West End and Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Companies secure brush equipment
ABOVE: Two of the three Kubota X1140 UTVs will be housed at the West End Volunteer Fire Company in Chestnuthill Township. The units will be towed to the locations when needed. JUDY DOLGOS-KRAMER/TIMES NEWS
RIGHT: Each of the three UTVs is equipped with a removable skid that houses a tank which holds up to 75 gallons of water and a pump. The UTV makes it easier to bring water to remote locations and much quicker than a firefighter could on foot.
The West End and Jackson Township Volunteer Fire companies have recently acquired three utility terrain vehicles that will be used to fight brush fires.
The UTVs, funded through a Local Share Account grant, were purchased through CO-STARS at a cost of approximately $20,000 each. The stock Kubota X1140 UTVs have each been outfitted with a skid unit that holds up to 75 gallons of water.
The skids can be removed and a rear passenger seat can be folded down to carry five additional people.
“We realized how much we needed something like this two years ago during the brush fire on the game lands off Hypsie Gap Road,” said West End Fire Chief Don Zipp. “That fire burned about 100 acres on the border between Jackson and Chestnuthill Township.”
Zipp said that without the UTVs, a firefighter would carry a backpack with 10 gallons of water into the brush on foot to fight the fire.
“We had to cut a road as well,” he said. “That takes time. With this vehicle, it’s small enough we can drive through the trees. It really saves wear and tear and the men and women on the crews.”
The vehicles can also be used for rescues and searches of forested land in the township and surrounding areas. According to Zipp, West End’s Rescue 6 unit carries all of the tools the department needs for such an operation, but the UTV can be outfitted “on the spot” using the equipment carried on the larger truck.
LSA grants are money set aside for local community needs and are funded through the local casino revenue.
“Without the LSA money, we would have been lucky to even have one unit, and it would have most likely been the used one from the Anti-Terrorism Task Force,” Zipp said.
The fire companies are awaiting delivery of the trailers so that the brush units can be towed to a fire. The trailers will be delivered before the end of the month, at which time the UTVs will be put into service.
