December 10, 2007

Dorchester County, SC Gets A Dozen New Ferrara Fire Trucks

Holden, LA – Ferrara Fire Apparatus, Inc., America’s premier builder of custom fire apparatus, recently completed a 12-truck order for Dorchester County, South Carolina.  Won in a competitive bid against several other national and regional fire apparatus builders, the trucks were sold by Fire Equipment Services in Sumter, South Carolina.  They have already been placed in service in the twelve different fire departments within Dorchester County, located in the southern part of the state, near Charleston.

These twelve are not the first Ferrara trucks in Dorchester County, as two departments are already operating the popular Louisiana-built equipment.   “It’s repeat customers like the great fire departments in Dorchester County that have allowed our company to grow, while some of our competitors are talking of a shrinking market,” said Ferrara Fire Apparatus’ CEO, Chris Ferrara, adding, “Our heavy duty, extruded aluminum construction fit well with the customization required for the pumpers, tankers and rescue apparatus.”

The order consisted of two custom pumpers, three commercial pumpers, six tankers and one rescue vehicle.  Fire bodies on all 12 trucks are Ferrara’s heavy duty extruded aluminum, custom built to meet the demands of the fire departments that were to receive them. 

The five pumpers have similarly designed bodies and pumps.  Two are built on Spartan Advantage chassis with medium four-door cab and raised roof and the three are on IH 7400 four-door chassis.  Each has a Hale QMAX 1500 GPM top mount pump with a separate pump module and speedlays.  The extruded aluminum body has full height rescue compartments on both sides.   Ground ladders are stored through the middle of the 1000 gallon water tank, allowing for all the passenger side compartments to be a full 28” deep x full height.

The six tankers are all built on IH 4400 two-door chassis and, like the pumpers, all have Hale QMAX 1500 GPM pumps.  The single rear axle vehicles have 1800 gallon booster tanks, full height rescue style compartments on the left side, a portable tank rack on the right side, ladders stored in the hose bed and a 10” square dump valve at the apparatus rear.

The rescue is a walk-around style, built on an IH 4400 two-door chassis.  With transverse compartments ahead of and over the rear wheels, the truck is equipped with a portable winch with three anchor points and a 15 kW PTO generator that powers telescopic lights and cord reels.  This multi-purpose vehicle is rounded out with an Eagle Air breathing air system, which includes an NFPA compliant enclosed fill station and four cascade bottles, rated at 6000 PSI.

Ferrara Fire Apparatus manufacturers a full line of fire and emergency vehicles, including their premium Inferno XD and Igniter custom chassis, pumpers and tankers, rear and mid-mount aerial ladders and platforms, rescue vehicles, incident command trailers, brush trucks, airport vehicles and the revolutionary Strong Arm firefighting vehicle.  Ferrara is a leading innovator in the industry, offering firefighter safety items such as ECE-29 Crash Testing, Independent Front Suspension, Roll Stability Control, Complete Airbag Protection, and SmartWheel steering systems. 

For more information on Ferrara, please contact Paul Christiansen, Marketing Director, at 800.443.9006, via e-mail at paul.christiansen@ferrarafire.com or regular mail at Ferrara Fire Apparatus, Inc., PO Box 249, Holden, LA  70744.  To contact Ferrara’s South Carolina dealer, Fire Equipment Services, you may call Kent Cummings at 803.494.6000 or e-mail Kent at kcummings@fes-gg.com.