Source:
The Talon
AFSOUTH

July 19, 1996

According to Staff Sgt. Charles Crego, fire chief of the 369th Engineers, Firefighters, at Tuzla Main, answering emergency calls outside the immediate area takes up valuable time, especially when going to remote camps in his area of responsibility.

"We answer calls from as far north as Camp Burke, and as far east as Alicia," he said. "It can take 45 minutes or more for us to arrive on the scene."

"We had to find a way of getting fire equipment closer to the source," Crego said. "A tent can go up in flames in about 37 seconds."

Using spare aviation equipment, Crego devised a portable fire pump powerful enough to dampen brush fires and other incendiary hazards far from rapid-response range.

By hooking a 1,000 liter fuel tank up to a diesel-powered portable fuel pump, he devised a water delivery system that is also small enough and light enough to fit on the back of a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.

"They say necessity is the mother of invention," said the Levittown, Pa. native. "We certainly had a need for it, so this is what I came up with."

According to the fire chief, the portable fire truck complements their MACY 2500C fire engine because it's not nearly as bulky nor massive.

"We can easily maneuver around a tent city with one of these," he said. "It goes places where we'd be afraid to take the fire truck."

Strapped to the back of a HMMWV, the portable fire pump goes up steep hills and muddy roads as well as into tight places without risking damage to irreplaceable equipment.

Although the portable fire pump doesn't deliver nearly as much water power as the fire department's fire truck, it still delivers up to 100 gallons per minute.

Because it's made from pre-existing parts, production and repair is relatively inexpensive.

A portable fire pump at a remote camp could be operational in minutes and save thousands of dollars of equipment and personal property, according to the fire chief.

The Tuzla-based firefighters have been tasked to put together four more experimental portable fire pumps for theater operations, with plans to build a total of 14 portable fire pumps for outlying camps of the U.S. Bosnian sector.