Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service - ERV

The chassis is Volvo FL6H with 5480cc Turbocharged and intercooled diesel engine and six speed automatic gearbox with integral retarder. The specification was designed to provide maximum performance at low speeds and hill climbing to enable a fast response to incidents.

The role of the vehicle is to provide our response to rescues involving entrapment of persons or animals in buildings, machinery, plant, structures or vehicles that may or may not necessarily involve fire. The best known of these is obviously RTC but could include a building collapse, farm machinery or train carriage.

The equipment carried comes from all over the world including America, Holland, Germany and Belgium.

The equipment carried is geared toward the actions necessary to remove a casualty promptly or safely and therefore we have the capability to lift, spread, cut, dismantle and support. The tools available may range from a simple hacksaw to a sophisticated hydraulic cutter or petrogen hot cutter. Also the vehicle provides the platform for the IOMFRS USAR (urban search & rescue) capability; this is geared toward the entrapment of people within structures (building collapse)

The vehicle is based on a unit built by Greater Manchester Fire Service and was built in Batley, West Yorkshire by Angloco Ltd. The stowage pattern was designed by the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service and is inherently flexible to allow for future innovations of equipment. The vehicle and equipment has a design life of at least 15 years. The total project which includes the provision of sophisticated state of the art rescue equipment to be based at Ramsey, Peel and Castletown as well as the ERV platform and equipment is in excess of £250,000.