Firetrucks Go High Tech -- Wall Street Journal

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July 25, 2005  

 

Firetrucks Go High Tech

Spurred by 9/11 Spending,

Rigs Cost Up to $1 Million;

29,000 Options, Even a Sink

By TIMOTHY W. MARTIN  

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

July 25, 2005; Page B1

MENASHA, Wis. -- When Peter Giunchini ordered a new firetruck for the North Hudson, N.J., fire department last year, he could choose from a nice list of options -- about 29,000 of them.

There were 12 different ladders and platforms, ranging in height from 55 to 105 feet. Hoses could spew out water, foam or a dry chemical mix and could attach to one of 400 different fire pump configurations. These hoses could squirt their contents through 428 kinds of nozzles. Though his department picked a black-and-red truck, it had its choice of hundreds of other colors.

Checking the nearly completed, $700,000 truck last month at Pierce Manufacturing Inc.'s plant here, Mr. Giunchini, North Hudson's director of automotive services, toted a 137-page binder listing the 367 features he helped select. "You could just go on and on and on," Mr. Giunchini says. "The option list is just uncountable."

Fire engines aren't what they used to be. Today's trucks are bigger, faster, safer and smoother-riding. They look like traditional firetrucks, but they can be equipped like ambulances or command centers, with state-of-the-art electronics, communications systems and climate control to make sure vials of medicine are kept cool. In addition to putting out fires, these trucks are used to extract people from crumpled cars, resuscitate heart-attack victims, reinforce collapsing buildings and analyze chemical spills.

The price of a single rig frequently exceeds $500,000 and occasionally tops $1 million. The Federal Bureau of Investigation paid $1.4 million for a high-technology command center vehicle to coordinate security at last January's presidential inauguration. Although the number of trucks sold in North America has held steady at about 5,500 annually for the past five years, revenue at their makers has been increasing as equipment prices have shot up. Firetruck makers estimate the industry's annual revenue at $2 billion, a number that is likely to rise as municipal budgets rebound. Most of the trucks are built by Pierce, a unit of Oshkosh Truck Corp. of Oshkosh, Wis.; E-One of Ocala, Fla., a division of Federal Signal Corp.; and KME Fire Apparatus of Nesquehoning, Pa.

Demand for these multitasking trucks heated up after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That is partly because the Department of Homeland Security has set aside $2.2 billion in grant money for fire departments since 2001, and partly because post-Sept. 11 anxieties have made it easier for departments to justify buying fancy new rigs. "People want to know that if something happens, the first responders won't say, 'I'm sorry, I can't help you,' " says John W. Randjelovic, president of Pierce, the nation's No. 1 firetruck maker with a market share of 31%.

About half of the 74,000 firetrucks used by U.S. fire departments are 15 years old or older and are ripe for upgrading or replacing, according to guidelines written by the National Fire Protection Association, an independent standard-developing body. With many departments being asked to do more than just snuff fires, truck makers have responded with countless add-ons and innovations, from global-positioning-system satellite receivers to glow-in-the-dark ladder rungs -- and even to kitchen sinks.

"It's not just putting the wet stuff on the hot stuff anymore," says Leah Kennedy, a Pierce sales representative in Boulder, Colo.

Firetrucks date to the early 1900s, when they replaced apparatuses pulled by tractors and horses. Back then trucks carried 60 gallons of water -- a drop in today's 4,000-gallon buckets. "A pumper was essentially a pump and some hose," says Carl Peterson, an assistant director in the public fire protection division of the NFPA.

Firetrucks began to change significantly in the 1970s and 1980s as an increasing number of volunteer departments took on medical emergencies and other duties. A push to embrace firefighter safety in the 1990s led to further changes. For instance, the NFPA set a standard calling for enclosed cabs in fire engines, ending the era of firefighters clinging to a truck's tailboard.

Since Sept. 11, federal, state and municipal agencies have been snapping up rescue and homeland security vehicles that can come with decontamination showers, chemical-analysis labs and big-screen TVs to view footage of an emergency scene. Pierce is spending $18.5 million to expand manufacturing of those vehicles.

Safety innovations also are in vogue. New side-roll airbags are designed to protect against one of the leading killers of firefighters -- truck rollovers. Hydraulic lifts enable firefighters to reroll fire hoses at waist level rather than from atop a truck. Lengthier ladders with platforms help firefighters douse flames from safer distances.

Until the Isle La Motte, Vt., fire company bought a new truck this year, it used a 1973 model on which the power steering, brakes and fuel pump continually failed. The new rig automatically adjusts pump pressure and water flow, functions that previously required someone to rev the engine or open valves. "It allows us to focus on the task at hand," says Fire Chief Scott Newman.

Yet for many city and municipal authorities, balancing firefighters' need for state-of-the-art equipment against budgetary realities isn't easy.

In Golden, Colo., city manager Mike Bestor says his government plans years ahead for its frequent firetruck purchases; right now, Pierce is building a $380,000 truck for the city. "We've made a commitment to have the best-equipped firetruck, so it's always been one of our top priorities," Mr. Bestor says. But "you have to definitely keep a lid on" costs.

Most trucks today are custom-designed by fire departments that spend months choosing the options. Brad Jaques and his fellow Lake Placid, N.Y., firefighters pored through hundreds of fliers from each of the big manufacturers, wrestling with issues like whether to splurge on an electric hydraulic ladder or an on-truck generator. "I think I'd rather have open-heart surgery" than do it again, Mr. Jaques says.

On a recent afternoon at the main Pierce plant, more than 100 firefighters from 28 departments came to tweak blueprints and haul away finished trucks. Pierce, based in Appleton, Wis., hosts more than 8,000 firefighters a year just at its nearby Menasha plant.

Fire Capt. Jerry Hackney and Assistant Fire Chief David Layman of the Newport News, Va., department, went over blueprints with a Pierce salesman for two rescue vehicles that cost $400,000 each. They confirmed their earlier decision to replace two seats with cabinets to store oxygen tanks, cervical collars and other basic life support gear. "You got to put this stuff somewhere," Mr. Layman says.

Six firefighters from Mountain Home, Idaho, showed up to accept delivery of three trucks that cost a total of $960,000. The department financed two through Pierce and paid for most of the third with a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says Alan Roberts, a Mountain Home volunteer firefighter.

Among the options on their trucks were a hydraulic ladder rack, gold-leaf lettering and an American flag design on the grill. As they began their 1,750-mile journey home, Mr. Roberts jokingly said he wished they could have selected an option that Pierce didn't offer: cruise control.

[antiquefirelt 994]

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One might say "Too High Tech" ! We recently toured the area to speak to line firefighters about the tower ladders they operated on. We spoke to 20 departments, in three states representing 5 apparatus manufacturers. Too a person, basically, everyone had a similar issue: too much electronic sensors. Almost everyone had some isse where the apparatus had a failed sensor that caused an alarm and worse prevented the aerial from a critical operation. Most agreed we'd like to buy a band new 1985 tower ladder without all the NFPA gadgets that fail. We even found one department who noted during a ride that the compartment door ajar alarm and light was malfunctioning and to not worry about the alarms, when in fact the rear ladder storage tunnel doors were open. The truck had been in service two days! Two days and already disregarding the idiot lights. How about a truck with no sensor to tell you the outriggers are out, we;ll just walk around the truck like we always have. How about no idiot lights on the doors that fail when the truck hit a big bump. How about compartment lights that come on with a single switch activated by the parking brake instead of 14 individual switches ? Come on NFPA give us a break! The new trucks are have so much safety stuff that fails that over time firefighters don't pay attention to the idot lights and buzzers. In which case all NFPA has done is make the trucks more complex and expensive. Oh, thats right the NFPA apparatus committee is full of those who profit from broke down trucks.

Thanks to all those departments who spoke candidly about their apparatus! You've helped us immensely.

[x242Steve 1]

They left out Seagrave when mentioning the major manufacturers...