Montreal Bronto Failure...............

[Weruj1]

this happened during routine maintenance luckily......pretty dramatic pics........here is the link to the story.
http://www.incendie.com/Reportages/200406/02be/

[Jay911]

I was a little 'y when I saw that. Calgary has a 167 foot Bronto which I was up in a few months ago. The crews practiced rappelling from the basket as well, in case of equipment failure requiring self-evacuation.

From the looks of things, I get the impression the boom was put up at a 90° angle and it went over backwards from there.

Anyone have any more details? Was there any wind that night? Operator error? (Were the mechanics trained to operate the aerial?) Anything that other Bronto owners should check?

Good thing no one was in that basket, too... ouch.

It's good to see that the truck seemed to remain stable on the ground. That's what I've always had nightmares of, even with our piddly little Squrt, is putting the truck on its side (or rear).

[aerialguy1]

From someone with knowledge of the Bronto's this is one of 14 that were sold to SPIM in 1986-1988 and the aerial device was built in Finland and shipped to Anderson Engineering Ltd. in Langley B.C. where it was mounted and the body built.

These trucks over this period have done the majority of the fire suppression activities in Montreal over the years and have performed well todate.

From the photos I've seen I would think that there may be some metal fatigue involved as I can't understand how else the boom would fail as it did.

The Bronto is an excellent elevating/articulating platform device and I'm glad that it was not at a fire scene with personnel when this had occurred or their could have been serious injuries or a fatality to personnel.

Lets wait and see if E One who now owns Bronto explains what has in fact occurred.

KEEP SAFE.

[ndvfdff33]

Thats some crazy stuff.....Thank god nobody got hurt

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Good thing no one was in that basket

Jay, that's just what I said to Jenn. Except I added "they'd be dead".

HOLY CRAP!

I used to watch them playing with the Bronto at #2 all the time.

[don120]

As you have heard all of Montreal's
Bronto Sky-lifts were ordered off the road
pending an investigation.
Montreal Fire Dept. has all model
27-3 Brontos except for a 50 meter
50 3T3.
Montreal area Fire dept. were merged
in 2002.Only one of the former dept.
had a Bronto...It was the former
St.Laurent Fire Dept. model 31-3.
This Bronto is already back in service.
only the "old" Montreal Brontos are still
off the road.

[Smoke20286]

It was a very good thing that these rigs were tested monthly by the mechanical division. Otherwise this could have been a very serious tragedy.

[PEIPat]

Is there an update on the investigation? What was the cause (besides the obvious reasons)? Are the other Bronto's back in service? Did they find any faults with the others? Thanks.

Pat

[Smoke20286]

be interesting to find out