats with IMMI SmartDock brackets; and custom shelving for EMS supplies on the rear wall.
Nick Hummel, Spartan ER’s director of sales, says the rig has a S-180 style aluminum body with full-depth compartments on the left side and half-depth upper/full-depth lower compartments on the right side, all covered with roll-up doors. It has a 177½-inch wheelbase, its overall length is 31 feet 8 inches, and its overall height is 9 feet 8 inches. The rig is powered by a 500-horsepower (hp) Cummins X12 engine and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission.
Joyce points out that the rescue-pumper carries a side-mount Hale DSD 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump, a 750-gallon water tank, and a 20-gallon foam tank with a provision for installation of a foam system at a later date. It carries 150 feet of 1¾-inch hose in a netting-covered hose well in the severe-duty extended front bumper, a 5-inch suction inlet on the front bumper, two 1¾-inch crosslays of 200 feet and 250 feet above the pump panel, 200 feet of preconnected 2½-inch hose off the back of the rig, an Elkhart deck gun with stacked tips, and a Hannay electric booster reel holding 200 feet of 1-inch forestry hose with a fog nozzle.
“We had Spartan ER set up the hosebed to carry 1,200 feet of 4-inch large diameter hose (LDH) and 800 feet of dead lay 2½-inch hose,” Joyce says. “We also carry a Stokes basket on the body on top of the rig, and had Spartan ER build a waterproof box on the top left of the body to hold the booms and diking that we use for spills and hazmat situations.”
Tim Burkhart, Spartan ER’s regional sales manager, notes that the rescue-pumper has Whelen M6 and M9 LED emergency lighting, a Whelen Freedom IV LED light bar, Whelen M9 LED scene lights on the sides of the cab, and a Whelen Pioneer LED light over the front windshield.
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.
