West End Fire & Rescue Co.

Established in 1925, West End Fire Co# 5 was officially accepted into the Mahanoy City Fire Department in 1928. Their striking paint scheme originated with a 1935 Larabee-Buffalo engine painted white and the current striping arrangement of dark blue & silver was adopted in 1987 with the arrival of Ford C/Great Eastern rescue.

Engine 465 - 2006 KME Predator 2,250 gpm/500 gal./20 gal. foam

This rig is equipped with a Harrison 20KW hydraulic generator, 9,000 watt light tower, 100 lb. oil dry hopper, ten SCBA, a Scott “Pak-Tracker” (automated SCBA tracking device), an MSA 4-gas monitor, CO monitor, PPV fan,  thermal imager, an AED and a remote control deluge gun.  This unit won 1st place in category of Pumper 1997-2008 at the 2008 Pennsylvania State Firefighters Convention Parade.

Featuring a computer assisted pump panel, Engine 465 is equipped with the following hose load:

1. •Dedicated front bumper foam line
   

2. •Six crosslays (four 1 3/4” & two 2", color coded)
   

3. •Trash line
   

4. •Blitz monitor
   

5. •600’ of 3" line
   

6. •1,500’ of 5" LDH supply line

Engine 5 - 1950 Mack L 750 gpm/300 gal.

Old Engine 5 faithfully served West End for 26 years until it was replaced by a 1975 Mack CF600 (which is still retained by the company for parades). It was then sold to the Quakake Fire Co. of Rush Township where it was used intermittently until 1998. In 1999, the company purchased the engine back after which it was repainted and fully restored to its original in-service condition.

An interesting note about the 1975 Mack mentioned above is that prior to it being retired in June 2006, at its’ last last alarm, it pumped for over 10 hours straight removing 25,000 gallons of water from the basement of the local cable company’s television studio.

West End also operates an impressive 1999 KME Excel walk-in heavy rescue responding as the primary RIT vehicle for Mahanoy City FD (this rig has won 1st Place Best Appearing Heavy Rescue at the PA State Parade in 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005 & 2008). They also operate a 1985 Chevy/Grumman 4x4 rescue support vehicle (ex-US Military) and a 1996 GMC Sierra 3500 “dually” pick-up as a squad for towing support trailers including the Dive Team (completely built in-house by their members in 2008) & the Schuylkill Co. Rescue Taskforce (trench rescue team operated jointly with Yorkville Hose Co. of Pottsville).

Copyright 2009 Tom Rinelli

Copyright 2009 Tom Rinelli

Copyright 2009 Tom Rinelli