Rochester NY Returning To Mid Mount Aerials

[x635 4,066]

Some interesting new from NY's 3rd largest city that brought you the Quint/Midi concept. Other then a 1981 Sutphen tower, Rochester NY hasn't ordered a mid mount aerial since the 50's. They currently use a fleet comprised entirely of E-One Rearmounts. Still miss the Quint/Midi days though lol.

 

Although not a huge Rosenbauer fan currently, they have a lot of interesting concepts and many new ones that will be presented at FDIC this year. They've recently started building new 55' Snorkels for Chicago, and filled large orders for Baltimore County, MD and Miami-Dade, FL. Rochester has been using them for several years now, and the dealer provides pretty strong sales and service support, so that must say something.

 

 

[Bnechis 3,961]

Quint/midi was a shell game to cut firefighters 

 

standard engine and and ladder in a double company with 3ff/1of each =8

 

then quint with 5/1 and midi with 1/1

 

hey the quint is a ladder and it only needs 3/1.   Bang you now have 6

[dwcfireman 656]

3 hours ago, Bnechis said:

Quint/midi was a shell game to cut firefighters 

standard engine and and ladder in a double company with 3ff/1of each =8

then quint with 5/1 and midi with 1/1

hey the quint is a ladder and it only needs 3/1.   Bang you now have 6

 

BUT, the Q/M had an engine respond with them for anything greater than an automatic alarm.  Now you have 10.  Working fire...add a batt. chief (1), rescue (3), and either another engine (4) or Q/M (6), and FAST (usually another engine with 4)....22 to 24.  I personally know a bunch of the Rochester firefighters, and they very much prefer the Q/M system.  It may have cut firefighters, but it met the city's needs with faster and more efficient responses to structural alarms.  It may not have been perfect for every situation, but you always had enough manpower to start an interior attack.

 

p.s.  I was born and raised in Rochester.  I'm not swayed by that fact to defend my view of the Q/M system, rather I defend the system because I've seen it work.

 

 

BUT, to get back to the topic.....I wonder why Rochester is going back to midmounts.  I would think that they can continue to have better use of rearmounts, considering downtown high-rises, the large number of rather tall apartment buildings, and the number of large buildings that are set back from the road.

[Bnechis 3,961]

I'm close friends with their immediate past chief and he said it was used to drop about 75 firefighters. Just because they still sent other rigs on an alarm does not make up for layoffs. Everyone ends up working hard. Also the union pushed hard to go back to engine and ladders, but it took a full fleet replacement 20 years to do it.

[x635 4,066]

9 hours ago, dwcfireman said:

BUT, to get back to the topic.....I wonder why Rochester is going back to midmounts.

 

I'm wondering the same thing. It's going to be a pretty big learning curve. But Rochester has been a department to try new things in recent years.

[vodoly 535]

Slightly off topic but I read somewhere that Balitmore's looking to replace 25 truck low profile seagrave rear mount with a mid mount aerial 

[dwcfireman 656]

14 hours ago, Bnechis said:

I'm close friends with their immediate past chief and he said it was used to drop about 75 firefighters. Just because they still sent other rigs on an alarm does not make up for layoffs. Everyone ends up working hard. Also the union pushed hard to go back to engine and ladders, but it took a full fleet replacement 20 years to do it.

 

It's funny how emergency service workers tend to get the short end of the stick (ladder pun intended).  At least with the total fleet replacement over the years they now have amazing apparatus to cover the whole city.

 

9 hours ago, x635 said:

 

I'm wondering the same thing. It's going to be a pretty big learning curve. But Rochester has been a department to try new things in recent years.

 

I'm kind of thinking that, especially with the smaller firehouses, that the midmounts will be lower profile.  And with how close houses can be in some of the neighborhoods, I guess the mid mount will have better reach for exposures.  But, I'm going to be in Rochester this weekend, so I'll see if I can find an answer!