U.S. Army Garrison, Baumholder • UNKNOWN

Fire fighters receive state-of-the-art ladder truck

By Ignacio “Iggy” Rubalcava

U.S. Army Garrison Baumholder Public Affairs Office

It is said that the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Although you can hardly call it a toy, the men at Baumholder’s fire department have been pounding their chests with pride since receiving their latest “toy,” a new aerial ladder truck with all the latest whistles and bells to help them protect the Baumholder military community. The truck carries a 720,000 euro price tag, a drop in the bucket if it only saves one life.

Eight of these new aerial ladder trucks have been fielded to allow rescue and firefighting in multi story buildings at IMCOM-Europe garrisons. They replace aging vehicles 20 years or older that the Army currently owns or leases.

The new truck’s ladder, when fully extended, can reach a height of 32 meters. That’s nine more meters than their old truck which has a 23 meter ladder. A unique feature on the new trucks is an articulating arm which allows the upper section of the ladder to tilt separately from the lower half. “This feature is worth its weight in gold for us.” says U.S. Army Garrison Baumholder Fire Chief Hans Kuhn, “We have so many three and four story buildings with tight access. With the articulating arm we can perfectly reach all the recessed roof and mansard windows.”

“There’s nothing on Baumholder that we cannot reach,” said Kuhn. The surrounding communities also benefit from this new truck. “We have a mutual assistance agreement with the surrounding communities and there is no building in the surrounding area that we cannot reach,” said Kuhn.

The shinny new truck features many upgrades. “First of all it has 360 horsepower. It has three axels and a basket with a 425 Kilograms capacity,” said Kuhn.

“We can use the basket as a water extinguishing system or as a rescue basket for getting injured people out of buildings.”

The also ladder has a memory feature which allows it to be set so that it will automatically return to a specified height.

The new truck also has a low wheel base and three axels. The rear steering axel feature makes the vehicle extremely maneuverable on narrow streets.

Besides providing better capabilities for fire fighters and improving mission readiness for the fire departments the vehicles will drastically reduce repair costs associated with the old vehicles.

Kuhn was still outlining the truck’s capabilities when the siren calling the firefighters to duty echoed through the fire station.

Kuhn donned his protective gear and in less than a minute he was maneuvering the station’s new vehicle out of the parking lot.