The Ministry of Natural Resources has two, new $172,000 firefighting trucks at their disposal to battle forest fires in Northern Ontario.
Designed with and built by Kakabeka’s Holland Enterprises, the MNR has two trucks made specifically for fighting wild land fires.
"In the past, we’ve gotten older chassis and put truck backs on them as best we could," said suppression systems specialist Bob Gardam. "This is the first time that right from the ground up a provincial group got together from eastern Ontario and western Ontario and came up with what we believe was what we needed in an engine."
With one truck headed for Northeastern Ontario and one to stay in the Northwest, they can each carry and pump 1,000 gallons of water and carry all the equipment needed to battle forest fires with no chase-vehicles necessary to bring in extra gear.
Gardam said water can be pumped right off the truck or act as a water tender where they can dump water into portable tanks and ferry water back and forth from different sites.
"It’s going to give us tremendous suppression opportunity," he said, adding the excitement about the vehicles is being felt across the province.
"Our fleet is getting older so this is just a really great sign of the future," said Gardam.
Fire operations supervisor Steve Pauluzzo said there is a strong demand for this type of vehicle in order to support their initial attack and extended attacks on road-accessible fires. It will also help when the MNR lends a hand to area municipal crews.
"Prior to this truck, we had basically a converted dump truck with a tank on it," Pauluzzo said. "With this vehicle now in service, it’s going to make our job that much easier, that much more effective."
Pauluzzo said it was a big advantage working with a local company to design the trucks.
"They’re basically just down the road so any consultation that was required, it was easy enough to visit their site or for them to come over to our site," he said. "The local expertise went a long way and it will continue to go a long way with the upkeep and maintenance of the vehicles associated with this project."
Raymond Holland said they’ve been building custom vehicles for 10 years and started working with the MNR two years ago on the specialized fire trucks.
"They had specific needs so we had to come up with a lot of custom components to meet those needs," he said. "They carry a lot of unique equipment that not all municipal departments carry."
Holland said building a vehicle from start to finish is a much easier task than modifying an existing design, noting when you’re modifying something they’re always taking things apart and putting it back together.
"The MNR has plans to add more of the custom trucks to their fleet in the future; the exact number isn’t known at this time.
