Volunteers fit out new emergency rig

Volunteers with the Cloverdale Rural Fire Protection District recently put a newer, safer, emergency vehicle on the street.

Sisters Country folks may have seen the yellow four-wheel-drive 1997 International truck in the area. It was in this years' Rodeo parade, as well as the Christmas parade. The newer truck has allowed the volunteers to put a set of Holmatro hydraulic rescue tools (commonly referred to as the "Jaws of Life") in service. These tools were used for the first time on Friday, December 13, to extricate a patient trapped in a car at a collision on Fryrear Road.

The district has relied on used and donated equipment for many years. Since the appointment of Thad Olsen as fire chief, the district has purchased some new equipment, including two new brush trucks that are actually designed to carry the weight of equipment that is needed for firefighting, while improving the safety of firefighters and increasing firefighting capabilities.

In January 2013 the district suffered a major loss when its 2003 Ford brush truck, used by the duty officers to respond to virtually all calls during nights and weekends, caught fire. A short in the electrical system of the 10-year-old truck caused a fire that resulted in the total loss of the truck.

With the insurance settlement, and $20,000 from the district's reserve fund, Chief Olsen located and was able to purchase a 15-year-old used fire truck from a fire district in Pennsylvania that had a new truck on order. This truck could replace the destroyed truck and improve upon its capabilities.

The fire district board of directors approved the purchase and the truck was trailered out to Oregon. The volunteers have spent hundreds of hours since the arrival of the truck equipping it and training on its use.

According to Chief Olsen, all of the mounting and installing of equipment on this truck was done by volunteers.

This truck has a much larger 750-gallon-per-minute pump, a five-person enclosed cab, and carries more water, hose, and equipment than the truck it replaces. The burned truck was basically a pickup chassis with a utility bed that had a 300-gallon water tank and small pump. The new truck carries 100 more gallons of water, a 650-gallon-per-minute increase in pumping capability, and structural as well as wildland firefighting equipment. Although the new truck does not meet standards set by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) for a Type 1 structural fire engine, the truck can be used to fight structural fires as a Type 2 engine.

The new truck will be based at station No. 2, on Cloverdale Road and Highway 20. Chief Olsen says that while this truck meets 90 percent of the needs on 90 percent of the calls in station No. 2's response area, there will still be an older (1981) NFPA Type 1 engine at that station for those times that it is needed. The new truck will also respond to all vehicle accidents in the fire district.

The district is in the process of addressing the needs of station No. 1 on George Cyrus Road Currently the district relies on two 1981 Pierce Type 1 pumpers that were purchased from Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue at a cost of $5,000 each.

The volunteers are extremely happy with the newer truck's safety features, as it has an enclosed cab, where all of the firefighters can ride inside. This is quite an improvement over riding in the open back seat of one of the 1981 engines during winter weather.

Firefighter Sam Sellers, currently taking an EMT class at COCC on his own time, says that he can still remember riding into Bend at about 3 a.m. last March to help with several fires there. He remembers looking down at the snow and ice rushing by on the road at his feet, as the engine drove into town at about 35 miles per hour due to road conditions, trying to keep warm in the below-freezing temperatures.

The 1997 engine also is equipped with three-point shoulder restraints, a major improvement over the lap belts that the 1981 engines have. It has seats that allow for the mounting of breathing apparatus so that all of the firefighters can put on this equipment while en route to the emergency.

Other equipment this truck features is class A and B foam, emergency medical gear, a 12,000-pound winch, a 10-kilowatt electrical generator to supply electrical power at emergency scenes, as well as the six floodlights that are mounted on the truck, and a digital pump control that automatically maintains water pressure. The four-wheel-drive allows firefighters to more easily access areas of the district when roads are snowed-in.