Rescue51

Hopefully this does not become a train wreck.

Little addendum to my last originating post here. Chief Downing had a good relationship with Crest and Bostonia FD (respectively Fs18 and Fs19). I believe at that time Crest/Bostonia was headed by Chief Daryl Jobe (or Jobb??) . Daryl was good at grant writing and ended up, due to that, getting funded for those Ferrara pumpers, and the Ferrara rescue that got absorbed by San Miguel Fire-Rescue, but prior to that Cal Fire. At one point the union between Crest & Bostonia was called East County Fire. Fs19 had a van-like Ford box ambulance (Aid-19???) and that always ran up the grade to the medical aids in Alpine, think it was only BLS. The 2 E-One Hurricanes that Chief Downing spec'd and had the builds on, they were fairly innovative, with roll-up doors back then (circa 1990), and I believe E17's may have been one of the first rescue-pumpers in that era. The roll-up doors had not yet been perfected and some of the engineers + FF's complained if E17 got on an uneven grade or slope, the doors would not roll-up. Not sure if Campo FD took the E17 or E24 (reserve) but eventually they ended up with one of those Alpine pumpers for a while (see photo). ~Rescue51

Seems Rosenbauer is making inroads in the industry with increasing orders/deliveries. They seem to be innovating. KME has made much progress in reliability over the last decade or two. As good as Pierce is, I believe build wait times and the prices of Pierce equipment, present a compelling reason why agencies are looking at the alternatives.

Anyone know the status of Truck-6? It seems like it has not been on runs for sometime now, E206 or Squad-6 is running the calls. This is the truck I kept broadcasting here, is run into the ground due to excessive medical-aid runs. I am seeing the beautiful new San Miguel Fire-Rescue T15, running way-way-way too many medical-aids too. Its coverage area has lots of halfway houses and group homes. They better get a squad/patrol/quick-attack or something before they run their new truck into the ground too. The problem is not gonna get any better, but worse, and as it does these agencies are just too quickly depreciating their trucks and running them into ground from excessive wear & tear. ~Rescue51

Saw the older Truck-15 (reserve) rolling code on a call today, assigned as T-215. I was surprised if they are keeping that in reserves. Hopefully the new Pierce truck has not already been dented responding to an itchy toenail.

Major damage though not destroyed, to the Ramona, CA., McDonald's on Main Street, early this morning. Never went 2nd alarm as far as I could see. Mostly smoke/water damage. It was noteworthy to see that Santee FD's TDA, T4, responded all the way to Ramona for the assignment. San Diego Fire-Rescue looks like they sent T40. In my mind, those are long runs for those two trucks. I sorta would think Poway would dispatch a truck, though maybe theirs is down or was already committed. Way back I thought Ramona had a 50' ladder/squirt/stick? It was an E-One Hurricane if I can recall. Seems Ramona and that area is truck poor, and the entire East County sorta seems 'rescue' poor (dedicated rescues, technical/USAR, not paramedic, I never agreed with calling a medic/EMT rig a "rescue" like some agencies).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZNvgcLUnls

In the new copy (June 2021) of Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment, they have a nice article on SDFR acquiring the new Pierce TDA's, Truck 1 & Truck 35. The article goes on to mention SDFR will be ordering (if not already in-build) 2 more exact same specs TDA's for a total of 4. Aerial is 102 feet and the Ascendant brand. I thought the Ascendant was 107'. Interesting to note from article, that the aerial ladder is not pre-plumbed with waterway. I recall the former Santee FD T4, was not plumbed and some of the FF's complained about that. And thoughts out there on this debate of pre-plumbed or none? I tried to get a link for the article but so far it looks like Fire Apparatus magazine has not posted the article on-site. I have inserted a pic I took of the specs on T1 and T35. ~Rescue51

Nice looking rig. Wonder what is behind the trend of black over red with rigs in San Diego.

If you have followed my rants, I am going to be like a parrot and rant some more (or repeat my mantra): The east county agencies are running their trucks into the ground. First off, San Miguel Fire-Rescue runs their new Pierce T15 on way too many medical aids at BLS level. They need a squad or quick attack to run on those calls, why they'd be better off running an older brush rig on those. Heartland Fire-Rescue's Squad-6 has picked-up much of the load previously put on T6, but T6 still runs many BLS medical aids, due to the call volume out of Fs6, largely due to all the low-income housing and assisted care facilities in their area. I've noticed lately on rescues, usually TC's involving extrication, our east county is running two (2) trucks on the run. Right now a rescue is underway in Spring Valley with both T15 and T11 assigned, just clearing and they were dispatched @ 9:49 this morning. If our area got a working structure with need for ladder truck, we would be fairly TRUCK short. I believe the reasoning for two trucks dispatched is for both more tools and manpower. If you had more squads or dedicated RESCUE rigs you would not need to dispatch the trucks. In the past we had dedicated rescues, one time San Miguel Fire-Rescue had a rescue, El Cajon had a rescue, La Mesa had a rescue, Santee had a rescue. None of them have rescues, having gone the route of tasking trucks now for rescues. I believe this was a mistake, but perhaps a reality to make budgets work. La Mesa has rescue capacity from their truck, and also from RE12, which is a nice rescue-pumper. I think getting a utility truck type squad with rescue capacity would be ideal for these agencies mentioned, or a Navistar or Freightliner medium size dedicated rescue that could be used to roll on medical aids, versus the trucks. Thanks for letting me rant. Rescue51

Plus Santee Truck-4 has no water/pump, so it too could see great benefits from a tender unit with water/pump, and perhaps that unit could be used to respond to all the MedAid calls T4 responds to, reducing the wear-and-tear on the newer Pierce TDA T4.

I meant to say in above post that what is important in the fire services is tradeoffs. The way I look at it is these trucks get run into ground and well depreciated, due to their high run volume on BLS/MedAids, lockouts, and rescues at a distance (like when Santee T4 responds to Alpine for a vehicle rescue, or San Miguel's T15 runs a call into El Cajon). This is not effective nor efficient use of an expensive truck that often times is out of service because of high usage--look at how often Heartland/El Cajon's T6 has been out-of-service, thus cannot respond to a working structure. I like these mini-pumpers or quick attack rigs. As you can see, you could configure one for a quick brush attack rig, or rescue, or low height profile to get into parking structures. Even though the one says Vengeant, I believe it is the model name and made by 911 Rapid Response, in Pennsylvania. Nice rigs! A YouTube video too here to look at aspects of a mini pumper and have it serve as a squad, run it on MedAids, or even run it as a truck tender since it has a water/foam tank, pump, that many trucks lack (like T6 and T11 in Heartland's area). ~Rescue51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV8STiPObxc

Firefighter specialist deceased; a FF captain in critical condition, but stable status. The shooter was also a firefighter, he apparently went home, set his home on fire and is too fatal. Tragic day! ~Rescue51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSAfHQ2vBVc

Thanks, good call, bet you are on-spot on the Cal Fire division chief 3306.

San Miguel Fire-Rescue working a MVA on the 94 near Casa de Oro. I notice on the response they have a unit designated as: MVUD3306. Never seen that unit #. Any clues? Thanks.

With all those lights I bet they run 3 alternators and run through 1 every month.

I am thinking the person(s) in charge of lighting might need to lay off the Red Bulls. Darren https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIbui5em_g8

That is one hell of a light show. As we say flying airplanes: See and be seen. Same for operating code in EMER vehicles. LED lights are the most awesome achievement in EMER vehicles.

I've attached a pic of the resources. This involved many agencies. I am adding in links to some of the video. ~Rescue51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ihH3nmi_Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bN4CDfZ-lI

Not sure of all details, units still rolling. 10 firefighters injured. Multiple buildings on fire. Explosion. Wonder if it was a gas leak? We'll see. Pic is what is on-scene/responding. Green is en-route, red is on-scene.

The new type-3 and will go to Fs16's as OES6308. The type-1 will go to Fs18's and will be OES410. That is new for San Miguel Fire-Rescue to get a type-3 rig from the State of California OES. Picture credit goes to the Facebook page for San Miguel Fire Protection District & San Miguel Firefighters. Wonder if Fs16's still hangs on to the older type-1 they've been using for a while? ~Rescue51

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdxKRaGe6G4

I am not sticking up for Pierce, I am a bit indifferent on Pierce v. Seagrave, but curious why would some prefer the Seagrave over the Pierce, especially in a department like LAFD that has gone with a fleet majority of Pierce? I am one that likes the competition and don't mind seeing more Seagraves, E-One, KME, HME, Smeal/Spartan, etc.. Pierce is certainly well liked and popular in Southern California, however it seems their price points are a bit high and I heard build times longer.

Sure been lots of structure fires lately in Southern California. Yesterday was a 4-alarm fire in Compton. ~Rescue-51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdUmv4ZLLEY

Just after the 0900 hours this morning, a MCI event occurred near at 1400 block of B Street, just east of Park Blvd.. A Volvo station wagon that had been seen driving erratically ran into 9 people who were under the bridge, housing themselves out of coming rain, who apparently were homeless. SDPD reporting the Volvo travelled up onto the sidewalk where the victims were. The Volvo driver, 71-yo, is believed to have been impaired. So far 3 of the victims were declared on scene 11-44, the others transported with 3 in critical condition. I am attaching a pic from PulsePoint of the event and unit assignments. I am also inserting a YouTube video link, from someone I know who is a popular photojournalist in San Diego ~Rescue51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg2AVGLLohc