The Fire King

[written_ficton]

Interesting...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHp1if-I ... re=related

[gkoutlis]

Awesome piece of machinery....!!! =D>

Glad to see the Victorians trialing out these trucks as they can save the crew if they get caught in a fire and can't escape.

G

[WPXZBP]

SA Forestry have a number of those vehicles currently in service.

[observer]

This vehicle has been around for some time now (10+ years). It is based on the Bushmaster troop carrier. Most fire services over east have evaluated this vehicle and have decided not to go ahead with it. Only the Forestry Commision in SA have decided to go ahaead and use this vehicle.

[Gohie]

Why? Not enought water? Is it simply cost restrictive compared to the current Toyota platform for fast attacks here in WA? Was it a 'political' decision? What convinced he SA Forestry to run a fleet? Sorry for all the questions.

[observer]

I can not give you a definate answer, as I haven't read the reports as to why they were not adopted. One reason I have heard (and I am not saying this is the official, or one of the official reasons) is that it may give crews a false sense of security and as such would put themselves into places where they normaly wouldn't go.

One of the reasons I can see as to why fire services haven't adopted this vehicle is that the vehicle is designed to fight bushfires, and bushfires only (maybe it can handle a running grass fire, but I don't know the vehicle that well). Unfortunately fire services handle a wider range of calls. Therefore you would need vehicles to handle other types of calls. If you look at tanker setups (especially over east) they are equip to handle a vast array of incidents that they would be reasonably expected to attend.

Also I am not sure as to the cost of these vehicles, but I am guessing thay are much more expensive than current tankers. So you are outlaying a large amount of money, getting less vehicles than if you spent it elsewhere, and getting a vehicle that can only be used effectively in about 20% of a brigades call. Not really a good solution, especially when we are dealing with a limited budget.

Saying this the reason as to why fire services (in my opinion) are not buying this vehicle, are the reasons as to why the SA Forestry Commission have bought the vehicles. All they do is fight bushfires, so it is ideal for them

[Gohie]

Thanks Observer

[kyeboi]

yea true but i recon this would be a great appliance for our rual/bushfire brigades but by the looks of them they look very expensive !!


kye boi

VBFB