What is big, red and shiny and comes from Appleton, Wisconsin?

 

That would be "Squad 51" - the City of Bridgeport’s brand new heavy rescue truck. For the Bridgeport Fire Department, yesterday’s delivery was sweet – and has been looked forward to for some time.

 

“We’ve been working on this for over three years now,” said Bridgeport Fire Chief Chuck Feathers. “We worked on specifications, ordered it and it has been a long, drawn out process. We’re ready to show it off.”

 

The truck pulled into Bridgeport Fire Station on Friday after being driven all the way from the manufacturer in Appleton.  

 

“They spent just over 10 months building it to our specifications,” Feathers said.

 

Those specifications were based on experience of the department’s response to various incidents over the past several years. The truck will be used for heavy rescue and on vehicular accidents - especially high speed accidents which occur on I-79 and Rt. 50, Feathers said.

 

The truck is equipped with lots of specialty equipment, including high intensity lights which will light up a nighttime scene. It also includes a cascade system which will serve to refill air bottles on fire and HazMat scenes.

 

Those specifications and many others were comprised by a committee which has been diligently working together for a couple of years.

 

“We put a committee together to review many different heavy rescues. We actually made a trip to Maryland and looked at multiple vehicles, including a rescue unit which covers the (U.S.) Capitol,” Feathers said. “We spent probably two hours with the rescue firefighters in Maryland that covers the U.S. President – seeing what worked and what didn’t and what they would add or change if they were adding a new heavy rescue unit.”

 

The committee also visited various other fire departments across the state and country to seek out what features were available.

 

“We reviewed the work of various fire departments,” Feathers said. “Different places across the country have different needs.”

 

Ultimately, the committee assembled and built a set of specifications most ideal for Bridgeport.

 

“We came up with this vehicle and spent about three years doing that,” Feathers said. “We wanted to make sure it was right and that it would last many years into the future.”

 

The job was put out to bid in October of 2012 and ultimately secured Pierce Manufacturing, a global leader in custom fire truck manufacturing.

 

Five months later, the committee took a trip to its Wisconsin factory.

 

“We went up to the factory in Appleton in March to go over every detail of what we wanted before it was ever put on the floor,” Feathers said. “We had a conference, walked around the facility and looked at everything. We showed them exactly what we wanted.”

 

Just last week, it was all finalized.

 

“The truck had been completed and we flew up to Wisconsin last Sunday to look at it,” Feathers said. “They did what you call a punch out list. We went around the truck and looked at every little detail. We wanted to make sure those changes were made before the truck left the factory.”

 

After careful inspection, the committee made request for about 30 changes.

 

“We’re talking minor changes, but when you’re building a vehicle of this magnitude, we needed to make sure it was just the way we wanted and that adjustments were made,” Feathers said.

 

On Thursday morning, the new heavy rescue truck – with all adjustments made – left the factory and pulled into the station when expected late-Friday morning.

 

The heavy rescue truck replaces the old yellow box truck that has been used for several years.

 

“We’ve had it quite some time,” Feathers said. “We built this vehicle to carry us for many years into the future.”