BRUSH TRUCKS

SHOULD EVERY RURAL F.D USE BRUSH TRUCKS OR JUST STILL USE ENGINES

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Permalink Reply by Jared Rahr on January 17, 2009 at 5:43pm

We have 3 brush trucks, a 06 F250, a 02 F250 and an old Dodge pickup. We use the newer ones for all the brush/grass fires we have, but we still bring an engine so we can have more manpower at the scene. the old dodge is used when the other trucks are gone and we get another grass fire.

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Permalink Reply by mikenpfd on January 17, 2009 at 6:27pm

Our department covers both city and rural area. We use a brush truck. It comes in handy especially for field fires, timber fires. We use our brush truck during the winter months for when the roads are snow covered in our rural area when the engine cannot make it thru.

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Permalink Reply by Bobbie K. on April 2, 2009 at 11:51pm

We use both and live in a rural area.

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Permalink Reply by John L. VanAuken on April 3, 2009 at 1:07am

We are a rural fire dist. wich also covers the local town in wich we are based in. We have two brush rigs, and two tenders, wich we use for wildland fires, we have two engines as well. If we have a call in the rural area for a structure fire of course we will send our main engine, and then the tender. If it is just wildland and no structures thretend then just both brush rigs and a tender if not both of them. If wildland and structures thretend, then yes we will roll a brush rig and an engine first. So I would say that it would depend on where your coverage area is geograficaly. I know most big city dept only have a couple of engines and or a ladder, and poss an ambulance as well. Where a more rural dept would have say a brush, ambulance, engine or two, or even a big tender. So ya if tend to get calls to off road back woods type areas then ya id say a brush rig or two would be handy to have and should be used. For one less you want to get it stuck, walk a long ways with a booster line or inch and a half, or take a chance and roll it, most structure engines just dont quite do the job in most wildland situations. I know most depts dont carry them, but it wouldent hurt to carry a few wildland capable hand tools on a engine. So as said most depts will adapt and equip there vehicals and keep the proper tools to do the jobs in witch they are geograficaly assigned to.

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Permalink Reply by Mick Shelley on April 14, 2009 at 11:39am

It seems to me that if you live in a rural area, that a brush truck would be your best means to fighting a brush fire in a heavily wooded area.

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Permalink Reply by trevor leseman on August 6, 2009 at 8:09am

lyons fire has three and i am glad we do i personaly think that we need it we have the oregon department of forestry fire just down the road from out department but i think it is good that we have our own brush trucks also

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Permalink Reply by shane phillips on August 6, 2009 at 8:28pm

Here is our brush truck it is a old chev 1 ton truck with a 400 gal tank , with 200 ft of 1 '' booster hose. We use it for all brush fires and MVA's . We only roll a engine with the brush fire is close to any type of building IT Also goes it to all structure fires with 2 engines

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Permalink Reply by Rick K. on August 6, 2009 at 9:45pm

well theres nothing wrong with using brush trks.! there's places where engines cant get to! we ran a brush trk and had an engine or tanker respond also just incase we needed more water and a couple extra hand's!! if other trk. wasnt needed then it would be called off!! i'm sure every dept is different thats the way we did it!!

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Permalink Reply by Josh Sullivan on August 6, 2009 at 10:08pm

These all sound very good for the areas and your attack procedures. Here in Howard Co in west Texas we have 6 CAFS (compressed air foam systems) that we run in our area. But we utilize them for every fire that we respond to. They are normally class a foam systems that we use the heck out of, and also retrofitted with class b ARAFFF 1/3% for petrochemical fires. And so for they have done wonders for us. Being the cafs setup they do not use up all the water that fast and stretches the water so to speek. For a better idea of our area being a volunteer fire dept we imediatly cover around 9,000 square miles in howard co. a 40X40 miles, with running 10 fire stations and 19 fires trucks.
6 cafs units, 4 engines, 1 telesquirt, 1 pumper tanker, 1 mini pumper, 4 brush trucks, 1 ERT, and 1 small dozer. it gets the jobs done. Here are sum pics of our CAFS units. If anybody wants some more infomation on them just sent me a message.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Stoops on August 6, 2009 at 11:01pm

Our Special Unit is our brush unit. Every department in our county, except 2 department, either have a brush or a special unit. They may not run very many calls but thye come in handy when they are needed.

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Permalink Reply by Holly on August 6, 2009 at 11:34pm

I can't speak for all but in our area it's not really an option. Some of the roads aren't big enough for our engine. Granted the mini pumper can go most everywhere that the brush truck can but your only putting to people in the truck.