That’s a lot of rescue gear to carry.
If you’ve ever opened a closet door only to be victimized by a small landslide of hats, gloves, and household bric-a-brac, you know the frustration of not having a place for everything. At home, it’s merely annoying. In a fire truck, it wastes precious time and can be downright dangerous.
No one values storage space more fervently than Mike Vasil, Battalion Chief and Chief Engineer of Kyle Fire Department in Kyle, Texas. His department is located smack dab in a county famous for crises at opposite ends of the spectrum: grass fires and flash floods. “The result,” says Vasil, “is we’re carrying more specialized equipment to every scene.” To make room for all that gear, Kyle FD recently ordered a Velocity® PUC™ rescue pumper, with top-mount pump panel. “I just love this thing,” Vasil enthuses. Mostly what he loves is 500 cubic feet of compartment space.
The key to freeing up so much space is Pierce’s patent-pending PUC—an acronym for Pierce Ultimate Configuration. Among the PUC’s many breakthroughs, the most crucial is the pump’s location, which has been moved far forward, under the cab’s seat-box area. In addition, the pump’s intake and discharge ports drape downward, hugging the frame rails in a space rarely used in traditional trucks. The result? An extra four to five feet of “free” real estate, which translates into as much as 30 percent more storage space, all of it riding on a wheelbase that can be as much as 18 inches shorter.
For their new rescue pumper, the department ordered three 500-pound-load-rated sliding trays behind hinged lift panels, and two more that slide out and tilt down. To that array he added three tool boards—two that slide out and one that is hinged. All of his compartments are illuminated with strip LEDs.
Two of the compartments have proved among his favorites. “One contains all of our traffic cones,” he says, “and the other is one of four ‘coffin box’ compartments that holds 250 pounds of absorbent oil-dry compound. What we do is pour the oil dry in the top of the truck, where it goes into a hopper in the compartment. Then, when you need it, it simply flows out underneath the truck into a bucket on the ground. If there’s a spill, it’s on the ground instead of inside the compartment, which, on our previous trucks, was always a big mess.”
KFD further ordered a 26-inch front-bumper extension which now holds extrication gear for victims trapped in vehicles. The extrication jaws are powered by a unit mounted atop the truck, switched on by an operator inside the cab. “It’s convenient, and I think it’s safer that way,” Vasil says. “And putting those rescue tools in the front bumper saved us even more storage space.” Vasil further ordered a 15-foot extendable light tower, aimed so that the operator can see the extrication jaws without being blinded by the truck’s headlights.
Kyle’s PUC carries the full array of standard rescue gear—tools, ropes, ladders, stokes baskets, backboards, ALS equipment—but also hauls two chainsaws, an additional power saw to cut guardrails and garage doors, and specialized equipment for swift-water rescue. His PUC has no trouble hauling ten sets of PFDs (Personal Flotation Devices), helmets, throw bags, and the ropes necessary to perform in the roughest conditions. “What’s more,” he says, “we have room in the cab for two EMS boxes positioned next to the front-facing seats, near the doors.” Unaffected by the pump’s location under the cab, the Velocity’s cabin is notable for its generous headroom and legroom, and also features integrated compartments and cubbyholes to hold manuals, radios, phones, thermoses —all the clutter that used to wind up scattered across the dash or rolling around the floor.
Pierce’s PUCs are fitted with either side- or top-mounted pump panels. KFD has become a devoted fan of the latter. “It means a lot to me to have my operator up off the road,” Vasil says, “where cars aren’t whizzing so closely past. Plus, the top mount gives the operator a great view of what’s going on.”
Pierce’s PUCs are available with 26-inch-deep sliding-floor trays, covered raceways, dividers, recessed shelf tracks, tilt-out shelves, swinging tool boards, and the afore-mentioned strip lighting. PUCs can be ordered with automotive-style hinged lap doors or with custom-made roll-up doors that carry a lifetime mechanical warranty. The PUC is available on all Pierce custom chassis, and all are true pump-and-roll designs.
BY JOHN PHILLIPS
PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER CHOMEL / FIRESIDE PHOTOGRAPHY
John Phillips has been writing about cars since 1974, is the author of two books, and has been an editor at Car and Driver for 20 years.