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A quint in a rural district?
Has any one have a small ladder in a rural dist? My dept has a city with a pop 2,600 or less with 90 sq mi of rural with about 15,000 people. A lot of new buildings and new homes (on hills) we have one 35' ground ladder. A good 15 min for a aid engine with a 35' ladder and 30 min for a truck. Has any one had good or bad luck with a ladder in rural areas? How long did the training take?
Thank you!
Thank you!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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I love em! We have an E-One Quint, I am assigned to it. It has a 2000 GPM Pump / 500 gallon Water Tank / 25 gallon Class A Foam Tank / 15KW Generator / Light Package / 24' Suction and 1400' 4" LDH. It is assigned to our West District, a bedroom community, mostly hydrants out here but some non-hydrant areas too. It drives, pumps like an engine. The single axel wheel base is close. Our turning radius is better than our E-One engines located at Central Station. The Aerial is a nice feature for chimney fires or someone trapped on the 3rd or 4th floors. Most small quints have only a 65' ladder, they call them 75' because the tunrtable is 10' off the ground. So your reach is limited. The training is a little longer than an engine but not much more. The problem people forget about is you can't SAFELY run both operations with just the engineer only, so it needs to be fully manned. Now if you can fill all 6 seats it can easily operate as a first due engine and aerial if need be. But we staff ours with 3, so we are forced to decide in-bound if we are operating as an engine or ladder dependant on what the incident commander needs done or orders.
You can see the truck on my homepage's slideshow.
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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We have a Pierce Quint and it is awesome. There is no greater feeling than not having to wait for a neighboring district to grab a truck company to bring to a building you need ventilation on. It really isn't the size of your district that matters, rather the type of construction and size of the buildings in your district. Training on a truck is like anything else, it takes time. I would be training on every aspect of truck company operations that I could find.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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We're a suburban community (20 miles west of Chicago), and we've got a 1997 E-One 75' Quint, (bought NEW in 1997). It works very well in our residential neighborhoods as well as the industrial areas. The factory rep came out when we took delivery of it and did a little training class. Then those who were trained, taught the rest of the members who weren't. Not to mention that it comes with a full complement of ground ladders! Here's a photo:
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Permalink Reply by Just Plain Craig Moyer on
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While we're not rural we're a small area without alot of buildings. When we started looking into a third engine we talked about getting a short snorkel (we went with a squrt). We looked at Barnaget NJ's 55 ft snorkel. Great engine, Lots of versitility. At 55 ft it doesn't "overpower" the roads, not alot of extra training due to the fact that it's almost the same length as most engines. A couple of companies in the state have 55 foot sticks which works pretty well.
55 feet is enough for almost any residential application.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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I'll go with Engineco913. It's not the size of the district, but the size/construction of the buildings that should determine your needs. Is it a case of just being able to say "we've got an aerial"? Or is there a well defined need?
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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David, Quints are great, really great for low staffed department. We run a 105 foot Pierce platform. It runs a lot of Mut. Aid. Some of it is rural. like any master stream you need a good water supply. Just take time to spec one out. Make sure you demo them out in your first due. Have the rep set them up in want you would think "problem spots". Drive them around in tight spots and so on. And dont forget about low weight bridges and over head. Good luck
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Permalink Reply by Glen Garland on
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We have a small (5000) community w/ about 70 sq. mi. We have run a 100' aerial for about 25 yrs. We have a 100' midmount tower quint on order for late winter delivery. We tried many different trucks in our community before going to bid. We wanted to reduce the fleet w/o reducing capability. Staffing is not typically an issue for us as a call dept. and we felt the best bet for our situation was a 100' quint tower. We also tried a couple of 75's and found we often came up short in several sets in our town. There is a small difference in overall length and wheelbase but greater reach and scrub area (our ladder will be a 5 section aerial), but you should try one in your town first if at all possible (beg, borrow or steal). If your looking for a new one get some demo units to try. If your budget only allows for a used unit...beg, borrow, or steal one. Training is absolutely essential, both initial and ongoing. It can be worked into several other training subject as well. If your response area requires an aerial (and most do with truss construction and large open building styles) then the training has to follow the equipment. Best of luck going forward.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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Personally I don't like quints. Real heavy and prone to being out-of-service a lot. This is locally though. You mileage may vary. Fire ground tactics are also a concern. Is the quint operating as an engine or a truck. My city had great luck for years with a 'tele-squrt.' Although the chief did feel that 55' was just big enough to get you into trouble. With one excemption, and not counting church steeples, nothing here was over 2 stories. The only reason it wasn't replaced with another squrt was because of mutual aid. It just wasn't needed.
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Permalink Reply by Frank Svitak on
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While we don't have one, one of our sister companies in the township has a quint. This unit is usually first due in thier dist. It is a 75' stick and works great. You can check out pics of it on thier website www.riograndefire.com.
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Permalink Reply by Bill Muehsam on
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Some things to consider when "looking" for a Truck. First, does the present buildings/fire load of the district give you the need for a Truck Company? Second, what will the district look like during the lifetime of the apparatus? Does future construction (shopping centers, large industrial buildings, etc) give you the need for a Aerial device. Is your fire load going to increase? Next, can you justify the cost? Before you drop $425,000(starting price) on a 75' quint or about $725,000 on a 100' stick or platform, you had best have a need for it. Can your district needs be met by another piece of equipment? 40 ft - 50ft Bangor Ladders or an Engine with an Elavated waterway (Squirt or TeleSquirt)? As for training, who is going to teach you Truck Company Operations? Any Aerial Device takes many hours of training before you can become profiecient enough on a fireground that you aren't going to get someone seriously hurt or killed while using it. Driving one also has a totally different set of safety and fireground placement issues to consider.
Bottom line is this......you better have a need now or in the immediate future for a Truck and had better be able to devote alot of time training on it. It is by no means an inexpensive venture.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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One of our neighboring departments bought a 75' quint a couple of years ago. It replaced one of their big pumpers and the rationale for the truck was the school and a couple of other 3 story buildngs in their district.
It's great knowing that we have a ladder truck nearby for some of our high-hazard buildings. It can also function as a full Class A pumper and it has been known to draft from dry hydrants on occasion.
Picture that - a full size quint drafting from a pond in the middle of no where. I WILL upload a picture when I have the chance to take one.
Disadvantages, of course include the fact that the truck cannot get up long narrow driveways, nor travel all of the roads in the district. One of the advantages will be that your call volume will increase because every neighboring department will be requesting it.
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