What to do with the @#!$ long board?

[ullrichk]

I'm looking for creative locations for carrying a long board on our engines.

We're fairly new to EMS (three years) and have carried boards strapped to the ladders since we have no compartments large enough to hold a board. Of course this exposes them to weather and UV and makes grabbing a ladder a little slower.

Other ideas please?

[hwoods]

Well......

Got any Transverse compartments? Hang 'em on the wall or put in a couple of brackets and slide 'em in flat. Hose loads? Slide a board in beside the attack lines if there is enough room. Let us know what you have for apparatus, might have more ideas from that. Stay Safe....

[ullrichk]

We have transverse rear compartments on every engine, but our generators are in the way. (I can't imagine plastic backboards getting along too well with heat and gasoline fumes anyway!)

A step ladder covers the mattydales - that probably would have been our first choice.

Between the hose and the bed hasn't been looked at too closely, though. I'll have to play around with that idea some, but I'd like to have them out of the weather if I can. Any tips on laying hose without laying out the board?

We have also considered a long flat box under the LDH. I haven't figured out how to keep the hose from blocking the end of the box yet.

[shammrock54]

We have a board in the hose bed of most of our pieces except for the rescue which has a transverse compartment and our first due engine which we have 3 in a dunage compartment on the side of the hose bed, accessable from the top of the truck. As to laying a line and losing the board, well you either pull it out of the bed and drop it next to the hydrant or TO HELL W/ IT THE BOARD WILL BOUNCE AND YOU CAN PICK IT UP LATER!

good luck

[CollegeBuff]

Engine company near me has their board strapped to the outside of the hard suctions that they have mounted.

[Weruj1]

I have seen crews in our area turn them on there sides and put them up against the hosebed divider, here we have them strapped to ladders on 2 or the 3 trucks.

[hwoods]

Forgot one!

Neighboring Company carries boards on their engines by slipping them in BEHIND the ladders. (Between the ladder and the side of the truck) They ran a couple of rubber strips vertically on the side of the truck so the boards wouldn't scratch the paint.

[tripperff]

the box sounds like a good idea....

I would just make sure it's strong enough to support the weight of the hose on top of it and have it come right to the edge of the bed. I don't know exactly how you have your hosebed layed out, but I'm sure you can figure a way to keep the hose out of the way. I'm guessing the odds of the same crew needing the backboard and the supply hose on the same call are pretty slim. A solution for future trucks could be, assuming you purchase a custom chassis and have the extra space in the station, is to pay the extra for the long four door version and have either the chassis manufacturer put a transverse compartment in that extra space behind the rear doors. I've seen this done and it looked like it worked well.

[ADSNWFLD]

How far away is EMS? We provide ALS service on two of our three engines and don't carry a board at all. We do have C-collars but usually just hold the c spine and let the ground splint the pt till an ambulance arrives.

Just a thought. You could mount the board to the roof inside the cab, but I would look into not having it at all.

[DaSharkie]

On the call department I used to run with we hung a backboard transversely on the inside, back wall of the cab. It worked well and kept it out of the elements, important up here in a snowstorm.

This was on a custom cab E-One. I'm not sure how it works on commercial rigs, but I imagine not all that well.

[brubaker]

Responce to what to do with the @#!$ long board?

If you have to do a little rearranging on the engine or apparutus to fit the board, do it. I would really like a responding piece of fire apparatus to have a backboard and c-collars on board in the event that I get hurt in the line of duty and suffer a back injury. We all hate those types of injuries, don't we? The department I am in the process of applying for has their backboards in a compartment that runs legnthwise down the side of the tank. The compartment holds a KED, various splinting mechanisms, pleanty of c-collars, and a long board, all which are within reach of the ALS/BLS compartment next to it. Do you run ALS/BLS ambulances or medical first responce squads from your department? If so let the ambulance or squad hold the backboards. They are better designed for equipment that is long and often a pain to store... Good Luck...Feel free to email me or post any other questtions regarding this matter or any other.

Bruce

[firefighter26]

A while back when our Rescue went out of service for some repairs we managed to stuff about 80% of its total inventory onto our Engine, Including two backboards. Our hose bed is pretty deep (height wise) and we simply stood it up on its side beside one of the attack lines off the back. The hose was layed in a flat lay, one row high, so there were a good couple of inches on either side for two boards to slide into. Our engine has three pre-connect attack lines over the pump panel (transverse), so putting it in the rear hose bed wasn't a problem.

[ullrichk]

We run first responder and get an ambulance within 5 min. or not at all. The hospital-based ambulance service staffs two units for the entire county. We get the heads-up at time of dispatch if they expect an extended ETA.

As you might suspect, we're not getting rid of the spine boards.

FWIW, we're not shy about calling for a mutual aid ambulance (I have no idea why the hospital refuses to)but the closest is 20 min. out. We have an air ambulance available now (weather permitting) with a 10 min. flight time to our city.

I had thought about the roof of the cab, but as we get taller rigs, those locations get more inaccessable. I'm afraid of having a firefighter go to get a backboard and winding up needing one!

Thanks everyone for the input.

[brubaker]

Here's the next question?

How to get the county to up staffing and put more ambulances out on the street!

Bruce, EMT-1D, California

[dfd3dfd3]

The easiest and most efficient way that we have always used on older pumpers that didnt have a compartment under the hosebed specifically made for things like backboards is to place them on top of your LDH Hose. They are out of the way, and if u get a fire you can just remove the board and set it aside out of the way. It has worked well for us.