By Alan M. Petrillo

Many fire departments around the country use fireboats-from big cities along the East and West coasts to those on the Great Lakes, rivers, and inland lakes.

The kinds of boats those departments use depend on a number of considerations. Among them are the mission required of the boats (fire suppression, search, rescue, or a combination of those tasks), the types of structures along the shore that need to be dealt with, the size and kinds of bodies of water they'll operate on, and the amount of equipment they need onboard. But in many instances, heavy firepower from pumps and monitors are one of the chief considerations.

On the Lake and River

The Chicago (IL) Fire Department operates three fireboats: the first-due Christopher Wheatley; the Victor L. Schlaeger, kept in reserve; and a 32-foot Fast Boat that is in service from April to November along Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, the prime working areas. The Christopher Wheatley, designated as Engine 2, is named for a Chicago firefighter killed in the line of duty.

1 The Chicago (IL) Fire Department has three fireboats, with the Christopher Wheatley (shown here) being the newest. The fireboat is 90 feet long, has a 24-foot beam, and is rated to pump at 14,000 gpm through four Stang monitors. (Photo courtesy of Gordon J. Nord Jr.)

The Christopher Wheatley is 90 feet long with a 24-foot beam; draws seven feet, six inches; and has an overhead clearance of 16 feet-enough to get under most of the bridges in Chicago. The fireboat's power comes from four Caterpillar diesel engines-two 1,500-horsepower (hp) diesels for maneuvering the boat and two 1,000-hp engines for pumping. The fireboat can cruise at 13 knots, or 13.7 miles per hour (mph), and is rated to pump at 14,000 gallons per minute (gpm).

The Chicago Fire Department had the boat set up with four Stang monitors. Three are at the bow, with the centerline monitor rated at 6,000 gpm and the two side monitors at 3,000 gpm each. At the stern, the boat carries a 3,000-gpm Stang monitor mounted on a hydraulic platform that can be raised to 30 feet.

The Christopher Wheatley carries a 1,000-gallon foam tank and has nine discharges, for handlines, along each side of its deckhouse and four discharges at the bow. In addition, the fireboat carries 150 life jackets for rescue purposes, has an allotment of self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and an emergency medical services (EMS) compartment, carries self-contained underwater breathing apparatus gear for divers, and has a decontamination shower room.

Michael W. Fox, Chicago assistant deputy fire commissioner, says the Christopher Wheatley replaced the Victor L. Schlaeger, which is kept as a reserve fire boat. "The Victor L. Schlaeger is 94 feet long and was built in 1949, so our new fireboat was the first new big boat the department has purchased since then," he said.

Chicago's Fast Boat is 32 feet long, Fox points out, and carries a 5,000-gpm pump and a single monitor. "It has a landing craft type front door, which makes it easier and safer to deploy and retrieve divers," Fox observes. "We also have an older 18-foot river boat, two 12-foot Jon boats, 10 Zodiac inflatable boats, as well as two Jet Skis, which are all used for water rescue or flood rescue."

Speed and Water Flow

Arguably, the big dog in the world of fireboats is the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), which has two large fireboats: the Three Forty Three and Firefighter II.

The Three Forty Three is a 140-fo

Robert Tutterow

The stated goal of the project was "to provide a data-collection summary of current practice and policies for fire service PPE care and maintenance." The collected data came from completed online surveys from the fire service, including line firefighters, administrative staff, and those who served dual roles; independent service providers; and manufacturers. The survey covered PPE elements, including, coats, pants, helmet, hood, gloves, and boots. By design, these are the elements that NFPA 1851, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, covers.

The core focus of the survey was to answer the simple question: How are fire departments and firefighters maintaining their PPE? In all, there were almost 90 questions contained in the survey that were directed to the core question. Other related questions included the following:

1. How often are firefighters and fire departments cleaning their gear?
2. What is the average time in storage of the gear?
3. Are firefighters and fire departments using gear that was manufactured more than 10 years ago?
4. What happens to the gear once it is "retired"?

Troubling Findings

There were 1,148 responses from the fire service with 49.4 percent of them stating they were line firefighters or officers, 19.6 percent stating they were staff, and 31.0 percent stating they were both. From the responses, a startling 25.2 percent admitted their department did not have any policies, standard operating procedures, or standard operating guidelines for the care and maintenance of their PPE. The result is even more disturbing when, for unknown reasons, 140 (12 percent) did not answer the question. It is a relatively safe assumption that the majority of those who skipped the question do not have a policy in place. Regarding if their policies were based on NFPA 1851, less than half (48.8 percent) responded yes, 22.3 percent responded no, and 28.9 percent didn't know. Just over half the fire service respondents said that compliance with their policies on PPE care and maintenance was mandatory, 32.5 percent said it wasn't, and 14.6 percent did not know.

Puzzling

Considering that PPE care and maintenance has been an issue in the fire service for the past 25 years, these numbers are truly puzzling. Are more than half of firefighters and fire departments cleaning and caring for their PPE without policies? Or, are over half of them doing nothing? What are the barriers-tradition, costs, ignorance? The more we learn about firefighter cancer, the more important cleaning PPE becomes. Dirty gear does not provide the protective properties of clean gear. And, as we continue to wear dirty gear, we increase the probability of cross-contamination of carcinogens to our fire station, our personal vehicle, our residence, and ultimately to our family and friends.

The fire service is continuing to learn more about dirty PPE. Improved methods of cleaning, drying, and storage have emerged, and a means of minimizing the exposure is evolving. For example, researchers tell us that one of the most vulnerable spots for carcinogens to enter the body is around the head. Based on this premise, I just learned that the Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department immediately replaces dirty firefighter hoods while fire

By Chris Mc Loone

Not all fire departments had motorized fire apparatus yet. Some did, but often the pumps were still steam-powered. According to Bill Simmons, general manager, IDEX Fire Suppression Group, which consists of the Hale, Godiva, and Class 1 brands, it was during that year that three firefighters, Alan C. Hale, E. J. Wendell, and C. H. Young, Jr., founded Hale Fire Pump, known today as Hale Products. The three believed that taking advantage of improving gasoline engine technology was the key to improving fire pumps.

1 Shown here is an early Hale Fire Pump engineering drawing for a pump body. (Photos courtesy of Hale Products unless otherwise noted.)

Through the Years

Simmons says the group built the first Hale fire pump, christened the "Young Giant," in 1914. It was mounted on a Simplex chassis.

With World War I also starting in 1914, Hale temporarily ceased pump production to focus on producing defense equipment. After the war ended, Hale developed a triple combination pumper mounted on a Model "T" Ford chassis. It called this pumper the "Minute Man."

In the ensuing years, Hale developed several products. During World War II, Hale introduced a foam proportioner for the government designed for foam application on oil tank fires. Throughout World War II, Hale pumps were used for fighting fires in London, where they were used to stem the effects of attacks. Hale manufactured its complete line of pump products for use by United States Armed Forces and for civil defense. Wartime demand increased pump production from 1,000 units in 1939 to more than 30,000 units during the war.

Significant milestones in the 1930s included developing the three-lobe rotary pump and centrifugal pumps.

2 The original headquarters for Hale Fire Pump was located in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Shown here is a group of employees around a Hale fire apparatus. The company built fire apparatus as well as pumps until 1942.

Hale continued to build its own fire apparatus until 1942, states Simmons. During that time, it also supplied pumps to other fire apparatus manufacturers. It ceased producing fire apparatus to concentrate on building pumps for the fire service. To further support this focus, the company built a new plant devoted entirely to assembly, sheet metal, welding operations, and pump testing procedures. This plant augmented an existing facility the company operated in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

In the years following World War II, Hale developed the ball-type discharge valve in 1949 and introduced two new series of large centrifugal pumps that provided up to 1,500 gallons per minute (gpm). In 1974, Hale added a modern, state-of-the-art foundry to increase production capabilities and better quality controls at the Conshohocken facility.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Hale built more than 6,000 P-250 Mod1 gasoline-powered portable fire pumps for the United States Navy and its allies. In addition, Hale developed a patented jet fuel conversion for this product that allowed the pumps to be run on JP-5, a jet fuel, for increased operational safety.

During the 1990s, Hale began supplying truck-mounted fuel p

David Cain

But, that's starting to change as many departments are beginning to convert from these pen-and-paper systems to digital logbooks. Automating inspections saves departments both time and money because crews can perform their checks with greater efficiency, ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks.

Although the startup costs of implementing such systems are higher than paper-based programs, the savings in the long run are substantial. "A conservative estimate is that a targeted document management effort can return as much as $20 to $40 for every dollar invested," according to a report from totallypaperless.com. These savings are the result of increased productivity; immediate access to decision-critical data; and the ability to keep, organize, and retrieve vast amounts of information like regulatory guidelines, manufacturer specs, and compliance documents.

But, the highest return on investment for departments that have taken their checks paperless comes from identifying and repairing apparatus issues early on, before the repairs become more costly and dangerous. According to Daniel Cimini, chief for the Surfside Beach (SC) Fire Department and former member of the NFPA 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus, Technical Committee, "There are several things that firefighters can do on a regular basis to head off issues early on and that will help prevent the need for costly repairs. When everyone knows what needs to be done and what has already been done, the fire department saves time and money. Problems get caught up front, and major breakdowns are reduced drastically or eliminated altogether."

1 Computerized records have drastically increased efficiency by centralizing information, improving accessibility, and cutting down on redundancies. Digital logbooks aim to do the same thing for apparatus and equipment checks. (Photo courtesy of PSTrax.com.)

Although fire agencies do not necessarily need a software program to help them catch issues early on-Cimini has been repairing apparatus for longer than digital systems have been available-the demand is increasing as departments are asked to do more with less. Firefighters are trained in more areas today, and departments have much more specialized equipment to track, maintain, and document. Digital logbooks help departments organize and manage this multitude of information more efficiently than paper check sheets.

With the improved efficiency and transparency that comes with digital logbooks, it is only a matter of time before they take the place of paper checks. Consider what has happened with incident reporting. Before the National Fire Incident Reporting System, all incident logs were done on paper. But the move to computerized records has drastically increased efficiency by centralizing information, improving accessibility, and cutting down on redundancies. Digital logbooks aim to do the same thing for apparatus and equipment checks.

DAVID CAIN is a retired deputy chief with the Boulder (CO) Fire Department, where he served for 34 years. He works as a consultant for PSTrax.com.

By Alan M. Petrillo

Hand protection is an important part of every firefighter's personal protection equipment (PPE), and no matter what type of operations the firefighter is involved in-structural, wildland, rescue, or specialty rescue-the gloves must be designed to fit the task at hand.

Karen Lehtonen, director of products at Lion, says that fourchette-style gloves, commonly described as 3D gloves, are becoming more popular with firefighters as the desire for increased dexterity grows. She notes that Lion, which has been making firefighting gloves for 32 years, offers a full line of structural firefighting, wildland, technical rescue, extrication, and emergency medical services (EMS) gloves.

Structural Gloves

"Lion's new Rebel structural firefighting glove offers supreme thermal protection with thermal protection performance (TFP) over 60 and conductive heat resistance (CHR) well above National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requirements, especially in the back of the hand where additional protection is provided," Lehtonen says. "The Rebel's multipiece, ergonomic fourchette design mimics the three-dimensional shape of one's hand, making it easier to perform fireground tasks with less stress and hand fatigue."

1 Lion makes the Rebel structural firefighting glove, a fourchette-style glove often called a 3D glove, that mimics the shape of a firefighter's hand to make fireground tasks easier. (Photo courtesy of Lion.)

The Rebel glove is made with a double layer of para-aramid knit and leather reinforcements in high-wear areas, allowing the glove to have an excellent grip and durability, Lehtonen adds. "By using the Crosstech Insert with Film Technology, the Rebel glove can remain lightweight and flexible with breathability and liquid penetration resistance," she says.

John Zbozien, director of marketing and business development for Fire-Dex, says his company's next-generation 3D glove is the Dex Pro, a new pattern structural firefighting glove with all new materials compared with the company's first 3D glove, the FDX G1.

2 The MX-XT Mechflex extrication glove made by Lion uses a 3D design for dexterity and flexibility; has a 100-percent nylon shell; and has Spandex padding on the back for abrasion, cut, and tear resistance. (Photo courtesy of Lion.)

"With the Dex Pro, we beefed up the outer shell," Zbozien says, "with three-ounce cowhide for the palm, the back of the glove, and the knuckle guards. It's tanned with additives that allow the material to go through repeated wet and dry cycles yet stay soft and flexible. It adds a lot of durability without sacrificing flexibility, giving the glove an already broken-in feel."

Fire-Dex's G1 glove has a stitch bonded Kovenex-R double layer thermal liner, but for the Dex Pro, Fire-Dex changed the interior to an interlock weave of two Nomex layers down the back of the hand. "This is the same fabric used by the U.S. military today," Zbozien points out. "It's very flexible, and there is no restriction when bending the hand or making a fist."

The last element of the Dex Pro glove is its single layer, breathable polyurethane Vapor Flex liner, Zbozien says. Dex Pro is available with a Nomex wristlet or a leather gauntlet. "Generally speaking