According to a report from WCHS, Hurricane (WV) Fire and Rescue (HFR) is getting a new station just a short distance away from their current home.

HFR hopes to break ground on its new site this spring, which has been eight months in the making, said HFR Chief Deron Wilkes.

Wilkes is preparing for the big move, which will be near Hurricane Middle School on Midland Trail. The new station will now be approximately 19,000 square feet, much larger than the nearly 8,000-square-foot building it occupies today. Wilkes said the extra space will allow them to bring in bigger and better fire apparatus and ambulances.

He continued by saying that the bays will be much larger, as will the training facility, which will include a training tower, allowing the department to grow as it goes. The station HFR currently occupies was built in 1975.

Wilkes said since the land is fairly flat and manageable, and he believes construction could begin as soon as this spring.

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According to a report from CBS4, the Denver (CO) Police Department (DPD) is examining the working ability of what’s called an Opticom system, which changes stoplights on the approach of an emergency vehicle. One person was killed and two others injured when a fire vehicle collided with a Honda Civic in the middle of a busy intersection on Saturday, January 23.

The Opticom can receive a signal from an approaching emergency vehicle and, on receipt, send out a signal to a receiver on a stoplight to turn it green. It can also turn the light red for crossing traffic.

On the date of the accident, a Denver Fire Rescue (DFR) truck was headed northwest on Speer to a call. DFR Captain Greg Pixley said the Honda was going south on Broadway. The lights were supposed to change about 1,000 to 3,000 feet before it reaches the intersection.

Britney Garcia, an eyewitness and driver at the intersection, said the stoplight appeared to change after that, saying it was green when she heard the fire trucks. However, when the fire truck arrived at the middle of the intersection, the light turned red.

The DFR One vehicle then “T-boned” the sedan, killing an adult female driver and critically injuring two passengers. Pixley said computer data and any video that turns up should determine if the Opticom system for changing the stoplights was working properly.

The post Denver (CO) Police Investigating Traffic Light System as Cause of Deadly Apparatus Accident appeared first on Fire Apparatus.

By Bill Adkins

When the need for a tool on the fireground arises, we usually do not have the time to go looking for it. Better yet, we need to make sure it is there in the first place. This all starts with performing accurate truck checks. Ask yourself, “Does your rig have everything on it that it’s supposed to have?”

This article will go over some techniques and options to organize and streamline your truck checks so you can quickly identify any missing equipment.

The Human Aspect of Truck Checks

An accurate truck check is an important way to identify whether or not you have the equipment your apparatus is required to have. Your members took the time to decide what equipment was needed for your apparatus; we need to do our due diligence to make sure it stays that way.

Over the years, I’ve found that the harder or longer it takes to complete truck checks, the more I have found firefighters “pencil whipping” them. What can we do as a department to prevent this from happening? Is discipline always the answer? I believe it is not. We can assist them from ever needing to pencil whip the truck checks by organizing our apparatus so one can tell right away if something is missing. A firefighter is more likely to complete an accurate truck check if it only takes a few minutes to identify that something is missing.

It’s extremely nice to open a compartment door and, with a quick glance, can tell if

According to a report from CBC, the Summerside Fire Department (SFD), located on Prince Edward Island, Canada, unveiled its new pumper truck.

The department marked its arrival with a centuries-old tradition North American fire service tradition new to the city: SFD firefighters gathered to push the truck into its new home, a tradition that dates back to the early 1800s, when departments would pull steam engines or the hand pumpers with horses, and the horses were unable to back them into the station.

SFD Ron Enman noted that its been done across North America since that time, and he thought it would be something they’d start doing in Summerside.

The new pumper replaces a 25-year-old apparatus that was near the end of its life span. Enman said the pumper is the same model as the other two pumpers at the station, so current SFD firefighters would not need much training on it.

The new SFD pumper cost $681,000.

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