By Jessica Logan
The Press Enterprise
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The Riverside Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue truck should be ready next week to pull people out of wrecked car, yank crashed cars out of houses, and help anyone out of a dangerous position.
The state-of-the art truck, paid for with a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, will replace a 29-year-old truck that was turned into a makeshift search-and-rescue vehicle 11 years ago, said firefighter Wayne Hess.
The new truck cost over $600,000.
“Normally we’d never be able to attain a vehicle like this,” said Gale Schulte, an administrative analyst for the Fire Department who helped win the grant.
Hess reviewed all of the trucks’ wonders Wednesday with the pride of a new father, opening the doors to the truck and what represents the future of search and rescue in Riverside.
Communication equipment in the cab allows firefighters to write reports, view news coverage, and communicate with dispatch operators.
It also has a navigation system.
“It’s kind of like a portable office,” firefighter/paramedic Eric Peniata said.
Storage drawers cover the back of the unit on the sides and the roof with space enough for all their tools and room to spare.
“On the older rig it’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” Peniata said. “You have to take one item out to get the other item in.”
The new truck has three-point seat belts, 10-foot awnings on both sides, seating for six, and a light that can illuminate a crash scene.
The cab is enclosed to protect the firefighters.
An electric winch is embedded in the front bumper, it has anti-lock brakes and a more agile steering system.
After the department won the grant for the truck in 2007, firefighters spent months scouting similar trucks in the Inland area and Orange County and detailing what they wanted.
It took a year to manufacture and several months for the department to install the communication system, Hess said.
Firefighters spent the last week laying black mats on the trays for the tools and hooks to keep them in place.
That job should be complete next week, Hess said.
“For us, it is a rolling tool box,” Hess said.
They anticipate needing the truck for a search or rescue once or twice a month.
It will travel to regular fire calls the rest of the month.
It will also respond to disasters across the state, said Division Chief David Lesh.
The old truck will be scrapped.