Capejake72

Ha ha ha ha ha ha...... no! at least not in my district, we ( the rangers) do a majority of our own repair work, we have 2 mechanics assigned who do more of the major repairs( 1 is a good mechanic and an excellent fabricator) and a shop supervisor, who doesn't do much at all

Here's a couple of the rigs I respond with for the FL Division of Forestry, along with my station and the old watchtower

the trailer behind the dozer is a double disk medium fireline plow, it's what actually stops the fire, cutting a clean (usually) trench through most any fuel type, as deep as we need, then we come back and blade it out flat, that is the fire break, on a large fire it will end up looking like a highway through the woods, as we will put multiple dozers together side by side and plow as many lines as we need to stop the fire the older color scheme was all dark (forest) green with a white roof, but they switched back to white a few years ago as it was easier (and cheaper) to get chassis cabs in bright white 15-104 is a pretty unique engine, it is 1 of only 2 in the DOF fleet, it's not a true Type III as the pump was replaced (but I'm scheming to get a bigger pump for it), most everyone else runs a Type VI brush engine on a Ford F-550 4x4 chassis, with 350 - 500 gallons of water (rumor has us getting one soon). 104 is a pretty capable engine, 750 gallons water, Robwen foam system, twin 200 foot booster reels, front bumper jump lines, and all wheel drive, it needs better tires (front flotation types and aggressive off road treads in rear) and i'm currently having trouble getting the electric rewind reels to work (new motors, solenoids and switches)

I don't believe Lt Vazquez (RIP Brother) was actually "on-duty" that particular day, however the initial reports from several of the service journals said he was attending Dept. training, and may well have been in some sort of uniform (perhaps why he was shot first?) he might have been off-duty for lunch (I'm technically off the clock on my lunch hour, though I'm still available for calls) and not working his scheduled shift, but for the purposes, I would call dieing while on a training day, on my lunch hour, still LODD

would anyone out there happen to know what happened to 911-tv.com? they had some nice video clips there, including the video tour of the new LAFD Fireboat 2. the last few times I've gone to the site there have been no video links and all the windows show a file not found error any thing anyone knows about this would be great or if you know another link to the LAFD Fireboat tour video, thanks

Jet Blue gets my vote, however i'm looking at Skybus with some interest, esp. as they fly into some of the smaller regional airports

what color will it be when it ripens?

It is an Oshkosh chassis, probably from the Air Force that used to be a fuel tanker, the West barnstable Fire Dist. (Cape Cod) just got one FEPP surplus for a water supply truck, has a 5000 gallon stainless tank and 500gpm PTo pump, we (FL DOF) have several available that Districts are getting

pretty cool looking outfit, wouldn't mind working for a towing company like this

I remember watching this, every Sunday night i think for the 2 or so years it was on, wasn't too bad as a firefighting show went now here's one for you, anyone remember the show High Mountain Rangers?

while it might seem like a good idea, I'm sure that a USAR team can rent one, with an operator, for much less than it would cost to buy and staff a rig such as this, plus finding someone who is trained and certified to operate this type of equipment (though it's not out of the realm of possibility that there is a firefighter who is in fact a hoisting equipment operator on your department) I do know some big European departments do in fact have a heavy lift crane as part of their specialized heavy rescue/USAR companies, but it is hardly the norm anywhere, especially considering the cost of one of these is similair to that of a custom chassis apparatus, and how much use would thi vehicle see on a regular basis? Probably not nearly enough to justify the cost

my District has a fuel trailer (homebuilt) made out of a surplus military cargo trailer and a couple of large steel transfer tanks (100 gallons +) We also have access to the County Fire Departments fuel truck, which holds about 2000 gallons we might just have to supply a driver for it

cotton tshirts, cotton or poly/cotton uniform shirt, poly cotton jeans, or nomex brush pants, hopefully going to cotton fatigue style pants, cotton polo shirts (for non - public business) green pants, tan or green tee shirts, tan uniform shirts for all, white dress shirts for supervisors nomex pants would be preferable, as then only have to add brush shirt or coat for fires cotton would be much prefered over poly as it would breathe

I'm originally from Cape Cod, Mass, and Jake is the area term for a firefighter, and 72 is the year I was born thinking maybe now i ought to change it to RangerJake72, as I'm now a Forest Ranger (wildland firefighter) for Florida Division of Forestry

this is who I work for now http://www.fl-dof.com/ to see some of our equipment go to this page here http://www.fl-dof.com/wildfire/equipment/index.html the first picture listed where it says brush patrol, is actually the engine assigned to my forestry station

nice shots, wish we could hve some helicopters like that here,

Ive run Pierce, E-One, both are good rigs, KME are terrible, the quality is less than in a mass produced vehicle, Sutphen seems quite good, Maxim was probably the best, but they are no longer in business

there have been several veterans motorcycle clubs that show up opposite these wackos and counter protest them, and also serve as an honor guard and protect the families.. the thing about this church is its all one family, around 70 people, many of them are lawyers, and they make money by suing anyone who affronts them in anyway, so hopefully this countersuit will inspire more, and, will break them.

are you using IFSTA Essentials or IAFC Fundamentals book for the class? just finished fire one here (was the abbreviated 2 weeks version), we had the Fundamentals book, i found it somewhat lacking, but i had firefighter 1 years ago and used Essentials, i thought it was more complete

i believe it's called Barricade fire blocking gel, it was developed here in Florida, something to do with the stuff in baby diapers that holds liquid, it stays wet and will cling to walls and roofs and last for several hours depending on weather conditons, allowing you to pretreat structures snf move on

in order to go to another state (generally on a Fed (US Forest Service) fire) you need to have at a minimum completed an approved S130, s190, and l-180 courses (basic wildland firefighter) as well as passed the arduous physical test (3 miles, 45lb pack in 45 minutes) and be on a roster for an agency that has teams available for th National Interagency Fire Center (which coordinates all the wildland firefighting resources) as things stand right now, I couldn't go ( I'm a forest ranger for the Florida Division of Forestry) and I'm not yet certified or available for western details as of yet, though we can respond to any of the southern states (southern Area Fire Compact) or anywhere within Florida for disasters or wildlfires. After California, Florida is the 2nd largest Forestry service in the US and the highest in terms of training standards I would advise you to check with your state division of foresrty to see what their requirements are for wild land fire training and western (or southern details) http://www.dec.ny.gov/

congratulations, and good luck, hope you like the job

thats usually how my calls come in, smoke in the area of..., daytime its easy to track down, night you arent going to find much unless its an actual fire

just what i thought what's wrong with waiting until AFTER everything is done, you leave the house, and then go and have a couple of cold ones and not coming back in if have had something to drink but i guess its a matter of personal responsibility, which all too many today are lacking

i found the push botton style transmissions rather confusing, as they has so many "modes" rather than just shifting the transmission into whichever gear was needed and going, all of our truck (DOF) are automatic, with the shifter style automatics, and we are encouraged to shift the transmissions into each gear (esp on the dozer transports)