From the Publishers Desk
departments
January Fire Service Catalog Will Be the Biggest Ever
It seems hard to believe, but 1980, a new decade, is almost upon us along with our eighth annual Fire Service Catalog, which will appear in our January issue. This catalog was actually prompted by several of our readers back in the early `70s, who deplored the absence of a handy catalog that would list all the apparatus and equipment that a fire chief might have to buy.
Budgets, then, are a key issue, and one that fire executives must start thinking about in January if they intend to submit their fiscal plans to the city fathers in June. What to buy, and from whom to buy it is, of course, the immediate problem. And while each manufacturer has his own catalog or spec sheet, running through some 250 of them can be trying.
Of course we don’t make any claim that our catalog is the be-all and end-all of the purchasing problems of a f ire department. But it does provide assistance. Any fire chief who is contemplating the purchase of, let’s say, a pumper, just has to do some comparison shopping. And the only way to do this is to go visiting—visiting a few neighboring, and even distant fire departments if necessary to check on recent purchases. He can also try it out. And of course listen to the opinions, good and bad, of the chief who owns it.
The same holds true of other equipment. Communications equipment comes readily to mind. Things like transceivers, or perhaps a whole system, are costly and they are expected to last a long time.
Hose is another item. It is the most universal of fire fight ing equipment. It comes in all sizes and lengths, and in a variety of material. What can serve one department best might not be best for another. Again, it pays to shop around.
But our catalog provides a handy start. It contains scores of products, hundreds of models and a couple of thousand details. It, of course, includes the names and addresses of the manufacturers whose products are listed.
