CAL Fire is among the agencies taking a hard look at a small, new type of apparatus that will make it easier to transport water over difficult terrain.

The FIREBX is an attachment that holds 300 gallons of water and attaches to a skid steer. The unit’s inventor told Fox 26 News his goal was to make something that was more maneuverable than a standard truck/trailer setup.

The unit can be used to put water directly onto a fire. It can also transport foam and diesel and pump directly from a body of water. The U.S. Air Force is negotiating the purchase of several units, as are several logging companies, the company says.

Firefighters with the Covington (GA) Fire Department and officials with Covington-Newton County 911 conducted a push-in ceremony to put a $1.4 million aerial in service, according to a report published by The Covington News.

The 100-foot aerial platform was built by Pierce Manufacturing, according to the report, which added that the firefighters waited 11 months for the delivery of the new apparatus.

Anthony Salamone

The Morning Call

(MCT)

Easton firefighters receive a hand-held “accountability tag” when they begin attacking a building fire or enter a collapsed structure.

It lets the department know who’s on the scene and make sure they’re all out at the end of the day, but it’s got limitations.

“There is no way to truly account for your personnel once they hand you that tag and they walk away from you,” city fire Chief Henry Hennings said.

On Thursday, Hennings led a demonstration of a device touted as providing firefighters with enhanced vision and situational awareness for any dangerous emergency calls.

It’s called LUNAR. Easton firefighters will begin to use it around mid-August, bringing it for the first time to the Lehigh Valley.

Easton will be the first community in the nation to equip all its firefighters with the device, according to Hennings and Joe Underwood, a spokesperson with manufacturer MSA Safety of Cranberry Township, Butler County.

Hennings said the LUNAR devices cost $2,600 each, with the $135,000 overall cost covered by the fire department budget, city and county assistance and a grant from the state fire commissioner’s office.

LUNAR stands for Location, Unit, Name, Assignment, Air Status and Resources Requested, according to Marc Stempka of MSA Safety. Specifically, the LUNAR is a hand-held, personal thermal imaging camera with internet connectivity and cloud network to let fire commands better monitor firefighters. It’s about the size of a TV remote and weighs less than 2 pounds. With the camera tethered to their protective suits, it offers detection and greater ability to search for a firefighter either downed by falling debris or in need of other aid, Underwood said.

When a mayday distress is called at a fire scene, the device can provide firefighters and an incident commander with information to find and rescue a fallen firefighter, he said.

“It’s a huge improvement for us,” Hennings said before a demonstration in the city’s Central Fire Station. “If you have a three-story building that collapses, officials better be able to zero in on fallen victims,” he said. “So we’re not wasting time digging into a portion of a building where we don’t know where a person is.”

Hennings said LUNAR offers a “major advantage” in tracking firefighters, beyond previous accountability tags or cameras.

Several firefighters, including Ian Insley, donned protective suits and apparatus to show the equipment’s operation. A three-year Easton firefighter who has worked at other departments, Insley said the LUNAR could be a good tool for a squad that’s faced staffing restrictions.

“The biggest thing is we’re limited in manpower,” Insley said, noting there are 10 firefighters on duty most days.

“At a working fire, the 10 guys are each doing three or four roles at any one time. So this is another tool that helps us in our jobs,” he said.

Bethlehem fire Chief Warren Achey attended the demonstration and said he hopes to learn more about the device, but liked its unique features, such as providing the distance to a downed firefighter, something thermal imaging cameras can’t do.

“First time I’ve seen it,” Achey said. “[It] definitely enhances the safety for firefighters.”

Morning Call journalist Anthony Salamone can be reached at asalamone@mcall.com.

©2022 The Morning Call. Visit mcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Bill Adams

After several “not-much-happening-today” morning coffees, the Raisin Squad started picking on each other. Old people are easy pickings. “Do you wear a COVID mask so we can’t see you drooling all over yourself?” “You gotta hit the bathroom again? When you get older does your bladder get smaller?” White hairs can be brutal.

Trying to change the subject, I mentioned a work-in-progress column about fire apparatus specifications. It was a mistake. “All you salesmen lie.” But I’m retired. “It don’t matter; you still write about that junk. Vendors can sweet-talk for 20 minutes and never say anything. Specs ain’t nothing but smoke and mirrors. Nobody understands them. People just buy whatever they want.” They drove me out. It was a double Tylenol morning.

• Apparatus Purchasing: Detailed Specifications Are Needed—Sometimes
• Apparatus Specifications: Don’t Embarrass Yourself
• Apparatus Purchasing: Revisiting Purchasing Specifications

I finished the column, originally titling it the S&M in Spec Writing. Then I realized the magazine hierarchy would think I’m promoting Sadism and Masochism, which ultra-conservative readers might find objectionable. Raisins already believe S&M means Smoke & Mirrors, which also could be construed as accusatory by vendors.

So, for-the-record, S&M means Sales & Marketing, which on a corporate level is an honorable profession, but one I don’t necessarily agree with. S&M could also be called advertising and marketing, or marketing and advertising. But A&M or M&A doesn’t have the same pizazz as S&M.

Being politically correct, I titled it Avoid the Three A’s when Spec Writing. The three A’s are advertising, adverbs, and adjectives—the earlier encompasses the latter two. All three are meaningless, confusing, and unnecessary during competitive bidding. They confuse old people. It should be illegal to incorporate them into purchasing specifications.

Two Purchasing Specs

Old timers say purchasing specifications only have to say the rig has to be big, red, go fast, and carry a lot of hose. It is a bit more complicated. Traumatic to the mindset of some S&M folks is my belief there should be two distinct types of purchasing specifications. One should only be used by the S&M people and vendors to advertise and promote the product. Why? Fire apparatus manufacturers are seldom held accountable about the accuracy of their advertising. This is not an accusation that all advertising is smoke and mirrors. Some S&M can stretch reality to its limits by astute and liberal use of adjectives and adverbs.

The second spec should be called the legal specifications, meaning they’re the ones the rig shall be built to. Most apparatus are sold via a signed contract—a legally binding document. Here’s where the legal profession dips their fingers into the pie. Legal Beagles be