Residents and city officials gathered at the Tahlequah Fire Department October 6 to celebrate the traditional push-in ceremony for its new fire engine, TahlequahDailyPress.com reported.

Push-in ceremonies have been performed for generations by fire departments as a way of bringing the community together.

The 26-year-old fire truck is being replaced by the new Pierce Saber customer cab fire engine. The new engine carries additional and upgraded equipment that will help fire crews meet modern needs. The engine will be the primary response truck to Tahlequah’s downtown area and will be kept at Station 1.

Once the blessing was finished, firefighters and the public pushed the new engine into service.

By Alan M. Petrillo

Industrial firefighters face big challenges when dealing with massive amounts of flammable products, so the rigs they use typically carry a big foam system.

Foam examples include the Williams Hot Shot II, FoamPro AccuMax® Fury™ and Fusion™, Hale SmartFOAM, Waterous AQUIS™ ULTRAFLOW, Pierce Husky, and Rosenbauer HYDROMATIC foam systems.

• Selecting the Right Foam
• Training with Foam
• Foam, Foam Concentrate, and Delivery
• Wildland Fire Apparatus Foam Systems
• Preventing Foam Operation Failures, Part 1
• Preventing Foam Operation Failures, Part 2
• Compressed Air Foam Systems Continue in Popularity in Some Wildland Jurisdictions

Williams Fire & Hazard Control

James Morgan, applications and engineering manager for Williams Fire & Hazard Control, says his company’s Hot Shot II Foam System combines the proven reliability of balanced pressure technology with the modern efficiency of a hydrostatic drive powered from the chassis transmission via a power takeoff (PTO). Morgan says Hot Shot II is a hydraulically driven demand system that uses a positive displacement foam pump and pressure control circuit to provide foam concentrate supply at a pressure balanced or matched to that of the fire water pump.

The combination of the pressure control circuit and the variable displacement hydraulic drive system regulates and adjusts the foam pump output, independent of engine or PTO speed, to maintain the proper pressure balance as foam concentrate demand increases or decreases to meet total foam solution discharge requirements, he says. Based on specific installation chassis transmission, PTO drive ratio, and hydraulic drive pump/motor sizing, maximum foam pump output may be achieved at or near engine idle speeds, Morgan notes.

Williams offers a dozen versions of the Hot Shot II Foam System in both single-tank and dual-tank control models. Its ratio controller kits, which include the ratio controller, metering valve, and foam check valve, run from 2-inch to 8-inch ratio controller sizes and can include remote metering controls.

Williams also makes the WATP 500, which can proportion Class B foam up to 4,000 gallons per minute (gpm) at 1% foam proportioning, the Around the Pump 1500 that will proportion Class B foam at up to 4,500 gpm at 1% foam solution, and the Thunderstorm® that will proportion

The Riverside (IA) Fire Department has upgraded one of the trucks in its fleet, KCIIRadio.com reported. The department paid $85,000 for a new brush truck.

The truck’s primary function is to assist in the suppression of brush and/or wildfires. It is a pick-up style truck with four-wheel drive and a tank. The new truck allows them to move more easily in fields and on softer terrain. The new truck also includes a remote-controlled nozzle that allows firefighters to fight fires from inside the firetruck’s cab, the report said.

This is in contrast to the old brush truck they had for the past 30 years, which forced the firefighters to ride on the outside, putting their safety at risk, according to the report.

The $85,000, which included decals, graphics, lights, and other features, came from the department’s taxation fund, which is supported by Riverside and the other townships it serves. RESA, their non-profit organization, also contributed to the purchase of the new truck (Riverside Emergency Service Association).

Erica Smith

The Decatur Daily, Ala.

(MCT)

With a $1 million increase in its budget for this fiscal year, which began Saturday, the Athens Fire Department is poised to add six firefighter positions, replace a firetruck and provide more training for new and existing firefighters.

The Athens City Council last week passed a $39 million fiscal 2023 general fund budget that includes a 5% cost-of-living raise for all full-time employees that will take effect Sunday.

Fiscal 2023 general fund revenue is projected to be $39.78 million, up from a fiscal 2022 budget of $34.4 million. While final numbers have not been tallied, Athens City Clerk Annette Barnes anticipates a surplus of at least $5 million from fiscal 2022.

Barnes said a projected $507,157 surplus in fiscal 2023 will likely be used to fund appropriations for nonprofit agencies.

Barnes said the Fire Department makes up 14.4% of the general fund. For fiscal 2023 the department was approved for $5.66 million, a 22% increase over its fiscal 2022 budget of $4.6 million.

Included in the fiscal 2023 budget is a $30,900 increase for turnout gear and bedding for the six new firefighter positions and a $7,200 increase for their uniforms.

Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks said the department will be fully staffed once the six new firefighter positions are filled.

“We are several firefighters short already — not that there’s vacancies but just short in order to staff-up the needs that we have. … Staffing is a big, important part of growth,” he said. “The six firefighters staff us to where we are safe, we are adequately covered in the fire stations.”

Marks said the additional staff will cut back on overtime as well.

“When people have a need to take off and be gone, we’re calling people in on overtime and overtime cost is, quite honestly, eating us up,” he said. “We’re better off hiring and training new firefighters.”

Hiring all six firefighters will take time, Marks said.

“We go through a very good interview process … so this won’t happen immediately, but it will be phased in. The approval of the positions is the most critical thing that we got done,” he said.

As part of the budget, the Fire Department will also purchase a new firetruck.

“We’re replacing the firetruck that we bought in 2001. It’s 21 years old, it’s constantly in need of repair,” Marks said. “They’re just very costly when you start trying to replace $700,000 and $800,000 fire trucks.”

The department’s operating costs for this year’s budget increased by $47,100 for training the new hires and current firefighters.

Marks said the training is critical.

Without the training, he said, “they’re not much benefit to me or the homeowners out there. … The training is as essential as getting the person. If I get the person without the training, then I don’t have anything.”

Other departments also saw increases in the new budget. The Athens Street Department’s operating costs increased from $451,800 in fiscal 2022 to $582,300 for fiscal 2023, a 28.9% increase. There was a 50% increase in automobile insurance and gas and oil.

This year’s budget included a new line item with $40,000.

“There’s a lot of discussion at these (council) meetings about residents wanting ditches cut because the weeds grow up. So, we added $40,000 to the Street Department budget just for outsourcing ditch maintenance,” Barnes said.

The budget for Athens Engineering Services, Community Development and Building Inspection Department increased 37.7%, to $1.5 million.

Barnes said the increase is mainly due to three new positions: land site inspector, permit technician and technical coordinator. Project management tracking software in