Austen Erblat

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

(MCT)

A Palm Beach County Fire Rescue truck heading to an emergency flipped on to its side Saturday afternoon after it was struck by a pickup truck.

The crash happened just after 2:30 p.m. at Palmetto Park Road and Powerline Road in West Boca.

Four people were taken to a hospital but it was not immediately clear who the victims were or the extent of their injuries.

The cause of the crash was under investigation, said Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Captain Pat Wehrle.

Michael Vivarttas, a health advisor at USHEALTH Advisors, was in his office when he heard the collision.

“I heard a loud bang and look out the window to see a firetruck flipped on its side,” he said. “The firetruck was going south on Powerline when a silver truck going west on Palmetto hit the back end of the firetruck.”

Video shot by Vivarttas shows a firefighter emerge from the driver’s seat of the firetruck on his own. As the video pans over, it shows the silver pickup truck with its front end damaged and stopped in the intersection.

He says within minutes, a number of other firetrucks and ambulances were at the scene of the crash.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.

Austen Erblat can be reached at aerblat@sunsentinel.com, 954-599-8709 or on Twitter @AustenErblat.

©2021 South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Visit sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Canby (OR) Fire District recently held a ground-breaking ceremony for its new medical response station on Northeast Territorial Road, reports canbyfirst.com.

The station was the focal point of the $4.9 million bond voters passed in November 2018, but the project has been complicated by rising costs for materials and labor, the report says.

The 50-year lease the city granted the district for the property was a boon in keeping costs down, officials say, as without it the project wouldn’t have been possible.

The new facility will be 3,600 square feet, about half consisting of equipment bays, with the rest serving as living quarters and support facilities. While its primary purpose will be medical, the station will also house a fire engine, an ambulance, and two firefighter/EMTs, the report says.

The station will be the district’s third, and officials hope to have it operational by spring 2022.

Last Thursday afternoon, city and Greenfield (MA) Fire Department officials were on hand at the Hope Street temporary fire station to open a time capsule from 1936 unearthed from the department’s former station on Main Street, reports recorder.com.

The time capsule’s opening came just hours before the city closed on the sale of the new station’s property, near the intersection of Main Street and Coombs Avenue, the report says.

Related Articles:
Hearing for Historical Significance of Greenfield (MA) Fire Station
Greenfield (MA) Settle Into Temporary Fire Station
Greenfield (MA) to Preserve Historical Elements of Fire Station
Greenfield (MA) Fire Station Move In Now Expected for August
Greenfield (MA) Fire Station Expected to Move to Temporary Home by June

Inside the capsule was a Greenfield Recorder-Gazette article from March 1936, titled, “How new fire station will appear”; an Annual Report from 1936; and a Town Meeting warrant from 1935. A Town Meeting booklet of representatives was also included, as were a handful of coins, a Franklin County Hospital memorandum of agreement, and photos of the crew, according to the report.

And it was an emotional scene when retired Fire Capt. Bob Ferris saw a photo of his grandfather, former Fire Chief Herb Ferris, who was recruited for the Greenfield crew and even helped build the station, the report says.

By Bill Adkins

When building your apparatus, one believes we hit on everything before we send it to the manufacturer to spec out. Going bumper to bumper and double-checking everything just isn’t enough. For us to understand if everything is perfect, we must field-test it. We all know that we can’t test our particular build unless it’s already built. Most demo trucks are somewhat basic, and if you are ordering custom options you will have to wait until your apparatus is built before you know if it will work perfectly for you.

As mentioned in a previous article, building a relationship with the manufacturer you decide to go with may help you. Many times, a manufacture representative will be able to guide you in the right direction. Keep in mind that you will still want the custom design that meets your needs; however, if they have tried something in the past and it didn’t work they may have another solution.

Today I will be referring to one of my most recent apparatus I helped spec out (Tanker 85). As a committee we have spent many hours setting this truck up to work for us and we are extremely happy with the results we received. I will admit that this “Nurse Tanker” will make you feel guilty when operating on a fire scene—watching everyone on the fire ground working so hard and you are barely breaking a sweat. There are a few things, however, I would change if I had it to do over again. When it comes time to either replace or add another tanker to our fleet, these are some of the changes I will propose and would be things I would recommend to another department looking to build a similar tanker/tender.

Rear Intake

We wanted a rear intake due to drafting off the rear of the apparatus. We like to use the “single lane” method when setting up our dump tanks. Having a rear intake allows us to use only one section of hard suction instead of the need for connecting two sections to reach the side intake. Threading two sections of hard suction hose together takes longer to set up and most importantly can prove difficult for an operator when working by themselves. I know what some may be thinking: “I do it all the time and I don’t have a problem,” and I don’t doubt that you can. However, there are a lot of operators throughout the country that will have a hard time with it.

The problem is not the rear suction itself; it is the location of the rear suction. When looking at spec sheets we see what we wanted and did not put into perspective that the dump valve may be in the way when connecting our hard suction to the rear intake. On the rear of Tanker 85 we have an intake, a dump valve, and a tank direct fill. We use the rear intake far more often than our direct tank fill. We should have switched the locations of the direct fill and rear intake so our dump valve would not be in the way when connecting the hard suction hose. This is a very minor problem, but, as stated before, we are trying to improve our next build.

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