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.

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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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According to a report from The Gainesville Times, Hall County (GA) Fire Services (HCFS) have replace roughly half of its fleet of trucks with nine new vehicles, while construction and planning for the HCFS’s two new fire stations continues.

The HCFS began training on the new vehicles, which included eight trucks and one ladder truck, on January 26. The department hopes to have the new engines on the road by early February, said HCFS Chief Chris Armstrong.

Hall County spokeswoman Katie Crumley said the aerial truck, worth $1.1 million, was paid for by funds in SPLOST VII, while the engines were purchased with SPLOST VIII funds. Each engine is worth $740,300.

With the HCFS running 19 rigs daily, this move replaces nearly half the department’s fleet. Armstrong said there was not a set timeline for when the remaining fleet would need to be replaced.

Some vehicles in HCFS’s fleet were nearing 15-20 years on the road, which Armstrong said was beyond their normal life cycle. Of these trucks, Armstrong said the department may keep one for the training division; the department also needs a reserve fleet in case they have issues with another engine.

Armstrong also said that the aerial ladder truck is for the upcoming Station No. 17. In the meantime, construction has since begun on Station No. 1, with Armstrong predicting that it will be open and in use in October. The county broke ground for the station on November 17.

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