EAGLE RIVER
Oct. 9, 2013
Courtesy of the News-Review and The Three Lakes News
Page 3
Eagle River adds enclosed trailer
for hauling UTV with brush unit
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BY GARY RIDDERBUSCH
NEWS-REVIEW EDITOR
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The Eagle River Area Fire Department purchased a specially designed enclosed trailer the past year to haul its
utility-terrain vehicle (UTV) used for
trail rescues and fighting brush fires.
In addition to hauling the UTV, the
18-foot aluminum trailer can be used as
a command center or a firefighter rehabilitation trailer, according to Assistant
Fire Chief Peter “Tripp” Anderson.
“The trailer is designed to carry the
UTV, but it is fully insulated and wired
with lights,” said Anderson. “If we need
it as a command center at a major fire or
a rehab center for firefighters to warm
up during the winter months, it can be
quickly converted by pulling out the
UTV.”
The trailer was purchased for about
$16,000 with funds raised by the firefighters themselves through cream puff
sales and pond hockey concessions.
“We had to special order the trailer
due to the height of the UTV,” said Anderson. “We also can carry both skid
units for the UTV, one for brush fires in
the spring, summer and fall, and a
transport box for trail rescues in the
winter.”
The four-wheel drive John Deere
Gator 825i, purchased in 2012 for about
$25,000, features tracks and wheels for
all trail conditions, an enclosed cab and
a rear Medlite transport box with a
Stokes basket for transporting accident
victims. The brush fire skid unit features a portable pump, 75 feet of hose, a
90-gallon water tank, a 5-gallon foam
system and an area for a Stokes basket.
“The Gator replaced a 1996 Polaris
six-wheel all-terrain vehicle that we got
from the hospital when we took over the
rescue duties for Ministry Eagle River
Memorial Hospital in 2006,” said Anderson.
A Department of Natural Resources
grant helped fund the fire suppression
unit that cost the department $5,200.
Other features of the Gator, purchased at Lakeland Lawn & Equipment
in Arbor Vitae, include power steering,
side-by-side seating for two rescue personnel in the heated cab and a seat in
the rear Medlite unit for a First Responder. The tracks can be taken off and replaced with wheels.
“The tracks handle a variety of trail
conditions, including deep snow, so we
probably will leave them on year-round,”
said Anderson. “We also can use this on
a snow- and ice-covered lake for rescues.”
The department funded the vehicle
Eagle River firefighters Jim Kauzlaric, left, and Peter “Tripp” Anderson display the new brush fire skid unit on the back of the utility-ter-
with a gift from the Bernadine “Bunny”
Venn estate, funds from the department’s cream puff trailer and proceeds
from the annual pond hockey event.
The Eagle River department also
purchased a TurboDraft water eductor
for fire-fighting in 2013, according to
Deputy Chief Jim Bonson.
The water eductor allows the fire department to tap into water supplies like
lakes, ponds, streams and rivers at a distance of up to 200 feet or more. The unit
hooks up to a 21?2-inch feed line and a 5inch return line.
“The force of the flow, combined with
the TurboDraft, creates a suction that
draws water from the static source, generating usable fire flow rates of 670 gallons per minute or more,” said Bonson.
Weighing only 48 pounds, the TurboDraft can easily by put into service with
minimal personnel. Bonson said the
unit generally costs about $3,000, but
the department was able to purchase it
through a government sale for $1,163.
The Eagle River department refurbished one of its tanker trucks in 2011,
rain vehicle (UTV) and the new enclosed trailer that the department
uses to haul the UTV.
—NEWS-REVIEW PHOTO
adding a new stainless-steel tank, new
tires and much-needed additional equipment at a cost of about $90,000.
“If we had to replace the complete
truck, we’d probably be talking about a
quarter of a million dollars,” said Fire
Chief Patrick Weber. “It’s going to buy us
at least another 15 years out of the unit,
then maybe we’ll have to look at a chassis.”
The refurbishing project was funded
through a capital outlay through the fire
commission for vehicle replacements.
The department also received two
grants in 2011 to help update its radios
to comply with new Federal Communications Commission regulations, which
require public safety departments to
switch over to narrow-band frequencies.
The change provides more air space for
emergency radio traffic, according to Anderson.
“A number of our radios were compatible for reprogramming, but some of
them weren’t,” he said. “The new radios
were approved by some grants, one
through the Department of Natural Re-
sources and one federal grant, the
Homeland Security grant.”
In addition to new portable radios,
the department purchased mobile radios for inside of its trucks. The total cost
for the new radios was around $30,000.
The department put a used Pierce
Arrow ladder truck into service in 2010.
The 1984 truck was bought from the
McHenry Township Fire Protection District in McHenry, Ill., for $55,000, funded by the fire commission.
The truck features a three-section
100-foot tower ladder with a platform, a
seven-person cab and a 200-gallon
water tank. “There is a water nozzle in
the bucket that is controlled from the
platform or from the bottom of the
truck,” said Weber. “There are three
water lines in the bucket, where there is
room for two firefighters.”
Other equipment on the truck, which
was purchased new by McHenry township in 1984 for $450,000, includes a
1,250-gallons-per-minute (gpm) twoTo EAGLE RIVER, Pg. 5