Forestry

[steved01]

Hello there I would like to tell you a little about myself. I have been a forestry fire fighter with what is now ForestrySA for nearly 37 years. I love the industry (obviously) and am here for good.  Any questions on forestry matters please feel free to fire my way.  Cheers  Dave

[strikeathird]

Your honest thoughts on the fire Kings..   hehehehehe


Mainly, are they that practical for forrestry firefighting ?  I know the saferty features are above all else, but would you take one of them to a fire over anything else ?

[steved01]

WEll Strikeathird, without being too contraversial I know that they are perfectly designed for forestry firefighting and are probably the best forestry firefighting unit in the world for the conditions for which they were designed.  I have seen no other unit anywhere which I would rather take to a forest fire.

For any number of reasons I would prefer them in a grass fire situation as well.

Obviously they are not designed for use at RCR, HAZMAT, or structure fires, although as a water delivery unit they have the capacity to perform as well as any standard 24 or 34 appliance that I have seen.

Cheers

Dave

[strikeathird]

Always good to know from those that use them !!

I know they ranted and raved on how well protected crew would be, but never heard much on the practicality of fire fighting..

Good to hear they do well !!

[Firefrog]

What are the specs of the Fking, water capacity, pumping capacity, stowage etc etc

[steved01]

FireKing specs just briefly, Water capacity 3700 litres with 700 dedicated to safety (you cant get it unless you perform specific control function) water sprays, Full pump and roll with water pump hydraulically driven from main engine.  Pump capacity up to 1000 L/minute plus, although main forestry use 90 litres/minute at 100 PSI.  20m lengths 38 mm canvas, 2x 25 mm live reels 30 m long light weight hose.  1x 25 mm dead reel lay flat.  All reels hydraulic rewind.  Robwen electronic foam induction.  4WD, diff locks and 6 speed automatic transmission, central tyre inflation and heaps more stuff.

[probie_boy]

nice, they look like they belong in the army or something.

[steved01]

Well spotted, yes they are.  They are built by Australian Defense Industries in Bendigo and are based on the 'Bushmaster', the new army APC.  One of the advantages of the FireKing is the steel that is used to build the crew area is 'bisaloy' steel and virtually indestructible.  Lots of goodies in this one!

[probie_boy]

they'd be as expensive as hell i imagine

[Pipster]

They were around $1.5 million each, I believe....the State Government provided funding of around $15m to Forestry SA specifically for the purchase

[F.B.R.T]

From what I'm told from a fellow from Forestry S.A, the Fireking's are valued each unit at around $900 thousand.

"About twice as much as your Scania!" he said whilst checking out our appliance!

[steved01]

Without getting into too many specifics, I can say that ForestrySA is the trading name of the South Australian Forestry Corporation, yes owned by the people of South Australia but entirely self funded.  In other words the finance for the FireKings came from profit generated funds from forestry operations, and not taxes.  The previous two 'guesses' at the cost of the trucks are wildly out.  The actual costs without breaching commercial confidence is around $600 000 per appliance.  Certainly more than your average 34 unit but around the same price as most specialty units, for example pumpers.

Cheers all, Dave

[rescue5271]

$600,000 is the price and you can buy one from ADI as a fire appliances if you have the money,nice truck but  could think of better things to spend the money on. But hey its only money....

[rescue5271]

few RFW up for tender in the local paper,this would be due to the new firekings in the south east.