Over the last couple weeks, you may have noticed a brand-new fire engine rolling around town.
That’s because the Concord Fire Department unveiled its brand new Engine 5, a Pierce Arrox XT, at the start of this month.
Its permanent home is the Manor Fire Station on Village Street, on the Penacook side of town, but since the fire houses all cover for one another and go to calls in other parts of the city depending on severity, you’ll probably see it just about everywhere.
“Our call volume continues to rise and that puts more demand on our equipment,” said Deputy Chief Jon France.
And this ride was long overdue for replacing.
The truck it replaced was at least 10 years old and approaching 150,000 miles.
“There’s no open road driving here, so that’s a lot of hard miles,” France said.
The new ride was delivered to Concord from Pierce Manufacturing in August, but then had to undergo a little customization from the city and the personnel that will be using it on a daily or on-call basis had to go through some training.
But now the new engine is mobile and while it might look like just another shiny, new fire truck to you, to the firefighters at the Manor Station, it’s much more.
The industry standards have changed a lot since the last truck was built, so while this vehicle has lots of bells and whistles, most were done because they’re required.
“The big thing is safety,” France said. “So while I don’t want to say it’s plain Jane, there’s not a lot of frills.”
It’s more about functionality and efficiency. Sure, the powers that be could have added a bunch of extras to make it really over the top impressive, but all of those extras cost money and the goal was to get a nice new engine, while keeping the purchase price down.
With that being said, it’s a pretty sweet new piece of equipment. The engine is much quieter, allowing for Concord’s finest to hold a normal voice level conversation when driving to a call, and the TAK-4 suspension system makes it a much nicer ride.
“It rides really smooth and it’s quiet,” said Engine 5 driver Mike Corcoran. “It handles like a dream.”
The front and side air bags, something the old Engine 5 didn’t have, obviously add a safety measure to it, and other additions make this the new standard for the Concord fleet. This one has more reflective components and a latch system to keep all those hoses, you know the ones used to fight fires, safe and secure on the truck.
A few compartments were added to better house gear and equipment, like extra air tanks. The other compartments were set up in a way to best meet the department’s needs on a daily basis.
“It will take a couple months to figure out what makes sense,” France said.
There’s a lot more stuff that’s electronically controlled, including side and backup cameras, LED lighting, seat belt alarms and the computer system. It’s even got a built in system that alerts you when the tire pressure is low.
While the company will outfit the truck with anything you need, a number of things were taken off the old Engine 5 to save on cost.
“They will literally build it to how you want,” France said.
It took over a year to get the truck designed, built and ready to use. About six months after signing the contract, members of Concord fire traveled to Wisconsin in January to finalize the design. Then they went back in June for a final inspection, and after a few more tweaks, the new engine made its way to New Hampshire.
“We basically designed it for what we need it to do,” France said.
And what they need is a reliable truck that will help them do their jobs when lives are on the line. Looks like they’ve got just that.
