The Sanger (TX) Fire Department provides fire suppression, rescue, and emergency medical services (EMS) response to a 130-square-mile fire and EMS district in North Denton County, Texas, with 25 full-time and five part-time firefighters. The department runs a pumper, a pumper-tanker, two brush trucks, a rescue, and three advanced life support (ALS) ambulances out of one station. With the city of Sanger experiencing burgeoning growth, especially in multistory structures, the department decided it needed to add an aerial device to its fleet.

“Sanger is in the process of going through major growth in the area,” says Chief David Pennington. “Sanger has added multistory hotels, apartment complexes, and taxpayers where there are commercial businesses on the ground floor and apartments on the upper stories. We needed an aerial device that would give us good reach and be able to hit a four- or five-story building.”

Pennington says the department researched the various types of aerials available and decided that a platform would serve its needs better than a straight stick. “We have several warehouses and distribution centers of over a million square feet each, with lots of mechanical equipment on their roofs,” he points out. “Having an aerial with a platform is very helpful in putting our firefighters safely on a roof and bringing someone back in a Stokes basket on the platform.”

He adds that the department also thought that a midmount aerial platform would work best in fitting into the city’s narrow downtown streets, would have a lower cab height compared with a rear-mount aerial platform, and would allow for a greater scrub area because of its five-section aerial instead of a rear-mount’s four-section aerial. Pennington notes that after taking all those factors into consideration, Sanger Fire went to Smeal Fire Apparatus for a 100-foot midmount aerial platform quint.

Brian Cudaback, apparatus sales director for Metro Fire Apparatus Specialists Inc., who sold the rig to Sanger, says the Smeal HD100 aerial platform quint is built on a Spartan Gladiator extended medium four-door (EMFD) cab and chassis with a 5-inch raised roof, set up to hold four firefighters, three of them in H.O. Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats with IMMI SmartDock brackets. Wheelbase on the truck is 250 inches, overall length is 49 feet 6 inches, and overall height is 10 feet 11 inches.

He notes that the vehicle has a 605-horsepower (hp) Cummins X15 engine and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission. The aerial is made of 100,000-pound rated tensile steel with a 1,000-pound tip load dry, and a 500-pound tip load wet. Cudaback adds that the HD100 has a Waterous CSU 2,000-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump and a 300-gallon water tank.

Pennington points out that the Smeal platform quint has three crosslays, one with 200 feet of 2½-inch hose and two with 200 feet each of 1¾-inch hose; and 150 feet of 1¾-inch hose in a front bumper compartment. The platform has a Task Force Tips Monsoon monitor along with a parapet ladder fitting and rappelling anchors.

Cudaback says the truck has a ground ladder complement that includes one 35-foot three-section extension ladder, one 28-foot two-section extension ladder, two 16-foot roof ladders, a 17-foot Little Giant ladder, and a 10-foot folding ladder. He adds that the truck also carries two 8-foot roof hooks; one 10-foot roof hook; a 12-foot roof hook; and a 12-foot pike pole in the ladder compartment; a 14-foot roof ladder on the aerial’s base; and a 12-foot pike pole on the aerial’s fly.

Cudaback notes that the Smeal HD100 has a Hannay electric reel holding 150 feet of electric cord on the left rear catwalk, a 10-kW generator to run scene lights at the platform, a Whelen Freedom IV LED lightbar, and Whelen M6 and ION LED warning and scene lighting.

Pennington says the department has had “good success with the truck,” adding that it runs first out on structure fires and alarms, and for industrial buildings and warehouses.

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.