By Andrew Wellner
Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)
Copyright 2006 Anchorage Daily News
All Rights Reserved
WASILLA, Alaska — The Central Mat-Su Fire Department took delivery May 20 of a shiny new rescue truck.
Paid for by a state Homeland Security grant, the $427,000, 42,000-pound truck will combine the duties of a rescue and hazardous-material response truck, replacing two department trucks currently in service.
It will be stationed at station 61 in downtown Wasilla but will be available for all major hazardous-material spills and leaks in the borough.
"It's a very, very nice truck," Central Mat-Su assistant chief Michael Keenan said. "It's basically just a giant toolbox on wheels."
It can carry six firefighters and has a command unit in the cab. There's a mobile library of reference materials to help responders know what kinds of chemicals they're dealing with. It has a laptop loaded with programs that can plot plume clouds and predict their movement.
There's a hydraulic system and a generator that can power three electric rescue tools such as the Jaws of Life simultaneously. There's an extendable 9,000-watt lighting tower and a machine that can refill firefighters' air tanks on scene.
The truck has the same chassis and engine as the problem-plagued fire engine the department took possession of in Wasilla in February. That truck has been repaired and is in tip-top shape. The same recall troubles that hit that engine should not be a problem with the new truck, Central Fire Chief Jack Krill said, because the truck got the necessary repairs before it left the factory.
Like the fire engine, the rescue truck has a state-of-the-art compressed air foam system. But its capacity is smaller. Unlike the engine, which mixes the foam and water on scene, the rescue truck's foam comes from pre-mixed, 50-gallon tanks, Keenan said.
The foam can be put on fires until a fire engine arrives or sprayed over hazardous-material spills to mitigate fumes.
The department's old hazardous-material truck, a pickup, will remain in service as a support vehicle, and the old rescue truck will be moved to the department's fire station near Mat-Su Regional Medical Center to be used as a ladder truck. Some of its rescue tools will be used on the new truck, but having a ladder truck near the hospital will help boost the department's fire protection ratings.
The new truck will help with initial response to hazardous spills.
"Typically all our operation will be detection — finding it, containing it, maybe some absorption," Keenan said.
The borough teams don't clean up the spills, just make sure they don't spread or catch fire. Once a hazmat team from Fort Richardson or Anchorage shows up, the team generally supplies backup.
