A Mark 1 Scoosher in use at a cork warehouse fire at St Ninian's Street in Gorbals on 23 November 1969. The hydraulic booms can be plainly seen as the 13.5-metres ladder has been slipped to facilitate operational use.
The Scoosher was introduced in 1968 and was unique to Glasgow, having been specifically developed to operate in the city's modern shopping centres such as the Anderson Complex with its low weight restrictions and limited manoeuvring space for emergency vehicles accessing its podium decks. The hydraulic boom had at its top an infra-red detector, a steel spike and a water monitor, all of which allowed the operator (seen here in the picture on the rear platform of the appliance) to detect the fire, smash open the window and send a jet of water into the building to extinguish the fire.
The Mark 1 Scoosher seen here was based on a Dennis D-series chassis fitted with a lightweight alloy frame and fibreglass body and powered by a 4.2 litre Jaguar petrol engine. It weighed only 5.5 tonnes, roughly half of a conventional modern fire appliance. The vehicles developed clutch problems, however, and as a result their engines usually only lasted about 10,000 miles. Following the creation of the Strathclyde Fire Brigade in 1975 the Glasgow Scoosher was replaced.
Reference: TD 1431/54/1
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
bonded warehouses, booms, cork warehouses, fire appliances, fire engines, fire hoses, fires, Glasgow Fire Brigade, Glasgow Fire Service, Glasgow Scooshers, hydraulic booms, Jaguar, Strathclyde Fire Brigade
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