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2018 Annual Report • Fire Department • St. Anthony Village, Minnesota <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />38 | P a g e <br /> <br />The next bit of innovation shines just as bright as the new lights. An electric pump panel makes <br />flowing water from the truck to a fire a breeze. On all our previous trucks, firefighters relied on <br />dimly lit panels that had over 10 pressure gauges to control water flow. Reading a thin <br />bouncing needle in the dead of night while fighting fire is an art, but the new electric pump <br />panel makes the whole process much easier. The LED screens that each of the hose lines are <br />controlled by give a bright, digital readout of the pressures. Setting pressures is done by <br />buttons, whereas in the past, it was controlled by manually opening and closing valves. Under <br />pressures exceeding hundreds of PSI, some valves were very difficult to open and shut, making <br />pumping not just a mental challenge, but a physical one as well. With the stress of the situation <br />and all the math that goes into dialing in the correct pressure, taking out the difficulty of <br />physically operating the pump panel does a lot in the way of making us more efficient <br />firefighters. <br /> <br />Figure 6 Engine 14's electric pump panel