Birmingham vanmaker LDV has met the highly individual requirements of one of its customers by designing a one-of-a-kind miniature fire engine that will help save lives around the south-east.
Bush Fire, a fire protection engineering company in Middlesex, turned to LDV’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) department to design a bespoke unit to test dry riser systems in high rise buildings.
The metallic-silver fire van was based on a 2.8-tonne short wheelbase Maxus chassis cab. The customised vehicle was required to contain a 1,000 litre water tank, pressurised water pump, hose pipes and fire extinguishers, all accessible behind roller shutter doors.
Bush Fire provides companies with a service to test the effectiveness of dry riser systems in order to meet the requirements of insurance companies and fire and licensing authorities. The procedure ensures all fire safety equipment is functioning correctly should a fire occur.
Bush Fire’s Andy Brind said: “Most fire protection companies usually use old fire engines to do this, but we wanted a unique, purpose built vehicle that was much smaller and could operate far more effectively in confined city centre locations.
“We briefed LDV to design what is essentially a mini fire engine. The SVO team were brilliant, we knew what we wanted and they enhanced our ideas and provided a quick and professional service.”
The Maxus vehicle was also modified to include scene lights on the side and low level mark lighting at the back to illuminate the working area.
