Pumped up

By Kara Irving
THE Hallam fire brigade received a Christmas present like no other last year.
Landing on their doorstep on Christmas Eve was a new state-of-the-art fire fighting appliance that has been built specifically for the CFA.
The new fire truck, known as ‘the pumper’, has the capacity to hold upwards of 4,500 litres of water, replacing the station’s older model, which served the brigade for the past 15 years.
The pumper also has the ability to release 4000 litres of water per minute, hold 2000 litres of class-B foam and carry up to five crew members.
“(The pumper) makes a big difference,” says Michael Lia fire officer at the Hallam Fire Brigade.
“It has an automatic pumping mode, which makes the fire fighter free to do other things in threatening situations. (It also) has a faster appliance pick up speed, which makes it quicker to accelerate and get to the incident on time.”
Worth more than $500,000, the new pumper will join the Hallam’s other fire trucks including a new tanker and a hazmat.
Mr Lia also said that the new pumper would be very useful on extreme fire danger days.
The new addition to the Hallam Fire Brigade will be just one of the new pumpers distributed across the Dandenong and Frankston areas.