UPWARDLY MOBILE
Woonsocket Fire Department’s new ladder truck can reach top floors of 10-story high-rise
WOONSOCKET – The Woonsocket Fire Department has taken delivery of a new ladder truck with a 110-footlong aerial capable of reaching into the uppermost stories of the city’s tallest high-rise apartment complexes.
Manufactured to the WFD’s specifications by Ocala, Fla.based E-One Emergency Vehicles, the truck was delivered to the city through E-One’s regional dealer in the area, Greenwood Emergency Vehi- cles LLC in North Attleboro. Lorna Marcoux, Greenwood’s director of sales and marketing, said the contract price for the vehicle was $814,854.
The city’s costs were only a fraction of that, however. In 2016, the city’s federal congressional delegation announced a $681,819 Assistance to Firefighters Grant for the purchase of the new aerial truck.
“It’s here,” said Deputy Fire Chief Roger Perreault. “Once everybody is trained on it we’ll put it into service – a couple of weeks, I would say.”
The city was required to junk one of its two aerial trucks as a condition of accepting the AFG. The new Ladder 1 replaces the scrapped apparatus, which had reached the end of its useful lifespan by the time the city commissioned a replacement for it, according to Perreault.
“It had fulfilled its lifespan, and then some,” said Perreault.
Even though the city had scrapped one of its ladders, the WFD continued to have access to two aerial trucks, including
one that used to belong exclusively to the Central Falls Fire Department. Five area fire departments, including Woonsocket, Lincoln, Smithfield, Cumberland and Central Falls, have been sharing the truck since 2015 – which explains why the CFPD truck is often seen at fire scenes in this city.
The idea for sharing the 1993 ladder truck was conceived by Central Falls Fire Chief Robert Bradley after he contemplated trading it it in for a new aerial. When he was offered just $10,000 in trade-in value toward a replacement, Bradley balked – especially after the city had just sunk $65,000 into refurbishing the ladder.
As part of the deal, the five sharing fire departments were splitting the cost of maintaining the CFPD truck, according to Perreault. It’s unclear whether the city will remain part of the aerial-sharing pact now that it’s in possession of a brand new ladder truck, however.
The truck is capable of reaching a maximum sustained speed of about 60 mph and comes equipped with numerous state-of-the-art features that are considered standard, including a 50-gallon fuel tank. But the ladder is among an assortment of features designed to the WFD’s contract specifications in order to meet the unique needs of the city.
At 110 feet, Perreault said, the ladder is capable of nearly reaching to the very top of high rise apartment complexes like Kennedy Manor, while still leaving enough of a non-vertical angle for firefighters to maintain their balance. At 10 stories, Kennedy Manor is among the tallest of the city’s high rise apartment complexes for senior citizens and the disabled. Except, perhaps, for the old Marquette Credit Union, there are no buildings in the city taller than the high-rises.
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (DRI) said the truck is also equipped with a “pre-piped waterway,” which will help firefighters save valuable time during an emergency by con- necting directly from a hydrant to the rear of the truck, allowing them to quickly shoot water to the top of the ladder instead of completing a series of intermediary connections typically required on older models.
The apparatus will have an “immediate and significant impact on the operations of the WFD and contribute to the safety of both firefighters and residents,” according to Reed. It will also have a regional impact, allowing the WFD to better support surrounding firefighting crews when responding to mutual aid emergencies.
“This is terrific news for the community,” Reed said in announcing the AFG grant. “When responding to an emergency, every second counts and these new trucks will help our firefighters save lives and safely respond to fires, rescues and other emergencies.”