New Engine

As promised, I now go into the details of the new engine that I discussed in the last post. It's funny, I joined my local volunteer fire department so I could do EMS, but I found that I also began liking the fire services as well. Crazy world, who would have thunk it?

This engine is a brand-spanking-new, Pierce pumper with a 500 gallon tank outfitted with a Waterous fire 1250 GPM fire pump, and all the bells and whistles.... I mean that literally, the department actually ordered the truck with bells and whistles, which can be seen mounted on the front fender in the picture below. We tried out these bells and whistles, but you actually can hear them over the mechanical or electrical siren or the air horn. It's a full foot taller than our other, older Pierce Quantum, a 1999 model. This new truck replaces our trusty, well-used Pierce Dash, circa 1980, and is now designated E-411, and is also our FAST truck.


I spent an afternoon over break, helping get the new engine into service. Basically there were five guys there, the three college students, and the two chiefs. We transfered hundreds of feet of hose: hand lines, supply lines, and everything else from the 1980 Dash to the 1999 Quantum, and from the 1999 Quantum to the 2007 Quantum. Fun times, eh?

After moving the hose, we moved the tools, radios, and everything else, and finally, we were good to go. as mentioned, I got to ride in it that very evening towards an MVA, on it's very first call. It's a nice piece of equipment, and hopefully, it will provide several decades of service. The pictures included here are from the Pierce plant in Wisconsin, just before the decal work was put on, (and saving me the trouble of re-anonymizing the images through Photoshop) right before it took its trip to its new home in Upstate New York.
(click to enlarge images)