Citing threats to public safety, the head of Vancouver’s firefighters union announced Tuesday that the union opposes a proposal to build the nation’s largest rail-to-ship oil transfer terminal at the Port of Vancouver. The city is “not staffed appropriately” and “we don’t have the training, and we don’t have the equipment to effectively respond to an emergency at the oil terminal,” Mark Johnston, president the Vancouver Firefighters Union IAFF Local 452, told port commissioners during the port’s regular public meeting.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2015 11:38:25 AM - SOURCE: Vancouver Columbian

Citing threats to public safety, the head of Vancouver’s firefighters union announced Tuesday that the union opposes a proposal to build the nation’s largest rail-to-ship oil transfer terminal at the Port of Vancouver. The city is “not staffed appropriately” and “we don’t have the training, and we don’t have the equipment to effectively respond to an emergency at the oil terminal,” Mark Johnston, president the Vancouver Firefighters Union IAFF Local 452, told port commissioners during the port’s regular public meeting.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2015 11:38:25 AM - SOURCE: Vancouver Columbian

Citing threats to public safety, the head of Vancouver’s firefighters union announced Tuesday that the union opposes a proposal to build the nation’s largest rail-to-ship oil transfer terminal at the Port of Vancouver. The city is “not staffed appropriately” and “we don’t have the training, and we don’t have the equipment to effectively respond to an emergency at the oil terminal,” Mark Johnston, president the Vancouver Firefighters Union IAFF Local 452, told port commissioners during the port’s regular public meeting.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2015 11:38:25 AM - SOURCE: Vancouver Columbian

Carl J. Haddon

Although we are typically a public service arm that is steeped in history and tradition, one only needs to turn on the news to see how the world, our country, and what's happening in our response areas have changed.

From wicked extreme weather causing disaster situations on scales rarely seen before to a rise in the number of mass shootings, domestic terrorism, and predictions of cataclysmic western and midwestern earthquakes, it appears to me that the scope of our departments' needs assessments for budgeting and equipment purchasing should be changing or at least evolving to capture our "new normal."

Whether the jaw-dropping events we see and experience are results of natural or human-caused events, I believe that we now live in a world where what once seemed normal has at least changed-perhaps permanently. Many events that were considered anomalies we now see and experience on such a regular basis that it is our responsibility to add them when we conduct our needs assessments for equipment and apparatus purchases.

Changing Needs Assessments

Traditionally we change our needs assessments in a given response area based on new construction of residential and commercial development or redevelopment in our respective service areas. For example, areas adding high-rises where they've never been before trigger the need for aerials and other equipment related to high-rise firefighting.

Although we can't be everything to everyone, it is imperative that we lose the attitude or position of "that will never happen here." I have a feeling that if you talk to the folks in Oklahoma and Kansas, they no longer say that earthquakes won't ever happen there. Some areas in Washington State learned quickly that flash flooding, landslides, and hillside collapses are not anomalies any longer. I also have to believe that many of the areas that have experienced rioting, active shooters, and violent social unrest didn't think such incidents would ever happen in their part of the country.

In many regions, suggested additions may be as simple as adding a snow plow or winch to the front of a utility truck or a couple of water rescue rafts, additional personal flotation devices, and rescue rope. These can be used for a number of different rescue situations in addition to those for which they were originally designed.

Rescue Equipment

When considering equipment like heavy-duty extrication tools, take a broader look at their potential uses. Things like building collapses and other urban search and rescue responses would certainly benefit from the proper choice of rescue tools. Their use can go way beyond vehicle and machinery extrication or rescue.

Proactively broadening the scope of our needs assessments (budgets allowing) to consider some of what I mentioned above will go a long way toward keeping personnel safe while on duty and allowing for the best outcome at our responses. If budgets won't allow for additional equipment and apparatus, we can at least throw down for some additional training opportunities and programs for those disciplines that we "never thought we'd need to know or use."

Historical Perspective

At the risk of oversharing and dating myself, I'm reminded of my days in service in Southern California during the Rodney King and Reginald Denny incidents that resulted in the Los Angeles riots in April 1992. Our "needs assessments" changed on the spot.

By Chris Daly

In "Introduction to Braking Energy" (August 2015), I discussed how a vehicle is brought to a stop by converting its kinetic energy into heat.

The primary tools used to turn this energy into heat and bring the vehicle to a stop are the brakes. Ideally, when you purchase a fire truck, the engineers who built it will properly specify the correct amount of braking force needed based on the size and weight of the truck. As long as the truck stays within the weight parameters set by the engineers and you maintain a safe speed while driving, the brakes that were put on the truck will provide enough braking force to bring the truck to a safe stop. However, problems tend to arise after the rig is delivered and we decide to add more tools or hose than the vehicle was designed to carry. By exceeding the maximum gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) or by driving the vehicle too fast, fire departments are inviting disaster.

What Is It?

Fire apparatus operators must be aware of "brake fade." To understand brake fade, we must first have a basic understanding of how air brakes work. The following is a brief summary; it is not meant to be an in-depth discussion on air brake operations. See "Air Brakes and the Driver Operator" by Terry Eckert (Fire Engineering, March 1998) for an article on air brakes.

1. To apply the brakes, you press your foot down on the "foot valve," aka the "brake pedal."
2. Air travels from an air tank reservoir through the air lines into a brake chamber. Air presses against a rubber diaphragm in the chamber, which in turn pushes a plate and pushrod. The pushrod is pushed out, which pushes a slack adjuster, which turns a camshaft, which twists the S-Cam, which forces the brake linings to make contact with the drum.1
3. The amount of force these brake chambers can create depends on the size of the chamber and the air pressure being applied. The size of this brake chamber depends on the size and weight of your truck as well as which axle it is located on. They can come in sizes that range from nine to 12, 16, 20, 30, and 36 square inches and work along the same principles as a lifting air bag. Applying 100 pounds of air pressure to a size 20 brake chamber results in 2,000 pounds of force on the pushrod.
4. The distance the pushrod has to travel to properly apply the brakes is known as the "stroke." Properly adjusted brakes have enough stroke so that when the brakes are applied, the brake shoes are spread apart and come in full contact with the brake drum. The friction of the brake shoes rubbing against the brake drum creates the heat that "uses up" the vehicle's kinetic energy and brings it to a stop.

The problem arises when there is too much energy to convert into heat so the vehicle can come to a stop. The amount of energy created by a moving fire apparatus depends on how much it weighs and how fast it is going. If you are going too fast or the rig weighs too much, there may be more energy than the brakes are designed to "bleed off." This can result in brake fade.

In a brake fade situation, the excess heat created by the brake shoes rubbing against the brake drum causes the metal brake drum to expand. Each time the brake drum expands, the pushrod has to travel farther so the brake shoes can contact the drum. Eventually, the brake drum may expand to a point greater than the pushrod can travel. In other words, the drum gets too big and the brake shoes aren't able to come in contact with it properly. This results in a loss of braking efficiency and quite possibly the complete loss of braking ability