The clean cab concept for fire apparatus is alive and well in Florida, at least for two departments that are making big efforts to keep contaminated turnout gear and equipment away from firefighters and out of apparatus cabs.
The Miami (FL) Fire Rescue Department and the Coral Springs (FL) Fire Department recently took delivery of new Pierce Manufacturing Inc. apparatus that embody the clean cab concept to protect firefighters from potentially contaminated personal protective equipment (PPE) and the assorted tools and equipment they carry with them to a fire scene.
The Clean Cab Concept
Michael Moore, chief operating officer for Pierce Manufacturing, says the clean cab concept is growing, although how the concept is implemented on apparatus is a little bit different for each department. “As more information gets out there about carcinogens and their link to cancer in firefighters, we’re seeing more interest in the clean cab concept,” Moore says. “Fire departments around the country are adopting policies that suit their operations, and the focus on cancer initiatives is driving these discussions and policy changes.”
While the clean cab concept is not a formal program at Pierce, according to Moore, the company is willing “to develop something different for each department, depending on what they are willing to do and adopt,” he says.
1 The Coral Springs (FL) Fire Department recently got this Pierce Manufacturing 107-foot Ascendant aerial PUC quint with seating for four firefighters that uses the clean cab concept of keeping all contaminated turnout gear and equipment out of the cab. [Photos 1-4 courtesy of the Coral Springs (FL) Fire Department.] 2 This Coral Springs 100-foot platform uses the clean cab concept where nothing but clean turnout gear on firefighters is carried in the cab. 3 SCBA for the Coral Springs platform crew are on slide-out mountings on the officer’s side of the rig. 4 This Pierce 1,500-gpm PUC pumper is one of two engines in the Coral Springs (FL) Fire Department fleet that use the clean cab concept.
Coral Springs Fire Department Chief Frank Babinec says his department has two Pierce aerials and two Pierce engines that have been designed with the clean cab concept in mind. The two engines are 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) PUC pumpers with 1,000-gallon water tanks, while the aerials are a 107-foot Ascendant PUC ladder quint and a 100-foot aerial platform. “Anything that goes into a fire doesn’t go back into the cab of the vehicle until it is fully decontaminated,” Babinec points out. “We do not have any self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), flashlights, thermal imaging cameras (TICs), or irons in the cabs—only turnout gear that has been deconned and washed. We want to keep our cabs as clean as possible.”
The Clean Cab Process
The process for the Coral Springs new Pierce Ascendant 107-foot aerial quint, according to Babinec, is the same for the other clean cab vehicles. He says when firefighters come out of a fire, they stay on SCBA air and go to the back of the truck where a decon area has been set up. “Before they come off air, we wash the loose contaminants off their turnout gear and SCBA,” he says. “Then they doff their turnouts, which are bagged and brought back to the station in a vented coffin compartment in the dunnage area of the engines and in a vented hosebed