The concern I then had was looking at the equipment that these two brigades are running, they both have old 24p's that probally run to the majority of those 440+ job's, Why does the CFS not recognise this and issue them with new 34P's or type two pumpers, these two brigades are pulling higher stats than some MFS brigades and look at the equipment they are having to work with to do this, hardly seems right.
Vote 1 for GD as Prime Minister.
Morphett Vale 24P did 337 runs out of the 460 we did last year, and our 24 goes on most of the strike teams in Region One and has travelled interstate a number of times, it is currently 17 years old and is up to 55,000 kms. As a regular strike team vehicle we would really prefer a dual cab with some of the more modern safety features.
If you look at the risks in our area you will see we have a reasonable amount of B and A class risks. We have 15 premises with boosters, some of which are six in six out, we have a couple of multi story buildings as well as approximately 25,000 residents in our primary response zone. Unfortunately our 24P has proved on a number of occasion's that is not up to the rigours of heavy duty boosting or relay pumping, we have also run out of room to carry any more equipment on it and have stuff left off of it that we would like to carry.
They make an ok appliance for a small country town that is not likely to ever have to boost but for a busy urban environment they are slow and the pump is poorly configured. Our own tests using highly calibrated equipment showed the 1900LPM pump only able to deliver around 1600LPM at its peak, I think some of the plumbing from the pump could be to blame for the loss in performance.
The good news is that Region are currently working with us and have been quite supportive of our push to replace one of our appliances with a more suitable urban vehicle. Whether it gets through the Strategic Leadership Group (SLG) or not is another question, once dollars are discussed things can change very quickly.
A change in the mix of appliances we have is fairly likely, hopefully all will be revealed in the next 6 - 12 months.