BY ADAM M. PETRILLO

The fire district protected by the Austonio Volunteer Fire Department (VFD), in Howard County, Texas, is a rural ranching and farming area that presents plenty of opportunity for wildland and brush fires, leading the fire department to focus many of its efforts in that direction.

Austonio found itself in need of a new wildland/brush truck and got its firefighters together to determine what they wanted and, more importantly, what they needed to do their jobs well.

The result of their efforts is a wildland/brush rig that incorporates all the elements Austonio required: a compressed air foam system (CAFS), high ground clearance, and a heavy-duty chassis to take the pounding of off road firefighting.

1 Unruh Fire built a wildland/brush rig for the Austonio Volunteer Fire Department, Houston County, Texas, on an International DuraStar 4300 heavy duty 4x4 chassis to give the vehicle high ground clearance. (Photos courtesy of Unruh Fire.)

Spec Process

Russell Jenkins, chief of Austonio VFD, says the department invested three years of research, study, and shopping around to various vendors before it settled on Unruh Fire to build its wildland/brush truck. "We talked with a lot of vendors and then met with Unruh at the Texas A&M fire school in College Station, Texas, where they had an engine on display," Jenkins says. "We got talking with them, showed them the hand drawings of what we wanted, and they came in with the best plan for us and with more bang for the buck."

Wes Schamle, sales manager for Unruh Fire, says the Austonio firefighters wanted a vehicle on a large chassis with high ground clearance and with all gear either tied down securely or enclosed where possible. "We looked at the Ford F-650 and F-750 chassis but then leaned toward the International chassis because we could get the four-wheel drive they needed out of the factory with International instead of adding it afterward on the two Ford products," Schamle says. "We built their heavy wildland/brush truck on an International DuraStar 4300 4x4 chassis."

2 The Austonio truck features a Rowe Equalizer 500-gpm CAFS powered by a 40-hp Kohler gasoline engine.

The Truck

The vehicle is powered by a MaxxForce 7 300-horsepower (hp) diesel engine and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission; runs on a 158-inch wheelbase; has an overall height of nine feet, three inches; and has an overall length of 25 feet, nine inches.

Ground clearance was an important issue to Austonio firefighters, Schamle says. "For any brush rig, ground clearance is important, but more so in the area where Austonio is," he notes. "But on a vehicle the size of the DuraStar 4300 as a brush rig, ergonomics go out the window. So, we had to accommodate being able to climb onto the apparatus." That's why Unruh added hanging steel cable steps on each side of the rig.

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More to Alerting Systems than Alerting

Posted: Jul 9, 2015

More to Alerting Systems than Alerting

BY ALAN M. PETRILLO

Alerting systems for fire departments have come a long way from using simple sirens, bells, or whistles.

Twenty-first century alerting systems offer the best in cutting-edge technology to help fire departments improve response times and efficiently manage information. In addition to the call alerting function, some systems add greater functionality through lighting systems, visual display, specialized zone routing of alerts, and even door opening functions.

Network Systems

Dave Johnson, national sales manager for ComTech Communications, says that radio-based alerting makes up about 85 percent of fire and medical emergency services, while 15 percent use a network-based alerting system. "Radio is tried and true, but it takes a bit of time because you are dealing with paging tones that take time to go through," Johnson says. "And, depending on the number of stations that have to be alerted, there might be a 10-second delay. With a network-based system, all alerting goes out nearly simultaneously, within microseconds of each other."

Typically, a network alerting system establishes a direct network path from dispatch to fire and emergency medical services (EMS) stations, Johnson points out, and most of the time the systems are proprietary ones. Johnson says the ComTech Communications ComTech 10 system is both radio- and network-based. "The network-based system has the redundancy of radio built into it," he notes. "It can interface with any known trunked or conventional radio system and can integrate with P25 radio systems."

1 US Digital Designs offers basic, standard, and advanced designs of its G2 station alerting system. Shown is a layout for an advanced design at one of the Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department's stations. (Photo courtesy of US Digital Designs.)

Station Alerting

Courtney DeWinter, director of communications for Locution Systems, says her company offers a comprehensive fire station alerting system that is broken down into five basic categories of products developed to solve different fire station problems. "Our PrimeAlert Fire Station Alerting System is designed in a modular way so the fire department can pick and choose the products it wants," DeWinter points out.

The company offers automated voice alerting in two types of voices. "Concatenated Voice Technology is the clearest and crispest voice technology for station alerting," DeWinter says. "Voice talent prerecords all the words, street names, and numbers needed for dispatch, which are then put into an audio database on a personal computer."

The second type of voice that Locution Systems uses is synthesized voice, she adds, where a computer system holds a variety of sounds. When it reads a dispatch, it does a text-to-speech conversion. "But concatenated voice is crisper and better for longer words or words indigenous to a particular area," DeWinter observes.

Dominic Magnoni, vice president and general manager of US Digital Designs (USDD), says his company makes the G2 system, which it originally designed for the Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department. "We redesigned Phoenix's original fire station alerting system in 2005 and a number of years later spent

BY ALAN M. PETRILLO

Wildland urban interface (WUI) firefighters have special needs in terms of equipment, as the units have to deal with traditional structure and vehicle fire calls as well as wildland and brush fire incidents.

The various kinds of equipment that WUI apparatus carry range from typical pumper hoselines and nozzles to specialized pumps, wildland gear, and foam systems.

Joe Messmer, president of Summit Fire Apparatus, says plenty of fire departments want their WUI vehicles to be all-purpose rigs. "We have seen some fire departments put hydraulic rescue tools on their brush trucks, and they certainly have been carried on WUI apparatus," Messmer says. "Each fire department has different challenges that they have to deal with, and our job is to help them meet those challenges."

Doug Kelley, wildland product manager for KME, points out that turrets, especially mounted on the front bumpers of WUI vehicles and wildland trucks, have become a near-necessary part of the equipment of the rigs. "Those dual-use wildland and WUI trucks usually are going to many different types of calls," Kelley says. "Very often they might carry Blitzfire-type units and other similar equipment to take care of the mobility of the truck."

However, for the purely wildland-style vehicles, Kelley notes that the rigs are stocked with the kinds of hand tools and equipment that have been used for decades in wildland firefighting. "The backpacks and gear bags that the wildland crews use to carry all their stuff with them have to be stored somewhere on the vehicle," Kelley says, "and the truck makers have to make space for it. For some of the wildland units used by federal government agencies, they require carrying a spare tire, and that can get tricky finding the space to carry it."

1 2 Two views of front bumper sprayers built on wildland brush trucks by Summit Fire Apparatus. The Ford F-350 Wildland Type 6 brush truck (photo 1) is run by the Eagle (IN) Fire Department, while the red vehicle (photo 2) is a Ford F-250 carrying a skid unit built for the Montgomery County (MD) Fire Department. (Photos courtesy of Summit Fire Apparatus.)

Foam Systems

Class A foam systems and compressed air foam systems (CAFS) have gained in popularity on WUI pumpers and wildland units in recent years, several manufacturers report. Todd Nix, apparatus consultant for Unruh Fire, says Unruh has "built quite a few CAFS units for wildland vehicles in the past few years," often using the Odin Mongoose CAFS made by Darley Company, as well as systems manufactured by Waterous, Rowe, and TriMax.

"Usually a small wildland

BY RAKSHA VARMA

According to ComScore, an Internet analytics company, we now spend more time connecting to the Internet from our mobile phones than our computers.

That's a significant shift in digital habits in a short period of time. Consumers are keen on taking care of everyday tasks from their mobile phones vs. their computers because it's easier, faster, and more convenient. Mobile apps, in particular, make it possible for consumers to take care of everyday business, such as ordering transportation or reserving a table at a restaurant with a few taps and clicks from their mobile devices. This shift has permeated far beyond the consumer. Now companies and groups, such as fire departments, are taking advantage of the ease of use, speed, and convenience that mobile apps have to offer.

Fire stations across the nation are embracing mobile apps to better organize their departments and improve their teams' efficiency. Take Charles Kniffen, firefighter and treasurer of Troy (MI) Fire Department Station 5, for example. The station has about 30 active volunteer firefighters, and he is responsible for running the station, providing station training, and managing the budget. Kniffen recently took some time to answer questions about how his department is embracing mobile apps.

1 The TeamSnap mobile app allows the Troy (MI) Fire Department personnel to stay in touch and communicate about everything. The department uses the availability, scheduling, messaging features, and event calendar to automatically send e-mail reminders for training and other events. Recipients can change their availability status for each event, helping the department to better plan and prepare for them. (Photo courtesy of TeamSnap.)

What are the organizational challenges you face?

Kniffen: It's very difficult to keep track of multiple firefighters, not to mention our alumni, retirees, and widowed spouses. We need to keep track of everyone so we can do our duty and respond when our community needs help. But, it goes far beyond that. It's not easy to stay coordinated with all of the activities, training, and general schedules. In fact, these were some of our specific challenges:

• Training-some of which is mandatory-is held at our station every Monday. As you can imagine, it's hard to keep firefighters informed about mandatory training dates, locations, and start times.
• Figuring out how many members will show up for the training, which obviously has an impact on the type and effectiveness of the training.
• Figuring out how many members will show up for dinner meetings. This can affect our meal planning and budget.
• Keeping our extended community, including retirees and widows, in the know about upcoming events and news.

Staying organized is half the battle. There's also the larger issue of communication. How do you inform so many people on your squad of a change? Imagine the chaos tha