Pierce Manufacturing, an Oshkosh Corporation company, has received the 107th order for its Pierce® Ascendant™ 107-foot steel heavy-duty aerial ladder. The vehicle was purchased by the City of Keene Fire Department in Keene, N.H.
“We are gratified to know the intensive and extensive work Pierce invested into the Ascendant has been so well received by fire departments across North America,” said Jim Johnson, Oshkosh Corporation executive vice president and president of the Fire & Emergency segment and Pierce Manufacturing.
The Pierce Ascendant ladder’s unmatched maneuverability and performance – and industry leading 107-foot reach in the single rear axle category – have combined to make it the most popular new aerial apparatus in the company’s history.
A committee of three from the department was assigned to develop the specifications and make recommendations to the fire chief. “Our goal during this process was to stay with a Quint configuration, keep the same overall sized vehicle, not compromise performance, add improved safety features, and get a longer ladder, if possible, and that’s a tall order,” said Fire Chief Mark Howard, a 23-year veteran of the City of Keene Fire Department. “As we started our research, Pierce came out with the Ascendant. It was a high-profile rig we were reading a lot about. Based on its longer reach – and because we could still have a waterway and maintain a high tip load capacity – we were very impressed, and eventually bought the truck.”
The Pierce Ascendant 107-foot aerial ladder features a weight optimised design structure that places weight and mass only where required. The aerial delivers a full 107-foot vertical reach and a 100-foot horizontal reach with a below grade operation of -10º. Its reach is an astounding 32 feet greater than a typical single rear axle aerial. The Ascendant is a true heavy-duty aerial device. Since its launch, Pierce’s R & D team successfully completed three phases of a fatigue test on the Ascendant that demonstrate the equivalent of 20 years of service life.
Added Chief Howard, “Our city’s current ordinance requires that buildings can’t exceed six stories in height, but our bigger issue is reach, as many of our two- and three-story buildings have access issues. The Ascendant ladder’s extra 32-feet of reach is going to make a huge difference.”
The Pierce Ascendant is available on a wide range of Pierce custom chassis, including the Arrow XT™, Velocity®, Impel® and Enforcer™. Additional body configurations introduced since the launch of the Ascendant include the PUC™ pump, Texas Chute Out body (side stack hosebed), and a no pump / no tank design.
