Thread: Fire fighting GTR?
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Old 03-11-2010, 08:24 AM   #24 (permalink)
fullmonty
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Originally Posted by DooDooBrown View Post
It only carries 13 gallons of water, and a medium extinguisher..... Not quite what you want for a car fire.... Not to mention the capacity of the pump can't be more than 300 gpm... I highly doubt that the track has water main piping through out the course, meaning that there is no way to establish a water supply from a fire hydrant to the pump on the car. Even if there was, I see no place for hose lines, only the hose reel. Couple this with the fact that there is no place to store firefighting gear, and the car is not worth the money.... They would have been MUCH better off purchasing a fire engine for that price.... Sure, it may be slower, but with the little amount of water the GT-R carries, it would be worth it....

With that being said, they would have been much better off equipping the GT-R with extracation equipment (think Jaws, Spreaders, Rams, etc....). I am assuming that entrapment would be pretty common on this course, as the speeds are greater than your average road, and generally, you are much more likely to be entraped in a car than to be in a car that is on fire. Additionally, vehicle extracation can take upwards of 30+ minutes, so, why not get the faster unit cutting quicker until the slower, heavier hitting appartius arrive?
Just my two cents, but what do I know, I am just a dumb fireman!
You're right, really you could accomplish the job with a F350, a small pump with CAFS. So we're talking like 200 Gallons of water and 15 gallons worth of Foam and a compliment of rescue tools. The GTR is quick but can't really be described as a quick attack pumper. Once you get some man power there and working it will buy enough time for a larger rescue truck to get on scene. I don't know much more about the ring aside from it being in Germany but I would guess there has to be some hydrants throughout the course. But if there isn’t any we’re just talking a car fire and an engine can’t be that much further behind bringing more than enough water. The only time you’ll run into a water supply issue is if you have a large pileup and everything is burning. So yes the GTR is a little impractical as a firefighting vehicle, but it’s still a pretty cool little set up. I don’t think I’ll be pressing my chief to run off and talk to the town into buying one.
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