Greg Blanchat has been a volunteer firefighter for over 30 years. In 1988, Greg was thrown off a fire truck and nearly killed during a wildland fire. Greg quickly recognized that fire departments did not have fire trucks designed to maintain firefighter safety while fighting fine fuel fires. In 1989, the BATROPS (Blanchat Apparatus Transverse Roll-Over Protection System) was introduced and Blanchat Mfg., Inc. began producing interface fire equipment. The next decade brought more of a demand for fire equipment, phasing out farm equipment production.