By Ricky Riley

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The Clearwater Fire Department (CFD) is an all-career department located just outside Tampa, Florida, in Pinellas County.

The department consists of 201 personnel who respond from eight stations covering 40 square miles of densely populated beach resort and city.

In 2007, after replacing the city’s three ladder trucks, the department initiated a long-needed review of its current engine company fleet. The plan, developed by the fire department administration, was to provide the city with a balanced and systematic replacement of eight front-line engines. In doing so, the department was careful to use National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus, as a baseline for front-line service and reserve status. The decision process included considering budgetary constraints, the current fleet’s condition, and the expected service life of the new engines.

The department evaluated the fleet, including reserve units, and determined it needed a plan to introduce a new engine into the fleet once a year for eight years. This plan would minimize budget spikes and ensure a reliable, permanent replacement plan that could be supported by the city’s fleet maintenance operation. The city council and city manager introduced a capital improvement budget with funding for this plan.

The Clearwater (FL) Fire Department’s Engine 47 is built on a Pierce Velocity cab and chassis and features a Waterous 1,500-gpm single-stage pump, a 500-gallon tank, and all Whelen lighting. (Photos by author.)

The department now focused its efforts on designing a new standard, all-hazards engine, with the main focus being water delivery. The CFD put together a committee comprising drivers/operators and engine officers to provide input to improve the layout of Clearwater’s current engines and develop specifications to maximize this delivery platform. The committee members operate Clearwater’s engines every day and are best suited to understand the needs of the field personnel and help plan for future operational requirements.

The group visited the Pierce Manufacturing plant in Bradenton, Florida, to view a number of different chassis and body combinations. They also visited Clearwater’s local Pierce dealer, Ten-8 Fire, to drive and operate many local Florida units at its facility.

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Chassis and Body Selection

The chassis the committee chose was the Pierce Velocity. This style was selected because of its clear sight lines, cab room, and the many preengineered locations to place electronics and department-mandated equipment.

The body style took longer to iron out because the employee group and operations division needed to define the mission of the new Clearwater engines.

The department decided on 152-inch standard compartments, low hosebeds, 500-gallon water tanks, and 40-gallon foam cells. The committee’s focus was to ensure the engines would easily lay suppl

Chris Mc Loone

At the end of February, my company responded to a working dwelling fire. Heading down to the firehouse, everyone who responded knew it was going to be a job because of the way it was dispatched. I was the officer on the second-due apparatus from my station, a rescue truck. It was a Saturday evening, not particularly late, and we staffed all our apparatus.

I found myself on the second floor of the dwelling for this one and was kind of surprised. I figured I’d be on the outside helping the incident commander, but you go where the chief tells you to go. It was fine by me. I think deep down we all still want to be on the inside no matter what rank we achieve. Even as a chief officer, I’m prepared to go in when necessary, and I feel very comfortable doing so, as most chief officers do.

A month later, I found myself behind the wheel en route to a shed fire. The smoke header made it pretty obvious that we’d be flowing water once we arrived on location. What we came up on was a fully involved shed in a rear yard that backed up to woods. It was also a windy day, so you’d be correct if you guessed that the fire spread from just the shed into the woods.

I was an apparatus operator for many years before I moved up the ranks as a line officer and pumped my fair share of jobs. I never had any trouble getting water to the crews. That didn’t change at the shed fire, but it was amazing how different a pump panel looks when you haven’t operated one in a while. I have always enjoyed driving and the first several minutes of a working job before things settle down and I start wishing I had gotten to ride in the back instead of driving. But that shed fire had me scratching my head a couple of times.

Now, I had it pretty easy in that it seems when anyone sees a white hat driving and operating a truck, people come out of the woodwork to see if they can help. So as I was scratching my head at one point, my former chief engineer walked up and quickly pointed out what had me scratching my head and all was well. Pulled up, got water to the fire, got backed up, and everything went fine outside of a head scratching moment that luckily would not have impacted the overall operation because I would have found what I was looking for.

It did make me stop and think, however, about how firefighters are always ready to go in. The skills we learn very early on in our careers always come back. But apparatus operation, when you haven’t done it for a while, can trip firefighters up. And what was also a factor in my case was that the truck I was operating was not the one I operated for several years before moving up the line. What we read about muscle memory regarding firefighting is very applicable to apparatus operation. In fact, the same chief engineer who helped me out at the shed fire was the one who, when I was first qualified on our old pumper, told me to come into the firehouse once in a while and go through the motions on the pump panel—that if I did, it would all be second nature. And, it was—on the old truck! Obviously, I haven’t done that enough on the newest engine yet.

It’s Monday Morning

Social media has unfortunately given every person who has ever had an opinion about anything a forum to express their opinions in as vitriolic a manner as they want. The problem is that the purveyors of the vitriol rarely have all the facts and are just starting lots of mini fires that grow and grow. Two recent examples that come to mind are the Fresno captain who fell through th