By Bill Adams

The more I age, the more frustrated I get reading fire truck specifications. Years ago, specs were short and sweet, right to the point, and easy to read. There was no second guessing what was being said. You didn’t have to call the fire chief to ask what he really wanted. You knew. Back then, no one minced words. It’s a different ballgame today. Spec writers should be penalized for each meaningless word they slide into a set of specs. The same goes for every word they use that has multiple meanings. A bid estimator shouldn’t have to waste time calling up a prospective customer to find out what is meant by heavy duty or top-of-the-line, or industry standard. Yep, fine them 10 bucks for each unnecessary word.

Consider the words plate and sheet. A plate is a dish you eat off of. That’s simple enough. Now a sheet can be a piece of paper or a piece of linen. Sentence content and common sense gives you an idea of if you’re going to read something or take a nap. When plate and sheet are used in a set of purchasing specifications to describe the metal in body construction, all bets are off. Some fire department spec writers may not realize what they’re describing. Sadly, some vendors might not either. 

Found in a set of specs: "The understructure floor shall be of minimum 12 gauge welded stainless steel plate. All compartment panels and body side sheets shall be entirely premium grade stainless steel (Type 304L).” Being from the old school, I interpret that the spec writer wants any alloy of 12-gauge stainless steel plate for the floor and any gauge of 304L (low carbon content) sheet stainless steel for the rest of the body. It seems logical. Heavy plate steel is appropriate for flooring, and, because a metal gauge wasn’t specified for the body and compartments, thinner sheet steel appears acceptable to bend, form, and shape the body. If I were a bid estimator, I would have priced it as such.

Then, I started reading between the lines. What the heck does “understructure floor” mean? Is there a separate floor beneath the compartment floor? Or, is the understructure floor actually the compartment floor? It says the underfloor structure is welded but it doesn’t say the compartments and body are. Maybe they can be bolted. Do they expect both the compartments and the body to be 12-gauge? Damn, I gotta spend a dime to call and find out.

Actual verbiage from various OEM and purchaser generated specifications: 

• All compartment panels and body side sheets shall be fabricated entirely from 12 gauge stainless steel (Type 304L).
• Body and compartments shall be fabricated of 304L stainless steel.
• All compartment panels and body side sheets shall be entirely premium grade stainless steel (Type 304L).
• The apparatus body shall be fabricated of 304-2B marine grade brushed stainless steel.
• The entire apparatus body shall be constructed of 304 marine grade stainless steel with a #4 annealed and polished finish on both the interior and exterior surfaces. 
• Body and compartments shall be fabricated of corrosion resistant, low carbon austenitic, brushed and painted 304L stainless steel. 
• The apparatus hose body and compartments are to be fabricated entirely of 12-gauge thickness, “flat-leveled” type 304 sheet stainless steel, with a #4-polished (brushed) 2-side finish.

Are these people specifying and bidding the “s

CLICK ABOVE FOR A GALLERY OF THESE FIRE BOATS >>

By Alan M. Petrillo

Two fire boats built by Lake Assault Boats have supported firefighting teams in two Wisconsin areas—Superior and Lake Geneva—with one of the support missions coming as the boat was undergoing final testing before delivery to its new owner.

Chad DuMars, vice president of operations for Lake Assault Boats, says his company manufactured a 32-foot landing-craft-style, modified V-hull configuration fire boat for the Linn Township (WI) Fire Department, which protects 25 miles of shoreline on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. DuMars says the Lake Assault fire boat was called on to help fight a large fire in a corn drying facility near the shores of Lake Geneva. "The fire boat, with a one-person crew, supplied 45,000 gallons of water to several tenders from mutual aid departments that were called upon to help battle the blaze," DuMars says.

The second incident took place in Superior, where a Lake Assault team was in the final stages of testing a 28-foot fire boat destined for the city of Newburgh, New York, but was diverted to respond to a fire on an ore boat at Fraser Shipyards.

In the Lake Geneva incident, Jason Smith, chief of the Linn Township Fire Department, says a corn dryer caught fire and a mutual aid call went out for assistance. "In a corn dryer, wet corn is dropped into a pit where it runs through a dryer at the top, is heated in the middle, and then out of the bottom to dry, followed by going into bins for storage," Smith says. "It's like an upright silo that can hold two semi loads of corn."

Smith notes that the top two thirds of a corn dryer is where the heat is located. "The bottom has about a dozen doors accessing a four-foot-wide tube to the top," he says. "At the top is an inverted funnel that spreads the corn to the sides of the dryer so it’s not all in the middle. The burners are supposed to shut off if any other part of the dryer stops working, but that didn't happen."

He notes that the strategy is to open one door at a time to let the corn out and put out the ensuing fire. "You have to let the corn out on opposites sides of the silo or it could tip over," he adds. "Once you open all the doors and remove the corn that wasn't burning, then you've introduced air into the corn dryer and get a full blown fire at the top that will then vent to the sides so you can reach it. We were there for six hours on the scene."

Dan Pitt, Linn Township's assistant chief, operated the fire boat and pumped the 45,000 gallons of water over the six hour period. "All the landside apparatus was supplied by the fire boat," he says. "There was one engine and a ladder tower at the scene, along with our three tenders (tankers) and seven tenders from m