Nesquehoning, PA –KME is pleased to announce that the Santa Barbara County (CA) Fire Department has awarded KME an order for two (2) 101-foot tractor-drawn aerials and five (5) custom pumpers to join the 24 KME fire apparatus already in service.

The TDA tractors will be KME Severe Service cabs with seating for six (6) in the cab plus tiller operator and a Cummins ISX-15 550hp engine. The aerials include a 1,500gpm pump, 300 gallon stainless steel water tank, and a 101-foot ladder with pre-piped waterway and aerial device controls located at the tip of the ladder. The units also have a hosebed in the trailer body, next to the ladder storage area for quick deployment of hose. The hosebed is sized to carry 500 of four-inch supply line, while the ladder tunnel is still large enough to carry 144 feet of ground ladders and miscellaneous tools and equipment.

The pumpers also include a Severe Service cab, Cummins ISX-12 450hp engine, 1,500gpm pump, 500 gal water/25 gal foam stainless steel tanks, Class A foam system, hydraulic ladder rack, treadplate hosebed cover, and galvanneal steel fire body with customized shelving and compartmentation.

The Santa Barbara County fire department serves 420,000 residents and millions of tourists with over 245 employees from 16 fire stations. They protect more than 2,774 square miles that include both sandy beaches and rugged mountains topping 6,820 feet, and run more than 15,000 incidents per year.

More: www.kovatch.com

Police and firefighters responded to a blaze in the old Seattle Times building Friday morning, adding yet another troublesome incident to the growing list of headaches at the abandoned building in recent months. The fire was confined to a 15-by-8-foot area on the second floor of the building, but it spewed heavy volumes of smoke through the building.
- PUB DATE: 12/11/2015 7:41:42 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

Police and firefighters responded to a blaze in the old Seattle Times building Friday morning, adding yet another troublesome incident to the growing list of headaches at the abandoned building in recent months. The fire was confined to a 15-by-8-foot area on the second floor of the building, but it spewed heavy volumes of smoke through the building.
- PUB DATE: 12/11/2015 7:41:42 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

The new, patented Chanl Panl from Sensible Products Inc. makes equipment mounting a snap in emergency apparatus. This panel allows users to mount brackets, tools, or water flow equipment in your rig without drilling. Load standard ¼ 20 nuts and bolts from the front side of the panel. No tricks, fasteners, or special hardware required. This durable, HDPE plastic is 5/8-inch thick and may be cut with a battery skill saw and bolted directly to cabinet walls.

Sensible Products Inc. of Richfield, Ohio has been specializing for over 30 years as a leading supplier of high-quality mounting brackets for fittings, tools, and adapters that are carried on emergency apparatus. Their products and services range from manufacturing and shipping products to fire departments and through our distributors across the United States and Canada to complete apparatus outfitting at theirr Richfield facility. They have also designed and installed complete mounting systems for fleets of apparatus at several military bases while the apparatus remains in service.

The on-site installation process starts with a basic list of the equipment to be mounted, the type and style of apparatus, and knowledge of the fire department’s operations. Working closely with the fire personnel, they develop the locations of the equipment, mounting the equipment by disciplines--water flow cabinet, forcible entry tools, ventilation equipment, extrication equipment, and electrical and portable generators. A mounting plan must be developed for each apparatus in order to maximize critical cabinet space and be user-friendly.

Their technical staff work on one piece of apparatus at a time, installing universal Chanl Panl boards on rear and side walls, installing the needed bracketry per cabinet, and labeling all equipment for easy identification.

They have completed this service on-site for Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia; Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan; and Toledo Air National Guard in Toledo, Ohio, totaling over 20 pieces of apparatus in the past few years. Go to www.senpro.net to view a gallery of all completed apparatus.

A new public safety paging technology solution that will allow emergency personnel across Michigan to use a single system for both two-way radio and paging is now available. The P25 paging capability--the first of its kind--will operate on Michigan’s Public Safety Communications System.

Currently, MPSCS subscribers may need two separate systems to dispatch emergency crews, one for the radios they use at the scene of an incident and another for the pagers that summon emergency responders. This new technology will provide both functions in one single system. Additionally, the new solution will notify first responders if they are out of communication range, a confirmation the current method does not provide.

“In an emergency, every second is critical to life-saving activity,” said Brad Stoddard, MPSCS director. “The efficiency created by combining radio and paging into one system will get emergency responders to an accident scene faster, which will save lives.”

The MPSCS is one of the largest single public safety communications system in North America, providing interoperable voice and data communications to 1,493 local, state, federal, tribal and private public safety agencies. MPSCS has strategically partnered with Unication, a worldwide leader in designing and manufacturing of critical messaging technology, to bring this state of the art P25 paging solution to fruition. “This partnership has allowed us to bring a paging solution, that has been missing from the P25 landscape for many years, first to the citizens of Michigan and then to the global P25 marketplace,” said Kirk Alland, Vice President and General Manager of Unication USA.

The MPSCS has already worked with state, local and private agencies to test the new paging solution.

The MPSCS, a part of the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget, has received both national and international recognition as the standard for large and multiple partner land mobile radio systems. The system spans nearly 60,000 square miles and includes 246 tower sites with more than 60 integrated local and state public safety dispatch centers and a network communications center that serves more than 74,000 radios.

More information about the MPSCS can be found at www.michigan.gov/mpscs and more information about Unication and the G4 P25 Voice Pager can be found at www.unicationusa.com.