May 2nd, 2012 by Ross Edwards
Concept cars don’t normally have the greatest post-show life. Most are non-working prototypes only built to gauge potential customer interest or show off a design theme the company is considering. Even the working show vehicles are often crushed after their tours to protect trade secrets and to prevent them from ever being used on the road.
The Ford F-550 Super Duty Rescue Truck concept unveiled for this year’s Chicago auto show in February is fully functional. The residents of Arlington Texas can thank Ford and NewScope Marketing for that fact, because after the town was hit by tornadoes last month, the truck headed out to assist the local firefighters, with just 3 miles on its odometer.
After the tornadoes hit Arlington, the nearby Granbury volunteer fire department, who had assisted in the design of the truck, called Brad Snyder, vice president of marketing at NewScope, to let him know that help was needed. Scared that the untested concept truck might not perform as designed, Brad took the wheel and headed out into the wreckage of Arlington. Thankfully, the truck performed its duties well and assisted in the evacuation of hundreds of Arlingtoners, including the residents of a nursing home, according to The New York Times.
The Concept Ford fire truck is actually tailor-made for exactly the type of post-disaster work it saw after the tornadoes hit Texas. Unlike a brush firefighting truck that is primarily designed to carry water where a normal truck can’t go (which are built on commercial truck chassis as well), the Ford F-550 Firefighting concept truck is outfitted with a telescoping thermal imaging camera capable of raising 37 feet into the air and scanning an area of up to a half mile for survivors. A high rising night vision camera and 113 LED lights light up the city streets at night and assist with searches.
After it’s one day of work, the F-550 Super Duty Rescue Truck returned to its garage to be cleaned up for its next missions – state fairs in Texas and Oklahoma and eventually the Woodward Dream Cruise.
Image via The New York Times.
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