Fighting Welsh Fire

65P1

65P1 also known as "Rescue Appliance" is the most recent release of the firefighting rescue appliance series. It is a Volvo manufactured truck then redesigned by a company called "Rescue One" and outfitted with all the required equipment and utilities for all kinds of firefighting activities. This appliance is capable of servicing large fire scenes, vehicle accidents as well as offroad rescues. The appliance currently weighs in at 15 tonnes and is the general role covering appliance. The vehicle is outfitted with a mainscheme radio for contact with service control and is limited at 56mph untill the vehicle 999 system is activated; the reducer system then cuts out and allows full usage of the engine. This appliance comes outfitted with an internal water pump as well as a 13.5m ladder and multiple winching capabilities.

65P2

65P2 is the older model of rescue appliance which was manufactured by Scania. This appliance is slightly lighter and comes in a different configuration to the newer volvo model but still sees common usage in the service in current day. This pump has an olderstyle hand throttled pump unlike the volvo's computer controlled system. This pump is well renowned for being much faster as it does not have any kind of limiter outfitted on the appliance engine. It comes with a Pump, 13.5m ladder as well as multiple winching capabilities a lot like its volvo counterpart. This pump is also outfitted so it is perfectly capable to work alongside the volvo in water relay systems and the like. It also carries road traffic collision equipment. The internal layout is significantly different to the volvo and this has been known to cause issues when a Scania appliance is used to temporarily fill a gap for a volvo mechanical failure.

65T4

65T4 is essentially an offroad transit van firefighting appliance. This appliance has the capability to be outfitted as both a firefighting vehicle and as a welfare unit for crews. This means it can be sent to longer duration fire scenes to allow crews to utalise it as a resting point to preserve crew efficency. The appliance has very useful offroad capabilities meaning it can be used to ferry large groups of firefighters and their equipment many miles through difficult offroad and hilly conditions. It has seen service for many years and has proved consistently to be an invaluble asset to the fire and rescue service. It can be outfitted with a fogging lance unit on the back which functions like a large pressure washer. It can also be outfitted with a more traditional fire fighting pump allowing for water to reach much more challenging areas of a fire scene expecially during large wildfires.

65T5

65T5 is also known as a "Prime mover" it is utalised to carry the national resiliance planned High Volume Pump. Its use is funded by the UK government to allow all fire and rescue services to hold at least one High Volume Pump that can be crewed by a individual brigade but still allow for cross compatability with others. This means that during a large scale event there is enough national coverage of these appliances to pump water from anywhere too anywhere. These High Volume Pumping units can pump incredible amounts of water over many miles. Combining more than one pump together can extend the range of these units indefinitely. The High Volume Pump is an essential asset and there is 4 strategically located in wales. One in North Wales, two in Mid and West Wales and one in South Wales.

65T6

65T6 is another style of prime mover that is utalised in conjuction with the High Volume Pumping system. This appliance comes outfitted with a hooklift system meaning it can lift and drop large metal shipping containers. This allows for transport of a huge amount of hoses, Hazmat equipment, Pumping equipment, Breathing apperatus equipment and welfare support systems. The hooklift can lift a variety of essential units that can be then brought to and dropped at an incident for usage. This has been noted as being invaluble expecially with regards to units like the welfare support pod which can then be opened out into a large living area for many firefighters on a protracted incident ground.

BA Pod

The BA Pod is a large shipping container that can be lifted using the Hooklift system onboard 65T6. This container holds a lot of equipment related to breathing apperatus. This equipment is essential on large structural fire grounds and allows us to refill the cylinders used by firefighters with in burning buildings on any scene. This pod takes quite a long time to set up and get going but is essential on protracted incidents to keep all firefighters and members of the public safe. Each brigade owns one of these pods and although they are rarely required on a scene, when they are they provide capabilities otherwise impossible to account for.

65J7

65J7 is a offroad fire car. This vehicle is used to transport firefighters during offroad and narrow access jobs. It is very capable in the offroad environment and allows crews to move people and moderate amounts of equipment at very high speeds over extremely difficult to traverse ground. This capability has been noted as essential during wildfire season as a lot of the larger incidents cannot be reached for several miles offroad. the trouble with incidents like these is primarily access. Crews arriving at these scenes on foot are rarely physically capable of fighting a fire at the time of their arrival but with the ability to move crews around in these offroad vehicles we can maintain physically capable crews at the firefront at all times.

Main Pump

This is the main fire appliance pump. This is located with in a Volvo Rescue Pump see 65P1. This pump is called a Godiva P2A 30/10 Two Stage Pump. It is a two stage centrifugal design, featuring both low and high pressure impellers on one stainless steel shaft to provide simultaneous multi-pressure operation. To aid the operator Pump Operations are controlled via Emergency one’s electronic Pump Controller situated within the pump bay. High pressure stage produces a maximum discharge of 770 l/min and the maximum pressure is set to 40 bar. This pump is capable of pumping both water and foam. It is also capable of self priming meaning it can remove the air pressure from with in the pump to allow the earths pressure to push more water up hard suction hose and back into the pump. This is called pumping from open water.