Rescue51

The Hemet city council voted to shut down their fire department in mid 2015. They will contract with Cal Fire and claim a cost $avings. The Hemet Firefighters Union disputes the amount of savings and has/is filing a restraining order to prevent the closure.

Pierce this posted these pics of two of the new rigs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/piercemfg/15201309182/

Nice rig! Thanks!

Heard the TDA rolled twice and then ended up on the side.

Thank "FF BUFF ONE"!

Thanks for that info ""FF Buff One". I do not believe it is cost effective nor efficient, to use a pumper for patient transport. The pumpers/trucks are specialized for fire suppression. The rigs co$t lots of money these day, to acquire, then to maintain. If a pumper is doing a patient transport and you have a working fire assignment, now you have a critical rig unavailable due to en route to hospital. Current EMS 911 demand conditions/trends are not good, as increasingly our population is using 911 for emergency medicals, ALS level, but way too many people abuse the 911 system and use emergency first-responders as taxi cabs to the hospital. I believe the entire EMS system needs to be re-thought and re-worked. If we don't do this, the costs and commitments might over burden the system.

Related to this topic in some ways, recall back in the early 1990's Santee FD took delivery of an E-One Hurricane with an extended cab (really BIG cab). It was assigned as Engine 4. The plan was to use it as a transporting pumper, that is, the BOX in the pumper, for patient transport. At the time it seemed innovative (Santee was once a very progressive agency). I did not think the idea was a good one, but other departments outside California (I think one in Florida) was experimenting on have the fire rig first responders do patient transports too. Around the same time Santee took delivery of I believe a Chevy Kodiak and was planning on trying to get the "heavy rescue" qualification and a HazMat too! They underestimated the costs of both, and Rescue 4 was I believe never any level above "medium rescue." Later they got the Pierce (Saber?) walk-around rescue, assigned to Station 5 and again planned on going "heavy rescue" but never were able to...I don't know if it was staffing or tools, but heard they staff only 2-3 on Rescue 5. Santee does have good trench and confined space rescue capacity in our area. They have a support trailer with a pick-up truck, for much of the lumber for shoring purposes.

It makes good $ense to do build up more BLS rigs and respond 'em as you said, with ALS rig until call gets triaged. If BLS they release ALS and of course if acute or heavy patient, BLS guys/gals there. For a while Santee 4's truck crew was using Brush-4 to roll on MED-AIDS (think T4 was up and running). That makes more sense than code in TDA for foot pain or psych 5149.5. Look at Heartland Fire & Resue and rise in MED-AIDS with no medics available. This trend continues as does more wear on expensive firefighting apparatus. Years ago Crest and I believe then Bostonia ran BLS boxes (Aid-18 + Aid-19), EMT/BLS and they relieved system demand/overload. Aid-6 is helpful but often commit ed when requested. With all the EMT privates around town, why can't more run BLS?

Don't know but I've been advocating for years to some of the fire boards, chiefs and BC's, that it makes no $ense at all to be rolling big trucks on BLS medical aids that they often do. It seems no one wants to listen to the logic I've offered about safety risks, wear-and-tear, costs, excessive depreciation of an expensive asset (trucks). It makes much more sense in most spheres to run a squad rig on the medical aids, cross-staffed by the truck crew. It makes sense to have a dedicated rescue rig and spend the money on that rig, to help reduce the friction to the truck, and run the rescue on the medicals. It then makes even more sense to run a reserve pumper on the medical aids by truck crew, than running the truck. The counter-argument to what I've been proposing is then they are not staffed-up on a truck/quint, and if a structure response is dispatched, then they either cannot respond or have to go swap rigs. Statistically, there are so many more medical aids runs, so few structure fires, and even when there is a structure response, the rate of actual working fire where you need truck for ventilation or aerial operations is relatively rare compared to all the calls the trucks rolls on for manpower only, but the truck is not appropriate. Example, El Cajon (Heartland Fire & Rescue) has had excessive repair issues on a fine truck (Pierce aerial with platform, no tank/pump). Firefighters and BC's have told me they truck is too busy on medical aids. Many apartments are in El Cajon, so they often have to park a distance and walk in. So much of the time the truck has been down due to excessive wear & tear then subsequent maintenance/checks, they would have missed using that asset best used for working structure fires. Something needs to change in the thinking of using trucks, code-3, transporting manpower to medical aids that are too often BLS level.

Bingo LKSENG3: I have thought the rig that fits the ticket at 3's in a 75 foot quint. Recently I've see some pretty short wheel base telesquirt deliveries, HME has one with too short a ladder for you (51') but pretty amazing wheelbase. I recall your first Telesquirt, the Crown, when it was at 1's, then went up to 3's. I think in those days you guy had the budget/staffing to man the pumper and a rescue without cross-staffing like you do now on E3 <> R3. I think your "rescue" guys were also cross-staffing the brush rig and tender, when you had B3 and WT3. Then you guys got your KME Telesquirt, to E3-S, and then it went to 26's. Did that get retired/sold? Do Viejas, Sycuan and Barona still own/operate/staff the quints (Sycuan and Barona had I believe 65' Telesquirts, with Barona buying a much more recent nice Ferrara truck/quint?). If the Barona rig (T27) is still operational, I'd see where that could be of good value to the northern area of Lakeside's district. Glad the Smeals are working out for you, they are sharp looking rigs...Always love your Lakeside colors. I assume your utility truck at 2's does not have a tank/pump. It seems on a "patrol" that is a good idea to have the small tank/pump and 4WD to get onto something difficult to access, quicker (and less weight than a typical Type-3 brush rig). Heartland Fire & Rescue has been progressive since the consortium between El Cajon, La Mesa and Lakeside. 6's took delivery not too long ago of the Pierce PUC as E6. Then La Mesa took that Quantum pumper as Rescue-Engine 12. A captain on SDFD R4 (downtown) told me he worked with RE-12 and was very impressed how much rescue gear that rig really has on it, and how they spec'd/laid out the compartments ++++. And more recently Lemon Grove (E10) should have just taken delivery of an almost identical Pierce PUC rig just like E8 and E6. Don't know on San Miguel and Cal Fire either. I've heard chatter some are happy, others not so, and some have either retired early or leaving for other departments. The plus side of Cal Fire is of course you have latitude to go anywhere (almost) in state, if slots are up for filling. I felt sorry for the East County Fire guys (18's and 19's) because they ran into almost not getting paychecks and San Miguel absorbed them, and then of course Cal Fire saved San Miguel. Former fire chief for East County was Chief Jobb (if I have spelling correct, could have been 'Job'). He was great at grant writing and that is how all of us scratched our heads saying how did Crest (18's) and Bostonia (19's) get such nice Ferrara pumpers, and 18's got the Ferrara rescue (which is now at 15's). My own opinion is just that, but I thought San Miguel was always very progressive and the chief that came in (Ghio) from bigger departments, might have been too progressive or brought in too many top-heavy administrators and staffers. San Miguel did not need a PIO, that I think they paid $65-80k/year to. The chief or BC's or even a captain can go on-air to give media a rundown. Those fire board members did not need trips to Hawaii for seminars on how to manage better. Someone was spending way too much in San Miguel and then 2007/2008 clobbered them when the tax base/streams started to dwindle. I find the entire San Miguel Fire District a sad legacy of when managers and public servants forget what their true mission really is. Of course as a kid I recall Spring Valley Fire and all the innovations they made way back. Since this thread began with the new Santee FD delivery, it will be interesting now that the Santee FD chief was ousted, what is in store for Santee which at one time seemed to be so progressive and a model, but over the years almost seems to me to be on that old San Miguel track. Lakeside to me is right up there with Heartland Fire & Rescue, very progressive and well managed. Take care.

Great information LKSENG3. You guys like the new Smeal urban interface pumpers? I assume you are taking two more in addition to the last one for 3's, new ones going to 1's and 26's? What's the status on the "patrol" like pick-up you have at 2's? Does Lakeside ever plan on putting another telesquirt or even a truck into service? Makes good sense on spec'ing a new Santee T4 with pump/tank and ladder plumbing. Enough agencies have been doing that on the TDA lately, I think it is a proven rig (especially Pierce). Encinitas has a beautiful one. Yes indeed, it will be interesting to see how the San Miguel and Cal Fire marriage works. Wishing the best for all...

I just saw that too. Nice looking rig. I can only assume that is gonna get assigned to Station 4 or E4. The Pierce Arrow E4 had in front line is I believe a 2004 or 2005 rig that the former chief put in reserve to pull the older Pierce (Dash?) out that I believe was a 1994 or so. The philosophy the chief expressed to me was they wanted to rack up mileage on the older Pierce by keeping that in the front line as E4. I assume the 2004/5 rig will stay in reserve, or and the older 1994 might go over to Station 5 as a reserve. Next rig they want to replace is to do another TDA to replace the aging T4. There has been chatter about adding a pump/tank, but more likely it for sure will have the ladder plumbed. There are no current plans to budget a new station in Rancho Fanita, which in the Heartland system was slated to be Station 20's (I believe, but could have been Station 25, but then Viejas took that #). After the T4 gets replaced, next in-line will be Brush-4, and/or Rescue-5.

Oakuhmoto--you sure they were not responding CODE-2 high to city shops? )

Hope Coronado FD is having better success with it's Crimson TDA with pump/tank (T37). It seems it is in service much of the time, so I think it is working for them.

Just like Pierce products, don't think you can go wrong with Oshkosh for CFR/ARFF rigs. You get what you pay for. It's worth spending some more to get the quality.

Recently I've seen a couple L.E. patrol vehicles roll up on their red, slow, quickly activate light bar, accelerate and then de-activate code lights. I believe we call this Code-2 High. Recently a San Diego Police patrol officer cut off a motorcyclist using that technique. The motorcyclist t-boned the new Ford Explorer patrol car, and motorcyclist died at scene. Lots of times department policy or supervisor will limit how many patrol units can respond Code-3, so others wanting to also cover the call, use the Code-2 High technique.

True "bad box"....I agree entirely, but it seems agencies/engineers/chauffeurs, still don't comply with that. When the CHP's MAIT team releases their report, it will be interesting to see what they estimated the speeds of the pumper vs. tiller at.

That's a terrible accident. The Pierce tiller looked like it had major front-end damage too. Talk about a set-back for both departments. I'm just glad no one was killed and that there were not more critical injuries. Bet that shook the FF's up and hope for their speedy recovery. It seems with all the GPS/CAD and tracking, someone needs to come up with a device that when any fire rig/PD/medics/EMT, are responding code, a computer software system using sharing resources, could determine if two vehicles are on collision course and alert the engineer/captain. They do it in airplanes (called TCAS), it seems we have the technology emerging to put this together for first responders.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/apr/14/santee-fire-chief-resigns/all/?print

I don't know any other details than what is reported. If the paramedic in fact put the parking enforcement officer in a headlock, after just a verbal exchange, then paramedic is in big trouble--possibly criminal. Having said that, my experiences out there are that too many parking enforcement officers are often more verbally aggressive and use the power of the ticket, far too quickly, than many patrol and traffic officers/deputies. I'm surprised many more parking enforcement officers have not been battered. I understand their function and that the job cannot be easy at times, and know while part of their job is to keep traffic flowing, and parking spaces available, and to violate parking abusers, another big part of their job is revenue enhancement. There are the right and wrong ways to approach your contact, and verbalize things in a way that does not escalate a situation.

Yes, I wanted to post many pics but cannot with that 2K limitation. Don't know what' s up with that, maybe a thumbnail pic of a thumb?

Nice looking rig. Just like E2. Wonder how everyone likes the Smeals? Surprised they are not going to all LED for the rear warning package (see the amber rotating light?). http://lakesidefire.tumblr.com/post/80113211207/the-new-engine-3-returned-from-having-some-final

This afternoon while I was turning onto Bradley Avenue, I noticed a brand new Pierce truck had come off of Marshal Avenue (that is the street the Heartland Training Facility [HTF] is). It had no markings for any agencies but said Pierce on the ladder with their slogan. It appeared to be an Arrow with the tank/pump. It had dual rear axle. Appeared a 100+ foot ladder. Nice new LED lighting on rear. The truck got onto the SR67 and headed south. HTF is also near El Cajon (Heartland) station 9's, and also "shops" which is the maintenance facility. I am wondering if one of the local agencies took delivery of the new truck and I've just not got that on the radar yet, or if it was just some demo on-road? Any insights?

Thanks "joeyk48" and to "RicardoBerg" it was a rear-mount aerial. Single occupant in cab, male w/mustache who actually very much impressed me with his driving (it was obvious to me he was experienced), as to turns and merging onto a difficult area of the SR67 to transition to the WB I-8. I know the soon to retire San Miguel Chief (who came over from Cal Fire) wants to replace their Truck 15 (Pierce) but said it probably was not gonna happen budget-wise for 2 more years, and they had just done a bunch of preventive maintenance stuff to the rig. Santee's chief has said replacing their aging TDA is not gonna happen for a couple years unless things change (true economic improvement in our city/county's budgets). I believe Lakeside has been wanting to do something to replace the KME squirt, I think that is a 1999 or so. It seems to me Lakeside FD and Heartland's new group (El Cajon, La Mesa, Lemon Grove) have been the most progressive agencies locally in last 3-5 years. Back to Lakeside's squirt/teleboom, originally it was E3-s, then went to 26's and now believe it is in reserve at 2's as 202-s. I am not sure if they roll in that on structure responses or if it is just reserve to their relatively new Smeal urban interface pumper (which 3's is about to take delivery of same model soon, if it is not already on front-line). Lemon Grove use to have a squirt too, as a strategic plan it would not surprise me if they got another quint down the road, but again where's the money to fund it. They could use a quint to keep the tank/pump on-line but add some more technical rescue gear to it since they get many responses to the 94 freeway there. Though in station 10's coverage, they have pretty good truck coverage from San Diego City Fire T10, to La Mesa T11, and then San Miguel's T15.

Nice rig! Thx.