When a Pittsburgh firetruck's check-engine light came on in August, Deputy Fire Chief Michael Mullen initially thought he had plenty of other vehicles available for Brookline's station. But the first spare truck had a faulty pump, and the second's ladder rack motor was burned out.
He kept checking spare engines “until I exhausted all of the eight pumpers shown as being available,” he wrote in an email to other city officials.
“If there is anyone who thinks that this is acceptable, I would welcome them to respond with their reasons why,” he wrote.
Deputy Chief Mullen’s challenge capped six months of concerns about maintenance of some of the city’s public safety vehicles. A controller’s audit found that the repair vendor, First Vehicle Services, was more expensive than expected and often failed to get vehicles back on the road promptly.
Nonetheless on Tuesday, after five minutes of public discussion, city council approved a five-year, $46 million new contract with First Vehicle, which was the only bidder.
“Competition is always good, but you don’t want to just make change for change’s sake,” said city budget director Sam Ashbaugh.
Departmental officials responsible for vehicles were asked if they were satisfied with the vendor's performance, he added, saying, “To a man, they said yes.”
“It’s disappointing when you only get one bidder in a competitive bidding process,” said Controller Michael Lamb. In similar circumstances in the past, he said, “we’ve gone back out to bid again.”
He called the garage’s turnaround time on public safety vehicle repairs “a problem. … We have to have that fleet available.”
Before 2005, the city employed mechanics to fix the roughly 1,000 vehicles it owns. That year, under pressure from fiscal overseers, it inked a deal with First Vehicle of Cincinnati to privately run its Strip District repair shop. The deal aimed to cut maintenance and repair costs from roughly $5.5 million to $4 million.
By 2014, though, the city was paying First Vehicle $8 million annually. Next year, the price tag is likely
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Posted: Oct 24, 2016
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - A fire truck collided with another vehicle at Delaware Ave. and Bryant St. The crash happened at 9:50 a.m. Friday. Before the collision, the fire truck had been responding to a call. Its lights were on and its sirens were sounding.
The truck had a green light when it struck the other vehicle.
After the crash, the driver of the other vehicle had to be extricated from their car.
The driver, a male, had non-life threatening injuries. No firefighters have reported any injuries.
Both vehicles had extensive damage.
The crash is being investigated by authorities.
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Posted: Oct 24, 2016
The Escanaba Township Fire Department has reached new heights, literally. A demonstration of the department's new ladder truck took place on Friday. A 2015 Spartan Gladiator ladder truck was on display at the Island Resort and Casino. Capable of reaching a height of 94 feet vertically, the truck can pump up to 2,000 gallons per minute from the bucket.
"The truck itself was paid for with a grant from the John and Melissa Besse Foundation. We were very fortunate to have those folks do that," said Tom Sealander, ladder captain with the Escanaba Township Fire Department. "The Hannahville Indian Community has been very generous with our fire department and we're appreciative of the fact that they contributed towards the equipment that is hauled on there."
The truck will be stationed out of the Besse Fire Hall in Gladstone.
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Posted: Oct 24, 2016
LITTLETON (CO) - You haven't had a childhood if you haven't at least just once - sat in the seat of a firetruck. It inspires kids everywhere to be firefighters. That dream doesn't come true too often - but it did for one firefighter and he owes it all to that truck.
Eric Hurst, the public information officer for South Metro Fire Rescue Authority, says since he can remember, he's always wanted to be a firefighter.
"I was infatuated with the fire department, Castlewood was always the trucks that I had seen so I visited the fire station a lot with my parents," Hurst said.
If you're not from around here, Castlewood is now South Metro Fire Rescue.For a kid growing up in Littleton, there was just something about those trucks, but the bright-red one always stood out.
"I remember how big the steering wheel felt and how the front-seat kind of felt like a couch because it was so big," Hurst said. "It was one of the unique ones because it was specifically designed to respond to airline crashes at the airport so it's very much a one of a kind."
The 1970's Imperial was taken out of service in 2000. In that time, Hurst started working for South Metro and he lost track of his favorite truck.
Then one day - more than two decades after he first sat in it he saw the truck for sale online.
"Immediately I had a flash back, back to when I was a kid on the front seat of that and I can't, you know, explain how big the steering wheel felt as a child looking at it," said Hurst. "It didn't have the labels on it, it didn't have the old lights on it, but I could identify it immediately.
"So I called the dealership and told them that I needed to get it," he said.
And he did for the 13,000 dollars. Hurst had the old Castlewood Fire Department decals made for it and he slapped them back on.
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