SA Firefighter

I was watching the ABC's "New Inventors" program today and saw an invention by a FF from the MFB.  He's made a radio transmitter that can be installed on trucks, and broadcasts a recorded message on all FM and AM channels.  Basically, it sounds a warning signal then says "Give way to approaching emergency vehicle" (or similar).
It reaches about 300M in front of the truck, a little less to the sides, and nothing at the back, so cars with their radios on in front of the truck, and to the sides (like at intersections) will hear the warning, probably well before they hear the siren.

I see it as a great invention maybe not as usefull in country areas, but its a great idea... what do other people think?

Does anyone have a list of what Bombers the CFS has hired for this season, where they will be stationed and what capacity specs they have?

Are there any new, bigger, better, faster ones?

I got sent a survey being conducted by 3 students at Uni SA on the effect of CFS and SES on the volunteers' sleep.

QuoteThe purpose of distributing this survey throughout the CFS/SES Volunteers is to get an understanding of how paid (regular) work and CFS/SES volunteer work influence subjective sleep, fatigue and performance levels...

Has anyone else received this survey?

OK, some SES guys and girls on this forum would like the other emergency services to better understand the SES and what they do.
This thread is an opportunity for the SES to talk about what they do, so we can better understand them! (Simple eh?)

So anyone can ask questions, and the SES can answer them... I'll start with a few...

• How much is the SASES different from the SES in the other states, and what resources do they share?
• How big is the SASES (how many volunteers, paid staff, units, appliances etc)
• What courses do the SES run, and offer
• How are SES units responded to incidents (Do they ever respond in private cars?)
• What ranks are there within Units, and how can we tell who is senior? (Different coloured helemts?)
• Do SES Units have specialisations (like the CFS has Rescue, or Hazmat) and how many of these specialised units are there? (eg, SACFS has 34 HAMZAT and 66 RCR brigades, out of 434)
• What is the average number of calls an SES unit gets in a year (Pip has said over 50% of CFS brigades get less than 20 calls)

Please keep this thread as informative as possible with no put downs or anti-SES comments (I'll edit your posts if you're mean!)...
Thanks

What is the legality of pager and radio scanning?
It is my understanding that it is not illegal to listen to the radios (or read pager messages) but it is illegal to act on them...
Is this right?

For example, (and this would never happen :P), if a group of people were reading pager messages, and found out that their forums were allegedly going to be shut down, would it be legal for them to contact the person they thought the message was to, or from?

:?

This topic has been moved to Incident Operations in an attempt to keep things neat and tidy.

http://www.safirefighter.com/boards/index.php?topic=800.0

I went and saw this movie the other day, and I would highly recommend it... Its not a happy doco, but I'd never quite fully understood what global warming was about, and how serious it is.

In short, if nothing is changed within 50 years, average temperatures will increase a lot.  This will cause an increase in natural disasters (cyclones, hurricanes, flooding and fire), and will also cause the ice caps to melt, raising the earths sea levels by more than 6 metres (drowning many major coastal cities, and creating millions of refugees)..

Not to mention all the extinct species, increase in disease and other such death chaos and destruction...

Has anyone else seen it?

Good to see he's back! (or is it really him? :? )

Welcome back striker!
:)

The new appliances the CFS is building all seem much bigger than what is already in service... (meaning 34P's compared with 24s and the Canter 14's compared with Utes etc)...
I'm just wondering if any brigades have had trouble with accessing incidents with these trucks... I know if my house caught fire, you wouldn't get a 34 down my driveway, and you'd be running at least 10 lengths of hose if you left the truck parked on the road...  I'm sure that's a common story in the lofty ranges...

Should the CFS also look at having a standard smaller appliance, like the old 12s or Tea tree gully 14, in addition to the bigger ones?

Big trucks:



Big 14:


Smaller 12:


More functional 14:


- Photos from the promo unit website

This topic has been moved to OFF Topic.

http://www.safirefighter.com/boards/index.php?topic=779.0

Has anyone else noticed how much filtered the SES cop on these forums, and how good natured the SES members are about it?
I think its quite impressive what they put up with!

Good work boys! (and girls) :D


and this isn't an invitation to try to make them angry.. don't even think about it! :P

This topic has been moved to Incident Operations.

http://www.safirefighter.com/boards/index.php?topic=774.0

(just to keep things all neat and tidy) ;)

A question about morals:
A crew of CFS vols arrive in a street as a fire hits it. There are 4 houses on the street, all occupants are not at home.
The houses owners are:

• An elderly woman who has trouble walking
• A lawyer
• A single mother with 3 children
• A CFS volunteer who is out fighting the fire on another truck

For whatever reason, the crew can only save one house. They save the CFS vols house because he's their mate, (and he would have been at home to defend his own house, if he wasn't out on a truck)...

Should they have saved one of the other houses instead?

(This isn't based on any real life event, I'm just curious ;))

What are peoples opinions on branches that have automatic flow control compared with ones that have manual flow control?
I personally like the ability to choose my flow rate, and conserve water if needed, or ramp the flowrate up for mopping up...  I can also see benefit in having the right flowrate for the the supplied pressure though....

Has anyone had experience with both types?

Someone mentioned in another thread that the fire service wouldn't ever be responded to a medical case without SAAS attending first.  This made me wonder what  SAAS do when they're overloaded and have too many cases...

For example, if it's a really hot day and old people start having heart attacks...  Would they ever think about responding SAPOL or C/MFS, or would they just respond the next closest Ambulance resource (Even if that's 30 mins away)?

:?

Is it about time we have another BBQ?

Lipstick in School -Easy Solution!!

According to a news report, a certain private school in Washington was
recently faced with a unique problem.

A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put
it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick
they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip
prints. Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day
the girls would put them back.

Finally, the principal decided that something had to be done. She called
all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man.
She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the
custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night. To demonstrate how
difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to
show the girls how much effort was required.

He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned
the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the
mirror.
There are teachers . . . And then there are educators.


The Plan

In the beginning was the plan.
And then came the Assumptions.
And the Assumptions were without form.
And the Plan was without substance.
And darkness was upon the face of the Workers.
And they spoke amongst themselves, saying,
"It is a crock of sh*t, and it stinketh."
And the Workers went unto their Supervisors and said,
"It is a pail of dung, and none may abide the odour thereof."
And the Supervisors went unto their Managers, saying,
"It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong,
Such that none may abide by it."
And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying,
"It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may withstand its strength."
And the Directors spoke amongst themselves, saying, one to another,
"It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong."
And the Directors then went unto the Vice Presidents, saying unto them,
"It promotes growth, and it is very powerful."
And the Vice Presidents went unto the President, saying, unto him,
"This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigour
Of the company, with powerful effects."
And the President looked upon the plan,
And saw that it was good.
And the Plan became Policy.
This is how Sh*t Happens.

The following thread is for compiling a list of the most frequently asked questions or misunderstandings in relation to the SA Country Fire Service.  Please do not discuss these issues here, but rather start a new thread. As more questions appear, I'll add them into this post so that they all appear on the first page.

If you see something incorrect below, and its only minor, it'll be best if you PM me, rather than clutter up this thread. thanks!

Q: Why does CFSRES or URGMSG appear on all response pages even when CFS aren't responded?

A:(From corecutters)
1) From day dot the SAGRN pagers were programed for the Tone 7 to be a response tone.
2) The set prefix (word / symbol that triggered the activation of tone 7 was   *CFSRES:   or    URGMSG.
3) So if MFS send pages to MFS DO's or Stations with pagers, the prefix *CFSRES: will set off tone 7, just like CFS pagers... Despite the fact NO CFS is responding.....

(from Darius)
URGMSG is the same as CFSRES in that it activates tone 7 on the pager, however URGMSG additionally triggers the siren and (optionally) opens the station doors.  Hence a brigade can choose slightly different actions for different calls or at different times of day etc.  That was the intent anyway, some brigades have CFSRES set the siren and open the doors (making CFSRES and URGMSG the same).

(and finally, from medevac)
[it is used for all services because] CFSRES is a pre-determined part of any response message in the MFS CAD database (same as the 'MFS'prefix, and the date/time)... this is due to the fact that MFS/CFS/SES quite regularly responded together, and it keeps things simple... not having to change/add bits and pieces when it is determined that CFS or SES are apart of the response...


Q: What's a pumper?

A:(from skirkmoe)
By the definition of volume in a pump (not talking pressure here for a moment. but the simple thing is....
1000-2000 lts/min = light pumper
2000-3000 lts/min = medium pumper
3000+ lts/min = pumper

these volumes are usually operated at about 1000kpa or there about 150psi. If you start to talk about high pressure then it's usually 3,500 - 4,000 kpa... so about 3 times what a standard appliance usually runs at.

A standard CFS 24 appliance runs usually a 300GPM, so about 1140 lts/min. A 24P or 34P runs a 500GPM pump.... so 1900 lts/min... so in reality if we call a 24P and 34P a pumper, why can't a standard 24 or 34 also be called a pumper, after all it fits in the same bracket of pumper!

The HE-500 pump that runs on 24P and 34P appliances is only a volume pump, not a pressure as it's only designed to be used around 1000 kpa... (so when people just keep winding them up to get more pressure it usually does pump damage) that's why some of the older type pumpers and new ones have a separate high pressure stage. Some people may remember the old SAMFS Isuzu pumpers that were in Adelaide, glen Osmond and prospect (now based in country stations) but they only had a 500GPM pump also so they were not usually used to boost...

The new Type 2 appliances run a Rosenbaur NH30 I think it's called, it's a multistage 3000lts/min pump.... so on the boarder of medium and pumper status. As also has been stated they have a number of inlets and outlets to be able to boost more effectively....
Anyway I have probably rambled enough for the minute and hope i haven't caused too much confusion.

P.S. - if an appliance is a 'pumper' the stowage is different as has been suggested.... 4xCABA, different hose, PPV etc. I'll try and dig out a stowage list from somewhere....

Darius (I think!) mentioned somewhere that firefrog should set up a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section where all the frequently asked questions are already answered (Like the use of CFSRES, station numbers etc).

Should I set up an FAQ thread in some topics where we can compile a list of all the frequently asked questions and their answers?

So using that example, there would be a thread called "FAQ" in 'Country Fire Service', possibly sticky, where we can compile all the answers to the most commonly asked questions (or misunderstandings), that come up about the CFS on these forums...

Your thoughts?

Did anyone put "SA Country Fire Service" as their religion?  Its close enough to one for some people ;)