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Posted: Aug 3, 2017
By Alan M. Petrillo
The incidence of cancer in firefighters has been linked to some of the toxins that collect on firefighters’ turnout gear and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) after fighting fires.
Many departments have turned to using decon rooms and turnout storage rooms at the station where turnout gear can be placed prior to decontamination and stored afterward.
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| 1 Stewart Cooper Newell Architects designed this decon room for turnout gear and equipment. (Photos 1-4 courtesy of Stewart Cooper Newell Architects.) |
Hot, Warm, and Cold Zones
Ken Newell, principal at Stewart Cooper Newell Architects, notes that statistics show firefighter incidences of cancer at between 20 and 100 percent higher than the average United States citizen. “The chemicals they are exposed to on the fireground - arsenic, hydrocarbons, benzene, and other carcinogens - collect on their turnout gear and equipment,” Newell says. “That gear and equipment is brought back to the station, which is a significant enough impact to affect the design of stations.”
Newell’s station designs identify the source of contamination and deal with it by designing a hot zone where contamination is the worst, such as apparatus bays, decontamination rooms, and tool rooms; a cold zone, which is the living space where firefighters want to keep the contamination out; and a transition or warm zone in the middle. “We’ve gotten away from designs with the apparatus bays in the middle of the building with day spaces on one side and night spaces on the other because it’s difficult to control contamination,” he says. “Now we put the hot zone on one end of the station and the cold zone at the other end.”
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| 2 Decon toilet rooms like this one designed by Stewart Cooper Newell Architects are places where firefighters can strip, decon shower, and leave contaminated clothing. |
Newell recommends having a decon room off the apparatus bays with extractors, dryers, and cleaning areas. “Firefighters can enter, strip, clean, and then store their personal protective equipment (PPE) in another room to off-gas properly,” Newell says. “Both the decon and PPE storage room should have their own separate heating, ventilating, and air conditioning and exhaust systems.”
Because a firefighter’s hair and skin might have been contaminated, Newell also recommends a decon/dirty toilet room near the decon room where firefighters can strip, decon shower, and leave their contaminated clothing. “We also like to have positive pressure on the living side of the station and negative pressure in the hot zone and transition area, which makes it difficult to have air flow into the cold zone,” Newell observes. “The connection of the warm zone then serves as an airlock corridor, from 12 to 20 feet wide, that helps capture contaminants.”
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Posted: Aug 3, 2017
By Peter Ong
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department’s Lifeguard Unit has operated a custom rescue apparatus, Rescue 44, since February 2015.
This custom 4x4, built on a Pierce Saber cab and chassis, replaced the previous Rescue 44, which was a utility truck with a commercial-built crane.
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| 1 The San Diego (CA) Fire Department’s Rescue 44 with open compartments showing its slide-out tray and gear while rescuing a paraglider. (Photos 1-3 courtesy of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Unit.) |
The idea for San Diego Fire-Rescue’s new Rescue 44 came from an East Coast training trip to visit the Coast Guard around North Charleston, South Carolina. Lifeguard Sergeant Jon Vipond and Senior Lifeguard Robb Eichelberger made the trip and saw a rescue truck with a rear-mounted crane at the Charlestown County (SC) Volunteer Fire Department. They both figured such a rig with a rear-mounted crane could suit the rescue needs of San Diego Fire-Rescue’s Lifeguard Unit. “That was the spark of the idea,” says Vipond. “We passed the information to John Bahl, also a lifeguard, who did all the research for the new truck. He’s the equipment geek. John looked at the specs while the Fire-Rescue and the Lifeguard Division gathered the funding.”
Housed at the San Diego Mission Bay Lifeguard Headquarters Boating Safety Unit, Rescue 44 cost $540,000 to build and weighs 45,000 pounds. This apparatus responds to calls around the Sunset Cliffs, Torrey Pines, and Black’s Beach area, a coastline of vertical and steeply sloping sandstone cliffs dropping down to a beach, rocks, and even directly into the Pacific Ocean. A curving road usually hugs the cliffs, and flights of stairs allow access to the beaches below. Since most of San Diego’s coastal cliffs are accessible from above, San Diego Fire-Rescue lifeguards have used trucks with mechanized equipment such as cranes for cliff rescues over the decades.
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| 2 Shown are stairs leading to the beach around the Sunset Cliffs area. |
San Diego Fire-Rescue uses the new Rescue 44 as a regional resource. The heavy-duty crane comes in handy for moving heavy objects from sailing vessels to lifeguard tower “satellite station” shacks. Rescue 44 also responds to floods and can respond to collapse events. Rescue 44’s high ground clearance makes it ideal for flood rescues, carrying flood rescue gear and more lifeguards - all emergency medical technicians (EMTs) - during flood emergencies. “Rescue 44 also has potential value in confined space applications - e.g., used as a high point for vertical entries,” says Vipond, noting that the crane could be used “over a vertical confined space entry such as the access port in the top of a storage tank so that a rescuer can be lowered into the tank.”
Specifications and Performance
Rescue 44 replaced the former rig used since the 1980s that resembled a yellow electric utility service truck. “The old truck’s age was beginning to show,” says Vipond. “It wasn’t purpose-built for rescues.”
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Posted: Aug 3, 2017
By Peter Ong
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department’s Lifeguard Unit has operated a custom rescue apparatus, Rescue 44, since February 2015.
This custom 4x4, built on a Pierce Saber cab and chassis, replaced the previous Rescue 44, which was a utility truck with a commercial-built crane.
|
| 1 The San Diego (CA) Fire Department’s Rescue 44 with open compartments showing its slide-out tray and gear while rescuing a paraglider. (Photos 1-3 courtesy of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Unit.) |
The idea for San Diego Fire-Rescue’s new Rescue 44 came from an East Coast training trip to visit the Coast Guard around North Charleston, South Carolina. Lifeguard Sergeant Jon Vipond and Senior Lifeguard Robb Eichelberger made the trip and saw a rescue truck with a rear-mounted crane at the Charlestown County (SC) Volunteer Fire Department. They both figured such a rig with a rear-mounted crane could suit the rescue needs of San Diego Fire-Rescue’s Lifeguard Unit. “That was the spark of the idea,” says Vipond. “We passed the information to John Bahl, also a lifeguard, who did all the research for the new truck. He’s the equipment geek. John looked at the specs while the Fire-Rescue and the Lifeguard Division gathered the funding.”
Housed at the San Diego Mission Bay Lifeguard Headquarters Boating Safety Unit, Rescue 44 cost $540,000 to build and weighs 45,000 pounds. This apparatus responds to calls around the Sunset Cliffs, Torrey Pines, and Black’s Beach area, a coastline of vertical and steeply sloping sandstone cliffs dropping down to a beach, rocks, and even directly into the Pacific Ocean. A curving road usually hugs the cliffs, and flights of stairs allow access to the beaches below. Since most of San Diego’s coastal cliffs are accessible from above, San Diego Fire-Rescue lifeguards have used trucks with mechanized equipment such as cranes for cliff rescues over the decades.
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| 2 Shown are stairs leading to the beach around the Sunset Cliffs area. |
San Diego Fire-Rescue uses the new Rescue 44 as a regional resource. The heavy-duty crane comes in handy for moving heavy objects from sailing vessels to lifeguard tower “satellite station” shacks. Rescue 44 also responds to floods and can respond to collapse events. Rescue 44’s high ground clearance makes it ideal for flood rescues, carrying flood rescue gear and more lifeguards - all emergency medical technicians (EMTs) - during flood emergencies. “Rescue 44 also has potential value in confined space applications - e.g., used as a high point for vertical entries,” says Vipond, noting that the crane could be used “over a vertical confined space entry such as the access port in the top of a storage tank so that a rescuer can be lowered into the tank.”
Specifications and Performance
Rescue 44 replaced the former rig used since the 1980s that resembled a yellow electric utility service truck. “The old truck’s age was beginning to show,” says Vipond. “It wasn’t purpose-built for rescues.”
Read more
- 369
- Article rating: No rating
Posted: Aug 3, 2017
By Peter Ong
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department’s Lifeguard Unit has operated a custom rescue apparatus, Rescue 44, since February 2015.
This custom 4x4, built on a Pierce Saber cab and chassis, replaced the previous Rescue 44, which was a utility truck with a commercial-built crane.
|
| 1 The San Diego (CA) Fire Department’s Rescue 44 with open compartments showing its slide-out tray and gear while rescuing a paraglider. (Photos 1-3 courtesy of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Lifeguard Unit.) |
The idea for San Diego Fire-Rescue’s new Rescue 44 came from an East Coast training trip to visit the Coast Guard around North Charleston, South Carolina. Lifeguard Sergeant Jon Vipond and Senior Lifeguard Robb Eichelberger made the trip and saw a rescue truck with a rear-mounted crane at the Charlestown County (SC) Volunteer Fire Department. They both figured such a rig with a rear-mounted crane could suit the rescue needs of San Diego Fire-Rescue’s Lifeguard Unit. “That was the spark of the idea,” says Vipond. “We passed the information to John Bahl, also a lifeguard, who did all the research for the new truck. He’s the equipment geek. John looked at the specs while the Fire-Rescue and the Lifeguard Division gathered the funding.”
Housed at the San Diego Mission Bay Lifeguard Headquarters Boating Safety Unit, Rescue 44 cost $540,000 to build and weighs 45,000 pounds. This apparatus responds to calls around the Sunset Cliffs, Torrey Pines, and Black’s Beach area, a coastline of vertical and steeply sloping sandstone cliffs dropping down to a beach, rocks, and even directly into the Pacific Ocean. A curving road usually hugs the cliffs, and flights of stairs allow access to the beaches below. Since most of San Diego’s coastal cliffs are accessible from above, San Diego Fire-Rescue lifeguards have used trucks with mechanized equipment such as cranes for cliff rescues over the decades.
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| 2 Shown are stairs leading to the beach around the Sunset Cliffs area. |
San Diego Fire-Rescue uses the new Rescue 44 as a regional resource. The heavy-duty crane comes in handy for moving heavy objects from sailing vessels to lifeguard tower “satellite station” shacks. Rescue 44 also responds to floods and can respond to collapse events. Rescue 44’s high ground clearance makes it ideal for flood rescues, carrying flood rescue gear and more lifeguards - all emergency medical technicians (EMTs) - during flood emergencies. “Rescue 44 also has potential value in confined space applications - e.g., used as a high point for vertical entries,” says Vipond, noting that the crane could be used “over a vertical confined space entry such as the access port in the top of a storage tank so that a rescuer can be lowered into the tank.”
Specifications and Performance
Rescue 44 replaced the former rig used since the 1980s that resembled a yellow electric utility service truck. “The old truck’s age was beginning to show,” says Vipond. “It wasn’t purpose-built for rescues.”
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