Awesome squad!
- Thread starter zackvv
- Start date
StEaLtH2 said:
I second this.
Seriously, that is an amazing truck. I knew there was a tiller Rescue somewhere in California, but I thought that was the only one.
Are we really doing this again? Last time it was a 2 page ordeal... http://elightbars.org/forums/f35/orange-county-fire-department-squad-6-tillered-rescue-28064/
zackvv said:
More photos on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.476431102397355.116471.144126592294476&type=3
Portland has 9 trucks, 6 being tillers. Not sure why they got this Squad, their current unit is an ALF that's probably 6 years old. This unit has a crane though.
Portland (Oregon) Fire is a fully paid fire department. They have 30 stations with 30 engines, 9 trucks, 1 squad (pictured), 2 small rescues, 4 battalion chiefs, few boats and many special vehicles. Squad 1 is staffed with 4 at the downtown station and responds on any working fire, extrication MVAs, dives, and any other technical rescue calls. A department right next to them also just got a huge Heavy Rescue, I'll post a link for it soon.
Here's the current Squad 1 in Portland. Not sure if this tiller rig is going to replace it or supplement it:
[Broken External Image]:http://dickh.zenfolio.com/cdn/pub/2...x3szhdc4fxi6w0nrr2z7/s4/v66/p1109532260-4.jpg
They've also recently gotten a brand-new truck 1:
And have an Urban Search and Rescue truck that's a couple years old:
There's lots of pics of PFB at Zenfolio | Dick Harris Photography | ACTION PHOTOS
[Broken External Image]:http://dickh.zenfolio.com/cdn/pub/2...x3szhdc4fxi6w0nrr2z7/s4/v66/p1109532260-4.jpg
They've also recently gotten a brand-new truck 1:
And have an Urban Search and Rescue truck that's a couple years old:
There's lots of pics of PFB at Zenfolio | Dick Harris Photography | ACTION PHOTOS
beautiful truck, but i personally don't think that squad needed to be configured like a semi...unlike the urban SAR truck (for which I definitely see the justification for having it as a semi/trailer), i think everything that i see on the squad easily could've been mounted on a tandem axle truck, or possibly even a single rear axle truck, depending on what they have inside the compartments
Must be one of few that do not like this. I can understand the need of it to be able to navigate through tiny roads if there are any, but I find it ugly and I really just don't see the need for such a large rescue. I have seen a LOT of non tiller tech. and tact. rescue apparatus that are gigantic and they navigate through narrow streets and everything just fine, plus they carry more and have a just as efficient generator.
Just my $.02 but what do I know?
Just my $.02 but what do I know?
I think that crane had alot to do with it being a tiller, and they do have crazy skinny and steep streets. 6 of 9 trucks are tillers. But who knows the real reason, I'll try to ask a few people that work there.
Don't get me wrong, while I've never driven one for whatever reason I just love a tiller. While I understand the crane may have been the cause for this squad being made a tiller, just seems like this is a little overkill, especially since they already have the USAR tiller. For what this truck is assigned to do, just seems like a smaller rig would have done the job. I'm not from Portland so I don't know how it is to drive fire apparatus down its streets, just seems like a tiller heavy rescue or squad is a little excessive. But to each his own.
Sure it's a cool looking piece, but it's hard to say if they really need what they got, or if it's just "because we can" unless you know the ins and outs of what the department does and needs to fulfill that job.
John Q Taxpayer certainly gets ripped-off when it comes to paying for fire protection. Thirty fire stations to serve a city of about half a million: ridiculous. This side of The Pond fire stations have been closed and the number of fire appliances reduced because there has been a huge decrease in the number of fires over the past twenty years. I guess it's an attitude difference. In the USA you spend all your time worrying about the gold leaf and chrome on your "Parade Queens". In the UK we concentrate on preventing fires.
Snibsey said:
I take issue with your broad, sweeping generalization of the American fire service. While I won't claim to be too familiar with the UK style of fire service, I am familiar with the styles of the American fire service.
First, I admit that we often do go overboard with our apparatus - not everyone agrees that "pretty doesn't put fires out".
Our tactics are often staffing-intensive, which is why the most important piece of equipment on a fireground is people. From what I have seen of the UK firefighting technique (and again, I won't claim it to be much), it seems to be based on a defensive operation with ladder pipes. While the American mentality certainly does allow for this method of operation, it is used mostly on well-involved buildings with little to no chance of people inside surviving (risk a lot to save a lot; risk a little to save a little; risk nothing to save nothing). It is not generally our default method of operation.
Finally, the American fire service does make a concerted effort to prevent fires - my department, as many do, has people whose entire job is to prevent fires through education and/or code enforcement. Additionally, we have a strong firefighter outreach program to educate our citizens on the dangers of fires and what steps people can take to prevent fires.
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Snibsey said:
Yeah, it's an attitude difference. In the USA we spend our time worrying about people and prevention, in the UK you spend your time closing fire stations and talking out of your ass.
Give it another few years when all the cheap building materials and electronics start to fail. You live in plastic. Have fun.Snibsey said:
Snibsey said:
It is not about what you do on a daily basis that matters when it comes to emergency services, fire protection in particular. It is about what you are prepared to do.
If an area has a certain number of stations and a certain number of citizens, it is probably because they want it that way. We have more stations than most departments our size, but guess what? The public voted to fund, build and staff them in the locations they are in. "Getting ripped off" is hardly what most of them would consider their trade off.
There are a lot of things our two cultures do differently. That doesn't make either of them wrong.
Snibsey said:
You think we don't try to prevent fires? The FD here hands out a fire extinguisher to anyone who requests one, stocks and refills them for ambulances and our sheriff's office. They visit schools to talk about fire prevention and safety, hand out documents supporting prevention, plus prevent MORE fire by putting what is already there. They also mutual aid as we're in a grassland with high winds and dry conditions.
If your going to state stuff like that, do your homework. Your from the UK, you have no clue what we focus on out here. We all have different tactics and methods, but known are really wrong. Keep posting like that and you'll look like a wanker(british term?).
And if this is your mentality for everything, and you think your right, I'd hop off this forum now. (Just saying, since you have 6 posts - obviously new)
Why do people from outside the US think they know exactly how the fire departments are here? And they say it with so much confidence, they have no clue...timlinson said:
Snibsey said:
I'm going to ignore all your other comments and focus on this one. Are you aware of the history of gold leaf on fire apparatus? Do you know why red is the most common fire truck color? Do you know where the insignia on the officers' collar devices come from? Do you know why any department would spend extra to have a functional bell on the front bumper of their rig? I can answer all that and more by bringing up two VERY important points in the American Fire Service. PRIDE and OWNERSHIP. As a matter of fact, Chief Rick Lasky runs an entire seminar based on those two points. Pride & Ownership My department requires every new rookie to wach his video. My chief's exact words last night were "Two o'clock in the morning, five o'clock in the afternoon, shift change, meal time, twenty degrees or a hundred-ten degrees... if that truck leaves the pad, it get's cleaned when it gets back. Period." Our department policy is to (at the bare minimum) rinse the tailboard, wheel wells, and rims then dry thoroughly any time we go out for anything. If the truck travels down a dirt road, if it's raining, or just dirty, the truck gets a full wash top to bottom then thoroughly dried. If chief says "wash it" it get's washed, and if he says wash it again, you wash it again. We once washed the same truck 3 times in a row. We take pride in our trucks and our people. You'll never see a department t-shirt in a bar, you'll never see anyone at the station looking like a bag-of-ass, you'll never see anyone wearing their hat backwards/to the side/crooked. All of our rookies have to earn the right to wear anything with our department name/station number on it.
To cap it off, I'm proud that each of my trucks has a hand painted character on it, I'm proud that we have real chrome on the front of the trucks, I'm proud that we we roll up on a mutual aid job, the other companies know that we here to finish what they couldn't, I'm proud that as a member of my department I have ownership of it. That's the American reason for the "Parade Queens" you speak of. I'd put ANY of my department's front run trucks up against any other departments any day of the week. We wouldn't need 24 hours notice to wash/wax the truck, it's sitting in the bay right now ready for a 5 alarm fire or a parade and I'm proud to say that!
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