SPRINGFIELD, MASS. CHOOSES VELOCITY
Established in 1794, the Springfield Fire Department is one of the oldest fire departments in the country. Today, the department is a 100 percent Pierce fleet, with 13 frontline engines, two rescues, seven ladders and a HAZMAT vehicle.
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Steve Balboni, repair supervisor and head of maintenance for the department, is in charge of maintaining all fire and emergency vehicles. Balboni has been with the department for 25 years, and leads a team of five technicians in the maintenance garage.
Every Springfield FD apparatus undergoes a review after ten years of front line duty and is evaluated for rotation into reserve status. “Once they have been on front line service for ten years, we conduct a formal review to gauge their condition,” said Balboni. “We measure the amount of maintenance they’ve needed and any new safety equipment changes required by NFPA. We also look at mileage, as some areas of the city are much busier than others. Is it time to start to think about replacing the vehicle? After ten years, we watch and monitor every vehicle very closely.”
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Balboni also plays a key role when the time comes to spec new vehicles. “I was in charge of all of the pre-engineering for the two newest Pierce rigs. The first thing I did was to interview firefighters in our department and ask what their top priorities were for a new pumper and ladder, because they’re the ones who are going to use them every day,” states Balboni. “They came back and said ‘We need more space in the cab.’ That drew us to the Velocity cab, since it’s very spacious inside with lots of room for firefighters and their gear.”
Working with the Dealer
“Our Pierce dealer (Minuteman Trucks of Walpole, Mass.) really understands the fire market, and they work with the information I’ve compiled on our department’s needs,” said Balboni. “We sit down with Minuteman and make a component list. For example, with both the pumper and aerial we know we want the TAK-4 suspension with disc brakes, Detroit engine and Allison transmission. We go from there onto the type of cab we want. Which one has the most room and easiest access? Then we go on to the body style and compartments, and what we’re going to load into each one.” He continues, “It’s a comprehensive process, and Minuteman is able to input our needs into Pierce’s truck building software system to help configure the vehicle based on the equipment and components we are specifying. This information is shared with Pierce engineers, and the vehicle starts to take shape electronically. It’s a slick system, and any issues can be discussed with Minuteman and the team in Appleton.”
Keep It Simple – and Store More
When looking to the pump and body configuration, the Pierce Ultimate Configuration (PUC) caught Balboni’s attention. “I really liked the PUC when I first saw it, but looking good doesn’t mean everything,” he states. “So I made calls to other PUC departments to see how they liked it. Our goal is to get things simpler for our firefighters. With the PUC, they can put the parking brake on and – with one switch – engage the pump. It’s confusing enough when firefighters arrive at a fire, so we want apparatus that are easy to operate.”
Storage space is always at a premium, but perhaps even more of an issue for the Springfield fire department. “We use large diameter hose, and our trucks carry a lot of large fittings to go with our city’s mixture of connections,” says Balboni. “In our older trucks, these fittings get piled into compartments – taking up lots of valuable space – and they can get banged up. The PUC configuration is a big plus because it offers a lot more usable storage, especially up top in the large hatch compartments. The PUC allows us to store many seldom-used fittings up and out of the way, and create more space for the items our firefighters use every day.”
Easy To Service
As head of the department’s maintenance team, easy servicing of components is another priority. “From our point of view, the main thing for our guys in the garage is access to the pump and the controls,” states Balboni. “With the Velocity cab tilted, and the crosslays removed, there is easy access to all the pump valves.” He continues, “And all our new trucks use lower maintenance LED lighting, since they draw far less and last much longer.” Another feature that Balboni likes about the design is the enclosed ladder storage, which makes the ladders easy to remove and also eliminates the need for a hydraulic ladder rack.
Affording New Apparatus – Dollars and Sense
How to make new fire apparatus affordable in today’s economic environment is no small feat – especially when the Department was unable to secure a Fire Act Grant for these two latest Pierce trucks. Balboni explains how Springfield made it a reality. “We went with the Flex Financing program offered by Oshkosh Capital,” said Balboni. “We consider these vehicles capital projects,” Balboni continued, “because we are going to keep them for 20-years plus.”
Oshkosh Capital offers tax-exempt municipal financing with many benefits, such as no down payment or security deposit requirement, lower payments, and ownership of the vehicle at the conclusion of the financing term. “The Oshkosh Capital lease purchase we chose is a six-year program where the effective interest rate was an excellent value for both our department and the taxpayers,” states Balboni. “The financing rate is substantially less than other avenues we considered. City Hall made the final decision, and they went out to bid on these leases. Oshkosh Capital provided the best package, and enabled our department to obtain the vehicles we needed to more effectively serve the citizens of Springfield.”