Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Vernal Regional Airport (KVEL), Vernal, Utah

It is touted as the least used emergency vehicle in the county. But for good reason. When you are talking about this area’s fire trucks — the less they are used the better.

Uintah County Fire Suppression Special Service District Director Jeremy Raymond announced last week that a new fire truck was purchased for the Vernal Regional Airport to replace an older model that was purchased in 1980.

As long as anyone can remember, the old engine was only used on two occasions at the airport and neither one of them for fighting anything with flames.

Raymond explained that one call for the fire truck was for an aircraft that landed just short of the runway. The second was for a gas spill, but once again there were no flames and the truck was used to foam the fuel leakage.

For that reason the Uintah County fire district officials were able to get a trade in of $50,000 for the old, outdated fire truck that ended its career in Vernal with fewer than 5,000 miles.

Federal aviation guidelines demanded that a newer, more up-to-date fire truck be purchased for the airport and fire officials decided on a 2008 U1 Titan fire truck that cost $300,000.

The new engine is equipped with a 1500 gallon water tank plus room for 500 pounds of dried chemicals. There are two front mounted turrets that will dispense the water from one mounted on top of the cab as well as another at bumper level. Both are controlled from hand controls inside the cab.

On the plus side, the new engine doubles the water and chemical capacity over the old engine. On the down side, with all dispensers wide open the new engine will pump about 750 gallons of water a minute, in other words there will be less than two minutes of first response fire suppression capabilities in the new truck if it is run wide open.

“All this truck does is act as a first responder to the accident while other fire trucks are dispatched from Vernal,” Raymond said. “And it will do this very well.”

Because the truck was purchased by the county without federal dollars, the county will be able to use the truck away from the airport when needed in an emergency. Raymond stated that the truck has to be at the airport when large aircraft are coming and going which happens now twice a day.

“This is a big addition to the airport,” Raymond said. “It will respond to any size aircraft accident well into the future.”

Presently there are five certified firemen for the new truck. They include Kelly Harvey, Jared Spencer, Shawn Cole, Chad McMullin and Jeff Merrell.

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