Every day, we are around plasma in TVs, fluorescent lamps, neon signs, and plasma arc cutters. A plasma arc torch is a great torch for working close to a patient because of low heat transfer and its ability to fit in tight spaces.

It is for use on thinner metals that are capable of conducting electricity, including stainless steel, ferrous, and many nonferrous metals.

OPERATION

The cutting action of a plasma arc torch is in the form of an electrical arc in combination with a high-velocity gas. For us, this gas can be room air from an air compressor or a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) bottle. The compressed air flows into the tip that contains a plasma electrode and a plasma cutting tip. This electrically conductive air pushes through the pressurized chamber via a small hole in the cutting tip, taking the energy of the arc with it. The heat of the plasma arc melts the metal to be cut, while the force of the compressed air blows it away, creating a kerf. The temperature of the plasma arc, depending on torch model and settings, is 36,000°F to 50,000°F. Your plasma arc torch manual will have a table, like a “Torch Tip Chart,” indicating amperage, cutting speed, and air pressure recommendations based on the size and type of metal.

Using a 120-VAC 20-amp outlet, about the most you are going to cut is ½-inch-thick metal. To increase that capability, the simplest way is to get a 220-VAC powered machine. With this, you can get through 11⁄2 inches. Check your generator manual as to its ratings. Make sure your electrical extension cords are no more than 100 feet for 12-gauge or 150 feet using 10-gauge to prevent excessive voltage drop while running the cutter (see “Extension Cords: One of the Most Misused Tools on the Fireground,” Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment, April 2023).

Keep in mind the total power requirements. If you use an air compressor, it will take another 120-VAC/20-amp outlet. To power both a 120-VAC plasma arc cutter and air compressor sized to support maximum cutting capability, you will need a minimum 5-kW generator to cut through ½ inch. To reduce the power demand, use SCBA bottles as the air source. Compromises on source voltage affect the torch performance including shortening the duty cycle (see “Know Your Generator,” Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment, March 2022).

Establish a clean connection for the torch grounding clamp as close to the cut area as possible. You may need to grind off any coatings, paint, or rust. The plasma arc process produces a high voltage to cut. This electric energy can cause severe or fatal shock to the operator or others in the workplace. It is not recommended to use on complex machines like cars. In addition to high voltage, the plasma arc process produces very bright ultraviolet and infrared light. These arc rays will damage your eyes and burn your skin if you are not properly protected. To protect your eyes/ skin, always wear a torch jacket, welding helmet/shield, hearing protection, and leather gloves. Shade 7-8 lenses are suitable for most portable machines.

Because the material must be electrically conductive to react to the ionized gas coming from the torch, nonconductive materials like wood, glass, and plastics or poorly conductive metals like manganese, lead, tungsten, and tin cannot be cut with the plasma arc. Plasma can cut painted, dirty, or even rusted metal. However, as stated, the ground clamp connection needs to be clean for maximum performance. The arc is created when the arc cutter tip and the work piece are touched together and then separated by a small distance, typically no more than 1⁄16 inch. It can cut through small air gaps, ¼ inch or so, and multiple layers. This is comparable to coupling distance with flame cutting torches. It may be useful to make “test cuts” on the work piece to make sure your ground connection and cutt

Sam Woloson – Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.)

What comes to mind when you think about your local fire department? Maybe not online vehicle raffles, pay-to-play Bingo or summer carnivals — but that’s the reality for volunteer fire companies in and around Centre County that rely on fundraisers to keep their doors open.

Most volunteer fire companies receive funding from their municipalities and public donations, and some apply for grants or receive money from local service taxes. Fundraising has always been involved, but rising costs for equipment and operations have made it more of a necessity than before, according to Justin Butterworth, chief of the Hope Fire Company in Philipsburg.

“Our allotments that we get from the municipalities and our donations haven’t increased by 100% in the last 15 years, but the cost of fire apparatus has, so we’re trying to play catch-up, which is in the end just putting more pressure on bigger and more fundraisers to make up that difference,” said Butterworth, who has worked for the fire department for 23 years.

Butterworth estimated a fire truck that cost $350,000 15 years ago would cost close to $1 million today. Add in the cost of additional equipment, safety gear and maintenance, and you have volunteer companies shackled by steep operating budgets.

At least part of this inflation stems from the consolidation of the fire truck industry within the last 15 years, which now sees three large companies manufacture the majority of equipment for the United States. What that means is emergency service providers now have to think like nonprofit businesses.

“It’s an expensive business that isn’t properly funded, hence why you see us holding these fundraisers,” Butterworth said. “There’s very few businesses that are around that have to go and sell hoagies or hold events or beg for money to keep their business going … but for a fire company, closing is not really an option.”

To combat these costs, fire companies have ramped up fundraising efforts. During the COVID pandemic, where in-person fundraisers were limited, Facebook became the hub for online raffles and giveaways. Just about everything was up for grabs, from a Yeti cooler in Philipsburg to a 6,500 watt generator in Snow Shoe to a one-ton bag of wood pellets in Centre Hall. Fundraising & the budget

The online giveaways have remained popular and profitable. Most companies purchase the prizes with their own money and can make up that deficit by selling enough raffle tickets. Boalsburg Fire Company buys its prizes from local businesses as a way to give back to the community.

“It’s something we can do all year-round,” said Boalsburg Assistant Chief Nate Frey. “Just to generate a little more income coming in here, because the price of everything’s skyrocketing, and we’re trying to support our community with paying for this stuff.”

Fundraising only makes up about 40% of Boalsburg Fire Company’s operating budget, according to Assistant Chief Greg Alters.

“We are doing well funds-wise compared to some of the other companies in the county that are scraping to keep things going,” Alters said. “We’re very lucky to have the station we have, newer apparatus and stuff that we have — there’s companies out there that can’t do that.”

In addition to online giveaways, Mountain Top Fire Company in Sandy Ridge hosts a yearly carnival in August, complete with food, games and an auction. Fire Chief Tim Sharpless said fundraising makes up about 90% of Mountain Top’s operating budget, which he said is sustainable at this point, but service taxes may need to be implemented in the future.

“For now it is [sustainable],” Sharpless added. “I mean, the trucks are getting more money, and so at some point, somethin

CAL FIRE/Butte County honored tradition recently with a push-in ceremony, welcoming its newest fire engine into service: CAL FIRE/Butte County Fire Engine 33, the department said in a Facebook post.

Stationed in Magalia, and serving the Upper Ridge community and beyond, new Engine 33 is staffed with three personnel thanks to the generosity of taxpayers and Measure H funds.

This time-honored ritual dates back to the days of horse-drawn fire wagons, when crews had to push their equipment back into the bay after a call. Now, it’s a powerful symbol of pride, history, and community.

The post CAL FIRE/Butte County Welcomes New Engine appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

Noelle Phillips
The Denver Post
(TNS)

Colorado’s fire departments need 2,263 new firefighters and more than $25 million to buy an estimated 753 new trucks to fight fires over the next two years, according to a report released Monday by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control.

The division’s 2024 Colorado Fire Service Needs Assessment Survey also found that fire departments are struggling to find enough money for essential equipment and personnel. The Colorado Fire Commission is currently studying ways to better fund the state’s 340 fire departments.

“Fire service is expensive and getting all the equipment you need is difficult, especially with property taxes being reduced it makes it even more difficult,” said Lisa Pine, the state’s fire training director, who conducted the survey.  “As we all know the cost of living in Colorado is very high and there has been a lot of work done to reduce how expensive it is to live here. But a consequence of that is it reduces the funding for your local fire department.”

The needs assessment also comes as Colorado’s wildfire season becomes year-round and the fires are more intense and burn more acreage.

“The workload continues to grow for the fire departments and the resources to go along with it just aren’t,” said Mike Morgan, director of the Division of Fire Prevention and Control. “We’re going to have to get creative to find solutions.”

For the 2024 survey, 57% of the state’s fire departments responded, reporting that they need:

• An additional 1,121 career and 1,142 volunteer firefighters over the next two years
• 753 new and replacement apparatuses over the next two years
• $25,282,489 over the next two years to buy needed equipment

Even while stretched thin, Colorado’s fire departments are able to respond to disasters,  Pine said.

“The one thing about the fire service is no matter what they have, they will do it professionally and with all the energy needed to protect their communities,” she said. “They’ll do it because that’s what they signed up to do.”

In Colorado, most fire departments are funded through property taxes, although the Colorado General Assembly two years ago approved a measure that allows departments to petition voters for a sales tax increase. Still, funding is tight as the state wrestles with affordability for its residents as the cost of running a fire department gets more expensive each year.

In recent years, property values have soared and property taxes have climbed as well. But elected officials in 2024 capped how much taxing districts, including fire departments, can increases taxes each year and lowered assessment rates for homeowners, meaning fire departments cannot depend on increased property values for more revenue.

“It truly is a complex problem,” said Vail Fire and Emergency Services Chief Mark Novak, who also serves on the state fire commission. “We have 64 counties with very different characteristics.”

In a mountain resort town such as Vail, the various taxes paid by tourists help fund Novak’s department. But a fire department in a farm community on the Eastern Plains will not be as wealthy because property taxes on agricultural land are much lower, he said.

And in a small community, a sales tax may not be all that lucrative because there are fewer people to spend money.

“Taxes are always a push/pull,” he said. “No community wants to have the highest sales tax in

Special Delivery Alan M. Petrillo

The Reno (NV) Fire Department protects a very diverse city and surrounding area. Its responsibilities span high-rise casinos, commercial and light industrial districts, numerous residential enclaves, a major interstate running through the middle of town next to the Truckee River, a significant rail corridor in city limits, wildland urban interface areas (WUI), and rural wildland territory.

Given this varied landscape, the department found it imperative to replace its 40-year-old rescue truck with a state-of-the art rig capable of handling all technical rescue disciplines, including urban search and rescue (USAR) operations. After investigating several manufacturers, the department ultimately commissioned Rosenbauer to build its new heavy technical rescue truck.

Ernie Young, Rosenbauer western regional sales manager, says Reno Fire’s new truck is on a Commander EXT 78-inch four-door cab and chassis with an 11-inch raised roof; seating for six firefighters, four in H.O. Bostrom self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) seats with IMMI SmartDock brackets; a Cummins L9 engine; and an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission. Young points out that the technical rescue is built on a tandem-rear-axle chassis with 11 body compartments, four of them transverse, along with four underframe storage cabinets and eight coffin compartments.

Peter Briant, Reno Fire’s division chief of support services, says the new Rosenbauer heavy technical rescue truck is the perfect vehicle for the department’s rescue firefighters and its USAR team.

“Reno is in an earthquake-prone area, so we set up the new truck to be able to shore buildings, handle entrapments, perform concrete cutting and breaching, do vehicle extrication on our highways and roads, and have the heavy extrication capabilities for semi trucks and cement trucks with our lifting bags and struts,” Briant observes. “The Truckee River canyon to the west of us could cut us off from assistance after an earthquake and isolate us, so the new Rosenbauer technical rescue makes us self-sufficient.”

Briant notes that because Reno was replacing a 40-year-old rescue truck, it outfitted the new rig with all-new equipment, including state-of-the-art Makita battery-operated saws, drills, jackhammers, and chain saws. “A very important element on our new technical rescue was the capability for low- and high-angle rescue, confined space, being able to build shoring, perform trench rescue, and carry other heavy equipment for entrapment,” he says. “All the truck’s components are state-of-the-art with plenty of plywood to make shores for buildings and also Paratech gold struts and gray struts that allow us to go in and immediately rescue people and then build long-term shoring out of wood.”

Jonathan Moberly, Reno Fire captain and director of its USAR team, lays out the compartments on the new Rosenbauer heavy technical rescue truck. The L1 compartment holds a Holmatro Pentheon battery-operated spreader, cutter, and ram; Paratech Hydrafusion struts, longshore struts, and gray struts; an assortment of chains and come-alongs; and two Hi-Lift jacks, all mounted on pull-out trays and tool boards.

The L2 compartment has more Paratech equipment for shoring and custom polypropylene boxes with adapters for bipods and tripods, nailing pads for building shoring, a Paratech high-pressure bag, MaxiForce low-pressure bags, two pull-out trays of Paratech gold longshore and gray struts, hydraulic floor and bottle jacks, and an air chisel. He adds that the rig’s wheel well compartments have enough storage space for 18 SCBA bottles.

Moberly says L3 holds a Stokes basket, Paratech high-pressure air bags, and a full complement of Paratech lifti