RICHARD MARINUCCI

As everyone knows, the fire chief is all-knowing and, like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way! I am just kidding, but sometimes we chiefs extend our expertise beyond our knowledge and adversely affect outcomes.

Just because you can do something because of your position doesn't mean you should. Sometimes, a chief may have expertise and have to show others how smart he is. This is not to be critical, only to introduce a topic for discussion-that of fire department vehicles and the role a fire chief should play. One of the main jobs of a fire chief is to get the best possible apparatus and equipment for the organization so the firefighters can perform to their capabilities.

The role of the fire chief in the acquisition and maintenance of apparatus can vary from department to department. Larger organizations with more specialized staff may relieve the chief of certain responsibilities while smaller organizations may not have the resources without more involvement from the chief. Regardless, the fire chief should be engaged and aware of the role he plays. Remember that apparatus is a department's biggest cost, with the exception of personnel. The impact on the budget and revenue is significant and requires understanding of the entire apparatus program from apparatus purchasing to retirement.

The chief's degree of involvement can vary from total control to a more hands-off approach. Those individuals who have a deep passion for fire apparatus will most likely take a more involved role, sometimes to the detriment of the organization. They know their position gives them authority, and because of their interest in apparatus they may overextend their control. Conversely, some fire chiefs may take a completely hands-off approach. In almost all cases, somewhere in the middle is the best approach. Chiefs need to find the "sweet spot" regarding their involvement. They need to realize that they have the ultimate accountability but that others in the organization have much to offer if they are allowed to do so.

A good starting point is to assess the talent in your organization and determine who has ability with regard to apparatus. The individuals need some requisite knowledge and an interest in doing the work. It is more than locating a backyard mechanic and turning things over to that person. A single individual or a team of employees may be needed. Some larger organizations can have a dedicated staff, both managerial and mechanical, to perform the various functions. Smaller departments could give an assignment to an interested and capable individual. There are variations of both of these approaches, but the concepts remain the same. In most cases, you should delegate the tasks associated with the acquisition and maintenance of apparatus.

Once a chief opts to become less of a "nuts and bolts" leader regarding apparatus, he must continue to help provide the support and resources those doing the work need. The ultimate goal is success in getting the necessary vehicles to provide the level of service desired. Like for any job, individuals need the appropriate level of job-specific training. This may be easier said than done. There are programs specific to fire apparatus and others more generic in nature. They may not be nearby, so you may need to look around to find the best sources of this training. You may wish to pursue emergency vehicle technician certification for the levels of work expected to be done. In some cases, personnel may not be assigned to the fire department but rather another city department that works with an entire municipality's fleet. Even if this is the case, the fire department must provide the training needed to do the job.

Like so much of t

By Chris Daly

We all know the statistics-we kill ourselves about 15 to 20 times each year by crashing our fire trucks. I'm not going to dwell on this statistic. I think it repeats itself every year like a broken record. The ultimate question is "Why"? What causes us to repeatedly drive off the road, flip our rigs, and eject ourselves into oblivion? There are many different reasons, and all of these reasons are preventable. The purpose of this series of articles is to address these issues and try to explain to drivers, in layman's terms, why fire trucks crash.

Many fire departments require members to take some sort of emergency vehicle operator's course (EVOC) before they can become drivers. These courses are great for new drivers who are trying to learn how to maneuver a rig in tight quarters. Now I don't know about your department, but my department doesn't respond to too many calls in a parking lot that require us to drive through a bunch of traffic cones. Our calls require emergency responses on real roads with real traffic along with lights, sirens, and radios blaring in the background. These factors combine to increase the driver's excitement and often result in a deadening of the senses. Tunnel vision ensues, and the only thing that the apparatus operator can think of is getting to the incident scene fast. Throw in a mutual-aid company coming from another direction, and we all know what happens-the race is on.

So as you can see, while EVOC classes are a great start, they only touch the tip of the iceberg. Often, these basic classes fail to touch on one of the most important topics that an emergency apparatus operator must come to understand: the physics behind a moving vehicle. I liken this to trying to teach an emergency medical technician (EMT) class without teaching anatomy. The EMT student knows how to put on a bandage but doesn't understand why. The goal of these articles is to make apparatus operators understand that no matter how good they think they are or how long they have been driving, at some point Mother Nature will take over and the vehicle will lose control.

Dynamics

Let's start discussing the dynamics behind a moving fire truck. These concepts are based on the same concepts used by crash reconstructionists-the police officers who shut the road down for hours at a time trying to figure out why a motor vehicle crash occurred. The reason I say this is so that you don't put the magazine down and walk away. Remember-if the cops can understand this, so can we!

The first concept an apparatus operator needs to understand is the concept of energy. Think back to high school physics and the often-heard term "kinetic energy." Now before your eyes roll back in your head, forget the term kinetic energy and just think of a bucket full of water. The bucket is the fire truck and the water is the energy. The bigger the bucket (i.e., the bigger the fire truck), the more water it will hold (i.e., the more energy it has). Also, the faster the bucket is traveling (i.e., the faster you drive down the street), the more water (energy) it will hold.

So to bring your fire truck to a stop, you have to get rid of all the energy-or, in other words, dump all the water out of the bucket. If you want to just slow down, you have to get rid of some of the energy-or just dump some of the water out of the bucket. The question is: How do we get rid of this energy?

The most common way we get rid of energy and bring our rig to a stop is to simply apply the brakes. If you remember from high school physics, energy can be neither created or destroyed; it has to go somewhere. Vehicle brakes take the kinetic energy of a moving vehicle and convert it to hea