Alan M. Petrillo

Two prototype firefighter locating systems are inexorably making their way through testing and refinements with the aim of producing field units usable on fire scenes sometime in the near future.

The Wearable Advanced Sensor Platform (WASP), under development by Globe Manufacturing Inc., is a system that combines physiological monitoring with location tracking of a firefighter, while the Geospatial Location Accountability and Navigation System for Emergency Responders (GLANSER) is designed as a tracking and location system. GLANSER is being built by Honeywell First Responder Products and the United States Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate.

WASP

Mark Mordecai, Globe Manufacturing's director of business development, says that although Globe has been working on WASP since 2006, there has been a lot of action in the past 18 months that makes it a promising project. "The first step was in garment development because in order to do physiological monitoring, you have to have a garment that can be worn for a 24-hour stretch," he says. "We had to develop new textiles to replace the cotton T-shirt that would be wearable, stretch, and integrate the electronic strap assembly."

Mordecai notes the physiological sensors are very flat and must be in contact with a firefighter's skin. "There's a two-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor that measures heart and breathing rate; an acceleration sensor that measures work; and a gyro that tells posture, like crawling, standing, sitting, or flat on your back," he says. "They are in a puck that's connected to the shirt, which manages the Bluetooth data communications coming from the shirt. The key part is getting the data out of the building and transmitted to another device."

A tracking unit worn on the belt of a firefighter's bunker pants transmits information about the firefighter's location. "Right now it's about the size of two decks of cards," Mordecai says. "A one-deck size will be the next iteration."

Mordecai says the two sensor systems transmit their data through an integrated Motorola APX radio that has a digital side channel for data. "The puck on the shirt transmits its data to the tracking unit on the belt, which sends a combined tracking packet over the APX radio, which currently has only one Bluetooth receiver, to a command station-basically a laptop with a receiver," he points out.

WASP can also transmit over Android cell phones, which have a bigger pipe to carry more data, Mordecai notes. Both the puck and the tracking unit can communicate through cell phones to a command station.

Globe has conducted a half dozen WASP fire simulation trials with fire academies and departments around the country. The first was with the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI), then the Atlanta (GA) Fire Department, the Fairfax (VA) Fire Department, the Annapolis (MD) Fire Department, and Texas A&M's Texas Engineering Extension (TEEX). Trials varied from one- to two-day test sessions.

"As a system, the product isn't commercial yet," Mordecai says. "We are identifying beta sites to use WASP where we will get information on its use from the fire department's point of view. We want to know how they'll use it in training, who would wear WASP, how it will be used, and which data they found useful."

Mordecai says the WASP beta site deployments will happen during the next 12 months. "The really good news is that a lot is happening with WASP," he says. "It takes a long time for this kind of technology to get ramped up, but we're starting to see a lot more come out the end of the hose."

GLANSER

GLANSER can track and locate firefighters within multistory buildings, indicating the room they are in, th

By Richard Marinucci

Any organization responsible for responding to hazmat incidents is well aware of the challenges to develop and sustain the program. For fire departments that accept this as part of their core responsibilities, or even if they are resigned to the fact that they are likely to be the ones called to respond, the pursuit of competence is never ending and constantly evolving. Personnel must be recruited and trained, and equipment must be acquired and maintained.

Hazmat Team Models

Just as the fire service has many different models for organization, the same applies to hazmat response teams. They could be part of a single, usually larger, county or metropolitan department or a regional team. With respect to funding for a team, it does not matter how it is formed and organized. To initiate and sustain a team, a department needs money. Response to hazmat incidents requires the appropriate equipment. This has evolved in that there are more requirements for specialty items specific to potential hazards that are found. So in addition to the equipment needed, departments must obtain more varieties of it.

Organizations need to ramp up teams for response. There is an initial investment that provides for basic capabilities. Once a team is established, there are regular and routine requirements to preserve the resources at hand and to acquire additional tools as hazards and technology change. This should be funded through the normal budget process and can be supplemented with grants and other funding sources such as private donations. If an organization or group of organizations elects to prepare to respond to hazmat incidents, they must do so in accordance with an acceptable standard such as those published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The point here is that the startup and operational costs must be borne by the organization.

Cost Recovery

From this point on, it is possible to maintain the capabilities of the team through user fees or cost recovery. Once a department establishes the core skills and services, a vast majority of the funding can be acquired through a billing system that requires those that created the incident to pay for the response. In essence, any equipment that was used can be replaced, personnel costs can be recovered, and administrative fees can be included. The team's capabilities can be maintained by recovering from the responsible party all that contributed to the response.

Cost recovery is as much about making a policy decision as it is about developing a procedure as to how it will work. As such, it is a political issue that elected bodies must decide. With the recent financial pressures on local governments, most people are looking to alternative funding methods, including cost recovery. Yet, some communities are not philosophically on board with charging for service. They believe that taxes should pay for anything government does and if there are no funds then the service isn't provided. The purpose here is not to debate the merits but to reinforce that a community's policymakers must make this decision. Obviously, organizations can influence the decision and must understand their role in offering opinions and engaging in the necessary political issues.

Becoming Apolitical

Once this political issue is resolved, cost recovery must become apolitical. Response must be consistent and unbiased. Everyone gets the same level of service and everyone must pay accordingly. Being friends with the mayor should not exempt anyone from cost recovery efforts. No matter their connections, they should be treated the same way all the way through the incident to the final resolution of cost recovery. As such, teams must establish a policy for pursuing outstanding invoices. The simplest approach is to require payment unless the legal system says otherwise. This means that organiz

Chris Mc Loone

Any company aspires to be the best at what it does and to achieve number one status in the markets it serves. Husky® Portable Containment is no different and has enjoyed a very successful eight years in business. The company has experienced steady growth since its inception in 2005. "Last year we sold over 30 percent more folding tanks than the previous year," says Jay Claeys, owner and president of the company. "This year is already on pace to eclipse last year's mark."

The Start

Claeys has been in the portable water tank industry for 22 years, and he founded Husky in December 2004. In January 2005, he began putting the shop together, ordered machines, and found vendors. "And then I started making sales calls," recalls Claeys. "We sold our first folding frame tank in March 2005, so it really didn't take long. But, there was a lot of R&D time from January 1 to March 1."

Claeys says that the first year was a little slow, but in 2006 the company's folding frame tank really took off, and Husky has gained sales every year since. "Our growth has been steady and rapid, and one of the reasons has been the loyal distributorships we have acquired over the last eight years," he says. "Our new product innovations have also been a huge part of putting Husky on the map."

The company's first facility was located in Skiatook, Oklahoma. Shortly after, Husky moved to Dewey, Oklahoma, and a 12,000-square-foot facility that the company has outgrown. It will soon be moving to a brand new 20,000-square-foot plant in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. "We're still such a young company," asserts Claeys. "Even though we're in our ninth year, I'd call us in our sophomore year. We still have a long way to go to build our brand name. We're growing every year. That's how the City of Bartlesville gave us all these incentives. They gave us the land. It's a grant. And they're helping us with money. If you're not growing, you're dying, and we need to keep growing and growing."

The most important thing, according to Claeys, about expanding is to get more product out the door with better lead times to allow the company to move to the next level of growth.

(1) Firefighters use Husky's patent-pending Easy Lift Handles to easily remove any standing water in the tank and to fold it during a water shuttle class. The handles are welded onto the floor of folding tank liners. (Photos courtesy of Husky Portable Containment.)

Two Divisions

Although folding frame tanks are Husky's core products, the business is diversified. "We build [folding tanks] every day and ship them every day," says Claeys. "But, as the first and second years progressed, we developed more and more products. We sell a lot of salvage covers. Then we got into this environmental business and that started really taking off. So even though folding frames are still our core product, we do a lot of other things."

To that end, the company is divided into two divisions: Firefighting Products and Environmental Safety Products. Its firefighting products include folding frame tanks and portable tank racks, self-supporting tanks, aluminum quick assembly tanks, and decon pools and showers. "We also manufacture salvage covers, hosebed and crosslay covers, staging mats, and RIT tarps. Our floating and low-level strainer sales have been increasing as well,&

By Christian P. Koop

The physical task of changing motor/engine oil has remained basically unchanged for more than a century. However, the oil, or lifeblood of your engine as I and others like to refer to it, sure has changed. Failure to change this modern marvel of petroleum and chemicals at the appropriate time will still render the same results today as it did more than a century ago. It will shorten the useful life of your engine, and if the wear and damage caused by failing to change the oil at the proper intervals requires the engine to be overhauled or replaced, it will be one of the most costly one-time expenditures to hit your maintenance budget.

With today's tight budgets, we need to ensure we change oil at the optimal time. Changing it too frequently, in the long run, can cost your operation significantly-both in wasted labor hours and in money spent needlessly on oil and filters. The key is to find the right time to change it. Think of it as the proverbial sweet spot. The best way to do this is by using fluid analysis. Given the complexities of today's engines, whether your fleet is large or small, analyzing your fleet's motor oil is the best practice-not only in finding that sweet spot but also in alerting you to prevent catastrophic engine damage in many cases.

In this article, I will talk briefly about the history of motor oil, some of the main additives in motor oil, what they do, and how some of the information fluid analysis reports will help to proactively protect and prolong the life of your emergency response vehicle's (ERV) most vital component-the engine-whether it is gasoline- or diesel-powered.

Motor Oil

Everyone knows that motor oil's main job is to lubricate moving parts. But, don't forget it also helps to cool, improve sealing, and clean the engine. Oil essentially has a long molecule, and we change it because it gets sheared (loses viscosity), dirty, thicker, and contaminated and its additive packages get used up. The chemical makeup and the improvements of motor oil have changed dramatically over the years.

Many years ago, motor oil was completely derived from crude oil. The problem was that during the combustion process and the normal use of those early engines, oil broke down quickly, viscosity decreased, sludge and varnish formed, and acids were created that attacked vital engine parts. One of the most important requirements discovered in the early years of the automobile for motor oil was the need for proper viscosity. The oil had to have the correct thickness or viscosity (measured by resistance to flow) to ensure metal parts, such as engine bearings, would not come in contact and cause damage.

The Society of American Engineers (SAE) was formed in 1905 and developed standards for motor oil viscosity ratings. The SAE, as most are aware and familiar with, continues to provide these standards. In 1919, the American Petroleum Institute (API) was established to set the minimum performance standards for motor oil that continue to evolve today. It currently licenses and certifies motor oil and appears on oil containers as a "starburst pattern" and the "service donut" symbol.

In the early 1930s, oil additives started to appear that greatly improve the performance of oil and eventually add more protection and prolong engine life. Some of these additives follow:

• Typically detergents are made from magnesium sulfonate and are used to clean and prevent sludge from forming.
• Corrosion inhibitors slow down the oxidation of metal inside the engine.
• Amines and phenals are antioxidants that retard the degradation of the base oil caused by oxidation.
• Metal deactivators are used to form a film on the metal parts to stop the metal from oxidizing the oil.
• Viscosity modifiers help to maintain oil at the correct viscosity at higher engine temperatures. Read more
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