For the first time, York County Fire Services Apparatus Maintenance & Fabrication Division has built an International 3,000 gallon tanker truck for rural fire service protection. This new tanker is assigned to the Bullock Creek Fire Department.
“This type of tanker is a support apparatus for pumper engines, the primary fire fighting vehicle, “said Amanda Foster, Fire Services Director. “Tankers, like this one, are built to bring an additional 3,000 gallons of water needed to rural areas during a heavily involved fire.”
The County is using the International 3,000 gallon tanker as a prototype version to set the standard for the next in-house built tankers. This tanker was built from a base truck chassis; therefore, County mechanics, welder/fabricator, and technicians built the body sub-frame, mounted the tank, built compartments, installed roll up doors, mounted and intergraded all electrical items, mounted and installed the hose reel and volume pump, and placed all the graphics or logos.
Additionally, the new tanker boasts safety features such as three point seat belts with unbelted occupant warning, Anti-lock braking system, roll stability, programmable speed parameters, diagnostic abilities, park brake interface warning, advance EPA diesel exhaust system, traffic directional arrows, rear camera, and LED emergency and scene lighting. Lastly, this new truck is innovative in that it includes a front bumper hose reel, electrically operated rear dump valve controls in cab and at rear drivers side, 3,000 Polyethylene tank, stainless steel plumbing, electrically controlled remote pump throttle, and hi-side roll up compartment doors.
“I’m very proud of our Fire Services shop employees,” said Mike Burns, Fire Services Shop Supervisor. “Their hard work, dedication and expertise has built an extremely state-of-the-art truck.”
The following York County Fire services employees built the tanker: Ricky Hoyle (fabrication and installation of major items), Daniel Funderburk, Glenn Flowers, Benji Fairfax, Brad Bolin and Jimmy Caulder.
Fire Services shop employees are currently building the same type of tanker for Bethany Fire Department. In-house construction of fire trucks results in significant savings for York County taxpayers. Approximately 45% to 50% cost savings over commercially manufactured trucks.