Alabama FD Orders 21 Fire Apparatus

Huntsville Fire & Rescue in Alabama has ordered 21 fire apparatus from Pierce Manufacturing. This order is the largest in over a decade for the state of Alabama. The new fire apparatus include 17 Pierce Enforce pumpers, three Ascendant 100-foot Heavy-Duty mid-mount Aerial Towers on Velocity chassis, and one Heavy-Duty HazMat Response Unit on a Velocity chassis.

Huntsville Fire & Rescue currently has two Pierce engines and a ladder tower in production and will welcome these new fire apparatus into service to remove aging trucks from front line service.

“Huntsville Fire & Rescue is the oldest chartered fire department in the state, and we still operate out of many historic firehouses with confined truck bays and low-entry doors,” said Howard McFarlen, chief of Huntsville Fire & Rescue. “Pierce was one of the only manufacturers who could work with our size restrictions.”

Huntsville Fire & Rescue’s new fire apparatus will feature:

Pierce Enforcer Pumpers

• Enforcer chassis
• 500-gallon water tank
• Waterous 1500 GPM single-stage pump
• Cummins X12 455-hp engine
• 84-inch cab allowing additional room for EMS cabinets, crew spacing, and transverse compartment below the forward-facing crew cab seats

Ascendant 100-foot Heavy-Duty Aerial Towers

• Mid-mount configuration
• Velocity chassis
• 100-foot five section aerial tower
• 300-gallon water tank
• Waterous 2000 GPM single-stage pump
• Cummins X15 605-hp engine

Heavy-Duty HazMat Response Unit

• Velocity chassis
• Cummins X15 605-hp engine
• Integrated command center with multiple video monitors, satellite communications, and weather monitoring capabilities

All fire apparatus will include:

• TAK-4 Independent Suspension
• Side roll and frontal impact protection
• Electric door locks on cab and compartment doors

Chief McFarlen added, “Our apparatus must be capable of responding to everything from flat terrain to steep mountain roadways. There are several features, including Pierce’s TAK-4 Independent Suspension, which have proven to be critical for the safe navigation of this diverse terrain, multi-lane highways, and narrower roadways in the inner-city and historic districts.”

Huntsville Fire & Rescue covers a 220-square-mile area of both urban and rural communities in North Alabama. The department responds to more than 22,000 service calls per year out of 19 fire stations in a service area which includes the most populous city in Alabama, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command.