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Posted: Apr 1, 2019

Fire Apparatus Aerial Pedestal

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Training on the Pedestal


Many fire departments across the country perform “in-house” training for pump operator and aerial apparatus driver training. If you’re lucky, your department has a training course setup that is designed to give you the operational skills needed to operate the apparatus as well as drive the apparatus.

Some departments have members go offline and report to the training academy to learn how to operate and drive the apparatus. These classes are great for larger departments that may have numerous different types of aerial apparatus (aerial, tiller, and tower ladder) because it gives the firefighter knowledge of each of the apparatus’s physical differences as well as their different tactical operations. In whatever training you provide, creating a qualified operator who can skillfully operate the apparatus while responding to and working at a fire or emergency should be our common goal.

With the onset of the computer age, we are less likely to provide all our students with handouts, and we just let them see a photo on the screen of a particular item. Sure, that works well in a lecture atmosphere, but does it really let our students learn and memorize a specific item? If your department operates a few different types of aerial and tower ladder apparatus, the pedestal can be much different. The main control levers are usually the same compared with years ago, but other switches will be in different locations. Giving your students a drawing of each apparatus’s pedestal will enable them to study the control and switch locations. Our goal in teaching students the location of the pedestal’s main control handles—extension, rotation, and hoist—is so they can operate the ladder apparatus without continually staring or glancing downward at their hand and lever position to operate the controls. This might seem trivial, but they’ll be operating these expensive apparatus when a life is at stake at a window or on a fire escape and have to operate around wires, street lights, and tree branches to reach those trapped.

LESSON ONE

So, our first pedestal training lesson should be to teach the operator the three main control handle locations and functions. The levers are three-position levers with two distinct movements from the center safety/neutral position. If the lever is either pushed away or pulled toward the operator, the lever will perform one of two functions. To learn the lever locations, we should teach the students the “E-R-H” acronym: Extend-Rotate-Hoist. The first lever, working from the left to the right, is for ladder extension and retraction; the middle lever is for rotation (left or right); and the right lever is for hoist position (raise or lower the level of the boom). Some levers may have safety mechanisms on them that must be lifted as the handle is moved or it won’t release from the neutral position. Others may have a button that must be

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Posted: Apr 1, 2019

Fire Apparatus Purchasing: Frustrating the Vendors

Apparatus Purchasing: Frustrating the Dealers


A dealer is the individual, regardless of gender, who interacts with an apparatus purchasing committee (APC) during the purchasing process. A dealer is also called a vendor, salesman, salesperson, sales representative, dealer principal, peddler, and inside sales contact. What he is called is unimportant. How he is treated is.

With few exceptions, APCs have two perceptions of fire apparatus dealers. One is a favorable opinion reserved for preferred dealers. Many APCs elevate a preferred dealer to the level of a deity. That dealer’s word is gospel—never to be doubted or challenged. It would be blasphemy to actually question him. Those same APCs have little care, concern, or use for the rest of the dealers in the Western Hemisphere—until they are needed. Not only is that hypocritical, it is frustrating to nonpreferred dealers.

Definitions of frustrating include infuriating, challenging, annoying, irritating, aggravating, and discouraging. Quite often, purchasing committees will only communicate with one or two dealers. Their reasoning is most, but not all, fire departments know whose rig they want to purchase. The rare exception is when an APC truly evaluates multiple apparatus manufacturers by meeting with their respective representatives. Some fire departments do not realize their interactions with dealers, or lack thereof, can have negative effects both before and after specifications are written. After an APC has finalized its purchasing specifications is when nonfavored vendors can really become frustrated with the process.

Purchasers should be aware that dealers they have not communicated with only have the purchaser’s written document to evaluate when deciding if they should submit a proposal. They should not hold vendors in contempt because the vendors may not understand some verbiage in their specifications. When addressing a vendor’s question, a purchaser’s inadequate written response or an obviously misleading verbal answer can be aggravating to the point that a dealer will not bid. Purchasers should realize vendors deal with the purchasing process on a daily basis and they just know when a purchaser needs multiple bids to justify a preferred purchase. They know they are being taken advantage of. Many dealers can justifiably say it is not their first rodeo or, to paraphrase an insurance company’s popular television commercial, “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.

THE REAL WORLD

Most apparatus vendors are paid on a commission basis. Some are salaried, and some are on a salary plus commission schedule. How much they earn is not the fire department’s business. The point is the majority do not get paid unless a sale is made. It is not unheard of for vendors to expend an untold amount of nonreimbursed hours and expenses and not get the job. It is an accepted part of the business. There is a saying that “all is fair in war and games,” and most vendors expect to lose a sale from time to time. What aggravates them is an APC not being up front and honest. Regardless of whether it is unintentional or deceitful, it is not right. Dealers are justifiably infuriated when they are lied to. That’s why many do not bid.

Although most dealers will not admit it, some fire departments and purchasing committees are known in the industry for being difficult to deal with. They’re unreasonable, they do not follow their own specifications, and they have a condescending “holier than thou” attit

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Posted: Apr 1, 2019

The Importance of Tire Pressure in Preventing Apparatus Rollovers

The Importance of Tire Pressure in Preventing Apparatus Rollovers


Today’s fire apparatus are built to the strictest safety standards of any industry, yet we still continue to experience major apparatus incidents.

We see them in our news feeds on nearly a daily basis. This serves as a constant reminder that our first task in any response is to arrive safely. Why does this continue to occur?

While there are many contributing factors, such as training, speed, and apparatus deficiencies, one simple factor is often taken for granted: tire pressure. National Fire Protection Association 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus, general requirement 4.13.4 requires that each tire on the apparatus must be equipped with a visual indicator or monitoring system that indicates tire pressure. This makes it easier than ever to check air pressure, but are we correcting it?

My experience is that we are not, which is putting our firefighters and apparatus at a much greater risk of accidents. A tire depends on proper air pressure to give it a structurally sound shape. Improper tire pressure can increase braking distance, create less responsive steering, cause increased tire wear, and influence poor fuel economy. Underinflation also allows the sidewalls to excessively flex, which generates heat. High heat can cause tread separation and blowouts, often leading to apparatus rollovers. This problem is compounded on large apparatus like aerial devices and tankers (tenders). The tire’s air pressure is what determines the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of an apparatus, not the axles. Tire manufacturers are required to brand the maximum weight-carrying capacity of a tire at its maximum safe air pressure into the sidewall of the tire. In addition to this, they often will publish load and inflation charts that will correlate the weight capacity of a tire as tire pressures decrease. Charts 1 and 2 are for an 11R22.5 tire, common to many apparatus, including a front-line engine on my department.

My department’s engine is a commercial chassis apparatus built by a major apparatus builder. It has a 12,500-pound front axle, with tires rated at 6,175 pounds at 105 pounds per square inch (psi) of maximum air pressure, meaning that both tires combined can carry 12,350 pounds. If you reference the inflation chart, a mere 5 psi of air pressure loss puts the apparatus below the GVWR of the front axle! We recently upgraded the front tires to 120-psi tires, which if you reference Chart 2, increased the front axle rating to 13,220 pounds at 120 psi, meaning that it is much more forgiving to a couple psi of pressure loss.

Tire Inflation Best Practices

  • Check tire pressures as part of preoperational checks and record.
  • Use a quality visual indicator on the valve stem.
  • Always check tires at “cold” psi.
  • Take care not to overinflate tires.
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    Posted: Apr 1, 2019

    Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department Fire Stations Blend into Neighborhoods

    Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department Blends Stations into Neighborhoods


    The Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department currently has 58 operational fire stations, with a 59th under construction, and a total of 75 buildings under its Facilities Management Section of the Support Services Division, including a large administration building, a huge firefighting training facility, and a Special Operations/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) training facility.

    When it comes to siting and constructing fire stations, the department is extremely cognizant of the character of the neighborhood the station will be placed in and the concerns of neighbors who usually want the fire station to complement existing structures in the area.

     1 Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department Station 59 is a large station meant to support operations at a nearby tank farm. Note the cylindrical form of the fire station’s physical fitness room, cladded on the exterior with insulated metal wall paneling, which echoes the shape and skin of storage tanks. [Photos courtesy of the Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department unless otherwise noted.]

    1 Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department Station 59 is a large station meant to support operations at a nearby tank farm. Note the cylindrical form of the fire station’s physical fitness room, cladded on the exterior with insulated metal wall paneling, which echoes the shape and skin of storage tanks. [Photos courtesy of the Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department unless otherwise noted.]

    2 Phoenix Station 72 is set back more than 200 feet from Cave Creek Road because of a scenic corridor and is designed to blend in with the natural desert surroundings. (Photo courtesy of HDA Architects.)

    2 Phoenix Station 72 is set back more than 200 feet from Cave Creek Road because of a scenic corridor and is designed to blend in with the natural desert surroundings. (Photo courtesy of HDA Architects.)

    Jim Zwerg, architect for the Phoenix Fire Department, says that the context of the architecture of a fire station “is to do it like what the neighborhood is. We like to blend our stations into the neighborhoods that they will be living in, which has proven historically to have the neighborhoods be much more receptive to a fire station nearby.” Zwerg adds, “My job is to be sure we get the floorplan that we need to accomplish our mission and then leave it to the architects and designers the department hires to make the structure itself complement the other buildings in the area.”

    STATION 59

    Zwerg says that Phoenix Station 59, at 65th Avenue and Buckeye Road, is a large station meant to support operations at a nearby tank farm. “The tank farm had been expanding, which meant that our existing station had outlived its efficiency because it

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    Posted: Apr 1, 2019

    Firefighter and Civilian Rescue Device

    The HERODrag Rescue Device


    Being retired is great. It seems I have a lot more time for movies these days. I like westerns and war movies, and it seems in either category, someone is always getting shot and has to be carried back to safety. At least in the westerns, there was a horse close by, but in the war movies, the soldier had to be carried out.

    Carrying a down firefighter in soaking wet full bunker gear is no easy task. Many firefighters can weigh as much as 300 pounds. I know with all my gear, I was easily more than 300 pounds and pitied the guy who would ever have to pull me out. Search and rescue is our number one job in the fire department. We have to be good at this task. If it is hard—and it usually is—you have to figure out techniques that will work for you in making this task easier. This is one reason I always carried a seven-foot pike pole. I discovered that dragging a down firefighter with a D-handle pike pole makes a challenging job extremely easy for one firefighter. And after you drill on this technique, you’ll be amazed how easy and simple it is. It’s a personal technique to work smarter, not harder.

    This is a quick drag-and-go technique. Set the hook into the frame of the self-contained breathing apparatus backpack assembly and pull—just like you’re pulling a wagon. The rigidity of the pole transfers all your kinetic energy directly to the load. No energy is lost in the flexibility of rope or webbing. Try it (photo 1). Another option is to use a roof ladder as a sled to carry a down firefighter. A longer roof ladder distributes the load better than a baby ladder, and it makes it very easy to drag an unconscious firefighter out of a burning building. The roof ladder also allows you to easily lift the firefighter over large obstructions—something that would be nearly impossible without a solid object supporting the firefighter’s weight.

     

    1 Photos 1 and 2 by author.

     

    3 Photos 3-7 courtesy of HERODrag.