Pumpers are designed for structural fires where a continuous volume of water and specialist firefighting equipment is required. It has a large pump to provide firefighting water from its tank, an open water source or street mains. The need for a pumper to address the growing structural risk in Maiden Gully was recognised over 10 years ago. From 2008, we began housing spare pumpers (used as replacements when other pumpers breakdown or require service) to give our crews experience with this type of vehicle. This also provided the necessary structural firefighting capacity as long as the pumper was not in use elsewhere.