After taking bids from several different manufacturers, Chief Engineer Eric Knobloch announced in April the Noank Volunteer Fire Company’s decision to purchase a shiny, red fire engine pumper from Pierce Manufacturing Inc., located in Appleton, Wis.
“They’re one of the oldest fire truck manufacturers around,” he said. He added that the fire truck replaced their previous fire truck that was more than 25 years old, now sporting a “For Sale” sign.
“They become hard to get parts for after 25 years,” he commented.
With a price tag of $439,000, Knobloch said the new fire truck is phenomenal.
“It has a lot of innovations for reduced manpower,” he said. “A lot of volunteer fire departments are having a problem getting enough staffing and we tried to build that into the new fire engine.”
What’s been really useful, he said, is the new fire truck’s ladder rack. He said normally firemen would have to get the ladder off the top of the fire truck, which can be a major operation. With the new truck, firemen need only to unlock the ladder and press a button for the ladder to come down to regular height.
“You don’t need three or four firemen to get a ladder off,” he explained. “Hydraulically it comes right down to the same height so two guys can take the ladder away.”
The truck, he continued, also has a Master Stream built on top of the fire engine.
“Once we hook up to a fire hydrant….a guy will actually have a remote control and he can control where the water goes, up or down, side to side,” Knobloch said. “For safety reasons, you don’t have to put a person on top of [the fire truck] and second of all, the same person can walk around and actually control where the water goes with the remote control.” He said they’re still waiting for the remote control nozzle to be shipped in but they use the laddering device all the time.
Knobloch said the truck also features a unique heavy-duty suspension that provides efficient braking and makes the truck stop faster than most. He added that if the truck were to hit something or get in an accident, it has a frontal airbag system that would deploy, the driver’s seat would lower to a safe position, and the seat belt tightens.
With many other new and useful innovations, Fire Chief David Steel and Knobloch agreed that the truck was a positive addition to the volunteer fire department.
“He loves to drive it,” Knobloch said laughing as he looked over to firefighter and driver James Dole.