SA Firefighter

Alot of our brigade members got caught out last year with this exercise, we included a command car into it to get the group officers through the training as well. 
All of the exercise went well, however after doing the check over the truck no one bothered to check the command vehicle, including GO's, BTO declared it lost. 

Fair enough. A command car got caught on Cut Hill Rd (Mt.Bold fire) in January. Got hot enough to sustain superficial damage. As did most appliances nearby.

Some boosters are fed by tank supplies rather than, or in addition to, mains supplies.  These boosters are designed to be draughted out of.

Ta for that.
Have seen a couple - didn't make the connection (if you'll pardon the pun).  Regarded it as "draughting" out of a tank rather than "boosting" mains. Keeps it simple for my poor addled brain. We do more of the former than the latter.

What brigade are you from champ? The amount of non-standard hose stowage you have sounds really interesting.

I'm just surprised that you and I have had two very difering experiences using Stortz. Yeah 64mm and up can occasionally be a pain, but thats why you've got a hose spanner in you turnout gear... right? Apart from that 38mm and 25mm go together easy as pie 99% of the time.

As for larger hard suction, yeah, it can be a bit of a shitfight sometimes, but no moreso than 64mm.

Hmmmm.... evidently I should clarify - the appliance inlets/outlets are Storz, & our hard suction is Storz. Our soft hose couplings are more-or-less standard 64mm SAFB & 25mm Barway. 

So every time a delivery hose is connected, an adaptor goes on first - sometimes easily, sometimes not. (we carry a lot of adaptors!) These can rarely can be locked/unlocked without a key.  Suction, never.  You indicated earlier that it shouldn't be that difficult. I figure you are doing something different to us.

I still say SAFB is easier for suction - it is sufficient merely to present the hose coupling nearly right - a loose-ish female collar can be started & will pull the hose into alignment as it is tightened.  Storz hasn't got the lateral play, so the whole hose has to be aligned by the operator before the coupling is aligned & can be started.
 
cheers

I think you meant to post in the humour section champ.

Lets try using the coupling you are talking about, THEN posting. The worst thing about stortz is waiting around at the door to a burning house to get water in the line, because the thing has gone together so fast.

I've never had an issue with suction hose either, we are talking 150mm lengths here...

God forbid you occasionally use a stortz spanner.

Brrrrr... wrong !   We have got & use Storz.

Our 34 has 120mm, 65mm, & 38mm Storz on it.
Might even be a couple of 25mm still tucked away in some dark recess.
We have to use adaptors for everything except the HP lines.
Our trailer pump is 120mm Storz. As is the portable on 34 (it looks
silly but at least it matches the truck).
Have also played with the RFS on the odd occasion (100% Storz)
So much for not using it hey ?

So my experience is:
Storz on soft hoses are ok in the small sizes. No better or worse than
Wajax, quicker & easier than than BSP or Barway, a distant trailer
behind Minsup (now *that* is a magic coupling for small hoses).
But CFS isn't going Storz on small hoses...

Storz on 64/65mm delivery can be a pain to lock home without keys.
Some couplings seem to go together easier than most, but I'm stuffed
if I can see a difference why that might be so.

It's hard suction that causes the most grief, the bigger it is, the
worser it is.  At best, with practiced operators who understand the
alignment & cleanliness hassles, hooking up large suction is "tedious".
With newbies on the hose it is like watching crocodile wrestling.
And the u-beaut folding handles that look soooo clever have enough
leverage for the strongest 30% of members only. Time & again it'd
be quicker & less stressful to hook up 2 or 3 SAFB 64mm suction than
a single 120mm Storz.

Your experience is poles different to mine/ours. So you must be
tackling them differently.  How do you treat, maintain & operate
them to work for you rather than against you ?

cheers
AJ

cant wait for the day that we dont have to think about male/female ends, let alone tighten the fittings! 

Oh boy! Are you in for a nasty surprise then Dezza.
Large Storz are mongrels to couple/uncouple.
There's no sideways play in the fittings like with SAFB
so you have to -perfectly- align the full length of two
bits of suction.   Near enough ain't good enough. 

Also, unless the seal faces are lubricated, the friction
between the seal faces makes them hard to turn for the full
150deg rotation, not just the first little bit. The keys
are far more likely to slip off the silly little lugs if
you lean hard on them. And you -will need keys- !
Folding handles are quite common on 100mm & larger sizes,
but they sometimes aren't long enough.

You can lubricate the seal faces to make them easier to
turn, but then they attract every bit of gravel & rubbish
in a 10M radius. Then, not only do they not turn easily,
they don't seal properly either.

Gimme SAFB any day !!
cheers
AJ

I did not join the fire service to get paid rather to help my local community and I am affraid to say this but some Volunteers have lost the value of community service and are now wanting to get paid for a service which is FREE.

G'day Blinky.
I categorically & absolutely dispute that the service we provide is "free".
Someone, somewhere, somehow, pays to deliver it. Maybe not the recipient,
not the full amount anyway.  But someone pays.

At the moment, the cost of emergency response is primarily bourne by
individual volunteers and their employers. Lost pay, lost productivity,
lost goodwill, lost contracts. It is absolutely NOT "free".

Cost of preparedness if bourne by goverment & volunteers. That includes
hardware, running & admin expenses, travel costs & time. These are also
not "free".

Once upon a time, we did this as cash-strapped local communities & had
to chip in or it couldn't happen.  We also only were expected to chip in
when it was beyond the ability of individuals or groups to manage the
situation.

The CFS has changed.  Training & administrative requirements have multiplied.

Community expectations have changed.  We are now regarded as a convenient
source of free labour for a whole range of things that people used to be
expected to do for themselves.

Like the frog in a heating saucepan thing, all this has happened slowly so
that we who are in it have mostly adjusted rather than hopped out. I dare
say a lot of our predecessors who are held as examples, would have told the
Service in no uncertain terms where to shove it had they been dumped ito
what is required of us now.

Might I also point out that in this debate the term "volunteer" is being
used and possibly ab-used - in a particularly narrow sub-definition of its
full meaning - merely to do something without recompense. 

The full meaning is one who chooses to do something, as distinct from being
coerced.  By way of patriotic example, while all other countries used onscription, our WW1 armed forces were an entirely volunteer force, even
though paid.  Since "Volunteer" in this context is not disputed, why should
it be disputed in the case of financial compensation to CFS volunteers or
their employers?

It is my opinion that the term "retained" as applied to MFS & other urban
services relates more to the contract of availability they sign, rather than
their willingness to respond. Very much a contract of casual employment
rather than "will turn up if reasonably able".

The international convention on voluteering says that no volunteer should
be out-of-pocket for doing so.

I willing do this without pay. However, if the community through its
representative government (two jokes there for the price of one) chooses
to offer me a sweetener eg: rebates to ESL and/or car rego, I shan't knock
it back. It is still my FREE choice (I volunteer) to do this.  And I won't
be any the less a "volunteer" for that.

That's my three bobs worth anyway.
cheers
AJ

With the new appliances being built this year there has been some talk that all new appliance that come out will only have storz and wajax fittings so as to bring us in line with other state's. I would hope that CFS will also ensure that where these appliances go that brigade's with in that group will also be given adoptors so as we can work with these new appliances when they do come into any area.

That'll make the souvenir cap run to NSW a bit easier. 
Will still have to borrow their standpipes though. (And chainsaws &
generators & anything else that can be laid hands on when no-one is
looking...)

Doubt if CFS will see a need to issue adaptors.  More likely it will be
"suggested" to the Group that they go & buy whatever they think that
they might need.  We are surrounded by brigades that use BSP, Wajax, &
Barway, depending upon Group & age of individual hoses.  Our main
appliance is mostly Storz.

We carry a *lot* of adaptors...   



"The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from." (some famous computer person)

Makes some sense in the case of councils which have not produced bushfire management plans.  How many of them are there really ?? 
Does nothing for the councils which have already done plans. In the case of Onkaparinga, (>1/8 of the state's population) an extensive & detailed plan. Might not 100% agree with it, but fact is the council has invested $$$ & effort to produce it.

Bet the CFS gets less additional funding than what is stripped from the councils.  If any at all. ("It is more efficient" that way.)  In fact, once you factor in a further "10% efficiency increase per year" required of all govt departments in the lead-up to the next election (long-winded euphemism for 10% budget cut) you can be sure that CFS will get no extra funding, & mucho extra work. Some of which will be expected to spill down to us volunteers.  All to make the Minister look good for the press.

Q. What looks good on a politician or media minder of any political persuasion.
A. A doberman.

Think I'll go to bed now before I do someone an injury. Even thinking about politicians is causing nausea & relexive reaching for sedatives...

as an ambulance officer i dont need crews complaining that we are going slow or that they had to wait an extra 10mins before they got paged

Of course, if SAAS management honoured its agreement to respond other services, you wouldn't be getting grief (which you shouldn't anyway - that should be going back up the CFS food-chain). 

And this thread wouldn't exist.

(you really do need to use punctuation - 2/3 of your post was unintelligible gabble - SMS & chat habits only work for short no-brain stuff, not complex & important ideas & issues.)

The only time an Emergency vehicle is required to use lights and / or sirens, (under the Australian Road Rules) is when the vehicle is breaking the road rules...then to be protected under the ARR, you must have lights and / or sirens on...if you don't break the road rules, there is no requirement under the Road Traffic Act (which the Australian road rules come under), to use them...

G'day Pip
Nit picking perhaps, but I'm not comfortable with the word "protected" - if you make an error of judgement under L&S, you are not "protected" from prosecution.   A better way of putting it perhaps, might be "to claim your exemption from normal road rules, you must have lights and/or siren on..."
cheers

So wondering what was going on when I got home  looked up the pager website wondering what was going on. The only job on the eastern side of the city at the time this vehicle was going P1 was a tree down, not on a road and no direct threat to public safety I have since found out.

G'day Stefan
"You have since found out"...
Begs the question whether that was _known for certain_ by the responding organisation at the time?  How many silly jobs do other services attend P1, "knowing" that P1 is pointless, until the first arriving OIC eye-balls it & down-grades the job?  Done purely because the response plan - AFAs / nil injury MVAs / pile burns / etc - says it _might_ be more significant.

Glass houses, & the casting of first stones, etc, etc.

(of course, if the job was already assessed as no-risk and the driver was free-lancing, then he/she needs their bottom smacked.)
cheers
 

Cherry Gardens 34 RFW was run by CFS not DEH.It was replaced by the current Cherry Gardens 34 which is an ex RFS appliance

It came from DEH.  It went back to DEH.
& not a minute too soon.   A heap of junk.

How thick is the wedge ?
Depends on how thick the person is.
Self-righteous bigots come in many colours.
Thaey are just as contemptible whether they are paid or volunteers.

Unfortunately they generally don't comprehend the contempt the
majority of us have for them...

so who would then pay for the initial training and upkeep of skills? would add up a bit with thirty or so memebrs in the brigade?

Sturt Group considers it money well spent to have a sizeable core of members in all brigades kept up to speed with O2 as well as 1st aid.  State Training do it at an acceptable price.