MATCHING YOUR APPARATUS TO MINIMAL STAFFING
BY DAVID CASEY AND ALLEN BLOCKER
Much has been said about the dangers of minimal staffing over the past several years. Few will argue the decreased efficiency and increased danger of two- and three-person suppression crews. However, the simple fact is that many of us have to prepare to operate until we get four people, and we need to plan our apparatus around reality.
It was not until the 1970s that preconnected hoselines, multiple lines of different diameters mounted midship instead of being positioned in the back, came in vogue. At the same time, the career crews started to decrease in size. Innovation borne out of need. Where we work, our two-person engine crews, unaffectionately known locally as “engine couples,” have had some success in putting out more fire than was thought possible.
The problem is that there are fewer people to do the same job. Consequently, the tasks that need to be done must be re-viewed and less labor-intensive methods for accomplishing them must be devised until additional help arrives.
ANYTHING THAT CAN BE PRECONNECT SHOULD BE
Preconnects can help in compensating somewhat for the less-than-desirable quota of available personnel. The following guidelines will help ensure that preconnects will serve your department most efficiently.
Make sure that your standard preconnects can be easily reached, and use a load that can be deployed by one or two firefighters. Remember, after the excitement is over, the preconnects will have to be repacked.
Make sure your preconnects provide “big flow” for big fire so that your crew can make a serious stand. Consider a preconnected three-inch that the driver alone can pull to supply a fire department connection for a sprinkler on a standpipe siamese. In addition, you can improve on that by having a lightweight portable deluge immediately accessible (without personnel having to climb or move objects) that can be rapidly deployed. This line can also be used to wye off other lines, to rapidly supply another pumper, and for a myriad of other functions. Make sure the discharge is plumbed for the desired flow.
Prepiped deluge guns can provide a strong attack, but they must be positioned so they can be reached without having to climb–next to a top-mounted pump panel, for example. The tailboard location is just as good. The important thing is to position it where it can be reached with little effort. As an alternative, you may want to consider remote control.
Setting up an eductor with buckets of foam and changing a nozzle are challenges for a crew of four and an invitation to failure for a “couple.” When buying apparatus, consider built-in foam systems that will allow different lines to be used, possibly even the big lines mentioned above, depending on your situation.
Getting water into the pump with minimal effort is important also. Preconnected soft suctions for auxiliary, front, and rear intakes are available. All can save valuable minutes.
Departments have been getting away from carrying hard-suction hose altogether. We encountered this situation recently when a responding mutual-aid company did not have one on its apparatus. Before eliminating hard-suction hose, make sure you don`t need it.
A related problem is placing hoses above high side compartments, where they are difficult to reach. Until the 1960s, “squirrel tail” hard suctions preconnected to pump suctions were not uncommon. Japanese fire brigades still favor this practice. Updated technology now permits a preconnected hard suction, complete with floating strainer, to be connected to a rear intake and stored in a compartment in or below the hosebed. Or it may be connected to a traditional side intake and the hose secured on top of the side compartmentation. These methods permit one person to set up a draft.
Departments that use tankers and collapsible tanks have a variety of labor- and time-saving techniques specific to their method of moving water. A short length of hard-suction hose and a low-level strainer preconnected to a swivel front intake will allow one person to rapidly set up a tank draft. Using an air-actuated roof vent in conjunction with rear- and side-mounted air-actuated chutes on mobile water supply units enables the driver to control the operation of making rapid tank dumps from the apparatus cab.
Preconnects don`t apply only to water. Consider getting your electric lights, and even reels, set up so that the lights or electric fans can be set up by one person fast. Remote-control scene lights that allow for rapid deployment are now available from several vendors. Also, steal the idea of mounted scene lights that ambulances have been using for years.
Speaking of stealing ideas, consider the Europeans` penchant for preconnected extrication equipment with reels and their method of organizing compartments so that equipment can generally be accessed without having to move other equipment or having to fear that an avalanche of equipment or tools will occur.
Minimal staffing always makes the use of ladders difficult. Carefully consider the lengths carried and especially where and how they are carried.
Although ergonomics is an important consideration when designing fire apparatus, it is especially as important to keep in mind access and lifting requirements when units are not staffed with three or four firefighters. Floating pumps, deluge guns, and other such heavy, bulky equipment should not be up in the dunnage area over the pump, where someone will have to climb on top of the truck, kneel, and then lean over to hand it off to someone who has his hands over his head to receive it.
Before you write a letter to the editor, note that we do not advocate two-person crews. Their capabilities are very limited, and it is way too easy for them to get in trouble. However, it is important that you make sure that you plan your rigs to match your staffing. Many of the ideas discussed above will also increase the effectiveness of fully staffed crews, expediting their evolutions and making some steps less labor- intensive.
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Keep preconnects where you can reach them while standing flatfooted on the ground. Bumper preconnects are easy to reach and require no climbing to repack. [Photos courtesy of Clay County (FL) Fire Rescue unless otherwise noted.]
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This Chesterton, Indiana, apparatus has a preconnected deluge gun. Note that the five-inch LDH also can be reached from the ground. (Photo courtesy of Task Force Tips.)
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(Left) Make sure prepiped guns can be reached safely and easily. (Right) This Delray Beach, Florida, pumper has a front intake with piston intake relief valve.
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Front preconnected hard suction. (Photo courtesy of Pierce Manufacturing, Inc.)
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(Left) Rear preconnected hard suction on a Fallon, Nevada, pumper. (Photo courtesy of W.S. Darley & Company.) (Right) Ambulance-style scene lights.
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Watch the height of ladders. Minimal staffing makes it more difficult to use ladders.
DAVID CASEY has been in the fire service for more than 20 years and has been chief of Clay County (FL) Fire Rescue for the past five years. He is vice president of Fire Service Technology, a fire and EMS training consulting group in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He has an associate`s and a bachelor`s degree in fire science and is currently working toward an MPA. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer Program.
ALLEN BLOCKER is a battalion chief (shift commander) for Clay County (FL) Fire Rescue, overseeing the operations at 14 stations that protect 640 square miles. He has 14 years of career fire/EMS experience and an associate`s degree in fire science from St. John`s Community College.
