By Bill Adams After a year’s hiatus, the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference (FDIC) in Indianapolis, IN, had numerous apparatus on display from multiple vendors. In addition to unveiling new products and apparatus designs, most rigs were equipped with traditional...
Darley EM Pump Continues to Hold Its Own in Major Metro Fire Departments
By Jason S. Darley In 2013, a trend of many major metropolitan fire departments making the switch to Darley pumps began with the Charlotte (NC) Fire Department committing to move to a Darley EM 2000 pump. Many other departments, including those in Toronto and...
Sutphen Builds Identical Pumpers for Two North Greenbush (NY) Fire District No. 1 Departments
By Alan M. Petrillo North Greenbush (NY) Fire District No. 1 is comprised of two departments—Defreestville Fire Department and Wynantskill Fire Department—that cover the town of North Greenbush in Rensselaer County, encompassing almost 19 square miles with a...
NFPA-Mandated Flash Rates: Fast, Slow, or Not at All?
By Bill Adams This article is not an accusation that the writers of the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 1901 Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus purposely promulgate requirements that are conflicting, divergent, or confusing. They just appear to be....
Darley PSM Pump Surging in Popularity
By Jason S. Darley The Darley PSM 1500 Pump has continued to surge in popularity with many fire departments. Both the Detroit (MI) Fire Department and Boston (MA) Fire Department have been featured in recent Darley “We Switched” advertising campaigns as new Darley...
Sutphen Delivers SPH 100 Aerial Platform Quint to Alabaster (AL) Fire Department
By Alan M. Petrillo Alabaster (AL) Fire Department has been a customer of Sutphen for several years, so when it needed an aerial apparatus to complement the Sutphen engines it already owned, it naturally turned to Sutphen to configure an aerial device that would best...
NFPA-Mandated LED Lightbars: Fact or Fallacy?
By Bill Adams A fact is a verifiable truth; fiction is not. A politically correct way of dodging the truth is to call a statement a fallacy. A fallacy can be defined as a misconception, a myth, sometimes a mistake, even a fairytale and “perhaps it’s something you...
Grab Handle Negligence?
By Bill Adams In the early 1980s, a New England firefighter fell off a rig and eventually died from his injuries. His family successfully sued the fire apparatus manufacturer that built the apparatus. It was a custom pumper with an open canopy cab that featured a...
Tallman (NY) 2020 Pierce Ascendant 100-Foot Heavy Duty Aerial Tower
By Mike Ciampo The Tallman Volunteer Fire Department is located in Rockland County, NY, a suburb of New York City. The fire district is situated in the Town of Ramapo and the firehouse is located on Route 59 in Tallman, a hamlet of Ramapo. The department serves the...
Horton Emergency Vehicles Builds Type 1 Ambulance for Upper Township (NJ) Division of EMS
By Alan M. Petrillo Upper Township (NJ) Division of EMS has been a longtime customer of VCI Emergency Vehicle Specialists, dealers for Horton Emergency Vehicles, and has run Horton ambulances for more than 30 years. So when the need arose to replace one of its rigs,...
Darley Delivering Four High-Water Custom CAFS Pumpers to Sheldon (TX) Fire & Rescue
By Alan M. Petrillo W.S. Darley & Co. has built four custom pumpers designed to ford high water conditions for Sheldon (TX) Fire & Rescue, a fire district in Harris County to the east of Houston. Roland Balderas, Sheldon’s assistant chief administrator, says...
Transverse Hose Storage
Transverse hose storage for handlines has been around since the late 1940s. Commonly called crosslays and mattydales, they’re usually located immediately above or recessed into the top of a midship-mounted pump enclosure. Some are found on front bumper extensions and on the rear step–also known as the tailboard or more politically correct as the rear work platform. They all feature the principle of deploying the hose from either side of the rig. All are loaded from the top. It is irrelevant if the hose is preconnected. What is important is ensuring the intended hose fits, it is stored at a workable height, and can be deployed as intended. Adequate purchasing specifications will ensure so.