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Welcome

The Finest Supporting the Bravest!

The purpose of the Fire Mechanics Section is to promote standardization of fire apparatus and equipment preventative maintenance, improve safety standards and practices, promote workshops, conferences, and seminars related to the purposes of this Section, and to promote cost savings through standardization of building and equipment purchasing and maintenance.

RECENT FIRE MECHANIC NEWS

Posted: Jun 1, 2018

Rural Water Supply

By James Burnham

When a fire scene is outside of a district equipped with a water supply system and hydrants, the delivery of the needed fire flow to control and extinguish the fire is a challenge that must be addressed by the incident commander.

There may be a nearby suction source; perhaps a supply line to a distant source is needed; or, if the distance is too great, water may need to be shuttled to the scene in mobile apparatus.

Do you find that you are struggling to maintain the necessary water flow on your fires? Are you running out of water at the most inopportune times? Most rural departments also face these challenges with only minimal staffing in the early stages until additional help arrives. Does the task of setting up your water supply rob you of personnel who should be conducting fire suppression?

Several items need to be taken into consideration when deciding how to supply water:

1. What fire flow (gallons per minute) is needed and for how long?

2. Where is the nearest viable water source?

3. What water delivery method should be used?

4. What resources are needed to deliver the needed flow rate?

Determining Needed Flow Rate

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1142, Standard on Water Supplies for Suburban and Rural Firefighting, provides some good guidelines on the amount of water needed and the flow rates. This standard provides a methodology for calculating these numbers. Is the fireground the place to be doing these calculations? Of course not. Do the calculations for some representative structures in your response district and apply these numbers to similar groups of buildings. NFPA 1142 appears complicated on the surface, but if you do a few sample calculations, you will find that most of your buildings fit into a small number of categories.

Basically, most dwellings fall into Occupancy Hazard 7 and Construction Classification Number 1. Do one calculation for single-story ranches, another for 2Â½-story wood frame dwellings, etc., depending on the types of construction you encounter in your response district. You will find that for average-sized single-family dwellings, the required flow rate is 250 gpm and the total water supply needed is around 2,500 gallons. For larger dwellings, the flow rate will generally be in the 500-gpm range and the total water required is 10,000 gallons or less. These types of structures represent the bread-and-butter operations of most rural fire departments. If you are one of the unlucky, you will have commercial buildings or business districts where the buildings are larger and fire exposures exist to neighboring buildings. In these isolated cases, your estimated flow requirements may be 1,000 gpm or greater.

1Â 2Â An example of a nurse tanker supplying an attack engine and the shuttling tanker filling the nurse tanker. This type of setup can supply 250 to 400 gpm with minimal staff resources. (Photos by author.)

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Posted: Jun 1, 2018

Fire Apparatus Components

Richard Marinucci

Technology and electronics are essential when integrating components into apparatus.

There are very few “mechanical-only” parts, as everything has a technical (i.e., electronic) component. This has made operation easier and training time quicker. There is still a need to have an understanding of how the various components interrelate and operate. While reliability is very good, there are occasions where the operator needs to have a plan B. That requires good knowledge of the inner workings.

This is easier said than done. To make the various components easier to use (and more reliable, I might add), the complexity has increased. The engineering required to make various parts function as intended requires someone with an engineering degree to really understand the inner workings. One might argue that a firefighter, engine operator, or officer does not need to know how something works, only that it will work. As long as everything goes according to plan, this is fine. But, there needs to be a backup strategy so that the emergency can be handled expeditiously and the recipient of the service does not suffer any additional effects.

Know the Equipment

Knowledge of the equipment is the most essential aspect of being prepared for the unexpected. I realize that today’s fire service professionals have a lot on their plates. Between all the added responsibilities and increasing run volume, time for preparation is becoming more and more rare. But, those asked to perform specific duties as part of their core job must become extremely competent at their work. This means that there must be a prioritization of responsibilities and a commitment by both the organization and the individual to be focused on the basic elements of the job.

All of this is not only for the engine operator. There are basic skills and knowledge that everyone on the department should know—from firefighter to officer. Of course, the depth of knowledge will be different. It also may require specialization by individuals with very focused information regarding particular components of the apparatus. Often individuals have a special interest in smaller parts but not the entire vehicle. They may look at the foam system, for example, as something they want to learn more about. They could be a valuable resource if things go “south” during an emergency event. Do not discount the advantages of using everyone’s strengths and the power of involvement.

Planning for the Unexpected

Of course, it may not always be possible to have the technical knowledge and skills available on the scene of an emergency to initiate emergency repairs should something fail. There needs to be some thought put into establishing options as to what is realistically possible with the resources available to the department. There should be some redundancy built into every operation within reason. It is understood that not everything that is done during the course of an emergency can be planned and predicted. It is also understood that some organizations are taxed with their resources. Even with this consideration, contingency plans can be established. It could be as simple as having a backup piece of apparatus in position to quickly replace another vehicle that may be having some difficulties. If a pump fails to engage and personnel cannot make a quick enough adjustment or figure out the problem, switching to another truc

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Posted: Jun 1, 2018

Firefighter Accountability Systems and Equipment

By Alan M. Petrillo

Firefighter accountability always has been a concern on fire scenes—knowing who’s there, their physical locations, and tasks being performed.

In recent years, technology has been put to work on fireground accountability systems that improve the situational awareness of incident commanders (ICs) and other officers as well as individual firefighters.

IamResponding.com

Daniel Seidberg, president of IamResponding.com, makes an Internet app for smartphones that allows an IC to know when individual firefighters are on the way to a call and where they are located through live tracking. “IamResponding starts with prescene accountability and ends with post-scene accountability,” Seidberg says. “The app can be used on smartphones or legacy flip phones. The firefighter simply presses a button on the app, which then transmits his data and GPS location.”

Seidberg notes the system can track the location of each firefighter on a scene as long as they have his device with him, identifying him by name and position. “In most instances, it will penetrate into a building, like on most residential structures, but not ones with a lot of steel in them unless they are on the roof,” he points out. “There also is a height limitation in that the system cannot distinguish what floor of a multistory building the firefighters are on. But on a scene like a wildland incident or other exterior scene, the IC can see where firefighters are located relative to other markers that can be overlaid on a map showing the fire lines and the actual fire.”

1Â Adashi’s incident command and management software allows an incident commander (IC) to know which units are responding and to communicate with them. Shown is the IC’s incident screen. (Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of Adashi Systems.)

2Â The personnel accountability peport (PAR) screen that an IC sees when using Adashi’s incident command and management software.

1 Adashi’s incident command and management software allows an incident commander (IC) to know which units are responding and to communicate with them. Shown is the IC’s incident screen. (Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of Adashi Systems.) 2 The personnel accountability peport (PAR) screen that an IC sees when using Adashi’s incident command and management software.

Adashi Systems

Adashi Systems makes incident command and management software that features an automatic vehicle location function to allow an IC to know which units are responding and communicate with them, according to Sanjay Kalasa, Adashi’s president. Coupled with Adashi’s RollCall staffing tool, Kalasa says, “the IC can know through a dashboard who is assigned to the incident and on what apparatus. The IC is advised when the apparatus is en route, and if it is not assigned to a specific task, can send a message through an

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Posted: Jun 1, 2018

When PPE and Water Don’t Mix

Carl J. Haddon

The term personal protective equipment (PPE) should speak for itself. It is designed to protect us from the hazards we face as fire and rescue personnel. Are there times when our PPE puts us in harm’s way? I believe there are. For the sake of this article, the PPE I’ll be referring to is firefighting turnout or bunker gear.

Like many departments across the country, the vast majority of fire department calls (besides emergency medical service) here in our area are motor vehicle crashes. We respond to vehicle accidents like we would respond to any other emergency call. We are “turned out” in full bunker gear, with designated members or riding assignments that will don self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).

Our response area consists of roughly 50 miles of mountainous interstate highway that ends on the border with western Montana. Most of that Interstate parallels the Salmon River on one side of the highway and the Beaverhead Mountain Range on the other. We (Idaho) also happen to be a state (at least this part of Idaho) that doesn’t believe too much in the use of guard rails, Armco, or “Jersey” K Rail type concrete barriers along the highways. “They” call it “wild and scenic highway.” We firefighters call it something else, but that is a story for another time and place.

Like many other states with rivers that parallel major interstate highways, our state department of transportation enforces state law that says (paraphrased): Any emergency responder working an incident between the frost line (white highway line on the outer lane edge nearest the river) and the water’s edge must wear a personal flotation device (PFD) at all times. Violations carry a hefty fine for the individual as well as the department he’s working for.

Because of the terrain, our significant vehicle crashes involve one or both of the following scenarios with almost no exceptions: Wrecked vehicles come to rest in or near the water, or wrecked vehicles bounce off of the mountainside and come to rest on the highway or near or in the water. The same scenario holds true for most of our vehicle fires. Regardless, if we don’t have to use our apparatus as a blocker, we are forced to park on the river side of the frost line, requiring us to operate with PFDs on as part of our PPE. How well does bunker gear and a PFD work together?

PFD/Turnout Gear Interaction

PFDs, or life jackets, don’t mix well with turnouts, or SCBA. Even replacing a bunker coat with a life jacket doesn’t really work in a practical sense. I won’t get into the flotation values of various PFDs, but suffice it to say that even a class 5 whitewater rescue life jacket is no match for submerged leather firefighting boots and bunker pants with all of the goodies in our pockets. With or without a life jacket on, how quickly can we get out of our remaining bunker gear (especially with a life jacket on) should we find ourselves in moving water? Is this something that you train on? Should you? Please don’t get me wrong, a life jacket will certainly help to add something to your buoyancy, even with turnouts on, but water—especially swiftly moving river water—and PPE do not mix well.

This issue brings up another hot button topic regarding PPE and firefighter station wear. What about uniform shorts? I’ve heard and had lots of discussion about the pros and cons of departments allowing or not allowing their members to wear uniform sho