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By Bill Adams

The other morning, the raisin squad was looking at a trade journal that showed two aerial ladders, one painted black and one painted white (the aerial devices themselves—not the whole rigs). That started a week-long, no-win, aggravating, and hair-pulling dialog. The white hairs’ statements are in italics. “Why are they painted different colors?” “Doesn’t white reflect heat and black absorb it?” Another said, “They’re all supposed to be painted silver. They’ve been silver for years.” Harry, a known tightwad for at least the last 30 of those years, said, “Why spend money for paint if it ain’t required?” The consensus of those who could hear and were paying attention was, “A steel ladder has to be painted or it’ll turn into a big hunk of rust on top of the truck.” “How come they paint the tip orange?” I said the tip or top couple rungs are painted a bright color so it can be easily be seen on a smoky roof. Before they jumped on that statement, I reached my three cup limit and left. Note: The old timers were not disparaging or belittling any aerial ladder manufacturer, the types of material used in aerial construction, or any inhibitors aerial manufacturers put on or inside the structural members to prevent rust and corrosion. The geezers’ concern was color.

After doing some research, a couple mornings later I gave my expert opinion for the benefit of those who still remembered the topic. I said one dealer claimed aluminum aerials don’t have to be painted. Another dealer said one of his competitors promotes hot dip galvanized that “looks like a guardrail.” Another said it costs about five grand to paint an aerial, and yet another said paint is standard and included in the cost of the rig. One claimed it cost the same regardless of color. They weren’t impressed. 

Before the squad started to doze off, I mentioned the only thing required by National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus, sentence 19.18.6 is a truck-mounted light to “observe the effect of the stream from the ladder pipe” and “a light at the base of the aerial to illuminate it in any position” (sentence 19.18.5). There was nothing about seeing the ladder for a quick egress from a roof. One of them said if it was so darn important to see the tip of the ladder, the standard would have called for more lights or a special paint color. He added, “They got all sorts of rules and regulations for how bright those dumb vests have to be that they make you wear.” “Yeah,” claimed another, those stupid traffic cones and the Scotchlite™ striping on the rigs gotta be a certain color.” “They’re only concerned about not ramming the aerial into the building. They don’t care about getting off the roof.” Vendors should be aware that raisins on an aerial ladder purchasing committee could make selling interesting at the least and miserable at the most. 

The next

Ferrara—Palmerdale (AL) Fire District rescue-pumper. Igniter cab and chassis; Cummins ISL9 450-hp engine; Hale Qmax 1,500-gpm pump.

By USDD Staff

One of the key benefits of having a high-functioning USDD Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System at your community’s disposal is that it’s designed to help improve your public protection classification (PPC), and thus can lower your Insurance Services Office (ISO). Let’s take a look at how you can take advantage of lowered ISO insurance rates in your community.

Standards for ISO Insurance Rates
First, as everyone in this industry ought to be aware, the ISO Rating Service was developed in response to insurers’ requests for a way to automate the complex, labor-intensive, and costly process of managing and maintaining policy rates.

In the emergency response field, ISO helps establish appropriate insurance premiums for residential and commercial properties through its classification program for communities’ fire protection services. These ratings are critically important to fire departments and the communities they serve. Fortunately, there’s a quick path to lowering your community’s ISO insurance rates—and thus your premiums—by setting up a trackable means of monitoring the integrity of your public dispatch system.

Monitoring for integrity involves installing automatic systems that detect faults and failures and send visual and audible indications to appropriate personnel. To receive the credit, you must follow the general criteria of NFPA 1221, Standard for the Installation, Maintenance, and Use of Emergency Communications Systems. The standard defines monitoring for integrity as the “automatic monitoring of circuits and other system components for the existence of defects or faults that interfere with receiving or transmitting an alarm.”

As an initial step in this process, ISO has developed a worksheet to determine your community’s credit for integrity monitoring. ISO works both by scheduling periodic community reviews themselves (in other words, they will contact you), or by responding to requests from the communities to initiate a review process (you contact them). Once contacted, an ISO field rep will work with someone from your dispatch center to complete the worksheet. The rep will review systems diagrams and tech data from the system manufacturer and software provider to help you calculate your credits.

Five Things Needed to Monitor your Dispatch System
To receive credit for monitoring the primary dispatch circuit in your community, you need to have an automated system in place that continuously checks all the circuit’s components, including its power supply.

Following are five important monitoring prerequisites:

1. Set up your alert. Ensure that your visual and audible (trouble) signals are set up to alert communications center personnel whenever a component fails.
2. Repeat your audible signal. Set up the audible signal so that it sounds again in the event of an additional fault.
3. Create a dedicated display. Make sure that the visual signal is on a dedicated display not used for routine dispatching.
4. Schedule personnel. Make sure to assign appropriate personnel to be on duty, ready to respond when the trouble alarm sounds.
5. Double up your transmitters. Make certain that you have a functioning spare in place that can take over in the event of a radio circuit failure.

Rapid Response Designed USDD System
At US Digital Designs, we’ve taken great pains to make sure that our Phoenix G2 Fire Station Alerting System has the built-in capability to ensure rapid r