By BILL ADAMS

In Niagara Falls, New York, about three miles from the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge to Canada, sits a six-bay brick fire station. On a busy day, passersby could be surprised to see several pumpers, maybe an aerial or two, a heavy rescue, and a flock of police cars and chiefs’ cars.

They’d be more surprised if they noticed the different names on the rigs and cars. It’s not a major mutual-aid incident. The 13,000-square-foot fire station, formerly the home of the Town of Niagara Active Hose Company, is the office and service shop for the local Rosenbauer America dealer: Empire Emergency Apparatus, Incorporated.

Owned by Mike and Kathy McLaughlin, Empire was incorporated in New York State in 2006. Mike’s firematic experience includes service as a volunteer in Tonawanda’s Union Hook and Ladder Company and in the North Tonawanda Gratwick Hose Company. His experience in the emergency equipment industry began as a division manager for a local dealership that represented a national apparatus manufacturer (OEM), then as the fleet manager for a private ambulance company in Erie County. He served as the service manager for the American LaFrance manufacturing facility located in the metropolitan Buffalo area and later as its sales manager. “When it appeared American LaFrance’s downward spiral was going to be nonstop, Kathy and I decided the time was right to consider opening our own business,” says Mike McLaughlin.

He continues, “I grew tired of always being at the hands of someone else who just couldn’t understand the market in western New York. I felt we needed a new approach to sales. Mine was ‘Service Sells.’ If we service our customers, we sell our customers. It is a pretty simple thought process, and I have proved it works. We started this business in one of the worst economies since the great depression. Most people thought I was crazy to do it, but Kathy and I believed we could succeed with treating our employees and customers right. When we began, we were all fire apparatus and little of anything else. However, the fire apparatus market began to drop, and sales went from about 5,200 pieces a year to around 3,000. There were the same number of dealers and manufacturers, so we had to change some things to stay viable.”

Upfitting and Outfitting

Mike McLaughin says, “Empire entered into the ‘upfit’ (synonymous with ‘outfit’) market, which proved to be a very strong, positive move for us. We do custom installations of warning lights, radio modules, rear equipment modules, slide-trays, and graphics. Modules are custom-built in-house or outsourced to specialty manufacturers. We began outfitting fire chiefs’ vehicles and graduated into the law enforcement arena, which has truly become a core business with us. Having direct manufacturing experience as well as being a trained mechanic allows me to better understand the build process and assists the customers in making more intelligent decisions to give them the highest quality vehicle they can specify. We enjoy relationships throughout New York State including work for the FDNY and NYPD and have started branching out to other states. We do supply some loose equipment but have found that the market for that type of goods is very competitive and requires a large amount of energy for very little profit.”

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Posted: Jul 1, 2018

Wildland Urban Interface Fire Considerations

RICHARD MARINUCCI

It seems that the only types of fire incidents that are increasing are those involving wildland areas and the urban interface.

Certainly, those who regularly and routinely respond to those calls have received training and have a level of preparation that is more than the typical structural firefighter has. But, it appears that as the threats continue and more areas are subject to these types of fires, more structural firefighters will be asked to pitch in and offer assistance. There needs to be a basic awareness of circumstances and threats that can affect safety and operations. One would hope that there will be highly qualified incident commanders or incident management teams in charge, but they cannot control every individual operating on the scene. There needs to be a personal accountability.

Risk Assessment

In the interest of full disclosure, I admit I am far from an expert on wildland fires. The largest fire of this type that I can remember was about 200 acres, and it was very early in my career. Since then, our community has built up, and I don’t think there are that many acres in one place anymore! But, I do believe that individuals and organizations need to continually assess the risks present in their communities and nearby. This is a hazard assessment and identifies events that have a chance to occur. It is really preincident planning and making sure that you have the minimum skills to abate an emergency without unduly endangering personnel. As such, there are many areas of this country that are subject to wildland fires that probably never thought this could happen.

One aspect of wildland response that presents a risk is traveling to and from an emergency deployment. It seems like every year there are significant crashes that injure and kill firefighters responding to or returning from wildland fires. They can be on various types of apparatus from tankers (tenders) to engines to brush vehicles. Some of the hazards are related to off-road operations, while others can be traced to poor visibility because of heavy smoke conditions. Another consideration can be winding roads where the responders lack familiarity. Suffice to say, if response to these incidents is not a normal activity, refresher training and constant reminders are definitely in order.

Training and Mentoring

Survival skills should be the top priority for those with the least amount of experience. Those expected to respond should review prior incidents to identify expected risks when operating in this arena. They should also have some of the basic equipment assigned to individuals including fire shelters. These devices greatly reduce the chances of injuries and death. Finding areas of refuge in stressful situations should be discussed and practiced if possible (through simulation).

An area to consider for refuge would be a vehicle. It can be used as a shield or in some cases a place to get to if time and conditions warrant. There also should be some basic understanding of fire spread. This would include the slope of the terrain, weather conditions, and fuel makeup. Firefighters trained and prepared for primarily structural firefighting are taught skills for what to do should something go wrong. The same logic should apply if wildland fires are a possibility.

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Posted: Jul 1, 2018

Foam, CAFS, and Specialty Nozzles

By ALAN M. PETRILLO

Equipment and component manufacturers make a variety of nozzles for firefighters that are specially designed to handle foam, compressed air foam systems (CAFS), and other specialty needs. Such nozzles are mostly being used on handlines, but some are designed to handle large flows that are projected by monitors on either aerials or industrial pumpers.

Task Force Tips

Brian Podsiadlik, technical marketing manager for Task Force Tips (TFT), says his company’s newest nozzle, the Vortex, “gives superior performance when used in CAFS applications.” Podsiadlik notes the nozzle is integrated into the front end of a ball shutoff valve and has “an easily adjustable ring that when moved to the left turns six stream straightener veins in the nozzle at an angle, thinning the water and foam solution as it exits a smooth bore tip to achieve a useful 30-degree dispersed pattern.”

1 Akron Brass Company makes the Ultrajet, a smooth bore and fog nozzle in one unit. (Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of Akron Brass Company.)

Podsiadlik adds that the Vortex also performs well in nonCAFS applications. “The veins have a similar effect when flowing only water because of the 30-degree angle dispersed pattern,” he says. “And when using foam, the spinning gives the foam and water solution a mechanical agitation.”

2 This Turbojet selectable gallonage nozzle has a foam aeration tube attached to the bumper to give additional aeration when using Class A foam.

TFT also makes low-pressure nozzles for foam applications “that ensure a good blanket of finished foam,” Podsiadlik says. TFT’s fixed-flow low-pressure nozzle is the Metro 1, while its automatic nozzle is the Mid-Force. Both nozzles are available with a variety of foam attachments that produce low to medium finished foam, and the attachments are easily applied or removed, depending on what needs to be achieved on the fireground, he says. TFT also makes the low-pressure selectable gallon-per-minute (gpm) QuadraCup nozzle that has an integrated foam aspiration attachment that acts as a stream shaper, which, Podsiadlik says, “is useful when using water and in nonCAFS foam applications.”

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