RESCUE PUMP LADDER

 

 

On Thursday the 17th of January, 2002 Strathclyde Fire Brigade put the first of their new Rescue Pump Ladders on the run at Dumbarton. This type of appliance will be the new “workhorse” of the brigade replacing the current Water Tender Ladders and Road Rescue Units. Firemaster Jeff Ord was of the opinion that in order to maximise effectiveness, rescue kit must be immediately available at the scene, and not restricted to a limited number of specially equipped vehicles. Basically he wanted the first machine to arrive to have all the necessary equipment to start rescue operations immediately and not have to wait for the arrival of a Road Rescue Unit.
To comply with Manual Handling and Lifting regulations and also to store more equipment on the appliance slide and tilt shelves were fitted in the lockers. The ladders on the roof are carried on ladder beam gantries, which does away with the necessity of anyone having to go onto the roof of the appliance as by pulling on the poles at the rear of the appliance the gantry comes down to ground level where the ladder can be lifted up and carried to the scene without any reaching up to get them. The pump locker has barn doors instead of a roller shutter (which was liable to jamming by loose gear in the locker). There is a straight through compartment in the front lockers for the stowage of a spinal board.
The front and middle lockers on each side carry all the rescue equipment and the rear lockers on both sides and the pump locker carry the fire fighting equipment. On the roof are the usual 13.5 metre Lacon ladder, a 10.5 metre 2 section “Home Office” ladder, a 2 section short extension (or hatch ladder) and a folding roof ladder.
The vehicles are built on Scania chassis-cab units with a 4.3 metre wheelbase, 'active air' suspension, disc brakes all round, ABS and traction control. Having a design weight of 18 tonnes, they are powered by 9 litre, turbo-charged, intercooled, direct-injection diesel engines.
The water tank holds 1818 litres and for the first time a separate, stainless steel, 115 litre foam tank is also fitted. The pump is fitted with a “round the pump” foam proportioning system which allows foam from this tank mixture to be discharged through the hose reels or alternatively through an instantaneous outlet for discharge through a foam branch. If additional foam is required there is a pick up tube that can be inserted into a drum of foam.
The Rescue Pumps for use by Wholetime crews are new appliances based on Scania 94D-260 chassis with bodywork by Emergency One (UK) on the first thirteen and by Saxon on the next twenty eight. Unfortunately Saxon have gone out of business and we will need to wait to see who is going to do the bodywork on future appliances.
The Rescue Pump Ladders have larger front lockers (there are 4 brackets on the handle as opposed to the normal 3 on the Water Tender Ladders) and the front additional part goes straight through whereas in the "Retro Fits" a compartment the size of a spine board has been fitted to the bulkhead that goes straight through.
The Rescue Pumps for Retained crews are referred to as “Retro Fits” and are Series 3 Scania Water Tender Ladders which have been converted at a cost of £42,000 each by fitting slide and tilt shelves in the lockers, fitting ladder beam gantries on the roof, replacing the roller shutter on the pump bay with barn doors with red and white chevrons and removing the roof access ladders on the rear, full width light bar on cab roof and additional repeaters on the front grill.
Retro fitting was applied to the M, N and P registered vehicles and now the R, S and V registrations are being done. Although there are still a number of M registrations  still to be done I think they have moved onto the Series 4 Scanias as they can be done quicker and cheaper as they already have beam gantries and barn doors.
(April 2005)

The "Y" registered  Rescue Pump will be a Scania 94D, 260 bhp fitted with an Alinson World Series gearbox (automatic 6 gear), Traction Control, ABS, Electronic all disc baking system, Electronic Level Control....... total fly-by-wire appliance.
All up weight is 14.5 tonnes, 1800 litre water tank, 125 litre integral foam tank feeding an RTPI and they jewel in the crown is the absolutely brilliant Godiva 2010 World Series pump.......... fully automatic reciprocating priming system.
(From a Brigade Driving Instructor April 2002.)

24th May 2006 Strathclyde Fire and Rescue take delivery of 12 Rescue Pumps which will go to Helensburgh, Oban, Dumbarton, Clarkston, Kirkintilloch, Milngavie, Easterhouse, Govan, Maryhill, Castlemilk, Cumbernauld and Kilmarnock at a cost of £142,848 each. These pumps are on a Scania P series chassis with bodywork by John Dennis Coachbuilders. Main differences, radiator, battenburg stripe on cab and lockers, black LED light bar, new station name plate which now has in addition to the station name, the station number and badge of the Council area the station is in. More details to follow once one goes on the run and I get a chance to visit the station.

The 2007 batch consisted of three Rescue Pump Ladders bodied by JDC. These had Polybilt bodywork which is distinguishable by the red mudguard and it is also flush with the bodywork as it is an integral part of it as is the water tank. (The aluminium bodies had a water tank on the chassis and the bodywork was built around it, also the mudguards were separate and stuck out slightly). The BA control board has been moved from the crew cab and is now kept on the inside of the left hand pump locker door, the two standpipe key and bars which were on the insides of these doors are now both kept in the middle near side locker. Two of the pumps were also fitted with a CAFS (Compressed Air Foam System). This foam is fed to the N/S hose reel which is slightly larger in diameter than the normal hose reel and has a special nozzle. There is also a delivery to the left of the 3 instantaneous outlets which has a continental type outlet and there is a length of 70mm hose which attaches to this and has the normal instantaneous coupling at the other end so normal lengths can be attached. There are special branches depending on whether you want to throw the foam or lay it as a blanket. These branches as is the hose reel nozzle do not have any rifling in them as this would break up the foam. The Polybilt bodies and the CAFS pump are for evaluation and the next batch will be back to aluminium bodies and round the pump proportioner pumps. They were allocated to Ayr (CAFS)/Maryhill and Springburn (CAFS) as second appliances.

The 2008 batch consisted of four Rescue Pump Ladders which had aluminium bodies, the bodywork being done by JDC. The four were allocated to Castlemilk/Cowcaddens/Easterhouse and Govan as second appliances. The one going to Easterhouse replacing the last wholetime Water Tender Ladder.

The 2009 batch of four Rescue Pump Ladders SFR have returned to Polybilt bodies which are distinguishable by the flush red rear mudgards with the bodybuilding being done by John Dennis Coachbuilders (JDC). They are also distinguishable by the yellow beam gantries. These are by Anderson's Engineering, Dumfries rather than Angus Sacol. The Pumps also have four round lockers, two on each side under the middle locker on either side of the wheel, which I was told they were for fire extinguishers. The side lights on the outside of the sun visor and been replaced with blue LED warning lights and no fog/driving lamps are fitted on the sun visor. The pumps have been allocated to Paisley, Motherwell, Kilmarnock and Dreghorn and are SF59CYC/CYE/CYG/CYO.

The 2010 batch of ten Rescue Pump Ladders are all JDC Polybilt bodies and two of them will be fitted with CAFFS. They will also have individual seats in the crew cab instead of the normal bench seat at the request of crews and the FBU. These seats are like the OIC's seat but without a backrest as the BA brackets act as the backrest. The 2 lockers at the rear of the rear wheel arches are now rectangular and large enough to hold a spare BA cylinder. There in now a VMDS screen in the rear that the crew can see but it only show the screen the OIC is looking at. This batch is also fitted with the distinctive yellow beam gantries by Anderson's Engineering of Dumfries.
The second batch of 10 for this year have started to arrive the only differences noticed so far is the chevrons on the rear are now a narrower Red and Yellow reflective stripes instead of the normal broad Red reflective stripes on a White background and the Scene lighting on the sides is LED lighting. They also have a button wehich when pressed operates all the waring light for a set time so the driver can check they are all working. Registrations for the first batch are SF10EES/EET/EHT/EHU/EHV/EHZ/EJA/EJC/GVW/GVX. The second batch registrations are SF10GVY/GVZ/GWA/GWC/GWD, SF60

 

 

Photos of Rescue Pumps and lockers.

 

 

 

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