FIREFIGHTERS TRAIN ON NEW LADDER TRUCK

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

Before the Pine Bluff Fire and Emergency Services Department puts their newly acquired ladder truck on the streets next week, firefighters were given hands-on training on the truck, which was parked in the arena at the Pine Bluff Convention Center on Thursday afternoon.

“When we put it into service, there’s not going to be time to get the instruction book out,” Lt. Shauwn Howell said as firefighters from Station Five on Miramar Drive, where the truck will be based, got to try out some of the truck’s features, as well as learn where all the buttons and levers are.

“Once a department purchases a truck, they get three days of paid training on how to run it,” Marshall Brooks, a representative of Pierce Manufacturing, the company that manufactured the truck, said. “It’s all about safety and liability, what the truck can do and can’t do.”

Howell said the new truck features a 75-foot ladder and will seat six firefighters in a totally enclosed cab.

“A lot of the functions on the new truck are the same as we had on the old truck but the buttons and switches might be located in a different place or the terminology might be different,” he said.

One of the differences on the new truck are color coded level gauges on the back and side of the vehicle, used to indicate when the truck is steady enough to raise the ladder.

“They’re red and green and if the reading is in the green we can extend the ladder,” Howell said.

Extra-large seat-belts in the cab of the truck will allow firefighters to be strapped in while still wearing their gear, he said, explaining that seat-belts in some of the older model trucks the department has make it difficult for firefighters to wear all their gear comfortably.

Howell said the fire truck features a low emission exhaust system, and is expected to get between six and eight miles per gallon of diesel fuel.

The training was conducted over three days, to allow all three shifts who work at Station Five, as well as Station One where the department’s other ladder truck is based, to get familiar with the new vehicle, as well as some drivers and engineers from the other stations.

“You never know when somebody might be off sick or on vacation and you get told you’ve got to drive the thing,” Howell said.

Fully equipped, the truck costs more than $500,000 but Howell said the department was able to utilize hoses and other equipment already on hand to reduce that price some.

“When Chief (Don) Horton came here, he said we needed to get new equipment as part of our focus on the community and this truck is the start of that,” Howell said. “We couldn’t have done it without the support of the mayor, the city council and the general public and we want to thank all of them for that support.”