Column: With firefighting helicopter refill pump, Plano company can claim ‘coolest thing made in Illinois'

Chicago Tribune

24-04-2025

MTH Pumps, which makes its products in a non-descript metal building in Plano, may not sound like that cool of a company.
But the aerial firefighting helicopter refill pump that's produced there has just been named 'The Coolest Thing Made in Illinois,' an award presented recently by Gov. JB Pritzker during a ceremony at the Governor's Mansion in Springfield, which was hosted by the Illinois Manufacturers' Association and sponsored by Comcast Business.
Out of more than 250 entries, the MTH pump received the most of the 411,000 votes that were cast through the eight- week competition, according to an Illinois Manufacturers' Association press release.
Just as the name implies, the pump is designed to reduce the refill time of helicopter-based water tanks from over a minute to as little as 30 seconds, increasing the number of water drops that aerial firefighters can place on a wildfire. Which, of course, improves chances of slowing or stopping the flames from spreading;
When wildfires in California left a trail of destruction, noted the press release, 'MTH Pumps helped by providing more rapid and reliable water access for the aerial firefighters.'
Battling hot blazes is indeed pretty cool. But what I also found interesting after talking to Tim Tremain, president of MTH, is that the Plano facility has been making this product for nearly two decades – after a Washington state company asked for a faster pump to battle wildfires – and engineering manager Greg Rittgers accepted the challenge.
Which leads to an obvious question: What took so long for the 2025 winner of this bracketed Makers Madness contest to take home the cool prize?
Turns out it all comes down to timing – and marketing.
In the first five years the Illinois Manufacturers' Association has been sponsoring this competition – Caterpillar's mining truck was a previous champ – MTH always submitted one of its top-selling pumps and 'the product we want to grow, which is used by data centers to save energy when air conditioners are running in those massive buildings.'
Sounds practical, for sure. Still, the coolest thing about that pump is the temperature it helps control.
Firefighting, however, is a whole different story.
Indeed, battling wildfires has been in the news in a spectacular way, particularly in the Los Angeles area, where nearly three weeks of blazes in January killed more than two dozen people and destroyed more than 18,000 homes and structures.
Even though the firefighting pump is not MTH's main product – less than 200 have been sold in 20 years – Tremain and his top people figured 'why not give it a shot' in this sixth annual contest.
Things really fell into place, he added, when Dart Aerospace, a helicopter company that uses these Plano-built pumps, was praised by L.A. firefighters for the product's impact on the critical job they performed this year.
Tremain's marketing crew not only called upon West Coast firefighters to support the MTH entry in this coolest-thing contest, 'we tapped into other firefighters,' including those in Illinois, he said, estimating that of the 6,000 votes cast for the top four finalists, 'we got about 1,600 … 52 more' than the second place finisher.
'I even had my dental office voting for me,' Tremain quipped.
In all seriousness, the MTH president's main purpose for entering the contest was to help employees understand the importance of the work they do day in and day out.
'Traditionally, we run under the radar,' he said, noting this was a big win for small businesses. 'When people drive by, they only see a non-descript metal building, not a company with the most advanced manufacturing equipment in the country right here in Plano.
'Because we are always looking for new employees – and looking to grow – it's nice to have people start recognizing the good things we are doing over there.'
What's also really cool? His father Dave Tremain, a mechanical engineer who started the company back in 1965 with that first drawing of a pump, is 93 years old but still comes to work every day.
After the elder Tremain retired and turned the company over to his son, an electrical engineer, he 'got bored and started a couple more businesses,' said Tim, who describes his father as 'the real entrepreneur.'
Tremain still thinks 'the data center pump is a cool story,' noting that it can also cross over to medical pumps which are part of incubators and MRI machines.
'Those are saving lives too,' he pointed out. 'But helicopters dropping water on wildfires … that makes for a lot better video.'