MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- The Iwakuni Station Fire Department is currently preparing a new fire engine to add to the growing fleet of vehicles it uses to maintain the safety of the station and its residents.
The new $378,000 fire engine is being outfitted with specialized tools tailoring it for harbor disaster and water rescue missions.
“It was custom designed for Iwakuni,” said Devin Johnston-Lee, Iwakuni Station Fire Department chief. “There is stuff on here that only meets our mission.”
The Iwakuni Station Fire Department has followed its long standing tradition in naming all its vehicles after dragons and has appropriately christened the new truck Kairyu, which translates to ocean dragon.
Kairyu will be positioned at the station harbor here, making it the first response vehicle in the area once it is outfitted with unique water-rescue equipment and a water-rescue board.
Like the other Iwakuni Station Fire Department engines, Kairyu is also being armed with medical bags, a 500-gallon water tank, 100 gallons of foam, a mass decontamination manifold and all the necessary tools firefighters need to support any airfield disaster or structural fire.
The new engine, which was acquired through a government vehicle replacement program, required three years of paper work and explanations for the justification of the new fire truck.
“In order for us to protect the base, we have to have National Fire Protection Association compliant equipment,” said Johnston-Lee.
The older equipment bought through a local vender was OK, but it didn’t make the fire department NFPA compliant, Johnston-Lee said.
The fire department had several meetings with Pierce Manufacturing, the company that constructed the new fire engine, to have the new rig custom designed for the station and its mission.
Kairyu has already been equipped with $1,000 valves, two $500 hoses and $800 nozzles along with other tools to help support the station’s mission and safety better.
Johnston-Lee said the new fire truck brings the fire department up to date by replacing some of the older equipment past its service life.
Many of the fire department members agreed the new fire engine would be a valuable asset to the station’s safety.
Iwakuni Sation Fire Department assistant fire chief Alvin Aritea said it benefited the station by providing it with state-ofthe-art, top-of-the-line, firefighting safety equipment.
Before, firefighting was just fighting fires and basic emergency services, but with the new concepts post Sep. 11, special operations, hazardous material, heavy operations and weapons of mass destruction response has become part of the firefighting career field, Aritea said.
Both Aritea and Johnston-Lee agreed, while the fire engine was an exciting new tool it would be nothing without the specialized skills of the Iwakuni Satation Fire Department firefighters.
A date to declare the engine fully operational is yet to be determined since the fire department is still awaiting equipment to be delivered and installed on the new truck.