(Music)
We're out here at the brand new fire
station number two, and we're really excited.
Today we're going live.
We're going operational. We're moving into the station...
...I forgot something. I'll be right back.
(Music)
Oh yeah, that is what I've been looking for.
We are in Appleton, Wisconsin this
morning at the Pierce manufacturing plant.
Oh we're here look at our new truck two.
New fire truck.
It's a replacement for a approximately
twelve-year-old apparatus that we have.
So we're here to do the final inspection, make
sure everything's right, and things that
aren't right, get them fixed and get it back home.
(Music)
We started the process by contacting
Pierce and let them know what type of
vehicle we wanted to purchase, and we
actually build it from the ground up.
Each one of these fire apparatus is
truly a custom vehicle. We don't build a
cookie-cutter fire truck.
Like snowflakes... none of these fire trucks are alike.
It would be very similar to
building your own home. You have to
decide colors, the seats, tank size, what
systems you want on the truck, how you
want the equipment to operate. There's
over a hundred thousand different
variations you can do to one of these.
I had no idea what went into putting
one of these trucks together from start to finish.
It's a very long process, a very detailed
process. The paperwork, the planning,
the engineering. How do you manage that? How do
you develop that? How do you pull all
that information together? And that kind
of starts to put into scope what the
effort is. It takes about 18 months,
I guess, from start to finish. It basically
comes from a sheet of steel from the
factory. They lay it on a laser cutter and
they start cutting the pieces. This thing
is produced one piece at a time. They
actually take raw materials, and they
form it, bend it, weld it. Build the actual
cabs and bodies, pump houses. Engineering
literally has to sit down and look at
each and every component that's put on
the truck to make sure it fits and works
as a completed vehicle. And we need to
actually come up and inspect the truck
to make sure that everything works as
intended and designed. It's a very
expensive piece of equipment and we need to
make sure we're getting our money's worth.
(Music)
We literally touch every square of
this truck. Hey, will you check and see if that
dome light works? That red one right above
your head.
Thank you. We're checking this truck from
head-to-toe every single nut and bolt.
Go through each compartment, all the mechanical
aspects. Get under the truck, on top of
the truck. We got on the floor with our
flashlights and safety glasses and
looked all up underneath the underside of the truck.
And then we test everything to make sure
that it functions properly.
(Mechanical sounds)
(Music)
We raised the ladder and we verified it works.
And here a little while we're
going to flow some water. It's going to be really
neat to see. Here comes your water.
(Music)
If we find any issues, they're
documented in a computer that creates
a list of issues that have to be
addressed. Pierce will take that final
checklist and we'll make sure everything's
corrected, and then we'll deliver it to the
Allen Fire Department. And once it's delivered to us,
then we'll inspect it one more time based on
our previous list. Outline lights with the
rubber arms. I saw those. We want to make
sure it's compliant with their specs. We
also make sure that they get a good life
out of the vehicle. There's one good reason
we go through with a fine-tooth comb: It's the
citizens have entrusted us with a great
deal of money, and so we want to make
sure that no mistakes were made along the way.
I think it's tight. It just torques.
Yeah, it just torques. If you're a citizen
Allen and you're looking at this new truck, it
is a significant improvement over the
truck that it is replacing. It's very
exciting to be involved with such a
dynamic product. We're really excited
about this truck. We're going to have more storage
space. So now we can add more tools to help
us do our job. They need a lot of compartment
space because they be multiple functions, not
just firefighting. They do with the EMS, they do rescue work,
hazmat...so they take on a lot of roles.
New technology enhancements have come
around since the last time we did a truck.
It has a lighter-weight ladder, which allows us
to get more distance with less weight.
The ladder is now longer, so we'll be able to
rescue more. With the setbacks of the
houses being a little further, this
hundred and five foot ladder will
actually reach more of those.
(Music)
The rear steering is amazing. It handles
corners so much better.
It's where the rear wheels steer in conjunction
with front wheels.
With the addition of that T3 steering, will help us get down
some of these really tight streets. If you
hit a corner or hit a curb, you had to buy
ice cream. It's going to be harder to hit corners
and curbs in this thing. Probably be a much
bigger shortage of ice cream around the
stations now.
(Music)
Now they get the community involved, so they
have pride in it as well. They know they got a
good investment for their money.
This vehicle will allow us to more
efficiently and more effectively respond
to the types of calls that we're seeing
right now in the district. The City of Allen
is now better for having it.
It'll definitely help us in giving the
citizens a better response and being
able to serve them a lot better. I love it.
It's great. We're really excited to get it
out on the road, get it around town.
This is wonderful. It's the best truck we have to date.
It's not just a truck. Put it in
terms of us: If we were to have a fire
truck come and save one of our family
members, we'd want it to be one of our
trucks because we know what we put into it.
(Music)
Yeah, that looks really good right there.
We're ready to roll.
For more information on the Allen Fire
Department, please visit AllenFire.org.
