My Co is in the process of specing a new piece which will be a quint in this sense of the word, it will be an engine with a stick. When this concept came to light the first thing we did was look at the need (we have 3 100" trucks in our area), we cover just about any hazard you can think of except high rises (4 stories Max in our area), to include SFD's, MOD's, rural area with no water, industrial, warehousing, nursing homes,commercial, wildland. The next point was to consider the operational side of the question, since we have been an engine co for 200 years. After looking at the operational side we found we have been a truck Co without a truck at many of our incidents or we end up operating off someone else's truck. We then looked at our SOP's and determined how they would change. This done we then started writing the spec's keeping in mind we are an engine co and that we were just adding an additional capability.
Trying not to sound to simplistic, In the end we wrote spec's for an engine then added specs for a 75' stick. This rig will be going to bid in the next month or two, so it will be interesting to see what the returns from the bidding process will be.
We feel if we can maintain the Eng co operations as the 1st priority (this is a matter of training)we can become a more effective unit. I'm sure I will stir up the purist with this post, but I am a purist also (an eng is an eng, a truck is a truck)but since I lost this battle I guess we'll see if I will be a convert.
The officers of the Co realized our bread and butter has been Eng Co operations and feel this can be maintained, I guess time will tell.
As part of the whole process, I'm not so sure it will not succeed, and I hope it will,the attitudes are correct and thinking is Eng Co with a stick. Just a footnote, the closest stock rig to what we want right now is the Seagrave Meanstick in the Eng configuration to give you some idea. Of course our specs would require some customizaton.
I'm sure this will invoke some thoughts and all are welcome
Union Fire Co #1 Web Page
Trying not to sound to simplistic, In the end we wrote spec's for an engine then added specs for a 75' stick. This rig will be going to bid in the next month or two, so it will be interesting to see what the returns from the bidding process will be.
We feel if we can maintain the Eng co operations as the 1st priority (this is a matter of training)we can become a more effective unit. I'm sure I will stir up the purist with this post, but I am a purist also (an eng is an eng, a truck is a truck)but since I lost this battle I guess we'll see if I will be a convert.
The officers of the Co realized our bread and butter has been Eng Co operations and feel this can be maintained, I guess time will tell.
As part of the whole process, I'm not so sure it will not succeed, and I hope it will,the attitudes are correct and thinking is Eng Co with a stick. Just a footnote, the closest stock rig to what we want right now is the Seagrave Meanstick in the Eng configuration to give you some idea. Of course our specs would require some customizaton.
I'm sure this will invoke some thoughts and all are welcome
Union Fire Co #1 Web Page
Comment