Klump Pump Takes Flight
In 1969, Klump became a helitack superintendent on an Echo-Model Huey out of Yreka — the first 205 in Northern California. Then he spent several years moving up in the fire teams.
"As an operations section chief, we'd have a planning and strategy session," Klump says. "As crews came in from the fire — along with the supervisors you wanted to debrief — I'd ask them what the situation was.
"These Hotshot superintendents and other overheads would say, 'What if we got four Fol-Da-Tanks, four pumps, 2,000 feet of 1½ inch hose…' But all these little bits and pieces coming from different directions never worked — nothing was standard, nothing would fit together — the pumps wouldn't have been started in six months. In all my years as an ops chief, we never pulled off one of these strategic plans because the pieces wouldn't come together."
Remembering Johnston and his tiny Helipumper, Klump began designing a system of his own. Everything would be easy to operate: standard fittings, foam capabilities, self-leveling with articulating feet to fit any terrain — all in a single 1,000 gallon unit. Slowly, and with Johnston's blessing, the apparatus began to take form on paper.
"The big picture came to me over a long progression," Klump says, "but Ralph Johnston was the first to think about the concept."
In 2002, Klump, then a USFS division chief, took early retirement to get his project off the ground. "I couldn't stop thinking about the greater good, the lives and property it could save. Only guys who've actually been on the fire lines know what's needed out there," he says.
The first prototype hit the ground in 2003 with the help of Rocky Largent, owner of Industrial Welding in Redding, Calif. By 2008, a fleet of eight units was up and running, and the Uni-Engine had its own Web site.
"It's a simple design," Klump says. "The operator's panel has a priming pump with basic instructions, a priming valve, an hour meter, and a pressure override switch that shuts off automatically in the event the crewperson leaves and the machine runs out of water. The unit has both a low oil pressure and low water pressure switch."
At the top of the operator's panel is a basic matrix of valves for drafting, pumping overboard, filling the tank from the draft side and other functions. With all of the instructions on the splash shield, any person with basic knowledge can make it work.
With the Uni-Engine, multiple moves on the same fire are easily accomplished, especially when the standard inventory of hose, fittings, foam and fuel are prepackaged at the helibase, ready for delivery when the unit is repositioned.
Last summer, four units were called to the Basin Complex fire that had blazed out of control at the Los Padres National Forest. "They used the machines in a heads-up tactical manner, leap-frogging them and using them as suppression of the backfire burnout and the mop-up," Klump says.
"As soon as they'd get a section of the line burned out, they'd bump up a machine and keep them going in that manner. Periodically, they'd pick one up and take it back to the helibase to be fully outfitted: gas, foam, hoses, oil, etc. On the first trip in the morning, they'd grab it and fly it back to the line."
The Uni-Engine serves a dual function as both a potentially powerful first responder and as an aggressive mop-up tool. The machines are also very tough and mobile — maybe more mobile than actual engines. This is a hand crew's engine that has withstood the ultimate test.
"Talk about tough," Klump says. "One fire on the Shasta-Trinity reburned and came within 6 or 8 feet of a unit. Next day the crew said, 'We know your machine can take direct flame impingement because it did last night.' I said, 'Please don't tell me that,' but I guess I needed to know."
Hot Shots were among the first to test the Uni-Engine. Now, crews have begun tagging the units they use. Many units in the current 11-unit fleet are now tagged with helitack, smokejumper and Hot Shot crew stickers from around the country. "When the Klump Pumps, often stained with dirt and fire retardant from air tankers, began coming back with Hot Shot crew stickers on them, I knew they'd been accepted as one of the gang," Klump says.
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