FARGO, N.D. — It’s no fun watching a $500,000 combine go up in flames in the middle of a field while a $1 million fire truck sits helplessly on the gravel road.
Farmers and rural volunteer firefighters who have experienced the frustration of trying to get firefighting equipment to isolated targets may now have an alternative to letting assets burn to the ground.
Consider a first response unit that’s small, mobile, six-wheel drive and carries 605 litres of water, 60 litres of foam, pumps, hoses and a lot of other equipment.
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It’s called the WildFire, a little fire truck that ASAP Off-Road Specialty Vehicles in Ohio has been building for eight years.
Dennis Berry of ASAP said his company has previously sold the truck to farmers, but the 2011 Big Iron show in Fargo is the first time it has been displayed at an agricultural show.
Forest industry standard
WildFire packs a surprisingly large amount of firefighting force onto a small vehicle.
“We start with an extensively modified Polaris Ranger 6×6,” said Berry.
“The pump is powered by a 13 horsepower Honda. It puts out 150 gpm at 150 p.s.i. That’s the standard set by the U.S. Forest Service for fighting forest fires. We’ve got the Blizzard Wizard foam system for Class A and Class B fires and it has lots of power. We can shoot whipping cream if we want.”
The 605 litre tank will be empty in about a minute if run full bore, so operators must have good re-fill equipment. Wild Fire uses the firefighting pump to double as the fill pump. It can pull water from a creek or dugout from a distance of 6.4 metres.
The unit comes standard with 30.5 metres of one-inch lightweight booster hose with a forestry nozzle plus 6.4 metres of hard suction hose with a strainer. A full size Stokes basket is available to carry a victim from a crisis scene.
The basic Ranger has on-demand all wheel drive and fully independent suspension at all six wheels. It is powered by an 800 cc, 40 h.p. engine and comes with a standard roll-bar and steel roof.
Berry said the Ranger is meant to do real work in difficult conditions, but the weight and complexity of all that firefighting equipment requires modifications.
“We stretch the frame to extend the wheelbase two feet. When we do that, we also have to double up on the frame thickness. We change shocks, springs, clutch and a number of other parts so we know it won’t break when it’s needed most.”
Even with the extra weight, Wild Fire is capable of travelling 65 km/h fully loaded. Stopping distance on gravel is 17 metres from 50 km/h.
ASAP engineers made sure the tanks and other heavy components are carried as low as possible in the chassis for better stability. The tanks are fully baffled.
Wild Fire was stable on a 30-degree side hill on tilt table tests conducted by the Transportation Research Center. On the climbing slope, it was able to climb, reverse and descend on a 31 degree hill.
Berry said ASAP offers a variety of options for specialized firefighting situations.
It uses the same modified Polaris Ranger 6×6 as the base for a number of off-road emergency vehicles including ambulance and rescue units.
The list price for the WildFire is $34,000. For more information, contact Dennis Berry at 740-922-2727 or visit www.asap911.com.
