Posted April 5, 2017 Hi, when the present day Truck 6 went into service El Cajon advertised it as a combo Heavy Rescue and Ladder Company and it had a bunch of features to support that role. Is Truck 6 still equipped with rescue gear beyond standard California style Truck Companies and considered a heavy rescue or did they have to lighten up on the equipment do to the weight issues. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 5, 2017 (edited) Good questions 'mesabill'. Hope all is well. Chatter i heard was El Cajon FD was looking for ways to reduce the medical aid runs T6 was doing, due to the wear-and-tear and all those apartment building entries the truck was doing. I suspect T6 still has the rescue capacity, though I am not sure if "heavy rescue". It seemed T6 just went back into service recently while La Mesa T11 seems out of service in the past week. As you know, RE-12 out of La Mesa is rolling on many Heartland F&R rescues. The guys down at SDFR station 4's (downtown), told me they are very impressed with the amount of rescue gear Heartland RE12 is equipped with. Since Santee retired R5 with no intention to place another rescue box there, El Cajon no longer has a dedicated rescue, and La Mesa does not, it seems Heartland could use a rescue rig, if not heavy rescue or even "USAR". A recent article in Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment discussed that the trend is many departments were going to trucks and rescue-pumpers for such rescue resources, but more departments are rethinking this and many going back to dedicated rescue rigs, many with small pumps/tanks. Back to Truck 6 getting all worn out (too early), they did inhibit the all-steer system on the truck a while ago, which caused a few dents here and there, and do not know if that was just ECFD, or a Pierce directive. My recommendation to the BC of ECFD was take that Ford pick-up (4 man cab) housed at station 9's (it was the former B3), put it at 6's, and use that as a "squad" to run all the MED AIDS that T6 rolls out on. But the philosophy of the department is to roll the truck on MED AIDS to assure the truck can respond on any structures/rescues without having the FF's go back to fetch the truck. I disagree with that philosophy, respectfully. Edited April 5, 2017 by Rescue51 Update mesabill likes this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
