Response Assignments: Fully staffed apparatus or Drivers and POVs

[CKirk922 MembersZone Subscriber Find all posts View Profile Close CKirk922]

How does your department staff a company or specific apparatus?

Do you have volunteers on station?

Do apparatus leave the station with a full crew?

If you dispatch apparatus with a driver only then how do you organize crews on scene?

If you do not run trucks (aerials or dedicated truck op apparatus) then how do you form truck companies? (This means 'Do you run truck ops off an Engine, off a Rescue, or some other apparatus?')

[tree68 MembersZone Subscriber Find all posts View Profile Close tree68]

How does your department staff a company or specific apparatus?

Do you have volunteers on station?No.

Do apparatus leave the station with a full crew?Usually - but filling all the seats on our pumper only takes two people.

If you dispatch apparatus with a driver only then how do you organize crews on scene?By task. Need a hose team? It's you, you, and you.

If you do not run trucks (aerials or dedicated truck op apparatus) then how do you form truck companies? (This means 'Do you run truck ops off an Engine, off a Rescue, or some other apparatus?')See previous answer.

The nature of our normal responses and our apparatus precludes "pre-assembling" crews.

[DubyaVFF Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close DubyaVFF]

How does your department staff a company or specific apparatus?

Do you have volunteers on station?

Do apparatus leave the station with a full crew?

If you dispatch apparatus with a driver only then how do you organize crews on scene?

If you do not run trucks (aerials or dedicated truck op apparatus) then how do you form truck companies? (This means 'Do you run truck ops off an Engine, off a Rescue, or some other apparatus?')

1) Nope.

2) Whenever possible. Our Pumper and Rescue have 3 seats, the Tanker has 2.

3) Arriving personnel report to the IC/Manpower Pool, as do mutual-aid personnel as they arrive except apparatus operators, who stay with their apparatus and report in via radio.

4) All ops are conducted with teams assigned from the Manpower Pool with equipment collected from the nearest Pumper (Engine and Truck combined in one apparatus).

[BSFD140 Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close BSFD140]

Our Department is a combination Career/Volunteer. We have 3 stations that have at least an engine staffed with 3 people, (driver/officer/ff). The rest of the man power comes from off-duty career and the volunteers, both of which respond to the scene. Once there we check in at staging and wait for our assignments.

[Eng34FF MembersZone Subscriber Find all posts View Profile Close Eng34FF]

How does your department staff a company or specific apparatus?

Do you have volunteers on station?

Do apparatus leave the station with a full crew?

If you dispatch apparatus with a driver only then how do you organize crews on scene?

If you do not run trucks (aerials or dedicated truck op apparatus) then how do you form truck companies? (This means 'Do you run truck ops off an Engine, off a Rescue, or some other apparatus?')

1) Depends on the time of day. Normally somebody is at the station, but there are some times that are thin.

2) Yes, in general the apparatus don't leave without a full crew. There may be times if arrangements are made ahead of time that we meet a crew in one of the utility vehicles.

3) We generally don't allow members (except officers) to POV to the scene. it does sometimes happen though. Those people report to IC or the manpower pool for assignments.

4) We don't run a truck out of our department, but our heavy rescue squad is on a house fire assignement. We also get a truck (or tower) from neighboring departments on every house fire assignement.

[mcwops Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close mcwops]

1. We don't assign members to a specific apparatus, but we do have assignments as to which apparatus are to go 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. for different types of calls.

2. No volunteers are staffing the station, but we all respond from the station, no POVs. One of the reasons is the traffic issue of having 20 POVs show up at scene in our town.

3. Depends on timing of volunteers arriving at station. Sometimes they do, sometimes it is more spaced out.

4 and 5. Since we don't allow POVs on scene, both of these questions don't quite apply. We do try to keep engine companies intact once on scene, based on which apparatus you arrived on.

[CKirk922 MembersZone Subscriber Find all posts View Profile Close CKirk922]

MCWOPS, 20 POVs arriving on scene?.....

And the answer is, yes, it is the BLUE LIGHT BRIGADE....
Pardon the inside sarcasm...maybe I'm the only one laughing or crying at that one...

[tree68 MembersZone Subscriber Find all posts View Profile Close tree68]

MCWOPS, 20 POVs arriving on scene?.....

Heck - if they were all my people, I'd be cheering at the outstanding response...

But the bottom line is, if all of my front-line apparatus make it to the scene, they've brought 11 people, three of whom will have to stay with their rigs (engine, two tankers).

If I get 20 people on the response, at least 9 have to travel POV.

[LaFireEducator Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close LaFireEducator]

We operate 7 stations over 200 square miles.

One station is staffed during the day with a shift firefighter, a part-time daytime firefighter, the Deputy Chief and myself, the Public Education/Training Coordinator. It's also common to have 3-5 volunteers riding out.

At night, the station is staffed with one shift firefighter and 2-8 volunteers riding out.

All other stations are volunteer stations.

We leave with whatever we have on the floor. We do not wait for personnel. Non-Drivers respond directly to the scene. Drivers, for an MVA or fire call, coordinate by radio as to who is available and who is picking up what apparatus.

As a rule, all the apparatus needed from Central will get out of the station with the personnel there. There will be times that the career may be out of the station at lunch, training, hydrant testing, volunteer station maintainence and volunteer staff will respond there and respond with Station 1 apparatus.

Also for fire calls, we have the option of requesting a driver off the parish medic unit to drive either the engine or rescue. As per our mutual aid agreement, at least one member of each medic crew shift has to be trained to pump our engines.

For mutual aid calls, personnel respond either to Central Station or the vollie station closest to the agency requesting mutual aid.

[mcwops Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close mcwops]

MCWOPS, 20 POVs arriving on scene?.....

And the answer is, yes, it is the BLUE LIGHT BRIGADE....
Pardon the inside sarcasm...maybe I'm the only one laughing or crying at that one...

It is not uncommon for us to have that kind of turnout for a fire, and our city streets are crowded enough that having that many personal vehicles show up would cause some issues. Our department policy is we always respond from the station. Most of our trucks can seat 5-8, and we can easily roll 2-3 pumpers and a crew cab command truck to most fires. Granted, other calls (medicals, auto alarms, etc.) we might have a lower turnout.

[FuturePrimitive Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close FuturePrimitive]

How does your department staff a company or specific apparatus?

We have SOGs describing what appartatus responds to a type of call (auto alarm vs. car fire vs. structure fire, etc etc) The driver of an apparatus waits two minutes and then rolls.

Do you have volunteers on station?

No. But we do have a few station managers working during the day, most of them are volunteers.

Do apparatus leave the station with a full crew?

Sometimes. First due engines leave with either four crew members or after 2 minutes.

If you dispatch apparatus with a driver only then how do you organize crews on scene?

Report to IC.

If you do not run trucks (aerials or dedicated truck op apparatus) then how do you form truck companies? (This means 'Do you run truck ops off an Engine, off a Rescue, or some other apparatus?')

We have two ladders for truck ops.


We're fairly lucky in the volunteer world, we have a lot of active members and do not have a problem with getting manpower on scene. On the contrary, it's usually the opposite. We'll have ten members show up for a vehicle lock out!

[voyager9 MembersZone Subscriber Find all posts View Profile Close voyager9]

All responses are from the station. The only usual time someone would POV to the scene is if all the apparatus are already on the road. Even then we go to the station first to see who else is there and maybe fill in any cover companies that had been assigned from mutual aid. In some cases it may be better to be the 4th guy on the MA cover company then the 20'th guy arriving late to the call.

We're a combination department with career staff in-house during the day and volunteer duty crews in-house at night during the week. The only home-response periods are during the weekend.

First-out apparatus should always leave with a crew of at least four. Ideally all subsequent apparatus would also leave with the same. Depending on the time of day, and nature of the call we may roll them without waiting.. up to the Officer/Driver (or IC).

We have a dedicated tower, but that does not mean its crew will be assigned truck-company tasks once on scene. Depends on the other apparatus on scene and the conditions. If the Quint arrived first its crew may have began truck company tasks. If the tower is second due after that then its crew may be assigned Engine work by pulling a line off the Quint.. In general our members are able to perform Engine/Truck/Rescue work independent of what apparatus they arrive on.

[HuntPA Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close HuntPA]

How does your department staff a company or specific apparatus?

No

Do you have volunteers on station?

No

Do apparatus leave the station with a full crew?

If we are lucky. If we can fill 3 or 4 seats out of 5 on the engine, we are doing well. The tanker, rescue and utility all only seat 2, so they are easier to fill.

If you dispatch apparatus with a driver only then how do you organize crews on scene?

We do not dispatch for just an apparatus and driver. You do get that sometimes though. That is what staging is for.

If you do not run trucks (aerials or dedicated truck op apparatus) then how do you form truck companies?

Assign the tasks (ventilation, ladders, etc.) to the people in staging or as they arive.

(This means 'Do you run truck ops off an Engine, off a Rescue, or some other apparatus?')

The chainsaws are on the rescue and utility. Ladders are on the engine and tanker. We don't have PPV, TIC, or any of those types of acronyms.

[holmescaptain Find all posts View Profile Close holmescaptain]

My department operates an engine, tanker, combination quick-attack/EMS truck and an equipment truck. We're all volunteer, and turnout gear is in the possession of the member. Due to area of coverage, members closer to the scene than the station respond direct. SOP requires all vehicles respond to all calls inside the township, except for EMS-only calls. Only tanker and equipment truck respond to mutual aid, unless a special request is made for another truck. Engine, tanker and truck are two-person cabs. Equipment van is one-person. We follow state laws regarding vehicle inspection and certification of POVs for use of lights/sirens. SOG encourages donning turnout gear before responding, not after arrival on scene. We have automatic mutual aid in place for structure fires.