Mail Tribune, Medford, Ore.

(MCT)

Oct. 21—Applegate Fire District says an engine damaged in a parking mishap was insured, and its repair will minimally impact the fire department because the machine was about to be decommissioned.

A firefighter failed to properly set the parking brake on a 1989 Pierce Arrow fire engine Monday near the department’s training building, causing it to roll into a tree near the 1000 block of Applegate Road.

According to a post on the fire district’s Facebook page written by interim fire Chief Chris Wolford, the firefighter believed the emergency vehicle was on level ground and failed to properly engage the parking brake or deploy wheel chocks.

After sitting in the gravel lot for more than an hour, the unoccupied vehicle slowly began to roll, pulled a right and collided with a pine tree belonging to Valley View Winery.

No one was hurt, and the vehicle was insured. As a safety precaution, the tree was felled, and the department’s A-shift crew picked up the mess.

The fire truck had been used by the fire department since 2011, but became surplus last month when Medford Fire Department donated its 1998 Pierce Saber engine to Applegate Valley Fire District.

The department had removed all equipment from the engine before the parking incident, and it was considered “surplus” to the agency’s needs.

Wolford stated that since the incident, the department is reviewing its policies and procedures with his staff to ensure vehicles are securely parked going forward.

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Controlling the Scene Jim Stopa

In October, as the days grow shorter and it gets darker, first responders are increasingly called to emergency scenes with little or no daylight.

This time of year, many of us are thinking about how to increase safety at a nighttime emergency scene and, naturally, “having the best lights” is often at the top of the list. So, what makes one light better than another? Contrary to what you might think, it is not more lumens.

While a lumen is a simple number, easy to reference in marketing materials and manufacturers’ quote-writing programs, lumens don’t tell us the whole story about a light’s performance. One of the best ways I’ve heard someone put lumens into perspective is through the fire hose analogy. Let’s say you have X amount of pounds per square inch (psi) in a water tank pumping system, and you need to spray it through the hose nozzle. In this example, the tank and pump pressure represent lumens, and the nozzle represents a light’s optic. The nozzle spreads the water in a direction through a focused stream or by fanning out, just like the optic focuses a light in a specific direction. Is it narrow? Is it wide? Is it symmetrical or asymmetrical? These are crucial details, which have little or no relationship to psi. Where the water is going and how far it can travel (optics) are just as important as having water pressure (lumens) in the first place (Figure 1).

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A fitting example would be Whelen Engineering’s 2-Degree, 8-Degree, and Wide-Flood PAR46 illumination models. All serve different purposes but have the same number of lumens. If the 2-Degree PAR46 had one more diode, it would have a higher lumen rating; however, it would not be the most effective choice if you were trying to flood an area with light.

Here is another example to show how lumens don’t correlate with a light’s performance. A typical 10,000-lumen scene light mounted properly on a fire or EMS apparatus optically projects light downward, illuminating a wide area of the ground. The same 10,000-lumen scene light mounted upside down optically projects light upward with little or no light illuminating the ground. So, the same 10,000-lumen number has two very different illumination outcomes because of the different optic design (Figure 2).

Michael Piscitelli, CEO of Sapphire Technical Solutions and vice chairman of the SAE Emergency Warning Lights and Devices Committee, compares the misinformation about lumens in the emergency scene lighting industry with what happened in the flashlight industry.

A car smashed into a fire truck that was already on scene for another car accident on 95 south of Woodhaven Road in Bucks County (PA) on October 22, according to Cornwells Fire Company’s Facebook post.

Ladder Tower—Roslyn (NY) Highlands Fire Company two 110-foot rear-mount aerial ladder quints. Spartan Gladiator cabs and chassis; Cummins X15 505-hp engines; Hale Qmax 2,000-gpm pumps; ProPoly 500-gallon polypropylene water tanks; Harrison 6-kW generators. Dealer: Bryan Kuhn, Hendrickson Fire & Rescue Equipment, Islandia, NY.

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