The Ridgeway Volunteer Fire Department, located in Manchester Township, New Jersey, is just like about any other volunteer fire department in the state.
It was in the market for a new pumper and started planning for the purchase approximately five years ago, according to Chief Mike Trimachi. “We had a 1989 Sutphen that we wanted to replace,” Trimachi says. “Our department tries to base our apparatus replacement needs on a 20- to 25-year replacement program. Sometimes it’s not easy based on funding.”
This time around, the department applied for and was awarded an Assistance to Firefighters Grant. This grant essentially paid for the entire vehicle. Because of this, the department could pick whatever manufacturer it wanted.
Department Responsibilities
The response area has three independent fire companies and two EMS stations in the 90-square-mile district. The population is around 47,000, and there are approximately 40 members in the fire company. The department operates with a tanker, a brush truck, a heavy rescue, and a 77-foot quint. It handles around 475 alarms per year and, just like most communities, the response area includes senior apartments, condos, six schools, and strip shopping centers.
“We needed to upgrade to an engine with more compartment space, a larger pump and tank, as well as a generator so we could handle just about anything in our response area,” Trimachi says. “I took it on myself to work on the specs for the new pumper. We basically looked at deliveries in our area and gained some insight into what was out there as far as pumper design was concerned. A member of one of our neighboring fire companies sold Sutphen. One night, he came over with a demo and we were sold.”
The department was able to incorporate some of the ideas personnel had looking at different manufacturers. Sutphen was receptive to all the ideas and worked along with the local dealer, Blaze Emergency Equipment, to accomplish the department’s mission in designing a functional piece of fire apparatus for our district.
Vehicle Specs
“We wanted a 2,000-gpm pump, a 1,000-gallon tank, a low hosebed, and larger compartments to hold all of our equipment,” Trimachi says. “Also on our minds was the ability to have seven attack lines operated off the pumper and a stainless-steel body and cab. All these wishes were accomplished thanks to Sutphen’s engineering department and the dealer.”
1 The Ridgeway Fire Department’s heavy-duty Sutphen pumper with a side-mount/top-mount pump panel. (Photos by the Ridgeway Fire Department.) 2
Read more
- 344
- Article rating: No rating
Posted: Aug 1, 2018
BY ALAN M. PETRILLO
Hydrant valves and tanker (tender) dump valves have been around for a long time, but manufacturers continue to refine and redesign the equipment and fine tune it for ease of use, delivery of the maximum amount of water, and safety for the users.
HYDRANT AND HYDRANT ASSIST VALVES
Philip Gerace, vice president of marketing for Task Force Tips (TFT), points out that TFT makes a range of hydrant assistant and shutoff valves, including the Hydrant Master in a four-inch Storz by four-inch Storz configuration, a lightweight, low-friction-loss hydrant valve that can be used in many water supply operations. Water pressure from opening the hydrant automatically turns on the valve’s electronics, which allow the valve to be opened and closed under radio control. Gerace says the valve weighs 31 pounds and consumes extremely low power. The Hydrant Master uses a handheld controller with pressure display and positive feedback of valve position at a range in excess of 1,200 feet. “The Hydrant Master maximizes crew efficiency by allowing the hydrant firefighter to move to the scene after preparing the hydrant and gives the apparatus operator the ability to open and close the hydrant supply remotely,” Gerace says.
The Oasis Hydrant Assist Valve made by TFT is designed to improve flow delivery from poorly performing hydrants or long supply hose operations by boosting pressure and increasing flow, Gerace notes. He says it can be used as a hydrant booster, a gated wye, and an inline pump in long relay operations. He adds that TFT’s stainless steel half-ball design not only allows for an open waterway but also helps cut the friction loss to 15 pounds per square inch (psi) at 1,000 gallons per minute (gpm).
Task Force Tips also makes the LDH Water Thief for large-diameter hose (LDH), a rugged unit with two valved discharge ports, each with a 2½-inch waterway and folding quarter-turn valve handles. Gerace notes that the LDH Water Thief, when connected to a charged hoseline, allows a firefighter to tap into the line without shutting down the water flow, especially useful in wildland fire situations. TFT’s Hydrant Under Monitor (HUM) is a low-friction-loss valve designed to supply a monitor and is configurable with either two LDH ports or one LDH port and one 2½-inch gated wye outlet. The HUM often is installed in industrial facilities for firefighting efforts.
Lou Thomas, product specialist for Kochek Company, says Kochek makes the Hydrassist Valve that can be used when hitting a hydrant and also inline on a long hoselay where a pumper can come in and hook to the valve to boost pressure in the line without shutting down the water flow. “A lot of fire departments like it, especially in areas where there is low hydrant pressure,” Thomas points out. “It allows the department to hook an engine into the valve to boost pressure without interrupting water flow operations.”
Read more
- 335
- Article rating: No rating
Posted: Aug 1, 2018
Over the years, we’ve learned, or certainly should have learned, how new vehicle construction has changed and how many of our tried and true old-school methods, tactics, and tools for vehicle extrication are now considered antiquated and downright dangerous for patients and rescuers alike.
Likewise, we’ve learned how residential building construction has changed (as well as how furniture construction and room content materials have changed) and, as a result, we have had to severely alter how we think about some of the decisions we make concerning fire attack. This has also affected some of the firefighting equipment, personal protective gear, and apparatus that we use as well as our game plan.
What about new vehicle fires? We understand that new vehicles are made differently, and they are made with lots of high-strength steel that makes extrication more of a challenge. Are you aware of and educated about what the combustibles found in new vehicles consist of? Do you know if today’s new vehicle fires are Class A, B, C, or D? And, most importantly, do you know what tools, equipment, personal protective equipment, apparatus, and firefighting agents you should use (and those you should not use) to fight these fires?
I recently asked a “salty” colleague of mine, who readily proclaimed to me that “all vehicle fires are Class A fires.” Are they really Class A? If so, conventional wisdom tells us that the use of water, dry chemical powders, and firefighting foam should extinguish them, right? But, today’s new vehicles are filled with magnesium, titanium, aluminum, and lithium ion batteries that are highly combustible. Do you still want to throw water at them with these Class D components?
1 The result of a fire involving a new high-strength aluminum body truck. (Photos by author.) 2 Thermal runaway causes a lithium ion car battery to erupt, resembling a cross between a jet engine and a volcano. 3 Electric and hybrid car fires pose many new hazards to firefighters.
Read more
- 309
- Article rating: No rating
Posted: Aug 1, 2018
By RAUL A. ANGULO
Tools, equipment, and technology advancements to help keep firefighters situationally oriented on the fireground were a prevalent theme at FDIC International 2018 in the exhibit hall.
Firefighters become lost and disoriented enough times that numerous inventors—many of them active firefighters—are developing ideas to address this problem and make the fireground safer for firefighters. Though new technology advancements may seem complicated, the thought process behind the solutions remains simple: How do we keep firefighters from getting lost, separated, or disoriented?
According to Don Abbott’s Project Mayday, a firefighter becoming lost or disoriented is one of the top three reasons to transmit a Mayday. In the period from January 2006 to December 2015, 115 firefighters in the United States lost their lives from being caught, trapped, lost, or disoriented within burning buildings. Firefighters becoming disoriented is not unique to America; it’s also an international problem. The International Forum to Advance First Responder Innovation (January 2017), comprised of the European Commission and 13 countries including the United States, identified what it called Capability Gap 1: The ability to know the location of responders and their proximity to risks and hazards in real time. Much like the intent of our 16 Life Safety Initiatives, the Response Technology Objective (RTO) was to develop an indoor (above and below ground) responder geolocation system.
Developing the System
The Pathfinder Search and Rescue Way-Finder System, patented by Martin Patrick Trainor, assistant chief officer with the Cavan County Fire Service just outside Dublin, Ireland, and Paddy O’Boyle, director of business development at Dublin City University, addresses this objective. Working with a team of professors at Dublin City University, Trainor and O’Boyle anticipate their system will go into production in early 2019.
The system is a sort of virtual electronic “search rope” that uses a “breadcrumb” concept to assist firefighters in keeping oriented during interior firefighting and search operations where visibility may be limited or near zero because of heavy smoke conditions. It also helps prevent firefighters from becoming lost, disoriented, or separated from their crews when they exit the building under the same conditions. The system also allows a rapid intervention team (RIT) to locate a down firefighter much more quickly—a huge advancement in rescue technology.
The unit, about the size of a small smoke detector, is called a “puck.” It uses smart technology to track the movement of firefighters within a building. Unlike global positioning satellite technology, which cannot penetrate inside buildings, this smart technology can pierce through buildings and basements and isn’t affected by heights, so it can be used in high-rise firefighting operations. The puck uses a special adhesive that sticks to just about anything in a fire environment (photo 1). As firefighters enter the building for fire attack or search and rescue, they follow their standard search patterns, but instead of using a search rope to tie off at specific intervals—which is time-consuming because tying knots with gloves on in a dark, smoky environment slows down the search team (photo 2)—they slap a puck onto a wall or an object and keep going. As the search team advances farther into the building, they can place another unit at any interval they deem strategic. Un
Read more
- 286
- Article rating: No rating
Posted: Aug 1, 2018
The fleet manager has long been considered a jack-of-all-trades with a tremendous amount of responsibility.
Traditional responsibilities range from keeping the fleet operational to saving money while keeping overtime in check. Duties may include specifying equipment and purchasing equipment, ensuring units are properly documented, and making sure scheduled preventive maintenance is on track. The fleet manager must always monitor productivity, quality control, and profitability in cases where the fleet is commercial. Cost effectiveness, whether the fleet belongs to a fire department or is an over-the-road (OTR) private operation, is the name of the game. Always searching for ways to maximize the operation and shave costs where possible is paramount. The most important tool to get this monumental task accomplished is a database that is global positioning satellite (GPS) linked that can run real-time reports that show how much fuel the fleet is consuming per unit, technician labor, repeat repairs, parts cost on individual fleet vehicles, and warranty tracking.
Traditionally, fleet managers were always working after the fact because once a vehicle left the shop it became invisible. GPS-linked data systems changed that because they offer real-time data for the fleet manager that can increase uptime. GPS-linked data systems offer great returns on investment because they are the best way to gather information quickly to help make decisions that will save time and money and improve efficiencies.
Manage Costly Items
It has long been known that for most fleets the two costliest items are fuel and tires. It is possible that in certain cases other items can cost more to maintain in a fleet operation. The type of equipment and the way it is used, combined with climate and terrain, could very well contribute to this. For example, severe brake wear could cost more than tires in a fleet of emergency response vehicles (ERVs), particularly if they are near gross vehicle weight (GVW) and operating intercity in a hot climate.
Fuel. When it comes to fuel, you should be asking: How much is it costing? How much are we using? Are there like units using more fuel per mile than others? Is there fuel that is unaccounted for? A good GPS-linked data system that is tied to the fueling system can answer these questions and more. The most accurate systems are wireless systems that will read data right from the unit’s onboard computer, such as mileage and engine hours, and will record the date and time the unit was refueled. Systems that rely on drivers to input mileage are prone to have some erroneous data because invariably mistakes will be made during driver input. Good systems will provide automatic reports on units that are using more fuel than like vehicles. This will allow the fleet manager to bring the unit in to correct the issue if it is related to excessive fuel consumption. Sometimes the problem involves theft; a good GPS-linked data system will quickly point this out. I have seen a number of employees get terminated because of fuel theft; if you do not have a good data system, it will be much more difficult to find th
Read more
- 276
- Article rating: No rating