LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Apparatus electrical overloads
Just a note to say how much I appreciated “Fire Apparatus Electrical Overloads: A Real Balancing Act” by William C Peters (August 1992). It really touched home with some related problems we presently are having.
As a volunteer department in a small community, we try to save money on our equipment purchases and adapt things for our use. We received a donation of a truck from an area business to use as our heavy rescue truck and are in the process of adapting it to handle the extra electrical load.
There couldn’t have been a better way to present this subject to people with little or no knowledge of the way the electrical system works. It is a constant battle to remind people to turn off unnecessary lights. Hopefully, 1 will be able to encourage our personnel to read this article.
I have found Fire Engineering to be the best magazine on the market. There is always an article each month that applies to something relevant to our department.
Marguerite A. Bevier
Engineer in Charge of Maintenance
Litchfield (OH) Fire & Rescue
Department
Lawyers declare open season
In response to the Editor’s Opinion entitled “Lawyers Declare Open Season on Eire Departments” (August 1992), 1 would like to add one moreitem to the list of “basics” you suggest departments have in order to be prepared tor the “legal vulture-s” (lawyers who are out to get you).
As we in the fire service know, standard operating procedures are followed as much as possible, but there are times when it is necessary to deviate from them. No matter how good you are and how hard you try, you can never plan for every incident and cannot cover everything in your SOPs. The phrase “standard operating procedure” by definition is an established procedure to be followed for a given operation or situation, and it basically means that when a certain situation occurs, you will handle it this way and only this way.
1 believe that the word “standard” should be removed from all department’s SOPs and that they be renamed “operating procedures” —to protect members of the fire service from becoming involved in legal entanglements when it is necessary to operate in ways not covered in our procedures or to operate contrary to our procedures (and there are times when this happens). I have learned from research that several major industrial fire squads in our area have been advised by their legal experts to drop the word “standard” from their operating procedures. Their reason is the same: to protect the fire squad and company from becoming involved in law suits because the squad’s fire operations did not conform to the “standard operating procedures” adopted by the company. By dropping this word, the lawyers tor these companies believe that they will be in a better position to fight and win these types of lawsuits w hen they occur. 1 firmly believe this, and I hope that other departments will follow this precedent set by these companies.
Eddie D. Buehring
Firefighter
Port Lavaca (TX) Fire Department
PPV and rescue situations
John Mittendorf’s “PPV on the Fireground” (August 1992) raises a veryimportant issue that warrants serious consideration before positive-pressure ventilation (PPV) is implemented at an occupied structure fire. Chief Mittendorf writes that PPV could increase the likelihood of serious injury or death of trapped occupants who may be located between a fire and an exhaust opening.
This situation is common in most of our rescue scenarios due to the largenumber of buildings in our jurisdiction that have windows equipped with burglar bars. Usually, the windows opened or broken by occupants trapped by iron bars are among the few exhaust openings in buildings that are otherwise closed to contain air-conditioning. Application of PPV prior to rescue in these situations will make conditions much worse for occupants, as smoke and heat will be directed toward the windows where they are trapped.
PPV is a powerful tool we utilize in most structure fires. Pressurization hits a great influence on the movement of products of combustion. Consequently, we can defeat our efforts at search and rescue if we start PPV before considering its effects on occupants who may be trapped.
The article cautions firefighters to carefully analyze the use ofPPV when the location of fire is unknown, litis advice is critical when trapped occupants may be in the path of exhausting heat and smoke.
Hill Gustin
Captain
Metro-Dade (FL) Fire Department
Turnout technology
I thought the article “Understanding Turnout Technology” by David P. Fornell (June 1992) was excellent. This information will be very helpful in our next purchasing decision.
One issue not mentioned, however, is becoming an ever-increasing concern to all fire departments. While the section on materials talks at length about both the neoprene and permeable moisture barriers, there is no reference in the section on purchasing considerations about the cost difference between the two types of moisture barriers. We have been reviewing literature and prices from various suppliers and are rather amazed to see that there is as much as a $200 difference per set between the permeable moisture barrier and the neoprene moisture barrier. With budgetary constraints and costs increasing out of control, an additional S200 for a permeable moisture barrier is a major concern.
Frank Strange
Firefighter
A bington, Pennsylran ia
Bill Manning responds: We’ve received many favorable comments about Dave Fornell’s “turnout” article. As a matter of editorial policy, we prefer not to get into price details of equipment on the market —that’s best handled by the manufacturers and distributors alone.
D.O.D. symbols
1 would like to compliment William R. MacGregor on his article, “Understanding Department of Defense Fire Symbols” (March 1992). It brought to light some very good information on Department of Defense fire symbols.
I would like to point out some information that was not presented in the article. During the seven years I spent with U.S. Marine Corps Aviation Ordnance and Chemical Munitions Units (also certified as a military “Explosive Driver”), I saw these symbols in use at military magazine storage sites worldwide, but I never saw them off Department of Defense installations.
In times of national emergencies, military munitions convoys are not required to placard any vehicles transporting munitions. Most often military convoys transporting munitions will be displaying standard Department of Transportation placards, minus the UN/NA numbers.
Military transportation of munitions is governed by several different technical manuals and differs between services. A good rule to follow if you respond to an incident/accident involving military transportation is to assume that you do have munitions involved, until someone from the military can give you guidance.
Brett A. Bastian
Inspector
Moses Lake (WA) Fire Department
Arguing against staffing amendment
This letter is intended to argue against the consideration of a technical interim amendment (TIA) to the NFPA 1500 standard. The minimum manning issue was decided by a 4 to 1 vote. Why attempt to circumvent the vote of such an overw helming majority?
NFPA 1500 should be allowed to follow the normal cycle before attempting to make changes. This w ill provide time to conduct an unbiased analysis regarding firefighter safety. It also will provide an opportunity to consider that different communities do have different fire threats. Hurst, Texas, is a middleto upper-middleincome community that has different fire protection considerations than New York, Washington, Madison, Seattle, Providence, Phoenix, Detroit, Nashville, Boston, and a lot of other cities. In Hurst, there are no high-rise tenements, antiquated commercial buildings, acres of substandard dwellings, or warehouse districts.
Hurst has single-family dwellings built to current code requirements, apartment dwelling units with smoke detectors tested annually by firefighters, and code-required built-in fire protection in commercial occupancies. We have three-person engine companies. Countless times one of the crews has arrived at a residence, apartment, or small commercial occupancy to extinguish the fire with a fast interior attack, as suggested by Chief Alan Brunacini’s Fire Command. We have fewer than 10 fires a year that result in a supply line being laid. Since 1987, the fire department has had one of the lowest worker’s compensation rates in our city government. It is 11th out of 15 in 1992. It’s been that way several years.
To place minimum manning requirements on communities without regard to their differences and without unbiased justification regarding employee safety is irresponsible. NFPA 1500 should follow the normal cycle as intended for NFPA standards. The information to be reported regarding firefighter safety in the U.S. during this interim will reveal the responsible approach to the minimum manning issue.
Joe Erwin
Fire Chief Hurst (IX) Fire Department
Request for SOP information
The officers of the Ford Cliff (PA ) Fire Department have been working to develop a workable standard operating procedures manual, and we are soliciting help from other fire departments. Please send any information to Gary Karns, 6.50 Neale Avenue, Ford Cliff, PA 16228-0128. Any help w ill be greatly appreciated.
Gary I.. Karns
3rd Assistant Chief lord Cliff (PA) Fire Department
