Tanker - Truck 101
There is one problem with putting out a fire... you need lots and lots of water. A tanker's job is to fill with water, get it to the fire, and get rid of it to an engine, and do it in as little time a possible. If you drive past a large fire, often times there will be a line of tankers driving back and forth between a fire and a hydrant. It's basically like having a line of people passing buckets back and forth; only instead of buckets, we use 1500 gallon tankers.
The Tanker only holds who two people in the cab. Again, this is a water support vehicle, and is usually not the primary truck to leave. It supports engines. It's made hold water, not people.
The Tanker is Gilpin's Newest addition to the fleet. It's 2009 KME Frieghtliner with a 1500 gallon per minute pump and a 1500 gallon internal water tank. You do the math. At the rear, it has a ten inch water dump. This is used to dump into a large water bin that is carried on the side of the tanker. The bin gets folded out onto the ground, the tanker backs up to it, and 1500 gallons gets dumped into it within minutes. From there, engines and other tankers can use this bin as a water source.
It also can carry 20 gallons of Class A foam, and 20 gallons of AFFF foam. It has an on-board 20,000 watt PTO generator.
The picture to the right shows the tanker using it's deck gun during a training exercise. The water you see there is being suctioned out of the Allegheny River using a suction opening at the front bumper. It also has 1200 feet of four inch LDH hose, two 1.75 inch preconnects at 200 feet of hose each, and two 2.5 inch preconnects with 200 feet of hose each. On top of all of that, it has a rear mounted booster reel for quick and dirty work.
Engine 2 - Truck 102
You don't fight fire with fire, you fight it with water... lots of water. You put the water on the fire using the engine. Buckets just don't cut it anymore.
As you can see from the picture to the left, there's a lot going on here. GTVFD's engine is a 1999 Pierce Freightliner with a Rolls-Royce engine. It holds 1000 gallons of water and a 1250 gallon per minute water pump. It also holds 50 gallons of AFFF foam. At the rear is a suare ten inch water dump to dumping quickly into water supply tanks. It is carrying 1200 feet of four inch IDH hose, and 1100 feet of 1.75 inch hose. Also on board is a 5000 watt portable generator. It can hold five crew members, and is equipped with air pack jump seats so that the firefighters are suited up before getting on scene of a fire. When seconds count, the go by quickly.
Engine 3 (Brush) - Truck 103
The brush truck serves one primary purpose, brush fires. Living in a rural area yields the possibility for many brush fires during the year. Although it can be used as a secondary truck on other types of calls, it is the primary on any and all brush fires. The picture below is the Brush Truck at a brush fire in Bethel Twp. You can see the passenger side booster reel was used in this fire.
The Brush truck is a 1981 Chevrolet. It is equipped with a 450 gallon per minute water pump and can carry 250 gallons of water. It has two booster reels: one on the driver's side, and one on the passenger's side. It has a total of 200 foot of 1.5 inch hose, and 300 foot of 2.5 inch hose. Also on board are metal brush rakes, many indian fighters (water backpacks - 5 gallons each), and a chainsaw.
Rescue - Truck 104
The Rescue is an essential piece to the Gilpin Twp. Fire Departments effectiveness as a whole. It's purpose is to basically be the primary truck on most of the calls that don't actually require our crew to actually put out a fire. These types of calls include wrecks, downed power lines and trees, carbon monoxide alarms, STAT MedEvac air lift landing zones, and air pack support.
The Rescue truck is a Freightliner with a 5 person seatin compacity in the front cabin. All of the passenger seats are equiped with air pack jump seats. This allows the firefighters to equip with air packs on the way to the scene. Below, you can see what the back seat of the Rescue looks like.
The rescue has every tool that would fit into the truck that would assist in a rescue type of situation.
Included in the arsenal is a large rope system which is primarily used for doing victim rescues that take place over steep hills or cliffs. Besides that, you never know when a rope will come in handy.
The "Power" of the Rescue comes in two forms. The first is Electrical, and the second is hydralic. The electrical power comes from an on-board 25 thousand watt generator. This can be used to run any number of electrical tools, from lights to a sawzall. The hydralic power comes from a 100 feet of 10 thousand pound hydralic cables, and a Lucas Tool. A Lucas tool is commonly known as the "Jaws of Life," but is actually a set of two tools in one. A set of spreaders, and a set of cutters, each being backed by the 10,000psi of preasure.
The Rescue is also referred to as an "air truck," which means it has the ability to refill air tanks on scene. Equipped with a set of four large 6000 pound air storage tanks full of filtered air on a cascading refill system, the Rescue has the ability to quickly fill two air tanks at a time with safe, clean air. The system is equipped with a booster for assisted pressure when the trucks tanks are nearing empty. The picture on the right shows the Rescue Captain, Duane Knepshield Jr., refilling air tanks while on scene at a carbon monoxide incident in Apollo, PA.
Finally, the Rescue comes equipped with 12,000 pound winch loaded with 125 feet of 3/8 inch aircraft cable.
