FSS News

At the recent Pierce Annual Sales Meeting held in Sarasota, Florida at the end of January, Fire & Safety Services, Ltd. was named a Platinum Battalion Dealer for each of the four years this honor has been bestowed. Fire & Safety Services is one of only a handful of dealers who have had this honor. “This is a tremendous honor because this represents how we do with sales AND service,” said Fire & Safety Services’ boss Dave Russell. While sales volume is considered, the standard is based on many factors including the experience and knowledge sales and service staff, order management, processes management, and continuing sales and service education. “This is really a reflection of the hard work that everyone puts in at Fire & Safety Services, from the person answering the phone to the person coming out on the service call after the sale,” former President William Russell commented.

Fire & Safety Services is pleased to announce the addition of two new sales reps to its organization. Mike Barlow joins us and will cover Southern Hunterdon County (south of Rt. 12) and Somerset Counties. Mike formally had these areas as his territory during his time with Campbell Supply, the local American LaFrance sales organization. “Mike brings extensive experience, both in sales and as a firefighter with 19 years as a volunteer,” says Craig Neal, Fire & Safety Services’ Director of Sales. “I’m looking forward to him getting out there and working his territory, he’ll fit in well with our sales group,” agrees President Dave Russell.

Kevin Driscoll’s territory will be most of Middlesex County (the area North of Rt. 522). Kevin has nearly 30 years experience as a volunteer and has had to handle apparatus acquisitions for a handful of apparatus purchases during those years. “Kevin appreciates the balance between getting the best bang for the buck while keeping one’s eye on the bottom line,” offers David Russell. “While Kevin doesn’t have as extensive of a sales background that we normally look for when we hire, I was impressed with the knowledge of our product he already came to the table with, just from his own experiences with Pierce. We look forward to his making an impact in Middlesex County for us,” added Craig Neal.

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Today I want to look back a little bit on our recent 2007 New Jersey Firefighter’s Convention and show we just had in Wildwood. It amazes me every year that we pull off the kind of booth that we do, because just as I’m convinced it won’t fall into place it always does. This kind of event doesn’t happen overnight, and I’d like to thank all the customers that allowed us to borrow their apparatus for a few days to display at the show, without their support, putting on a display of any kind would be very difficult indeed. But in addition to them, I need to thank some in-house help for their work; especially Bill Russell, Eric Trevena, and Bill Ring for a lot of the behind the scenes logistical work they handled for me. I’d also like to thank Sean O’Connor and Vincent Scalera and the entire Service group for their efforts. While Wildwood is essentially a sales show, Vinny and Sean and their group of guys really bail us out year after year helping getting units down and back from the show and helping us get organized and loaded prior to the show and organized and put away once we return. With sales staff spread all over the state, it is sometimes hard to get the bodies here to do all the work that needs to be done, and the Service Division really comes through in the clutch to help out.

I thank all of the people who came through our booth and stopped and talked to myself, or to our sales representatives about our products that we had displayed, especially the first VELOCITY delivered in NJ to Haddonfield, NJ and the awesome PUC pumper which can completely change the way we thing about and approach fighting fires and designing apparatus. You can always count on Pierce to push the envelope when it comes to firefighting apparatus.

But more importantly, I want to talk about the “guest” apparatus we had and thank the gentlemen who brought it down for us. The TFFT (Tactical Fire Fighting Truck) is by itself a pretty awe inspiring apparatus. But to me, what really made the display were the Army Reservists Trombetta and Rochette. These two men did great honor in representing the Armed Services during our show. They were very personable and answered any question I heard asked of them. The only time I heard any hesitancy in an answer was when one was probed about details of his tour in Iraq as a Marine. They were great with the younger kids posing for pictures and I think were even asked to sign their names a couple times by people. No matter what your opinion on the conflict in the Middle East and our involvement, these two gentlemen portrayed all that is right and good about our military personnel, no matter where they are stationed. God bless them and Support our Troops.

Thank you,

Fire & Safety Services, Ltd. is proud to announce that John and Kevin Panacek have agreed to join us in representing Pierce Manufacturing in Mercer County and southern Middlesex County. John had previously worked for Fire & Safety Services representing several western and southern counties, including Mercer. John’s son, Kevin, will be working with John gaining experience and expertise in the product and helping John work to regain Pierce’s dominance in Mercer County. John and Kevin will cover Mercer County and Middlesex County south of Rt. 522.

Fire & Safety Services, Ltd. is proud to announce Craig Neal as the new Director of Sales for Fire & Safety Services, Ltd. replacing Wayne Viegut who resigned in May 2007. Craig Neal comes to Fire & Safety Services from Pierce Manufacturing where he was the Northeast District Sales Manager for Pierce and for Medtec Ambulance. Prior to joining Pierce in 2001, he worked for several years with Hale, the pump manufacturer, in several different roles. “Craig’s will be overseeing the regional sales staff and be responsible for growing existing sales markets and developing strategies for new and emerging markets within our territory,” according to David Russell, President of Fire & Safety Services, “He is a perfect fit for our organization as he has exceptional administrative skills and through his years with Pierce, already has a thorough knowledge both their product as well as our staff and our operations from working along side of us for the last six years. We really couldn’t think of a better person for the position.”

Fire & Safety Services had a very successful show last weekend in Wildwood at the New Jersey Firefighter’s Convention. Anchoring the booth area was the NEW Pierce PUC pumper – the pumper without the pump house, and the Pierce/Oshkosh Tactical Fire Fighting Truck (TFFT) which was brought down and manned by Army Reservists Trombetta and Rochette. In addition, the first Pierce Velocity pumper delivered in New Jersey to Haddonfield was greeting customers when they first came into the display area. “It was amazing, the booth was packed most of the day each day - even when the sessions were going on inside the Convention Center, we were busy. It’s really a credit to the Pierce and the products they have, but I think having the TFFT unit there really drew people into the booth, but the products kept them there,” said Fire & Safety Services’ President David Russell. Special thanks goes to the departments that allowed us to display their units, Jim Wolfinger and Jamie Benter of Pierce who came out to give us factory sales support, Bob van Dernoot of Oshkosh Capital for leasing support, as well as Reservists Trombetta and Rochette for bringing the TFFT down and being available to man the unit during the show. “As always we wouldn’t have pulled this off without the assistance of all our staff, especially the sales representatives and the service department who dedicate a lot of time and effort in getting the units to Wildwood and back and setting things up when down there. Special thanks goes to Bill Ring, Eric Trevena and Bill Russell of the sales group who helped me out a lot with the behind the scenes logistics, as well as Vinny Scalera and Sean O’Connor, of the service group who got everything down there and back that needed to, and then helped get thing back in order once we done with the show,” said Dave Russell of Fire & Safety Services.

Pierce’s new and revolutionary PUC pumper will be on display at the New Jersey State Firemen’s Convention in Wildwood, NJ on September 14 and 15. The Pierce Ultimate Configuration (PUC) has done what no one in the fire service thought was possible… it got rid of the pump house. With the new design, the wheelbase is reduced, service on the pump area is easier, and you get pump and roll capability as standard. Come check out our booth for this and other news and products from Fire & Safety Services, Ltd. and Pierce Manufacturing!

Come check out the Fire & Safety Services booth in Wildwood, NJ during the New Jersey State Fireman’s Convention on September 14 and 15. This unit, an in service apparatus is being displayed courtesy of the 287^th Engineer Detachment of the US Army Reserve. A special thanks goes to SSG Albert Trombetta who coordinated the effort and offered the unit for the show.

The first New Jersey apparatus on Pierce’s new Velocity chassis arrived this week from the factory. This apparatus is being delivered to Haddonfield, New Jersey and was sold by Ed Miller. Haddonfield has been generous enough to allow Fire & Safety Services, Ltd. to display this piece at the New Jersey State Fireman’s Convention in Wildwood, NJ on September 14 and 15^th. This is an aluminum bodied apparatus with seating for 6 people in the cab. It has a Detroit Diesel Series 60 455hp engine and Allison EVS4000 6 speed transmission. In addition, it is equipped with Pierce’s Husky 12 single agent foam system and a 200CFM Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) with an integral 30 gallon foam cell built into the 1000 gallon foam tank. Ladder storage is provided through the body and the 110/240v. electrical system is powered by a 10kw Harrison hydraulically driven generator.