Bill Adams

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus, recognizes seven classifications of new fire apparatus. They are pumper, initial attack, mobile water supply, mobile foam, aerial, quint, and a general catch-all classification called special service. Special service fire apparatus is a generic term encompassing support vehicles ranging in size from a Ford F-150 pickup truck to a multiaxle rig with an unlimited gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). The first six classifications are job-specific, and those apparatus must meet explicit criteria applicable to their individual function. In addition, regardless of classification, size, or intended use, all vehicles that must be NFPA 1901 compliant have to meet the provisions listed in Chapter 4 General Requirements. It's the responsibility of the apparatus purchasing committee (APC) and the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) to become intimately familiar with that document. Use caution-the phrase "that must be NFPA 1901 compliant" can be significant, especially if the AHJ is required to address it, define it, and possibly defend its interpretation in a public forum.

This article focuses on one vehicle-the chief's buggy, a generic term I use to define any fire department-owned vehicle whether it be a sedan, pickup truck, or sport utility vehicle (SUV) that's equipped with warning lights and siren for specific use by a chief officer. It is unknown if the chief's buggy (also known as a chief's car) has to be NFPA 1901 compliant. If it must be, it probably falls under the classification of a special service fire apparatus.

(1) This photo, by Les Wainman, a retired regional sales manager for Spartan Chassis, Inc., is of his 1934 Ford Coupe. He says it may not meet any NFPA standards, but with a 350-hp V8 it can get to any scene in short order.

Legalities

I am not an attorney and I am not advocating that a fire chief's car should be or has to be NFPA 1901 compliant. I don't know. Somebody ought to find out. That's the intent of this article. The objective is to protect the fire department and the operator of the vehicle. In today's litigious and legally oriented society, if there's an accident involving any fire department vehicle, one can rest assured that every aspect of compliance, noncompliance, responsibility, liability, could-haves, should-haves, and every legal loophole will be investigated to shift blame to whoever has the deepest pockets-probably the fire department. It may be prudent to determine the legal status of a chiefs' buggy at your leisure rather than being under a deadline responding to a subpoena or a court summons or answering questions before a grand jury.

Most firefighters evaluate facts in simple black and white terms; there's seldom a gray area. In my personal opinion, the legal profession interprets facts in manners skewed in favor of their client. That's their job, so get over it. They might look at a fire department not meeting the written word of a nationally recognized safety standard as being negligent. Not meeting the intent of that standard may be construed as a lapse in moral, ethical, or sound judgment-especially if there is an injury and more so if legal counsel sniffs out possible contributory negligence. Contributory negligence can be defined as when someone fails to take action to prevent an accident. Hence, they can be considered partly responsible for causing it. Bear in mind, being exonerated of a criminal charge does not make a person or entity immune from being adjudicated in a civil proceeding.

A pertinent, but seldom addressed, concern is the legal status of a chie

By Chris Mc Loone

Truer words may have never been spoken than the ones in the title of this month's Editor's Opinion. They come from a session at the recent Fire Apparatus Manufacturers' Association (FAMA)/Fire and Emergency Manufacturers and Services Association (FEMSA) annual meeting titled, "Vision 2020, What the Fire Service Will Look Like." It featured a panel that had a captive audience-a joint session of two association memberships that supply the fire service with the equipment and apparatus it needs to do its job. Both sides took advantage of the rare opportunity to speak directly with each other.

So, what have we done to ourselves? According to one panelist, we've asked for apparatus in the past that won't work in the future. The future of the fire service, according to this group and most fire service pundits, is a service that provides more emergency medical service (EMS) than fire suppression. Our current setup in many municipalities has full size engines and ladders responding to fall victims in what one panelist categorized as sending a cement truck to deliver a pizza. This is the reality of the fire service. Although I don't subscribe to the proverbial "We are an EMS service that goes to the occasional fire" mindset, I recognize that more of the calls for help in many municipalities involve some sort of emergency care vs. fire suppression.

We have responded by building apparatus that just isn't practical in many cases. We do need to build multipurpose apparatus. It's a reality. We do not need to load it up with so much that it can't navigate our first due. It's our fault though, and it was refreshing to hear another panelist say, "We'll take the blame. Manufacturers deliver what we ask for."

Remembering Customers and Users

What is the answer then? Focus on the customer and end user. The common thread throughout the session was that the panelists assembled make their apparatus and equipment purchases based on how they affect their customers. As an example, all the panelists were for "green" apparatus, but only if it didn't decrease efficiency. One panelist challenged manufacturers to deliver a product that has the horsepower and the green technology so that departments don't have to sacrifice efficiency to employ the technology. "If it can deliver what we need to our customers, I don't care," he said.

This returns us to the wants vs. needs discussion. Are we buying what we need or what we want? One panelist asserted, "Don't give us what we want. Educate us on what we need." I think sales representatives already do try to educate us on what we need. But, do we listen?

Also, who is making the decisions? Another point presented by the group was how important it is for end users to have a look at what purchases departments are considering. True, the chiefs sign off on the purchase, but the end users are specifying what goes on the purchase order. We need to listen to not only the manufacturers but our troops as well. They are the ones who can tell us best about what their needs are, which, in turn, we can communicate to suppliers as "our needs." And don't forget, providing them with the right tools to do their jobs in the safest, yet most efficient, manner possible is our responsibility.

I wanted a bell on our most recent apparatus purchase. It was a tradition I wanted to see continued. It didn't help our customers in any way, apparatus today do not need bells as a means to alert other drivers that we are responding, and it was an unnecessary cost for the truck. The apparatus purchasing committee wisely took it off the spec. And although I still give them a hard time occasionally-jovially-it was the right call. That's a miniscule example of a want vs. need scenario, but I'm sure similar scenarios play out all over the country, only with bigger and more costly items

Alan M. Petrillo

A growing number of fire departments around the country are turning to pumper transport units as first response vehicles-rigs that can handle a first-due engine assignment or a high priority advanced life support emergency medical service (EMS) call with equal ease.

These units combine a traditional Type 1 pumper with an EMS ambulance type compartment in a marriage of firefighting and advanced life support capabilities.

The Concept

Lisa Barwick, director of product management for cab and chassis at Pierce Manufacturing, says there has been a renewed interest in certain parts of the country in running combination vehicles such as a pumper transport. "We call ours a Patient Transport model and have seen a lot of activity with departments wanting to do more with less and specifying multiple purpose vehicles," Barwick says.

Barwick says that patient stabilization and patient transport pumpers rose to popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s but then declined in favor as fire departments turned to vehicles specified for single purposes. Most recently, Pierce has built pumper transport units for the Broward (FL) Sheriff's Office Department of Fire Rescue and five fire departments in Utah.

Pierce has built its patient-transport pumpers on both Arrow XT and Velocity chassis, Barwick notes. "Departments tend to go for the two-door cab models and put the patient area behind that with access doors on both sides, although that's at the customer's discretion," she says. "Usually there's a double door for the gurney lift on the curb side and a single door on the road side for easy access without having to go around a gurney."

Eric Froerer, chief of the Syracuse (UT) Fire Department, staffs a Pierce transport pumper, two Type 1 Horton ambulances, a Type 6 wildland engine, a Fouts Brothers water tender (tanker), and a Pierce 75-foot quint aerial ladder out of a single station with nine full-time and 17 part-time paid firefighters. The pumper transport carries a 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump, a 500-gallon water tank, 20 gallons of foam, and a fully outfitted patient box that includes a hydraulic lift to assist firefighters in getting a patient into the box.

"We run about 800 calls a year and 80 percent of them are medical calls," Froerer says. "The Pierce transport pumper, which serves as our second-out ambulance, is a better way of providing service and still keeping the crew available while they're out on a transport run."

Froerer notes that the Pierce pumper transport is first due on most structure fires, except for commercial fire incidents, when the Pierce quint runs first. "I was skeptical at first, but the pumper transport has been a success," Froerer says. "It has proven to be effective in keeping us in service and allowing us to handle our own calls."

Chad Brown, vice president of sales and marketing for Braun Industries, says his company builds the Patriot, a patient-transport vehicle on a custom chassis like the Spartan Furion or MetroStar. Typical wheelbase for a Patriot on a MetroStar chassis is 185 inches, with an overall length of 374 inches, overall width of 98 inches, and overall height of 118½ inches. The patient module length is 170 inches, and its headroom is 73 inches.

(1) Pierce Manufacturing built this pumper transport for the Broward (FL) Sheriff's Office Department of Fire Rescue on a Velocity chassis with a 273-inch wheelbase. (Photo courtesy of Pierce Manufacturing.)

Brown sa

Alan M. Petrillo

Fire apparatus manufacturers are responding to firefighter requests for better management and placement of hose loads on apparatus, from lower crosslays and hosebeds to slide-out and pull-out trays that make extending hose and reloading it easier.

Crosslays and Speedlays

Jason Witmier, pumper and tanker product manager for KME, says many fire departments are requesting crosslay arrangements that place handlines lower than in the past. "Fire departments want them lower now, so we typically are putting them about 42 inches above the running board, which is about 56 inches off the ground," Witmier says. "That means the hose comes out right at the shoulder so the firefighter can easily take the load."

The disadvantage to a lower crosslay is that firefighters have to repack hose by sliding it into the crosslay area from each side of the vehicle. "You can't get to it from the top," Witmier notes, "so the solution is a slide-out try that is removable. It's usually held in place by a thumb latch and can be taken out of the crosslay area, put on a table or other flat area, and repacked. Some departments also purchase spare trays that they prepack with hose so they are ready to be inserted into the crosslay area after hose is used."

Witmier adds that another potential pitfall with a slide-out crosslay is that sometimes the nozzle is too big to fit into the tray. "We talk to our customers beforehand and determine what kind of nozzle they will use on their crosslays to determine if they can be deployed from each side of the slide-out tray."

Crosslays under the cab extension (the crew area) have become popular with fire departments trying to keep the vehicle's wheelbase short, Witmier points out, but such a location causes a different issue in terms of deployment. "It puts the crosslay at waist height instead of chest height," Witmier says.

(1) E-ONE offers crosslays and speedlays in several configurations, such as these stacked crosslays shown on a top-mount pumper. (Photo courtesy of E-ONE.)

Grady North, product manager for E-ONE, believes there are as many hose loads as there are fire departments. "Everyone wants something different so the hose load becomes a customized part of the truck," North says. "With preconnected hoselines, we've seen a 50/50 mix of speedlays and crosslays," North says. "The common configuration for speedlays is vertically stacked on top of each other, which helps tighten up the wheelbase, and we do a lot of double and triple speedlay setups."

Crosslays tend to be higher off the ground, North points out, typically located on top of the pump module with open tops to the beds, compared with speedlays, which are usually in front of the pump module or behind the cab.

Slide-out trays, for both crosslays and speedlays, especially those that can be accessed from each side of the vehicle, have become very popular, North says. "Our trays are fully removable and made out of either aluminum or polypropylene," he says. "A short six-foot length of hose connects to the swivel and then to the hose in the tray."

North notes there is a difference in the preconnect water source for the two types of lays. "The swivel fitting on crosslays comes up from the bottom," he says, "but with a speedlay, the swivel comes from the top of the hose compartment."

And while dual and triple crosslays and speedlays are the most common, North says he's seen much more unusual configurations. "We recently bui