The Washington Fire Chiefs regrets to announce the passing of former Fire Chief Steve Bigelow.

Chief Bigelow started in 1980, first as Fire Chief of Kitsap County Fire District 15 and then as Fire Chief of Central Kitsap Fire & Rescue after District 15 merged with District 1 in 1999.  He served as Fire Chief until his retirement in 2001.

Chief Bigelow impacted the local community in many ways, from serving as President of the Kitsap County Fire Chiefs Association, to coaching local youth soccer teams, and being an active member of the Silverdale Chamber of Commerce.  One project that was held in particular high regard to Chief Bigelow was his role in helping to form the Kitsap Readiness Response Center...

Alan M. Petrillo

The Bel Air (MD) Volunteer Fire Department (VFD) is one of the busiest volunteer departments in Maryland, covering an 80-square-mile area as first-due response and providing mutual aid to three counties. Last year Bel Air ran 6,495 emergency medical service (EMS) calls with four first-line advanced life support (ALS) ambulances.

Specific Need

Bel Air VFD, centrally located in Harford County, operates out of three stations and averages nearly 24 EMS calls a day, so quality, ease of maintenance, and reliability were chief concerns when the department looked to purchase a new ambulance, says Greg Sentman, the department's ambulance committee chairman. "PL Custom gave us the option of using a 12-volt hardwired electrical system instead of a multiplex system," Sentman says. "Because of the number of ambulance calls we run, the time required for service, as well as the ease of getting parts for a 12-volt system, we decided not to go with a multiplex system."

(1) The Bel Air (MD) Volunteer Fire Department chose PL Custom Emergency Vehicles to build three Type 1 ambulances to upgrade its fleet. (Photos courtesy of PL Custom Emergency Vehicles.)

Sentman notes, "It's easier to go to our local automotive electrical shop and buy a $10 relay rather than take an ambulance out of service to run it to a dealer's shop in Baltimore to adjust the multiplex." The onsite mechanic that PL Custom offered also was a selling point because his location was only about two hours away from Bel Air's main station.

Rig Trifecta

Shortly after Bel Air awarded the ambulance contract to PL Custom, the department increased its order to two identical ALS ambulances. Ultimately, Bel Air VFD ended up ordering a third rig from PL Custom, which is currently being built.

Chad Newsome, PL Custom's national sales manager, says that his firm had spoken with Bel Air in the past but that it was never able to get the department as a customer. "DPC Emergency Equipment, in Marydel, Maryland and Delaware, is the one that made this happen," Newsome says. "DPC was able to sell them the first ambulance, then Bel Air ordered a second, and now we are building a third for them. It's gratifying any time you are able to win a new account, but more so when they come back and order more trucks."

(2) Bel Air opted to include a squad bench in its ambulances so their interiors were similar to other ambulances in its fleet.

The ambulances are duplicate rigs, Newsome notes, with only small refinements among them and no wholesale changes. Each vehicle is built on a 2013 International 4300 M7 chassis and powered by a 300-hp International MaxxForce 7 diesel engine and an Allison 2200 EVS automatic transmission.

Jeff Hawkins, DPC Emergency Equipment's sales and marketing coordinator, says he brought a demo unit to Bel Air early in the purchasing process and after the specs were put out, PL Custom was one of three bidders for the contract. "It was a fairly clean bid spec where they wanted to duplicate their current interior layout but wanted the truck on a 12-volt electrical system," Hawkins says. "We were able to do that for the

Chris Mc Loone

CM: How has the ACCESS pump module been received thus far?

ST: The ACCES module has been very well received. At FDIC we had very good reviews of that product and we've continued to send out specifications to fire departments that want to write this product into their specs. The biggest thing that intrigued the folks in the fire service was the access-the ability to lift it up and get inside and do repairs without a whole lot of "turning yourself into a pretzel" and for not that much additional money. Some actuators, a hinge, and some adjustments-you have to split the module at the point just below the hose trays. Based on that, the interest has been tremendous.

CM: What do you see as the biggest issue in the fire service right now, and how does Waterous work to address it?

ST: I think the biggest issue in the fire service right now continues to be lack of revenues in fire departments in North America. I think Canada is doing better than the United States as far as that goes. How are we helping with that? We continue to work hard at Waterous to keep the cost down in our product and come up with innovations that provide the fire suppression capability in the pumping part of the apparatus but keep the cost down.

CM: What do you think is the most important Waterous innovation for the fire service during recent years?

ST: I really believe that, and it's not an innovation in the truest sense, but from a pumping standpoint, from the fire suppression standpoint, it is compressed air foam and the improvements in that part of fire suppression or the pumping part of the apparatus. In particular, our new ONE STEP, and that's a Waterous innovation. Overall, CAFS has really taken more center stage. I think from the standpoint of innovation, what has been done with compressed air foam from the actual foams-they are vastly improved-proportioning, again vastly improved, and ONE STEP and its ability to mix the three components in CAFS-water, foam, and air-most efficiently and come out with a product that is far superior to straight water.

CM: What's next for Waterous?

ST: Waterous is going to continue to make improvements to our products. We continue to improve where we are headed with our ONE STEP product in compressed air foam, and then electronic pump controls.

CM: What keeps you up at night?

ST: Being director of sales and marketing here at Waterous, what keeps me up at night is really keeping business coming in the door here at Waterous. Over the past four or five years, the economy has really been a problem. It's been coming up, so we've seen improvement there. And, I'm very excited about what's coming up for the future and so business is coming in the door, but the main thing that keeps me up at night is keeping the shops busy for our employees.

Chris Mc Loone

The HME, Inc. the fire service knows today is not the same HME Magnus Hendrickson founded in 1913. Staying in business for 100 years is no easy feat. Ken Lenz, president, who has been with the company for 36 years, attributes the company's perseverance and dedication to both the trucking and fire industry as keys to its success. "Staying ahead of the curve in relation to our ever-changing technology has always allowed HME to maintain an edge on the competition," he says. "Throughout the company's history, HME has opened its doors to other OEMs and provided them with our products to assist them in growing their companies."

Almost 22,000 custom trucks later, HME now specializes in manufacturing custom fire and emergency apparatus cabs and chassis as well as a full product line from the smallest rescue unit to the 104-foot Scorpion platform.

(1) HME began designing and manufacturing a line of fire apparatus chassis for Grumman Emergency Products in 1989. The chassis HME created for Grumman was a variation on its original VT-100. It eventually became known as the Panther I, for aerials, and Panther II, for pumpers. During a three-year period, HME manufactured almost 300 chassis for Grumman. (Photos courtesy of HME, Inc.)

Origins

HME traces its roots back to 1913 when Magnus Hendrickson, a designer and manufacturer of custom truck chassis, founded the company as Hendrickson Mobile Truck Company. Hendrickson was one of the first engineers of his day to see the potential for two rear axles, along with the incorporation of suspension systems. In fact, there is still a division of the original company that continues to supply suspensions for trucks and trailers, still bearing the name "Hendrickson."

In 1978, the Hendrickson family sold the company's various divisions to the Boler Group, which continued to supply suspension and chassis to the truck industry. In 1985, Hendrickson sold the assets of the Mobile Equipment Division with the cab and chassis business being purchased by Kovatch Mobile Equipment and the remaining product lines by HME's present ownership. The Hendrickson Mobile Equipment name was eventually shortened to the now familiar HME.

The first HME design to be released under the new ownership was a custom truck chassis known as the VT-100. The VT-100 was a Class 8 conventional truck chassis engineered to withstand the rigors of severe construction applications.

In the 1950s, HME designed the first tilt-cab over, which tilted to the rear. In 1983 it introduced tilt-cab engineering to the fire service when it designed the first tilt cab for fire apparatus. The company found that using a tilt cab in tandem with cab-forward trucks, which featured shorter overall lengths and improved maneuverability, was very practical for fire apparatus applications. In addition to the practical aspects of driving the apparatus with these features, using the tilt-cab design also provided easier and more efficient access to the engine compartment, ultimately reducing maintenance time and costs.

(2) The HME SilverFox® can be easily recognized by its 12-inch raised roof, 96-inch-wide SFO cab, rugged 12-gauge natural finish, stainless steel pump module, and heavy duty body with the ladders and hard suction through-the-tank design as standard.

In

Laura Ballantyne

Although the dramatic events of the Boston Marathon validated the reality of possible continued terrorist attacks, previous anthrax attacks identified vulnerabilities in early identification of any biological event. Any type of terrorist attack or major incident needs superior coordination among the diverse agencies that respond to such occurrences and tighter control of how areas or sectors are managed.

The rapid evolution of the anthrax cases and their impact across multiple locations, jurisdictions, and professional communities and constituencies (e.g., public health, hospitals, private physicians, police, environmental agencies, military response teams, firefighters, and affected workers and their unions) revealed the benefit of coordination planning.

Some endemic factors that impeded coordination were very basic. Procedures as seemingly routine as standard practices for clinical and environmental testing and use of proper protective clothing and equipment proved to differ among public health officials, fire and rescue services, police, environmental specialists, and so on. For some, responding to these incidents represented the first time they had met with and coordinated with other agencies. This approach results in disagreements on which procedures and standards to follow. In addition, plans need to anticipate the need to forge quick relationships and procedures between the public health departments and local emergency responders or police affected and involved in these types of emergencies. Most importantly, they need to know whom and what are entering into these now "classified hazardous areas." This potentially catastrophic omission needs to be rapidly addressed and quickly rectified.

New and unanticipated working relationships also contribute to difficulties communicating critical information, such as key decisions on who should be allowed to enter such dangerous areas. Should they be expected to just walk in and report to someone who looks in authority? Similarly, communications and coordination channels between public health and private groups affected by the emergency-such as hospitals-do not fully anticipate such mass convergence of emergency responders in their response plans. This results in rapidly establishing ad hoc restrictions, which result in people who could help being restricted while anyone in a uniform is allowed to enter with no questions being sought regarding their validity.

Agency Interoperability

Clearly, these types of events led organizations to recognize the need for greater interaction, control, coordination, and communication among various constituencies. How, then, is it possible to establish a rapidly deployed sector management system that all parties can simply understand and apply-one that will feed a newly defined discipline of what qualifications, competency, authority, and experience are deemed safe to ensure no one is allowed to enter unchecked into such potentially dangerous environments? The answer lies in reasserting the traditional role of sector management while integrating technology that improves the management control functions.

Whenever there is a need to deploy large numbers of emergency service personnel, together with their vehicles and equipment, a sophisticated incident command system (ICS) is brought into use.

This system divides a fireground into sectors for operational command; command support; safety; USAR; marshalling; entry team control; logistics; decontamination; water; foam; relief management; crew rehabilitation; and welfare, communications, and press liaison. In effect, the fire and rescue service controls the inner cordon, the police service controls the outer cordon, and the ambulance service controls the casualty clearing stations.

However, there are major omissions in the system. There is no focal point for the operational sector commande