The Gainesville Fire Department (GFD) is awaiting delivery of a million-dollar piece of equipment unlike anything that exists locally: a Heavy Rescue Truck.
What is a Heavy Rescue Truck?
Glory 97.5 put that question and others about it to Chief Brandon Ellis earlier this week. Here are his answers:
- A Heavy Rescue truck is a specialized fire or emergency response apparatus that does not carry water or a fire suppression pump. Instead, it is equipped with a wide range of tools and equipment tailored for complex rescue operations. These may include:
- Vehicle extrications
- Confined space rescues
- Structural collapse responses
- High-rise or high-angle rescues
- Hazardous materials (Hazmat) incidents
- Trench rescues
In addition, Heavy Rescue units often serve as the Rapid Intervention Crew (RIC) at fire scenes, prepared to rescue firefighters who become lost, injured, or trapped during operations.
- This will be the first apparatus of this kind ever purchased by Gainesville Fire.
- This particular Heavy Rescue apparatus is a fully custom built. While we consulted with other departments operating similar units, we designed ours to carry significantly more equipment. To achieve this, we eliminated the traditional extended crew cab — where the full crew would typically ride — and instead relocated all personnel (except the driver and officer) into an integrated internal cab within the body of the truck. This design choice maximizes available space for equipment storage, enabling us to carry a much larger and more versatile cache of tools than any comparable unit currently operating north of Atlanta.
- Given the rapid growth not only in Gainesville but throughout northeast Georgia — along with the steady rise in the frequency and severity of serious incidents — we recognized the need to shift from a reactive approach to a proactive one when it comes to our equipment and apparatus capabilities.
- The cost of the vehicle was just over $1.3 million. I formally presented the need for this apparatus during my December 2022 budget presentation.
- We have completed the final inspection with Pierce Manufacturing in Wisconsin. The manufacturer is currently addressing the issues we identified during that inspection. The vehicle is scheduled to be delivered to our sales representative on September 30th. Following their secondary inspection to verify that all corrections have been made, we anticipate final delivery to occur between October 9th and October 15th.
- This unit will be housed at our main headquarters located at 725 Pine Street. This station’s central location allows for equitable response times to all areas of the city, ensuring the unit can reach any incident quickly and efficiently.
- All personnel assigned to this unit must meet strict internal standards for skill proficiency, including advanced firefighter training in search and rescue techniques and certification at the Rope Rescue Technician level. The unit will be staffed with a Technical Rescue Officer, one Sergeant (serving as the driver, with a minimum of five years of experience), and two firefighters. Most of the assigned personnel will also be members of our GSAR (Georgia Search and Rescue) team, meaning they hold advanced technical certifications in rope rescue, confined space rescue, trench rescue, structural collapse, and wildland rescue operations.