Hello Bill,
Great stuff as allways ! I found it quite fascinating to read how everything fits in and how each station interacts with the others. I don't really understand the system you use in the USA fully but you explain it really well. I am currently working on a similar setup for my fire service based on UK practices. All told i have 5 stations covering 5 areas of varying size and risk. Each sector has a specific risk associated and appliances allocated to suit. One of the larger areas has a substantial chemical complex in its midst. As a result the local station has several specialised appliances including a FoT (Foam Tanker) and CIU (Chemical Incident Unit). I haven't made the CIU yet as i am stuck for suitable vehicles to carry the vast array of equipment . Our brigade HQ will be getting hold of a new appliance soon in the form of a TTL (Turn Table Ladder) or to use the US term a Tower Ladder. This is down to their being a large number of high rise structures in the area.
Anyway i digress but you can see the inspiration your posts have given me . Keep up the good work Bill !
Tim
Thank you Tim! I'm glad you approve! In the fire department I belonged to years ago, there was mutual aide agreements between all departments in my county. When there was a call in any department's area, There would be automatically 2 other different city departments dispatched also! It kept call volume up, & if the responsible dept. got on scene, & didn't need the other responding cities units they could return them to service. This system worked well because there wasn't so much equipment duplication between departments. If one city had a Ladder Tower, & another city had a well equipped rescue tender, & another had a water tanker or Haz Mat team, they knew they could rely on each others manpower, & equipment. Dispatch knew by the call assignment's, & situation which department's to send on different calls from other cities. Every department wasn't trying to have one of everything to cover their own area, & could concentrate on specializing in a certain piece of apparatus, & equipment, finding funding easier. The fire department I first got started with had a well equipped minipumper 4WD rescue truck that was stocked with every conceivable piece of rescue equipment. It ran on 3/4 of our counties vehicular rescue entrapment calls all in different cities. At that time we had the reputation of being one of the best, & we took pride in that fact
! BTW, I can't wait to see your fire brigade photo's
! Do you have any straight ladder trucks or Tower Ladder Platforms now, or is this going to be your department's first?
Tim
[/quote]