Delivery is expected to begin shortly on nineteen Seagrave 100-foot rear-mount aerials. One of the first will be assigned to the Bureau of Training, with the remainder going to ladder companies still operating the four 1989 and 1990 Seagrave 110-foot rear-mounts and the 1989 and 1991 Seagrave 100-foot rear-mounts. An add-on order for six identical rear-mounts is awaiting approval. An additional add-on for four more was also submitted. The original contract of nineteen, plus the two add-on orders of six and four, will bring the total to twenty-nine.

In a previous issue, we reported that the two 2001 Seagrave 100-foot tillers will be assigned to Ladders 6 and 173 to replace their 1989 Seagrave tillers. It has since been decided to replace Ladder 173's tiller with one of the new rear-mounts instead. The new tiller that was to be assigned to that unit, is going to Ladder 5 to replace their 1991 Seagrave tiller. These two new rigs are expected shortly. An order for eight 100foot tillers, expected to be awarded to Seagrave for 2002 delivery, has been lowered to five. All will replace the remaining 1991 Seagrave tillers, except for two. In addition to Ladder 173, the department expects to convert at least two more ladder companies currently assigned tillers to rear-mounts. When this happens, the first line fleet of fifteen tiller equipped ladder companies will be down to twelve. There are currently 66 ladder companies with rear-mounts, which will go up to 69, and 62 with tower-ladders.

The contract for eight Seagrave/Aerialscope 95-foot tower-ladders has been approved. As reported previously, an add-on order for one additional 75-foot Seagrave/Aerialscope towerladder will be delivered in December 2001.

As previously reported, Fleet Services has been busy converting 1987 Mack/Ward 79 1000 gpm pumpers into foam apparatus. The conversion includes the removal of the original hose bed and 500-gallon tank, installation of a new 1000-gallon tank, other modifications to accommodate the hose, equipment and nozzles carried by the foam apparatus, repainting and installation of new graphics. The first of these apparatus have been assigned to Foam Units 96, and 260 respectively.

As this was written, delivery of the new Field Communications Unit was imminent. The new vehicle is built on a Freightliner model FL106 chassis, with the custom body built by the Rescue Master division of American LaFrance. The apparatus is equipped with numerous radios, cellular phones, computers, recording devices, a command post, and a telescopic mast equipped with a video camera.

The new Hazardous Materials Unit, being built by Saulsbury on a Mack chassis, is due to be delivered in late April. The first of the eighty new Ford/McCoy-Miller ambulances are expected to be delivered shortly. There will be a total of 400 such ambulances delivered over the next five years. During the hours of 0800 to 2400, FDNY deploys approximately 169 BLS ambulances and 52 ALS ambulances, with this lowered to 106 BLS and 37 ALS units from 2400 to 0800 hours. During Fiscal Year 2000, the FDNY ambulance fleet responded to 1,064,591 incidents, contributing to the relatively short life span of the ambulances in service