Firefighters crank up new truck for practice

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, March 13, 2002

Vicksburg Fire Department Capt. Jimmy Cogan, left, and Lt. Shane Quimby, work the controls of Platform One, the department’s new fire truck, Tuesday near Halls Ferry Road and Pemberton Boulevard.(The Vicksburg Post/C. TODD SHERMAN)

[03/13/02]Vicksburg’s newest and most powerful fire engine got a practice run Tuesday as firefighters prepared to put it into active duty this week.

Four firefighters practiced using the truck, which can spray 2,000 gallons per minute, including 1,000 per minute from the top of its ladder. The ladder extends to 95 feet and has a platform on top to help with rescues and other operations, acting Vicksburg Fire Chief Keith Rogers said. Firefighters can be lifted by the platform directly, eliminating the need to climb a ladder to gain altitude.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

The truck arrived about a week ago, and it should be available for use by the Vicksburg Fire Department this week, the only holdup being administrative, Rogers said.

Capts. Jimmy Cogan and Steve Parker and Lts. Dale McDuff and Shane Quimby learned to use Platform 1 in the parking lot of the vacant Halls Ferry School. Fetch Henderson of Platform 1’s Ocala, Fla., manufacturer, E-One, is training city firefighters this week in the safe use and maintenance of the truck.

Platform 1 joins Ladder 14 and Snorkel 15 as Vicksburg’s third ladder engine. Ladder 14’s ladder extends to 135 feet, Snorkel 15’s to 65 feet. Both of the other engines, acquired in 1993 and 1982, can pump up to 1,500 gallons of water a minute.

The ladder engines can help with emergencies at Vicksburg’s tallest buildings, including the 11-story Vicksburg Apartments, 801 Clay St., the eight-story Trustmark National Bank Building, 1301 Washington St., and the seven-story Harrah’s Vicksburg Hotel, 1310 Mulberry St., but may also respond to fires as small as trash receptacle fires, Rogers said.

Platform 1 will cost $639,3725, city purchasing records show. The truck was delivered several months early, at a purchase price reduced by some $60,000, and will be paid for out of the budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, Vicksburg Strategic Planner Paul Rogers said. Bids will be taken for a likely five-year lease-purchase agreement to begin after that date.

Snorkel 15 turns 20 years old in 2003 and is scheduled to be retired then, Rogers said. Vicksburg needs two trucks at a time with aerial capabilities to maintain its fire rating with the state fire bureau, he said.

The truck’s use is not limited to tall buildings, but also on more spread-out structures like Pemberton Square mall, the middle of which could need to be reached from above in an emergency, Rogers said.

When firefighters use aerial nozzles in their work, they generally do so in defensive situations, Chief Rogers said. “When you need that, nothing else will work,” he said. Such a nozzle can be used to set up a “water curtain” in an attempt to keep fires from spreading to nearby structures, the chief said. The only “offensive” uses of the platform would be for rescues, he said.

Though a few months away, live local training burns, with the public invited, may also be in store for city firefighters. The interim chief, named to that position two weeks ago after Kevin Westbrook resigned, said he would like to increase opportunities for firefighters to practice their skills without traveling to the state fire academy near Jackson.

“This is what they like to do,” he said. “They like to fight fires.”