When does an apparatus have too many uses?

[ryefd192 2]

An unnamed department in my area at school has a 75' quint which now, due to the breakdown of their rescue, also houses their extrication equipment. This department has I believe 5 or 6 stations with numerous pieces of apparatus, some which are known to sit in the station and barely ever go anywhere. It is known that they have the manpower to be able to make another piece of apparatus serve purpose as a rescue. My question is, when do you look at your situation and decide that you will take a truck that already has two possible functions and add a third, when you have multiple other rigs that are more than capable of taking on the duty?

[Future Fireman 4]

when does an apparatus have too many uses? To honestly answer that, one would need to look at their call volume. I'm sure Seth and others will shine some good light on this.

Mike

[IzzyEng4 427]

Many departments utilize their "trucks" or aerials for those not following my terminology since rescue and ladder companies performed almost the same functions. Another is space available on the other rigs versus this piece of apparatus and also the location of the apparatus in the town / city / district compared to the other stations they operate. Also too one may decide to place the rescue tools on the quint since this turk may be able to carry more manpower to an incident (I'm speculating here on your example). This may be only a temporary solution for this department. If this is a permanent solution, then it has to be re-examined.

But you do bring up a valid point on giving one piece of apparatus too many functions. Prime example,there is a volunteer fire department out west that is a Class 1 department. They have I believe four trucks equipped with a large capacity pump, at least a 2000 gallons of water, two foam tanks, a large amount of five inch hose, several preconnects, extrication and rescue tools and to top it off a 65' telesquirt aerial device. (I'm going off memory from a fire apparatus article I read a few years back, somethings may not be correct). Now for out west, these super-trucks might be ok since they can navigate their district with ease since construction out there is larger, bigger streets and nothing in comparison to the town / city layouts of the North East. This truck to me is too busy and could be a nightmare.

When a department / company designs their next new fire truck they have to decide what function it should have and what hazards it may face. I think concepts of Quints, Quads, rescue pumpers, pumper-tankers (2000 - 3000 gallons of water) standard pumpers, aerials, TDAs and towers are fine but when you try for the sake of putting 10 pounds of crap in a one pound bag then you asking for trouble. Mainly chassis and suspension problems and over weight road issues.

[E-38VMFD 0]

In Mamaroneck, Engine 41 & 42 handle I95 calls. There rigs have rescue & extrication tools. Ladder 20 has some rescue equipment but more along the lines of rope rescue situations. The other companies, engine 40 & 38 are basic rigs with stanardized equipment for structure fires and and other alarms. Ladder 21 is a basic truck with no specialized equipment. Every engine has basic hand tools and rescue rope as well as the works for fires. the ladders are just ladders no pumps or water, but with an engine hooked up to L-20, you can flow water from the tip of the ladder.

[COMMANDCHIEF 4]

Staffing would be a good reason to have multipul uses for this rig. If they staff lite during the day or on weekends etc. Then a multi task rig wouild be most prudent.