Fire Department using new blocking truck on highway calls

NORWALK, Conn. – The Norwalk Fire Department has put into service a specially outfitted truck to block a traffic lane when firefighters are responding to highway calls.

The truck contains a rear-mounted, fold-down frame holding containers called attenuators that crush when impacted by a vehicle. As the modules crush, they absorb or attenuate the force of the impact.

Designated by the department as Tactical Support Unit No. 1, or TAC 1, the truck is a Freightliner brand chassis with a flatbed cargo area. The Scorpion-model attenuator is manufactured by TrafFix Devices of San Clemente, Calif.

The attenuator is lowered into position by hydraulic actuators, which the driver controls from the cab. A large panel reading “Norwalk Fire” is mounted above the rear of the cargo bed with flashing arrows that direct approaching traffic out of the lane being blocked.

In a news release, Assistant Chief of Operations Edward McCabe said the truck, which entered service on Jan. 1, has been deployed to calls on Interstate 95, the Merritt Parkway, and the Route 7 Connector.

Previously, McCabe said, the department would send a second fire engine to serve as a blocking vehicle. This made the engine unavailable to respond to other calls, McCabe noted, as well as placing four additional firefighters in a hazardous location.

Despite displaying an array of flashing warning lights, emergency service vehicles across the country are regularly struck by vehicles driven by inattentive or substance-impaired drivers.

“There were over a dozen incidents of errant cars and trucks hitting fire, State Police, and DOT vehicles and personnel on Connecticut highways in 2024. Several resulted in injuries or fatalities,” McCabe said.

McCabe said that after a Greenwich fire engine was hit in June by a tractor-trailer, the Norwalk department’s chiefs began researching an alternative to using an engine to block call scenes. With the support of the city’s Fire Commission, the decision was made to purchase a purpose-built crash attenuator truck, he said.

The attenuator frame is designed to absorb the impact of a vehicle traveling up to 62 miles per hour, McCabe said.

He noted that the attenuator can be replaced if damaged, and if the truck is destroyed, a replacement costs a tenth of what an engine sells for and can be delivered in weeks. Fire apparatus take about four years to be delivered, he said.

The truck fully outfitted cost just under $240,000, McCabe said, and replacing the attenuator would cost $50,000.

When the truck is dispatched, a member of the department’s four-person Rescue Squad drives it, since the rescue truck responds to all highway calls.

The truck works out of Fire Headquarters Station 2 on Connecticut Avenue. It’s expected to respond to about 250 incidents this year, McCabe said.

Norwalk is the first department in the northeast to employ such a vehicle, McCabe said, and its arrival has drawn inquiries from other departments.

McCabe said two other departments with similar trucks are Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Denton, Texas. Both of those departments had vehicles crash into their trucks last year, with no injuries reported.

According to FOX 17 TV in West Michigan, the driver involved in the Grand Rapids crash was arrested for driving while intoxicated. The Fire Department said the impact trailer was completely destroyed.