Rescue Truck Designs Reflect Multipurpose Trends
(2) The Jessup (PA) Hose Co. turned to KME to build this walk-around rescue truck that includes a Burner Fire Control stored energy compressed air foam system (CAFS). (Photo courtesy of KME.)
Eddie L. Smith, director of the emergency vehicles group at VT Hackney, says that the economy and technological changes in the past few years have affected the design and definition of a traditional rescue truck. “Not many decades ago, a rescue truck was an anomaly in fire departments except in large city departments,” Smith says. “Many fire departments didn’t do auto extrication, technical rescue, or hazardous materials work. But as they started doing those activities, we saw rescues go from a squad that was a small truck carrying some tools and first-aid equipment to today’s heavy rescues where sometimes manufacturers are hard pressed to get all the equipment on the truck that the department wants.”
Smith thinks that tight budgets and staffing cuts have caused a transition from heavy rescues to rescue-pumpers and combination vehicles. “I don’t think heavy rescues will go away any time soon but believe we’ll see more of their use with regional response teams.”
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