Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) is a specialized sector of firefighting because it involves the rapid intervention of a plane involved in some type of emergency. Despite its name, ARFF encompasses a wide range of calls that are not limited to the evacuation of passengers and crew and extinguishment of burning fuel. These include medical emergencies inside the terminal, mass casualties, hazardous materials mitigation, and other nuisance fires/calls. For this reason, many ARFF departments run your typical municipal engine companies and ambulances along with the massive all-wheel drive ARFF vehicles. In North America, Oshkosh, Rosenbauer, E-ONE, KME are the major manufacturers that develop the large ARFF vehicles. Other global ARFF manufactures include Magirus and Rosenbauer. These large rigs are designed much different compared to the city/rural apparatus because burning planes present a unique challenge. Because jet fuel can burn at temperatures exceeding 1500°F, most, if not all ARFF rigs, carry a large amount of water, foam, and other extinguishing agents to put out fires. Many ARFF apparatus have more than one remote controlled monitor to put out fires. Some of them even have high reach extendable turrets to attack a fire from any angle! These specialized turrets can be equipped with a piercing nozzle to penetrate the fuselage of an airplane. ARFF vehicles also need to be fast and nimble to reach the scene in a timely fashion and help evacuate passengers and crew from the affected plane(s). This video demonstrates what ARFF can do! As evident in the video, ARFF rigs are equipped with all wheel drive and can drive upwards of 60 mph! Since the concept of ARFF is really awesome, many in the LFC have proceeded to mimic these rigs despite the inherent challenge of making vehicles with odd shapes and sizes. Below are some of the apparatus and departments that community members have posted. Riverwoods Fire DepartmentFor as long as I can remember, DH has been the premier builder of ARFF, utilizing a wide range of techniques to build the gold standard for cabs with the odd windshield including the 1st and 2nd generation of the Oshkosh Striker. Steven A.If you haven't seen Steven A's work before, he has some gorgeous ARFF apparatus! Chi-City Custom Lego CreationsFollowing in DH's footsteps, Jeff B has made some pretty unique ARFFs as well! NCXJames K operates this ARFF Department with a one-of-a-kind color scheme! Studdsville Fire Department ARFF DivisionOur very own MM has also delved into building custom ARFF, even coming out with his own line of ARFF, the Tiger! Tim JTim J operates Washington Heights Crash Fire Rescue with these apparatus! Castle Beach Fire DepartmentOur own Michael P also operates his own ARFF fleet within Castle Beach. Calvin F.Calvin F operates this large ARFF station for Baybrick. Andrew M.Andrew M has recently delved into the ARFF world by building these two beautiful Oshkosh T-series ARFF rigs! Dylan W. - SFR Station 17Dylan W. operates Studington Fire-Rescue Station 17, one of the ARFF stations located in Studington International Airport. Other ARFF rigs from the communityI have also added links below to some more awesome builders who were unreachable due to unknown reasons. Brian S. Rodney G. Lastly, we have our very own Zak O who was kind enough to send us a throwback to some of his designs from the early 2010s!
At this time, I wanna send a huge thank you to all who made this special happen!
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In 1995 Pierce Mfg. shocked the fire community with a huge new cab, it had folding steps, 10 man cab, extended nose and didn't look like any other fire truck cab on the market and in 2005 it got a 2nd generation cab which is still being manufactured today and for the forseeable future. I'm obviously talking about the Pierce Quantum. It's a personal favorite of both Michael and myself, so it was kind of obvious to do a special about this magnificent cab in Lego as many talented builders have created many variations of this cab. I have tried to make a complete history of the Lego Quantum, if I forgot to add someone or something, please use the contact form and we will rectify it as soon as possible. I hope you enjoy the read and hope you'll have a few memories, or learn a little about the LFC history. -MM The Quantum in lego had a difficult start, I personally had major troubles with it when I attempted the cab back in 2008, and I remember more builders had this problem. Then there was the perfect Quantum cab built by the legendary Bob K. of Lego Twp. Fire Department. And in 2009 he posted a tutorial of his 2nd Generation Quantum cab and it took off. Another legendary builder, Paul B. had designed the LFC's first 1st Generation Quantum. In 2012 Bob upgraded the cab after being inspired by a detailed 8 wide Quantum by Brian Santis. Over the years the Quantum has been upgraded, and changed by many talented builders, and is still going strong, and will do so for the next years to come. Personally I hope this sparks some inspiration to our younger builders, and see a whole new generation of Lego built Quantums in the coming time. This was the first special featurette, I hope you all enjoyed the read, and the pictures.
I want to thank everyone who took the time to send pictures of their rigs, it was fun to see Quantums from every part of the LFC. As a bonus though, I've added the only LDD pic that Michael and myself found worthy enough to make it to the Blog. Thank you for the effort, and laugh, shout out to our own Paulo R for sending a LSD trip, multicolor Quantum. |