By Chris McLoone

I thought we were doing pretty well during 2013 regarding motor vehicle accidents involving fire apparatus.

I would never kid myself and assume that we would get through a year without any apparatus accidents. They are called accidents for a reason. But then right at the end of the year, there seemed to be a flurry of accidents. In one state, a state trooper and two firefighters were injured when a police cruiser struck the apparatus. I'm not ready just yet to discuss that the apparatus operator in this case is 74 years old. But, stay tuned because that discussion is coming.

In another state, an apparatus rollover injured two firefighters. In this case, the apparatus was reportedly run off the road and ended up on its roof. A week before that, an apparatus accident injured the civilian driver involved in the crash a day after a crash involving an apparatus and SUV injured four civilians, two critically.

Amid this troublesome spate of apparatus accidents came news that one fire department discovered after a crash involving two apparatus that most of its firefighters don't wear seat belts to or from emergency incidents. Additionally, it uncovered that many of the apparatus in this department's fleet had safety devices, like seat belt alarms, disabled. The story made its way to the newswires and was also covered by the local news. I think it's great that it received the attention it did.

Let's talk about seat belts first. To address the seat belt problem, the department mentioned above is now adding a reminder to all dispatches that members wear their seat belts en route to the call. This isn't a really new concept. I was listening to some online audio recently of a larger fire department. In years past when dispatchers there transmitted a box alarm, they would end the transmission with, "All operators use caution when responding." However, when I was listening recently, that phrase was replaced with reminders to use caution, wear seat belts, and so on. And, this really has me thinking: In this day and age, why should any department have to go to such lengths to ensure its personnel wear seat belts? We wear them in our cars. We tell our children to wear them. It is absolutely unacceptable that we don't assume ownership of our own safety to and from emergency incidents.

That's a little bit of a change of course for me-calling into question whether we own our safety. In previous columns, I've called on the officer riding the seat to ensure his crew is belted before departing the firehouse. But at this stage of the game, he should not have to. Twenty years ago when I started my first academy classes, I recall my instructor telling us that as hard as it might be to consider, we are number one, not the victim we are searching for. If things go south, we are to consider our safety first. The concept is hotly debated, but my reason for bringing it up here is that from a very early point, looking out for our own safety is drilled into us. Why are we not translating that into our response to and from the scene? Wear your seat belt. It's a real easy direction.

Now, as far as tampering with safety devices, we are passed the point of worrying about who did it and why. I'm sure it has happened in other places. But, consider the ramifications of tampering with such safety devices. When your truck is delivered, it is compliant with National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 1901), Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus. NFPA 1901 compliance involves many, many features designed to keep you safe during an emergency response-and even operating at nonemergency speed. In what world does it make sense to tamper with these safety devices, rendering the apparatus noncompliant? It absolutely boggles my mind that anyone would consider this a good idea.

Departments, assume a zero tolerance policy for not wearing seat belts. And anyone who tampers with a s

By Bill Adams

The apparatus purchasing committee (APC) represents the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ), which in this article is any political subdivision subject to a competitive bidding protocol. It's also referred to as the purchaser or the fire department. "Vendor" is synonymous with dealer, salesperson, manufacturer, or whoever sells fire trucks.

When writing fire apparatus purchasing specifications (specs), fire departments can initiate a bizarre chain of events that defies logic. Included are peculiar trends and strange changes in human behavior. Some are foreseeable while others are not. Everyone knows it happens; most don't know why. Few admit it. Some don't care. And, nobody wants to address legality and ethical correctness.

Welcome to the hidden world of spec writing where abnormal behavior can occur daily but is seldom acknowledged. Some in the fire service believe if the subject is ignored, it will quietly go away. Others erroneously believe APCs are immune from reality and reality's ramifications. They may be sadly mistaken. The public bidding arena is becoming more competitive. The future may find purchasers held more accountable for their actions than they have been in the past. Times are changing-be prepared.

Getting Help

Many suburban volunteer and small career fire departments purchase fire apparatus on an infrequent basis. Consequently, some need help with their specs and select a preferred vendor "to work with." That is a polite way of saying that the vendor is going to "help" the APC write its purchasing specifications. Quite often, the vendor physically writes the entire document. It's a common practice of questionable legality that fire departments would rather not discuss. Nonpreferred vendors may grouse about the practice, but most reluctantly accept it. They've been on both sides of the fence.

After choosing a vendor, the APC makes a decision to write, or have written for it, an open or a proprietary spec or some combination thereof. In my opinion, most fire departments write specs tailored around a specific manufacturer. It's commonplace and, again, most purchasers disavow knowledge of the practice. A trend of denial is becoming apparent. I am not criticizing purchasers who know whose rig they are going to buy and write proprietary specifications to ensure it. Judgment is not passed on using the public bidding process to legally justify a predetermined decision. Regardless of being right, wrong, or indifferent, those are local and personal decisions. However, there is a word of caution. Although purchasers may claim ignorance of their questionable spec-writing techniques, they should realize the rest of the world knows exactly what they are doing-and why. Vanity has no place in writing apparatus purchasing specifications. Fire departments adhering to a competitive public bidding protocol usually begrudge those that don't. They wish they too could just buy what they want minus the red tape. Ironically, most deny being envious-it's not professional. The denial trend continues.

Buyers, when asking a vendor to help write an open specification, exercise caution. Most vendors have been around the block more than once, and not every one of them qualifies for sainthood. They can influence specifications with astute usage of wording that promotes their products. Remember, their job is to sell, and most offer proprietary verbiage, albeit in disguise. Get over it. As a former dealer, I did it in the past, dealers do it today, and dealers will likely do it in the future. Most will not comment on the practice. The trend persists. Read vendor-prepared specifications very carefully. After an AHJ publishes a spec, it becomes a legal document with all parties playing in a highly regulated legal environment with real rules and real consequences.

Vendors can purposefully, as well as unintentionall

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By Raul A. Angulo

I can already hear Seattle (WA) Fire Department Captain Steve Bernocco saying, "Oh no! Not another article on door chocks!" Yes, another article on door chocks! I did have to ask myself why there is always a new tool coming out to wedge a door. The answer is because it is still a problem. Standard wooden wedges are cut in a variety of widths and lengths. Inevitably one is too short, too thin, or too fat. Because the wood breaks down and finally cracks, companies started making hard rubber wedges. They're good for wedging sprinkler heads but they're not very good for door wedges. Heavy commercial doors can still compress them. I find I often have to double up on rubber wedges to get the door opened to where I need it. Even then, they slip. I started using the "Jerome" clamp (Tool Tech, May 2012), which is an inexpensive, heavy duty, plastic hand-gripped clamp, but the door still has some play in it. On all residential and most commercial doors you'll run into, it works great. It is lightweight and doesn't slip, but the spring can still break with heavy tensioned, self-closing doors.

(1) The Fat Ivan is a door chock design invented by a Cincinnati firefighter. It expands on the concept of the angle iron and hook used to chock a door open. The plastic panels are made from nylon-impregnated engineered plastic, making it extremely strong and durable. It is 100 percent resistant to corrosion and won't rust in your pocket. (Photos by author unless otherwise noted.)

Leave it to firefighters to come up with a new design. A firefighter ingeniously figured out that if a hook was welded on to the spine of a piece of angle iron, you can simply drop the hook over a hinge on the inside jamb of the door and it will securely hold the door open. I have seen a few of them around. The problem with these self-made contraptions is that the angle iron is no more than 90 degrees, which, depending on the door, only holds it open about ½ to ¾ of the way (approximately 45 to 60 degrees). The homemade versions can be heavy to carry in your pocket, and unless the edges are smoothed out, they will definitely rub a hole in your bunker coat pocket over time. If the edges don't make a hole, the hook will. This can be an expensive and inconvenient repair, not to mention that you could also lose some valuable pocket tools. It will also rust after repeated exposure to moisture. The real downside is when you accidentally fall and land on the angle iron while it is in your pocket. It is not collapsible and has hard, defined edges. In other words, because it's bulky, it's going to hurt. Other than that, it is a great tool.

(2) In the closed position, the hook is protected from accidentally poking the firefighter. The hook is a case-hardened, zinc-plated steel rod. The panels butterfly open to 130 degrees, which is better than a 90-degree angle iron and hook. The 130-degree design will securely hold the door open at 80 degrees or in the fully opened position without slipping.

A New Solution

Lieutenant Nick Caliguri, a 22-year veteran of the Cincinnati (OH) Fire Department assigned to Truck 32, was a fan of the angle iron door chock but after a few bunker coat pocket repairs and falling hard on his metal door chock, he thought there had to be a better way to design it.

He invented the Fat Ivan. By expanding on the hook and angle iron design and eliminating the problems, he made a good tool into an excellent