This Red-Hot Custom Bronco Is Ford's Blueprint For National Park Fire Safety

I'm writing this on June 27 from Chicago, where I live, and where according to Twitter my city has the worst air quality in the entire world. I don't have the motivation to investigate whether that's actually statistically true, or if it's one of those "hahahaha, Chicago sucks" things that motivate Twitter trolls.

When Ford contacted me about this special Bronco project, just a few weeks ago, the Canadian wildfires were mostly a New York and New Jersey problem, but the winds changed, so to speak. Then, the Bronco was in Michigan at Ford's Michigan Proving Grounds test facility, and I narrowly missed an opportunity to see it in person. Now, it's at Bandelier National Monument in northern New Mexico, awaiting its donation ceremony to the National Park Service. This Bronco — a Badlands trim equipped with the Sasquatch off-road package, and a ton of seriously impressive custom tech — has undergone its journey to help alleviate this literal haze.

Also, it's largely thanks to a company based on the outskirts of Chicago, which seems only fitting to mention up front.

If you attended any of the major auto shows through 2021 — not that there were many, thanks to a different major public health crisis — you may have seen the Ford Bronco and Filson Wildland Fire Rig concept, also based on a Bronco in Badlands Sasquatch configuration. This Bronco, built primarily for display, showcased the Bronco's stock off-road capabilities, Filson's-upscale-outdoorsy-turned-sexy aesthetic (no snark, my husband owns a gorgeous Filson jacket I can't wait for him to decide to pass off to me because it makes my extensive collection of LL Bean gear seem like Costco's very best Kirkland in comparison), and the National Forest Foundation's dedication to preserving our forests, particularly at a time when we weren't supposed to go anywhere but forests were really the safest thing we had except for the fires. And the bears. Always the bears.

When it came time to build this Bronco for real, thanks to the Bronco Wild Fund (which to date has donated more than $3.7 million to various wholesome outdoorsy causes, courtesy of a percentage donated from the sale of every Bronco) Ford knew just who to call. Enter Darley, a century-plus-old company based in Itasca, IL, and a long-time collaborator with and supplier to Ford, the Department of Defense, and various public safety organizations.

"I think you've heard and are seeing that wildfires are continuing to grow and have some devastating impact across the West and North America and you saw it even places in the country that haven't really been impacted, but they're impacted by smoke like New York with the Canadian wildfires," said Kevin Sofen, Director of Innovation at Darley. "Really, no borders anymore, and there's big initiatives in the NFPA [National Fire Protection Association] and you will see everyone rethink and reimagine how we are fighting wildfires."

Ford and Darley collaborated on the Bronco project for about a year. Ford brought the Bronco, and Darley brought 108 years of expertise in upfitting, tactical equipment, and strategy. In Darley's early years, the company partnered with Ford to upfit Ford chassis into fire trucks, which made fire trucks a lot more accessible and affordable, whereas previously fire rigs were fully custom builds. Now, with decades of experience collaborating with the U.S. Department of Defense, Darley is able to leverage its expertise in both sourcing and in-house development and manufacturing to bring cutting-edge technology to other sectors, namely public safety and emergency response.

"There's a lot of disaster situations in the U.S. in other areas that might have problems, might be accessibility," explained Peter Darley, Executive Vice President of Darley and grandson of the company's founder. "It might be communications and command, so this technology with the Bronco is very useful in disaster areas. Unfortunately, you're seeing wildfires and a big increase in major disasters resulting from weather and other things."

In other words, as disaster scenarios change and evolve, so does the approach for response. Darley listened to the needs of first responders and equipped the Bronco to serve those very specialized needs.

Because of the Ford Bronco's G.O.A.T. modes — "goes over any terrain" — the Bronco is well suited to become a mobile command center, said Dave Rivers, Ford Enthusiast Brand Marketing. After all this, it may come as a surprise that this special Bronco wasn't actually turned into a fire rig — its purpose is much more specialized, and was determined by listening to the customer, in this case the National Park Service, and what they wanted from this project, according to Rivers.

The Ford Bronco is a super-capable SUV in any configuration; the Badlands trim and Sasquatch package combine to make a tough, off-road-ready vehicle that didn't need to be modified for this project. The G.O.A.T. all-terrain driving modes tackle any surface, and the ride height is perfect for clearing obstacles without requiring modifications. In fact, the Bronco Ford provided for the project remained stock other than a winch (just a smart move for any vehicle that's heading into unknown territory), some lighting and sirens, and the technical hardware required for Darley's communications upfits. It's a perfect mobile command center.

"One of the big things with this truck is that it's actually not a fire truck," explained Sofen. "It doesn't necessarily meet the NFPA standards to be a truck that is meant to suppress fire. It is a piece of the puzzle within the fight against fire and really meant to empower the internet commander and the [tactical] operators' initiative. The kind of the two key pieces of one, the Bronco being a small, dynamic platform that allows you to get places other vehicles can't and is equipped with the most state-of-the-art redundant, resilient communication and computation connectivity technology."

In plain terms — this GOAT makes sure first responders aren't working in isolation.

"One of the big things we talk about a lot in public safety is that we don't want to overload the cognitive load of a first responder," explained Sofen. "They have to focus on the task at hand, they have to focus on a lot of different things in their standard operating procedures and their task lists and we don't want distractions."

That's part of the reasoning why the Bronco remained mostly stock, and also explains why it's a communications vehicle rather than an actual fire rig. It can go where bigger yet less physically capable fire rigs can't, to gather information and relay it back to others on the team, and helps ensure the Bronco's crew stays focused and doesn't get overloaded.

The Bronco is outfitted with a system Darley calls an "LTE blend," which is constantly searching for signal from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, and latches on to whatever is available; if there's no signal, it defaults to a satellite antenna. This system powers an onboard tablet and the first responders' cell phones and can provide range up to a mile from wherever the Bronco is parked; it gives the responders access to WebEx, Teams, and WhatsApp; it tracks location and movements so a command team knows what's going on and can make plans; and it gives the command team remote access to a quadcopter drone to scout and gather intelligence, which is fed both back to the central command location and to the Bronco team. The entire goal is to give the Bronco's team the access and confidence they need for their mission, without distractions, complications, or the need for intensive training.

The Ford Bronco Wildland Firefighting Command Rig will be donated to the National Park Service on June 28 to help protect the 33,000 acres that comprise Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico — a hotbed of natural fire occurrences across its canyons and mesas.

"A wildfire, even in the United States, is a really incredibly remote environment, very unpredictable, and lives are at risk of civilians and the individuals serving, and then teams are coming together from around the country to activate on a really complex mission that involves air and ground," said Kimberly Brown, Chief Marketing Officer at Darley. "Darley is really uniquely positioned to work with Ford on this because we understand the criticality of these missions and how to manufacture and upfit."

And, as we all know, these natural phenomena are getting worse. To that end, Ford and its partners are working on a second Bronco designed and built for similar purposes, though Ford won't yet discuss the details or its ultimate destination.

"Bronco and the Bronco Wild Fund play a key role in preserving the beauty of America's National Parks so that we can all enjoy them for generations to come," said Rivers.