THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Airport Authority crew members are more than pleased with the two new state-of-the-art Rosenbauer Panther fire trucks that will replace their old Oshkosh trucks from 1994.
“Fire trucks have completely changed in design over the last 20 years, so we’re extremely excited to be receiving these pieces of equipment,” said Ryan Brading, manager of airport services,
“We didn’t expect these trucks to deliver the power that they deliver compared to our old units, we’re very impressed and satisfied with these equipment.”
The trucks both feature a water capacity of 6,800 litres and the roof turrets are able to pump out 3,000 litres a minute when set to high-flow. The trucks also have FLIR thermal imaging cameras installed as well as FLEXILIGHT light towers which provide an exceptionally bright light to aid emergency service workers when providing services at night.
“The power this thing has, it’s ridiculous, going into turns and whatnot, when you can turn a 36,000 pound truck going 60 kilometres an hour and going to a turn hard it doesn’t feel right but it somehow stays on all four wheels” said Morgan Moore, airport operation specialist.
In 2019 the airport authority put out a tender for new fire trucks to replace aging equipment, the winning bid came from the American company Rosenbauer. The two trucks cost a total of just over 2 million dollars, and were paid for by federal funding through the Airport Capital Approval Program.
The Airport Authority crew members must go through extensive training and certification for the new vehicles and are more than happy to do so for the chance to use the new equipment.
