New Brush Rigs In Service at Forest Grove and Gales Creek Fire Stations

Just in time for wildfire season, two new Brush Rigs are now in service to respond from our Forest Grove and Gales Creek Fire Stations.  These two specialized, and heavily modified, 2012 Dodge 5500 Heavy Duty trucks were custom built locally by Forest Grove's own Spiesschaert Inc., and are designed with the demands of our summer fire season in mind.  Smaller than a large fire engine, these four wheel drive trucks can get through narrow and twisty driveways, and crawl up and down steep off road grades to get to where brush fires threaten homes and property and can take the beating that comes with this type of work.  Typical Brush Rigs carry 300 gallons, but these two rigs can carry 400 gallons of water that is supplemented by a foam system that increases our abilities to combat a wildfire, as well as provides enough water for to extinguish a small car fire, or make a quick stop in the early stages of a house fire making these trucks just as useful in the city streets of Forest Grove as they would be in the foothills of the Coast Range west of Gales Creek, or working a field fire near Verboort. 

  

 

Don't let the term "Brush Rig" fool you into thinking that these trucks will only see use during the summer months though.  With their ease of operation, they can be driven by regular volunteer firefighters without the extensive training required to operate our larger, and more complex fire engines, this will allow a quicker response for volunteer firefighters on medical emergencies year around, and we expect to use them during high water or snow events during the winter months as well.  Elected officials authorized a total budget for this project of $230,000 that was split 50/50 between the tax payers of the City of Forest Grove and the Forest Grove Rural Fire Protection District, so far we are just over $11,000 under budget on the project that in combination with the Heavy Brush Rigs we purchased used last year from a California Fire Department, will greatly improve our ability to respond to the needs of our community.  Brush Rig 418 will be housed in our Forest Grove Station, and Brush Rig 417 will work with our crew out of the all volunteer station in Gales Creek.