Tom Bolanowski has been with the New Hartford (N.Y.) Fire Department for 18 years and became chief two years ago. “I enjoy being chief,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, a lot of responsibility, but I have a good membership and we do good things for our community.”

Since 1901, the department has served the village of New Hartford and responded to neighboring towns, including Utica, in Oneida County, New York. It is an all-volunteer department that strives to provide high-quality and cost-effective fire prevention and protection, as well as property conservation and patient care. It responds to 1,200 calls a year, of which 80% are emergency medical calls.

A couple of years ago, the department decided that it was time to replace its 1987 Saulsbury walk-in truck with a new heavy-duty rescue vehicle. “We were on a 20-year replacement schedule, but we got kind of behind,” Bolanowski said.

He decided that it was imperative that the apparatus have enough space to accommodate the equipment and tools needed to meet the challenges that the department might face in the future. The process of designing a new truck began in January 2009, with an initial draft committee consisting of 15 department members. The department took delivery this year of a 2010 Pierce Velocity stainless-steel heavy-duty rescue vehicle with plenty of space for growth.

“We took the truck we had and carefully went over what we liked and what we didn’t like about it,” he said. “One of the things we liked from the previous truck was the idea that it was a stainless-steel rescue body. Being in the Northeast, we felt that was important and it added to the value of the truck as well. We wanted everything the previous truck did, but we wanted to improve on a couple things.”

Bolanowski and his committee decided against a walk-in this time, preferring to use the space to carry more tools, but they did specify a larger, seven-person, cab that has only one passenger door, which is located behind the officer’s seat. In addition, the vehicle offers Internet access and has weather station.

The rear of the cab contains an L-shaped desk and computer equipment to create a two-person communications area, though most incident command is handled from a chief’s vehicle.

“We envision that we will be able to assist the incident commander or other departments right out of this truck,” Bolanowski said.

Firefighter rehabilitation was a major consideration in designing this apparatus. New features include dual Girard G-200 electric side awnings and a refrigerator located on the outside of the vehicle.

“We wanted to build in more rehab, as the awareness has increased and it has become more critical in the health and safety of firefighters,” Bolanowski said. “We can extend the awning and there is space inside the cab that is heated or air conditioned. Besides the refrigerator, we also have other equipment for rehab — the core cooler chairs and misting fans.”

Another new feature is the truck’s cascade system. “Our county does have two air vans, but traditionally they are quite busy and our other truck had a cascade system and we wanted to do that again,” Bolanowski said. “We put a booster pump on to get more air out of our bottles. We looked at putting an air compressor on, but it was quite cost-prohibitive and took up quite a bit of space, so we went with a booster pump. Once we switched to the bigger tanks, we found we weren’t filling them as much in the past, so we can do that.”

According to Bolanowski, the committee also increased the lighting on this rescue unit.

“Whelan LED lights all around, scene lighting on all four sides, as well as a Will-Burt Night Scan Powerlite light tower, which is a first for us,” he said. “We can light up the scene more. We can provide more power with our generator on scene. This is kind of our ‘everything truck,’ as most heavy rescues are.”

In addition to multi-vehicle accidents, structure fires and the like, the apparatus also will be dispatched for mutual-aid calls. “We are a rapid-intervention team, and all of the tools that the team needs are on this vehicle now,” Bolanowski said.

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