WFM Meeting Minutes have been added to the document library.  Sign in with with your login (firstname.lastname) and your password (your WFC number) to view the minutes from 4/29/2014.

Complying with the new WAC standard is easy and affordable.  The Fire Mechanics Section of the WFC is presenting the 35^th annual Fire Mechanics Conference September 8^th – 12^th at the Yakima Convention Center.

The new WAC standard states “All repairs to the suppression components of emergency vehicles of the fire department shall be done by an Emergency Vehicle Technician (EVT), ASE certified technician or factory qualified individual[1]”.  At this year’s conference there is a class for EVT pump certification and also EVT testing.  There will also be factory training by pump manufacturers to meet the State standards.  In one place the training required to comply with the WAC standard is available...

Alan M. Petrillo

The Augusta (MI) Charter Township Fire Department was looking to replace an old elliptical tanker (tender) with a more modern version but had concerns about the height and length of a new vehicle because of size limitations of the station where it would be housed.

It Was Time

Vic Chevrette, Augusta's chief, says Augusta had been running a 1985 Ford/4 Guys 2,500-gallon tanker with a 1,000-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump, but the vehicle started breaking down; the department's mechanic couldn't get parts for it anymore. "We had refurbished the vehicle 10 years ago, but it still needed replacement," Chevrette says. "So, we put together an apparatus committee of myself, an assistant chief, our maintenance sergeant, and two firefighters and then got approval from the government that supports us to bid out a new tanker."

Chevrette says the committee checked out a command vehicle the sheriff's department had built on a Kenworth chassis with a Paccar engine and liked the performance. After developing the specs, the committee sent out 14 requests for proposals and received four bids in return. "We chose the Rosenbauer bid because it met our specs perfectly," Chevrette says.

The Augusta (MI) Charter Township Fire Department replaced an elliptical tanker with a pumper-tanker from Rosenbauer that carries 3,000 gallons of water and a Waterous CSC20 midship 1,250-gpm pump with an enclosed pump heater. [Photos courtesy of the Augusta (MI) Charter Township Fire Department.]

Special Concerns

Chevrette points out the department had several concerns it wanted addressed with its new pumper-tanker. Two issues were the overall height and length of the new vehicle, because the rig is housed in a station with height and length limitations. The chief also says that an electric portable tank rack was a must-have on the vehicle, as was a midship-mounted pump and a pump heater.

"It took a joint effort on everyone's part-the committee, the salesman, and Rosenbauer's engineers-to get the truck as low as it is," Chevrette says. The pumper-tanker's overall height came in at nine feet, 8½ inches so it could fit in a doorway with an opening of only 10 feet.

One of the department's concerns was fitting the vehicle into a station with a 10-foot-high door opening. The pumper-tanker Rosenbauer built came in at nine feet, 8½ inches in overall height.

Bob Colter, Emergency Vehicles Plus apparatus sales manager, who sold the apparatus, notes, "The height and length of the tanker was a big issue because of where the truck was going to be located, but they also wanted as much compartmentation as possible, space for ladders, and the electric portable tank rack. We were able to give all that to them by going from an elliptical tanker style to a fire body tanker."

Chevrette says that the department's previous tanker had a Hale 1,000-gpm front-mount pump on it that was always wet. "We were freezing up that front-mount quite a lot," he says. "There was always icing on it when we ran in the winter. We also had some issues with pressure pushing water from the water tank through the valves and causing a lot of leaks."

Meeting Demands

Donley Frederickson, Rosenbauer's national sale

By Bill Volk

Firefighting is not easy in Jerome, Arizona. The streets were plotted in the 1880s before motor vehicles were invented. Traffic in the old days was on foot, by mule, or by horse. All the streets have remained the same-very narrow and steep.

Today it is very difficult to maneuver an emergency vehicle through town. Parts of State Highway 89A in town have lanes as narrow as seven feet, two inches. The residential side streets are much tighter and are one-way, and many intersections have mirrors to help navigate cross traffic. Many houses are so close together that you can put your hand through the window and touch your neighbor's house.

The Jerome (AZ) Volunteer Fire Department has gone back to what its forefathers started in 1899-using hose storage sheds strategically placed around town. By preplacing fire hose, nozzles, and equipment, firefighting is a little easier. Hose size and equipment vary as needed in the neighborhood. Some sheds have hose reels and other have hose packs.

Shown here is a hose shed before and after Jerome (AZ) Fire Department personnel refurbished it. (Photos by Rusty Blair unless otherwise noted.)

Jerome, Arizona

In 1876, American pioneers discovered gold and copper on the steep hillsides of Mingus Mountain in the wild, untamed reaches of the Arizona territory. Settlers immediately registered claims followed by establishing a rough and tumble mining camp. In the 1920s, Jerome was the fourth largest city in Arizona. It sits on a 30-degree slope and is surrounded by the Prescott National Forest. The elevation difference in Jerome is extreme-between 4,500 feet and 5,600 feet in an area encompassing three square miles.

As was the case in many early mining camps, there was no long-term planning. The only plan was to get the ore out of the mountain and to market. Men dreamed of riches and gave little thought to anything else. As a result, only the most temporary of structures were built at the camp. This situation created extremely dangerous fire conditions. And fire, given half a chance, will exploit those conditions. Inevitably, a series of fires devastated the mining camps in Jerome's early years.

Four fires in the 1890s were sufficiently destructive to be placed in the category of disasters. Jerome's conflagrations occurred in rapid succession. Many conditions existed at the time that contributed to Jerome's ability to burn so easily: pine buildings, some covered in canvas; structures packed closely together on a steep hillside; and the use of kerosene lamps and wood burning stoves with clay and wood chimneys. Other factors that contributed greatly to the fires were quoted in the local paper as wind, lack of adequate water supply, and alcohol consumption among the populace.

This formula for disaster produced a series of destructive fires. After each burn, citizens lived in tents while reconstructing their structures, only to have them burn again.

The streets of Jerome, Arizona, were plotted in 1880s before motor vehicles. All the streets have remained the same-very narrow and steep. Parts of State Highway 89A in town have lanes as narrow as seven feet, two inches. Residential side streets are much tighter. Many houses are so close together that you can put your hand through a window and touch your neighbor's house. (Photo by author.)

Bill Adams, editor of the Jerome Mining News, remarked that he might as