New Vehicle To Help Southington FD Get To Wooded Infernos

SOUTHINGTON, CT — At time where the temperatures recently plunged below zero and winter still has more than a month left, it's hard to think about brush fire season.

Yet when the weather warms and the dead brush of winter dry out, that's when a flicked cigarette or a campfire ember can cause Smokey Bear to cringe.

But if that happens in Southington, the Southington Fire Department will be armed and ready, with a new vehicle among its arsenal to handle any wooded conflagration.

It's called a Polaris XP 1000, a 2023 model that is not a guided missile or a spaceship, but rather a small, mobile vehicle with the capacity to move through the woods, bring fire-dousing water to any inferno and, even, carry out injured people, perhaps hikers who took a wrong step.

Think of it as a fancy, all-terrain vehicle that combines the hauling ability of a pickup truck with the firefighting capabilities of a fire engine.

Of course, when firefighters discuss this vehicle over the radio, it will be referred to as "UTV-1."

And what it has is impressive:

• A dual use fire/rescue skid capable of transporting patients.

• An 85-gallon water tank.

• A 2.5-gallon foam cell when a blaze requires that substance.

• 50-feet of hose.

"The addition will greatly aid our crews in locating and transporting injured hikers, transporting personnel and equipment to rope rescue incidents and allow us to more efficiently extinguish remote brush fires," wrote the Southington Fire Department via social media.

Firefighters are still fine-tuning the vehicle, but when its ready, SFD members will conduct training exercises to utilize the "UTV-1" when the need arises.

For more information on the Polaris XP 1000 firefighting vehicle, click on this link.

For more information from Smokey Bear on avoiding forest fires, click on this link.