CNN: Firefighters in the Snow

charlie82

charlie82

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May 21, 2010
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PA / USA
Just saw this iReport on CNN about the Neptune, NJ FD, and their battle with the snow. I must ask though.... Where were the snow chains? We put the chains (well cables anyways) on the trucks once the first flakes begin to fall.


http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-535269?hpt=C1
 
I dont know about them, but our station doesnt have any snow chains down in south jersey. We just run our mini pumper with 4x4
 
Some companies don't justify the expense for the need. You would be surprised how many departments don't have chains. Only half the trucks in our department have chains because of the cost.
 
I don't know of anyone around here that has chains. Maybe a 3 or 4 departments in Franklin County have 4WD grass trucks...
 
Tire chains are relatively cheap but automatic chains are really expensive; a dept. next to us is ordering a new tanker and it's $1,500 for the auto chains. If it's just snow you really only need four-wheel drive and aggressive tires.
 
A lot of places don't use chains as the roads are not designed for the use without incurring damage to them. When we spec vehicles we make sure that they have aggressive tread tires on them and then we are very cautious of how we respond.
 
The fire service in Delaware has a lot of financial support from the state through a few taxes set aside specifically for the fire service... so money for equipment is a lot easier to find than for some areas. I believe all of our apparatus (2 rescue-engines, 2 quints, 1 squrt) and all 4 of our ambulances have the "On-Spot" automatic tire chains on the drive axles. During last years "snowmageddon" we used a Dodge 1500 4x4 pickup with a plow to keep our main station's lot clear and assist with calls. Other stations had military humvees assigned to them for support. But after a point, even the big On-Spot chains don't do enough, there were some massive snow drifts in the lower part of the state that even the DOT snow plows couldn't push through. They had to call in loaders to clear them.
 
To clarify: we have On-Spot chains, but anything over 3" we use standard strap on chains. For a few hundred bucks it is well worth it. Without them, our $750K truck is useless in a big storm. (and this is in SE PA)
 
Almost every piece of apparatus in our county has On Spots, but as stated above, they good up to about 3 inches of snow. Any more than that and you need strap on permanent chains, and our county put them on every piece during Snowmagedon last year.
 
embe78 said:
snow chains (not the on the spot ones) are not legal in new jersey if i am not mistaken
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I belive you are wrong, 3 of our ambulances have chains, the 5 fire trucks use them, and any police car that goes in-service in snowy weather gets chains. And all the plows get them.
 
I was only a couple miles up the road from Neptune. Chains don't help when you've got 8 foot drifts of snow :) I searched the for-sale postings for a flamethrower but I couldn't find one yet!
 
kinnelonfire75 said:
Yeah we also use chains and have been since the ancient times...if they are illegal it is news to us all.
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I thought all emergency services in NJ did pretty much whatever they wanted. Seriously.
 
philyumpshus said:
I thought all emergency services in NJ did pretty much whatever they wanted. Seriously.
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See and I thought the same thing about New York. ;)


I am not quite sure of what you are basing your opinion off of but the local LEOs keep us in check.
 
kinnelonfire75 said:
See and I thought the same thing about New York. ;)

I am not quite sure of what you are basing your opinion off of but the local LEOs keep us in check.
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They can't keep you in check when they're stuck in the snow and you're not!


Everything else aside, a hats off to all of the local emergency services in the shore area, they really pulled through in this one. Some of us pulled almost 72 hours at the firehouse before getting home.
 
This video was shot by my sister Fire Company. our town does not believe in Chains on anything, as you can tell from the other blizzard thread by the amount of Municipal vehicles stuck. All the ambulances in town have on-spot chains and that did little due to the sheer amount of snow that was on the ground, at one point 5 of the 8 were stuck, as well as a neighboring districts Tower Ladder which has on-spot chains. The town also does not believe in winter/snow tires. All the tires on everything are the cheapest, stock, road tires you can get. They SUCK!!


What was missed in the video at the structure fire was that one of the guys from that company was paired up with one of my guys and left him, and myself and 2 other guys had to hand stretch 500' of 5" down the street covered with ice and snow. While doing such I was asking for that company's help which just gave me googly eyes and kept on walking.
 
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