Fire Tender for General-utility Work
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Details of an Interesting, Wellequipped Outfit Outfit Recently Built for the Reigate Fire Brigade.
WE reproduce on this page two pictures of an interesting coveredtype general-utility fire-tender, recently designed by Mr. G. A. Williams, M.I.M.T., the general manager of Messrs. Wray Park Garages, Reigate, by whom it was supplied to Reigate Borough Fire Brigade.
The chassis is a standard MorrisCommercial C-type six-cylinder 2-tonner, and is equipped with low-pressure AvonSeiberling tyres. The cab is a standard Morris-Commercial all-steel product, but the body is of the New World type, with solid teak panels and ash framing. The bonnet, cab, wings, wheels aud chassis are painted fire-engine red, lined dut in gold, but the teak is left in its natural state and varnished.
Provision is made for carrying 10 men in the body proper, whilst an officer can be accommodated in the cab alongside the driver. A one-man-type sliding hood is nsed to protect the occupants, and it has side curtains. In the front part of the body accommodation is provided for a Pyrene foam generator and spare cartridges for it, two foam extinctors and a Salvos apparatus. Further extinetors and branches are fitted on the engineers' platform at the rear, mid at the forward part Pyrene OTC-type extinctors are provided.
Beneath the longitudinal seats provision is made for carrying approximately 2,000 ft. of hose, stand pipes, keys and bars, as well as general equipment such as electric lamps, spades, shovels, etc. Salvage sheets are carried beneath the seat cushion and the seat proper. The seats are hinged, so that hose may be handled through the top of the locker as well as from the front. Simonis folding sealing ladders are carried on each side ; these serve a dual purpose, for, apart from their main use, they can in emergency be improvised as stretchers.
So that the extinctors and foam generator carried in the forward compartment can be easily reached, doors are provided on each side of the front of the body.
The electrical equipment includes the usual head and side lamps, a Lucas traffic lamp mounted on the cab, a spot
lamp on the near-side cab pillar, a combilled Lucas stop, rear and reverse light, a Lucas Trafficator and a Winkworth bell mounted on the off-side front wing.
There is undoubtedly a demand for a general-utility fire-tender of this description, especially as it is capable of carrying much of the equipment usually transported by motor pumps. It meets many of the requirements of brigades covering large rural areas. When it is used with a trailer pup, the entrance is at the near-side front.