CAMPAIGN: Wiltshire firefighters have helped designed a tailor-made machine to make the brigade's response to road traffic accidents even more effective. TREVOR PORTER reports.

Wiltshire Fire Brigade has designed its own, purpose-built Emergency Support Units (ESUs).

When the brigade decided to upgrade its ESUs, they realised they needed specialised machines that were not available 'off the shelf'.

It was decided to set up an ESU replacement project to take into account the many design features that had to be considered for the proposed new units.

Extrication the fire brigade's term for rescuing motorists trapped in the wreckage of their crashed cars is very much a team effort, and so is the design of their new ESUs.

The brigade needed the input of their specially trained firefighters to design a machine tailored to the needs of the Wiltshire crews. When the ESU project was set up, the brigade invited input from every fire fighter that has been involved in rescue operations.

Station Officer Stuart Carpenter, team leader for the project, said a purpose-designed machine was vital.

He said: "We needed a machine that could carry four firefighters our present machines only carry three and has the capacity to carry all the equipment we need and still have space to allow for future development.

"When we sat down at first, we realised almost immediately that we needed to incorporate many other new design features to service our requirements."

Mr Carpenter has visited other brigades to look at their additions to help devise the layout of the special units.

He said: "We have looked at many units and noted the best ideas.

"This project has been a consultation process with manufactures and other brigades, a comparison looking at technical specifications of other machines, and identifying the best designs to suit our needs for the county."

Design plans are well under way for the new ESU, and the first machine is scheduled for operational duties next July.

Some of the features included are on-board generators, a fully pneumatic suspension that can allow the machine to lower and assist in the handling of the equipment, two mast lighting units to fully illuminate an incident area, an hydraulic rescue winch and, for safety, the new Battenburg red and yellow markings on the outside of the vehicle.

Mr Carpenter said teamwork has benefited the design of the new appliances.

He said: "We have spent many hours talking through different additions to these specialised machines. One addition that has come from our discussions is a working platform to enable the firefighter go up the the height of a coach or heavy goods lorry. Our main objective when attending a road accident is to rescue anyone trapped quickly and safely.

"The critical time is the golden hour the hour between the accident and when the casualty is receiving care in hospital."

Fact file

Emergency Support Units (ESUs) are stationed at Westleigh, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Salisbury.

ESUs are designed to carry equipment to deal with chemical incidents, train crashes, structural collapse, water-related incidents and major fires.

Despite its wide role, 80 per cent of the work is at road traffic accidents.

In 1983, these ESUs attended 187 road traffic accidents.

Up to the end of October this year, the same ESU units had attended 529 road traffic accidents.

The present ESUs carry over 600 specialised pieces of equipment.

The newly-designed units will carry 11 tonnes of equipment, including hydraulic spreaders, dedicated rams, air bags and cutters to extricate trapped motorists at road traffic accidents.

Wiltshire Fire Brigade's ESUs are often deployed in neighbouring counties the Trowbridge unit is often called in to assist with serious road crashes in Avon and Somerset.

Firefighters undergo specialist training before manning an ESU.

The new Mercedes-based ESU is powered by a Euro Three engine and can reach speeds of up to 75 miles an hour.