Appliances

[strikeathird]

Okay....Over the years, Vollies have seen and been aquanted with a huge array of CFS Appliances...... - This is a little topic, on the lighter side, to talk about some of the classics / or new appliances, you have come acustomed to, and learnt to love...

So.....Let everyone know...:

1) Your favourite appliance type, Make, and where it is / was.
2) The worst Appliance(s) you have seen...or Used!
3) The appliance you dream of having sitting out on the Apron...

 

[rescue5271]

I would have to say that our rescue unit at Naracoorte is our my best it was made by skilled victoria,the brigade had all its input into how the rescue unit should be made and I really enjoy working out of it. Its the only one of its type in the CFS and I would like to see other rescue brigades look at this type of unit for there area.May not suite all but worth looking over.

I also like the type two pumper at millicent,and would like to see this unit sitting in our station sooner rather than later,made by skilled again its a very good pumper and would be able to meet the demand's of a busy urban or urban/rural brigade. I understand the CFS has one of these on order for eden hills brigade to replace there pumper.If that is the case that will mean 3 type two pumpers in the CFS made by skilled.



  So may be we should be looking at buying from Victoria?

[Good times]

You actually had input into a vehicle to suit your area, are you sure you are in the CFS, that just doesn't sound right.......

[fire03rescue]

blinky bill could you put post some pictures with the lockers as well

Thanks
fire03rescue
   

[corocfs]

yeh. lets see some pictures of these favourite trucks...
im pretty keen on our 24P (because of course... its ours), but my favourite of the sturt group trucks (the only ones i've really played with) has got to be eden hills' current pumper, the big old ford. tough stuff... gonna be sad to see it go and get replaced by some crap truck, personally i think it should be repolaced by a new 24P or 34. currently there are two many two wheel drive appliances in our group i think... it stops us from going on a lot of strike teams as we cant protect our own patch if we takeall our 24's away!!!

[Good times]

See here we go again, WE DON"T JUST DO RURAL, people need to stop and realise that we do a lot of urban work, so we need dedicated pumpers, they have a 24, if you want to do rural only pack up shop and let SAMFS take over because you are not serving your community as effectively as you can by having all rural equipment, who's gonna boost the shopping centres, we can't rely on SAMFS to do it, because as has been proven lately they don't have enough equipment to run much more than a 3rd alarm, so we need to be self sufficient. Its a lot easier to get a change of quarters for rural appliances than trying to get some of the limited CFS pumpers to come to your area. Sometimes I think I am bashing my head against a wall, no one seems to think of the urban risk, CFS should either get serious or get out of it and hand it to SAMFS.


Oh and by the way, I think EDEN's Louisville is a sweet truck too, pity its ending its days, wouldn't mind seeing that kept for a museum. Also Coro 24P is a very nice rural appliance and is set up like a 24P should be, tell me alex, has the truck ever caused any hassles, and does it have and clearance issues?

[rescue5271]

alex,it will not be crap have you used the two that are in the state? what do you base you crap tag? as for being 2wd lets get this straight a pumper is a urban appliances and its main use is urban calls .There is already a 24 at eden hills and I for one think they and the group will be happy with the new unit if not send it to Burnside or better still down to us at Naracoorte.

I will get some pictures of our rescue unit,but you can see it on the VFBA promo site...........

[corocfs]

i dont want to cause a massive argument and i apologise i f i have offended anyone.

therefore im going to drop the conversation, there is a lto more group politics involved than should be discussed here.

Goodtimes,

no we havent ever had any issues with ground clearances (i believe it has a 10degree entry and exit angle) or other hassles. it has two pumps, the main which is a PTO driven pump giving us the light pumper status (hence why it was changed from A24) but meaning that the truck must be stationary while pump in gear, and an auxillary pump hooked up through the same outlets/inlets (taken off an ex-coro truck) that enables us to pump and roll (although this isnt a technique we generally use)

i dunno why, but it seems that we always get off the truck roll out hundreeds of metres of 25mm, and chase the fire on foot, where as we see many brigades fighting from the back of there truck whilst driving. i guess we do a more thorough (but slightly slower) job, with a lot more making up..  

oh well...

[kat]

There was a massive debate on the SACFS yahoo group once about back of truck vs off truck grass/scrub firefighting!

Depends on the fire, the terrain etc etc. Most fires that can be attacked from the back of truck (ie: running grass fires in open country - the fun stuff ) need to be mopped up properly off the truck anyway. So we all should be pretty familiar with the metres of 25mm to make up

Sounds like primarily an urban or special appliance Alex. Anything it can do in a rural situation is a bonus isn't it?

[corocfs]

24P is our primary to all incidents in our group area. excellent off-road capabilities (never had any problems at all), and much more reliable (in all aspects) than our CFS standard 24.

24P has been built how it is though to accomodate the urban threat we handle. of all our incidents only about 10% a year are rural jobs. like most CFS brigades near the city these days (and a loty of country brigades), we mostly turn-out to MVAs and Structure jobs or fixed alarms

[kat]

We love our Isuzu 24P too, but we send the rural 24 out first to a rural job. 24P goes fine off road but rarely leaves our primary response area. With the rescue equipment and all our BA equipment naturally it has to stay in station when we're taking off for strike teams or rural fires outside of our primary response area. Pity - the airconditioning and CD player would be great for those long drives  

[corocfs]

CD PLAYER?? cooooooool....  i want.

since we dont have rescue equipment or HAZMAT, taking our primary truck out of area isnt as big a deal for us, both of our trucks carry mainly urban gear (BAs, 64mm hose). so the kit on 24P is mostly the same as 24, the only extra's being PPV fan and portable lighting kit

[rescue5271]

We had  meeting after meetings with CFS about our new rescue unit,they wanted a water tank and pump and we said NO and got what we wanted a state of the art rescue/hazmat unit that has seen alot of work in the last two years. Our next project would have to be a new pumper to replace the one we have or better still a 24p to back up the pumper.That would mean that we would have 3 appliances with pump's and a dedicated rescue/hazmat unit.

How many times have you been on a fire appliances that has RCR gear only to be paged to a RCR job? its a little hard to leave half way into a working job. I will take some new photos of our new rescue and once I work out how to post them on here will do.

[Good times]

Our next project would have to be a new pumper to replace the one we have

Good luck!!

[JamesGar]

Bill, On stand alone rescues. I like them, and started in the CFS at Yankalilla with a Rescue Appliance. One downfall I see is a lack of pump and water. twice I've been involved in incidents were on arrival of Rescue the car was alight, and Fire Extinguished are good but a 1000L of water may have been a better option. I like Blackwood Rescue as it come with 1000l and a 450 gpm pump, but limited storgage.

I think Recue/Hazmat appliances are definitely on a needs only basis. I'm sure you've read my comments in the equipment forum. But again I'm all for standard appliances. I think I'm right in stating that there are no 2 Rescues in the CFS that are the same! I've seen Nara Rescue just after delivery whilst instructing an initial RCR course down your way. I like it, good space, well laid out and lots of OHS good points.

South Coast (Pt Elliot/Victor Harbor) SES have a similar Rescue, but 4WD, based on the Izusu 550 chasis, but somewhat different on the back. 4WD is another good concept, apart from the fact that the SES appliance is in the wrong spot. This is what I've heard. The SES designed and built this appliance to be placed on KI at Kingscote. On delivery would fit into the station, so some appliance shuffling has happened and now South Coast has it. Nice concept for areas with a high rural/agriculture Rescue need.

[JamesGar]

Furthermore. Increase urban risks in the CFS, mmmm, when will we see an aerial pumper in the CFS? Telesquirt/Skyjet? What sort of multistorey risks are out in CFS are? Wirrina Condo Apartments near Second Valley are 6 stories high, Top floor fire or roof fire would be interesting!

Worst Appliance...Loved it but the old Acco 34 rear entry with the big V8 petrol engine, great for running grass fires if you had broad shoulder to handle the lack of power steering! Didn't like the extra 4 auxilliary fuel pumps to try and avoid fuel vapourisation though!

[rescue5271]

I can see the need for a few skyjets in the CFS in some urban area,s also in country CFS area's like murray bridge,nuri,naracoorteand area's where CFS work with MFS.sure the cost would be high as you would also have to supply a pumper,the future hold's great change in the service I for one would hope that the VOLS get a say in what is going to happen.

I would not like to see over duplication of services in country area's the strain on local community involvment into 3 service's is too much.

[JamesGar]

hear hear! The volunteer pool in the country is decreasing and our needs for volunteers and the demands that we are placing on them are increase. Not a good recipe I know. I've done a bit of work with SAAS with our volunteer retension and recruitment rates, not good. I don't have the answers, but I go back to saying maybe one service in rural areas to cover the fire, rescue and civil emergency problems might actually work in some communities (you could even throw ambulance response into it.) One volunteer base, one service sort makes sense.

[kat]

It would be great to have two dedicated fire appliances and a stand alone rescue but apart from that cost we'd need a new station to fit them.

Way back when (it was at the end of the eighties) our rescue gear was carried on a trailer and towed to a job by a private vehicle (saw something similar a few years into the ninties at Williamstown when staged there). We caused a local stir by our Brigade SOP that a fire appliance had to roll with the rescue trailer regardless of whether it was in our fire district or not. Reason being we simply did not want to be at an MVA without water (adequate fire cover)! And sometimes due to the rural nature of surrounding Brigades this could happen if we didn't bring our own. Our primary rescue area at the time could be over 70km away in a few directions and second rescue over 100km.

Now if we were, for example, going to a primary rescue 50km towards Lameroo with a specialist rescue vehicle there would be a real chance that we would arrive before the fire cover response. A small tank and pump sounds like a fair enough compromise. Not that we'd ever be given the choice but in my dreams

[kat]

SAAS not being under the "emergency services" umbrella but aligned with the Health Department is an impediment to future colocations or integrated service delivery.

[JamesGar]

I don't think that SAAS going to DHS with impede it in the future as Asset Management is still handled within SAAS, though the Industrial Commision is involved with some issues at the moment (you've probably seen the press.)

Unfortunately colocation probably won't be looked again (at least in Metro area) lots of union problem arose from the Camden Park SAMFS/SAAS colocation. Pity because I like it. Ohalloran Hill works really well, with great camaradery between the services.

I'd like to think that CASAC (Country Ambulance Service Advisor Committee, consisting of a Board of Volunteers) have a say in this topic in the future, and pushs for more colocation in regional SA, as I said one volunteer pool, one community which all services are trying to protect. Makes sense to locate us all together where convenient to aid training, responses, camaradery, asset protection and security....

[kat]

Makes sense to locate us all together where convenient to aid training, responses, camaradery, asset protection and security....

Ahhh, I agree..... in a perfect world. :color:

If only it were so simple.  :banghead:

[Good times]

CFS with aerials hey, only trouble is the way CFS is reducing the pumper fleet ( I mean real one's not 24P's) you would have to respond the MFS to plumb in and run them  

[kat]

These stats are from the promo page and reproduced from a posting by Pip on SACFS yahoogroup.

"A quick scan of the figures from 2003-04, as displayed on the Promo Unit page:

4 brigades attended between 300-400 calls
5 brigades attended between 200-300 calls
19 brigades attended between 101-200 calls
8 brigades attended between 91-100 calls
11 brigades attended between 71-90 calls
25 brigades attended between 51-70 calls
35 brigade attended between 31-50 calls
113 brigades attended between 11-30 calls
166 brigades attended between 0-10 calls"

So 0.07% of Brigades did more than 100 calls a year and 72% do 30 or less. And I suspect that a lot of the busier Brigades are in close proximity to other resources. They also tend to do a higher percentage of routine type jobs - stop calls, fixed alarms. I am well aware that risk is not necessarily equated to call history but let's get some perspective here. The vast majority of the services resposne area is probably well served by a standard 24/34 or gasp, the "second rate" "wanna be" 24P.
(tongue in cheek with apologies to our Bella Isuzu who we adore).

All our list contributers must be in the .07 percent  

[Good times]

As we are talking about perspective, if those same 0.7% of brigades were taken over by SAMFS, look what equipment levels they would have. Whilst there might be a reduction in the fleet size, at least the urban risk would be looked after, and for the occasional grass fire job that could not be put out with 1 HP line you just get the vollys from the next town in as they do now, and most of us that would be shut down use the 90 metre HP line from our 2 wheel drive pumpers for that work anyway!! (even if they are nealry 25 years old)

Sorry, its early and I am cynical.