chicagoareafire.com

New aerials for Chicago

This from Danny Nelms:

The new truck 30. Tim Olk photo. First 4 new trucks going to 30 40 49 and 52 as of now. 

Tim Olk photo

Tags: Chicago FD Truck 30, Chicago Fire Department, new aerial ladder truck in Chicago, Tim Olk

This entry was posted on June 5, 2020, 2:05 PM and is filed under Fire Department News, Fire Truck photos, New Delivery. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

14 Comments

• #1 by Bill Post on June 19, 2020 - 9:10 PM

  

  Thanks for your interesting insight on the subject Drew.

  As I previously mentioned, pre-piped waterways seem to very popular in all major cities in Texas. Houston, whose fire department is slightly smaller than Chicago, currently runs with 39 truck companies. All 33 of the their straight ladders pre-piped waterways and the remaining 6 are tower ladders including one at Bush International Airport. It’s true however that Houston is more spread out than Chicago. If the population trends continue, Houston will probably out number Chicago’s population within the next 10 years. Houston’s fleet of ladders are all rear mounts.

  The same goes for Dallas however 7 of their 22 trucks are tractor-drawn ladders equipped with pre-piped waterways, which isn’t as common. Only two of Dallas’ truck companies are tower ladders so having pre-piped waterways on their ladders allows them to put an elevated stream into operation much quicker. The same is true for San Antonio as well as Austin. As of late San Antonio has been converting several ladders to platforms. All of their straight ladders have waterways.

  Some thing very unusual is that as of now all of the Phoenix Arizona’s Truck companies are elevating platforms. So those fire departments that have elevating stream capabilities on the first alarm does add creedence to Drews point of having elevating stream equipped companies arrive on the first alarm.

• #2 by Drew Smith on June 19, 2020 - 5:00 PM

  

  My experience with a variety of aerials is that the construction and configuration of a pre-piped waterway is what does or does not impair the positioning of the ladder tip for access or rescue. I have used different aerials with three seperate fire departments and multiple manufacturers when I was the aerial lead instructor at FDIC for four years of hands-on training. When the pre-piped waterway is mounted under the bed section of the aerial and/or it is permanently affixed to the ladder tip, positioning for access to roofs or windows/balconies for rescue work is challenging much of the time. When the piping is integrated into the bed section of the aerial as done with many tower ladders or mounted to the sides of the ladder such as done with circa 1970s/1980s American LaFrance aerials, the ladder positioning is advantageous. When a FD is large and therefore flexible, having aerial ladders without elevated stream capabilities may be an option. However, I would challenge that having elevated streams arrive after the first alarm may result in greater fire loss. Of course, if you subscribe to the mantra that “when the ladder goes up the building comes down” then this isn’t a concern.

• #3 by Matt McCrory on June 19, 2020 - 10:47 AM

  

  Philadelphia operates all TDAs, no rear mounts, and all are equipped with ladder pipes which are routinely used. Pre-piped ladder pipes add to the overall length of the ladder when stowed on a TDA and PFD has none. PFD also operates two Snorkels and two ladder towers in regular ladder companies and has four 75′ Aerialscopes on order. Prepiped waterways absolutely complicate ladder operation and placement on most evolutions.

• #4 by BIll Post on June 18, 2020 - 8:27 PM

  

  Yes Matt and John that is the question I was asking. Do any of the regularly assigned trucks still have ladder pipes? I know that the Seagraves from the 1990s had them.

  John, New York City relies on the Aerialscope/tower ladders for most of their elevated streams however sometimes they use aerial pipes controlled by lanyards from the ground. All of the Los Angeles city and county trucks use ladder pipes. They have no aerial platforms. LA city has never owned a tower ladder and their last 50-foot Snorkel was disposed of in the 1980s. It was one of a few Snorkels combined with a standard engine that was part of a heavy duty task force. The Los Angeles County Fire Department had two tower ladders that were retired some time ago. Most of the trucks in Houston, Dallas, and Austin are equipped with waterways.

  As Matt said Chicago has height issues in some stations and having waterways would add to the price.

• #5 by Matt on June 14, 2020 - 5:31 PM

  

  Pre-piped waterways increase overall height of the vehicle and these trucks already have cab notches and add more parts. Overall height is important with the number of viaducts in Chicago. The Pierces and Crimson/Spartan ladders like these E-Ones also had custom cabs to address this issue. I also think the Pierces were medium-duty ladders in addition to meet this requirement. Somebody can chime in but I don’t think any CFD aerials carry ladder pipes anymore.

• #6 by John Antkowski on June 14, 2020 - 3:48 PM

  

  That’s an interesting thought? Why would a major metropolitan fire department not run with pre-piped waterways on all of their aerial ladders. FDNY is the same way, only the towers can provide elevated master streams. The only one Chicago has is the aerial tower. Are they medium duty and cannot support the heavier tip load? Can the squad members do a 3-point suspension off an aerial? Maybe they are just designed for rescue only? Good point! John

• #7 by Bill Post on June 13, 2020 - 10:50 PM

  

  Thanks for the reply Rich. Even though tower ladders and Snorkels are the ideal platforms for delivering elevated master streams, a ladder pipe can be a another option if there is a need for multiple elevated streams.

  The previous orders for trucks were from Spartan/Crimson. I believe there were 14 in service not including one at the academy. So apparently there are 14 trucks that can’t use ladder pipes.

• #8 by rich s. on June 11, 2020 - 11:33 AM

  

  As far as the aerial pipes go the last few orders of trucks did not have an aerial pipe because the tip of the main would not allow for them. Hopefully they will bring back the option to use with these rigs. I believe there are ground ladders stored on the drivers side of the rig as well as in the rear.

• #9 by Bill Post on June 7, 2020 - 7:52 PM

  

  It’s been a long time coming.

  Do these rigs and the other conventional truck companies still carry portable ladder pipes for the tip of ladder in case they need an elevated stream?

• #10 by John Antkowski on June 6, 2020 - 3:14 PM

  

  E359, Not yet assigned.

• #11 by michael m on June 5, 2020 - 8:44 PM

  

  Sharp looking truck! I guess they decided not to put the ground ladders on the side this time.

• #12 by John on June 5, 2020 - 8:30 PM

  

  I don’t think the “number plates in a holder” is gonna look very good,but maybe I’ll be proved wrong……….

• #13 by William on June 5, 2020 - 6:12 PM

  

  I wonder what the shop number is on Truck 30

• #14 by Chuck on June 5, 2020 - 4:17 PM

  

  Another in a long line of great apparatus carrying great firemen in one of the best houses on the job. The Queen Mary would be proud of this rig.
  #TruckThirsty

Comments are closed.