Lebanon Co.’s hazmat unit receives new service vehicle from Annville company

Lebanon County’s Department of Emergency Services took delivery Monday of its nearly $524,000 hazmat command/response vehicle.

The approximately 40-foot vehicle was built by one of the divisions of Annville-based 911 Rapid Response, the same company that last year gutted and retrofitted a new communications operations unit for DES out of a former recreational vehicle.

Read More: Annville company outfits Lebanon County’s new 911 mobile comms ops unit

Lebanon County DES director Bob Dowd said the newest unit is designated specifically for hazmat incident calls that come into the county’s 911 Center. The price tag for the purchase was $523,884.29.

“Any hazardous materials response, special operations calls,” Dowd said about its purpose. “I mean, that could be a chemical spill, that could be a diesel spill, that could be confined space rescue, high-angle rescue – anything at a height.”

The three-seated command center sits behind the driver’s and passenger’s seats located in the front cab of a Kenworth diesel truck. Dowd said the command center has three computers to serve as an on-location, out-in-the-elements office.

“That’s where we’ll run the hazmat portion of any incident,” he said. “It is equipped with all of the research materials and pre-plans and all of the information we need. Hazmat requires a more methodical approach where you show up. Identify what it is and go back and research to determine what your response is going to be. … It’s basically an office in the field.”

Behind the 10-foot command center to the rear of the vehicle is about 18 feet of space for the hazmat crew’s equipment. Storage compartments on both sides of the vehicle will provide easy access to gear on-location.

“It carries all of our hazmat equipment, so meters, suits, containment equipment, all the supplies that we need to mitigate whatever’s going on,” said Dowd. “It’s not like a fire engine in the sense that you hook it up and pour water through it … there’s no pump or anything like that.”

While it may not pump water, it does serve other multiple purposes. 

“It is a functional piece, so it shows up and it’s designed to be kind of a Swiss army knife in the hazmat world where you’ve got a section in the front where you can do your research and all your chemical research that you need to do prior to making an entry. And then all of the operational pieces that all the compartments are holding,” Dowd said.

Dowd told LebTown this vehicle will replace its primary hazmat vehicle that was purchased in 2000 and will now becoming the back-up unit. An even older vehicle, purchased in 1998 and serving as a secondary back-up unit, will be repurposed as a service vehicle for the county SWAT team.

LebTown asked Dowd what it meant to his department to have a more modern piece of equipment to serve Lebanon County residents.

“I’m probably not the best one to answer that question because the guys, special operations technicians, are the ones that have been involved in this process the entire way through. This is a huge win for them,” he said. “The current newest piece we have is a model year 2000, so it’s 25 years old at this point. And now this (vehicle) brings modern technology, modern equipment to Lebanon County.”

Mark Sallada, owner of 911 Rapid Response, said the new unit was the largest his company has ever built for one of its customers. 911 Rapid Response is a safety equipment supplier that employs 82 people, 76 at its Lebanon County headquarters and six at a satellite location in Georgia.

Read More: Annville-based 911 Rapid Response adds second location in Georgia

“It’s really cool to be able to have the opportunity – and not just the opportunity – but the people (staff) to be able to complete a project like this, you know, to be able to complete a project like this one,” Sallada said. “To be able to design it, fabricate it, to fully build it.”

Sallada said the new vehicle was crafted out of an old semi-tractor chassis, meaning the vehicle has been repurposed. All of the manufacturing portion of the project occurred in Annville at the company’s Vengeant Apparatus division, one of several separate operations that comprise the 911 Rapid Response family of companies.

“There’s about four to five people that would be working on it (DES vehicle) at any one time, and then throughout the process it was probably about a 1,400-hour project,” he added. 

In total, including management, he estimated that 18 to 20 people worked on this vehicle, which measures 39.5 feet, during its two-year life cycle from the time the county signed the contract until its reveal.

Sallada noted the dual uses for the vehicle.

“You’re getting the ability to run some command structure out of the front but still take all the gear with them. instead of buying two trucks and buying a command truck and then buying another truck for a rescue truck, you know, now you take one truck and you get both,” he said.

Sallada said he had hoped the emergency vehicle would have been completed in less than two years.

“From the day that the chassis was ordered, until now was about 24 months,” Sallada said. “Our competitors are running about 36 to 38 months, so we’re still about almost a year faster, but I’m still not happy with 24 months.”

Read More: 911 Rapid Response hopes to outfit up to 500 vehicles at Annville shop yearly

Dowd said while he’s happy that the job remained in Lebanon County, it was awarded to them for more than the company’s location.

“Don’t get me wrong, it was important to give this work to a Lebanon County company but that Lebanon County company also earned the work it received,” he said. “They gave us the most competitive price.”

Dowd told LebTown that the vehicle needs some final components to be connected and that he believes the unit will be put into service by the county in the next two to four weeks.