[quote user="adkrr64"]
How much risk of electrocution is there to the firefighter? Is there anything in the truck design to mitigate the risk?
If someone was somehow in contact with the truck while standing on the ground then he/she would be in a very, very dangerous situation.
adkrr64 How much risk of electrocution is there to the firefighter? Is there anything in the truck design to mitigate the risk?
Unlike electric company trucks, the ladders are not insulated from much of anything. The tires would theoretically provide some level of insulation, but the stabilizing jacks are metal to the ground.
A firefighter on the rig is probably not in great danger unless he's in contact with two points within the truck with a major voltage differential.
Seems like one picture I saw of such an incident had the tires afire, too.
Trucks these days are heavily dependent on electronics - running a few thousand volts through the chassis will not go well...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Balt, thanks for that link. I had forgotten that it was South Portland, not Portland.
I had read that since all the electronics were zapped (and some regular fire damage), the truck was going to be considered totalled. Now, maybe after further inspection the insurance company changed its mind.
alphasomeone blew it big time if there was a high voltage overhead powerline above it. It has got to be embarassing for the fire department to say the least.
It's actually happened several times. Curiously, it's often during demonstrations, not at fires...
alphasSomeone blew it big time if there was a high voltage overhead powerline above it. It has got to be embarassing for the fire department to say the least. I hadn't heard about it which is surprising as the various fire service publications would definitely mention the incident. The good news is it was undoubtedly insured and brand new so the city is only out the deductible which for most fire vehicles is $1,000 or $2,000 (ours) or, at the most, $5,000. Of course the experience factor used in determining premiums just went up.
https://www.wmtw.com/article/south-portlands-brand-new-fire-truck-damaged-in-fire/24447712
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Someone blew it big time if there was a high voltage overhead powerline above it. It has got to be embarassing for the fire department to say the least. I hadn't heard about it which is surprising as the various fire service publications would definitely mention the incident. The good news is it was undoubtedly insured and brand new so the city is only out the deductible which for most fire vehicles is $1,000 or $2,000 (ours) or, at the most, $5,000. Of course the experience factor used in determining premiums just went up.
alphas Lithonia Operator: Sorry to hear about your accident. Considering what I've seen over the years, you are very fortuate considering your car was totaled. The cause of your accident is actually common in my experience. Now to answer your question, we would respond to do a rescue/forceable removal from a wrecked vehicle(s). We would operate the Jaws or the spreader or whatever is needed to stabilize vehicles and free anyone so the EMS crews could then treat the wounded. Some of our members work shifts for the regional fully paid ambulance service as EMT's and they would take charge of the patient if the ambulance with the EMS personnel wasn't yet on the accident scene. Some VFC also operate their own ambulance services using volunteers or paid personnel or a combination of the two. But that is getting rare these days as counties are establishing regional ambulance services usually staffed mostly, if not entirely, by paid EMS. This was brought on by the lack of volunteers in the fire and EMS services these days as well as increasing numbers of EMS calls. Paid departments in the cities often do provide the EMS services. In San Francisco even their lifeguards are members of the city's fire department. We only survive as a full volunteer fire/rescue company because of about 35 or more of our members who are going to the local university, a very good code enforcement office in our primary response territory (just over 100 square miles), and full financial support from our serving municipalities so we don't have to worry about fund-raising, including their providing several non-firefighter full-time personnel to handle all the necessary paperwork that would overwhelm us volunteers. For your information, a new urban engine (pumper) costs $600,000-$750,000 depending on what you want it to do. A new urban aerial tower (we prefer our 3 towers over ladder trucks) is about $1.5M. Our latest heavy rescue truck was $600,000. We have 2 tankers to serve the rural portion of our area and the last one was almost $500,000. Volunteer fire companies that don't have municipal and/or state help to buy their vehicles as well as their necessary other equipment can't really survive using their own fundraising these days.
Lithonia Operator:
Sorry to hear about your accident. Considering what I've seen over the years, you are very fortuate considering your car was totaled. The cause of your accident is actually common in my experience.
Now to answer your question, we would respond to do a rescue/forceable removal from a wrecked vehicle(s). We would operate the Jaws or the spreader or whatever is needed to stabilize vehicles and free anyone so the EMS crews could then treat the wounded. Some of our members work shifts for the regional fully paid ambulance service as EMT's and they would take charge of the patient if the ambulance with the EMS personnel wasn't yet on the accident scene. Some VFC also operate their own ambulance services using volunteers or paid personnel or a combination of the two. But that is getting rare these days as counties are establishing regional ambulance services usually staffed mostly, if not entirely, by paid EMS. This was brought on by the lack of volunteers in the fire and EMS services these days as well as increasing numbers of EMS calls.
Paid departments in the cities often do provide the EMS services. In San Francisco even their lifeguards are members of the city's fire department.
We only survive as a full volunteer fire/rescue company because of about 35 or more of our members who are going to the local university, a very good code enforcement office in our primary response territory (just over 100 square miles), and full financial support from our serving municipalities so we don't have to worry about fund-raising, including their providing several non-firefighter full-time personnel to handle all the necessary paperwork that would overwhelm us volunteers.
For your information, a new urban engine (pumper) costs $600,000-$750,000 depending on what you want it to do. A new urban aerial tower (we prefer our 3 towers over ladder trucks) is about $1.5M. Our latest heavy rescue truck was $600,000. We have 2 tankers to serve the rural portion of our area and the last one was almost $500,000. Volunteer fire companies that don't have municipal and/or state help to buy their vehicles as well as their necessary other equipment can't really survive using their own fundraising these days.
Thanks for all that info, alphas. And hats off to you and all the first responders out there!
I was very lucky in my crash. When I swerved left, the two cars met roughly right headlight to right headlight. This "misalignment" caused both cars to spin clockwise away from each other, and that dissipated a lot of energy. If we had hit square-on, it would have been really bad. I was heading east, but wound up against the guard rail on the westbound side. He wound up in the eastbound lane. My glove compartment got shoved way back into the front seat passenger area. I had tried to get my wife to go with me to a friend's house; if she had, she would have been sitting there and been hurt bad or worse. All I got was a stiff neck, a sprained finger, and a long bruise across my chest from the belt. Two days later I was back at the Honda dealer, telling him I'd be needing another one just like it.
I know fire equipment is really expensive. Here's a sad story. Last year, the Portland (Maine) FD got a brand-new ladder truck, costing over $1mil. Shortly after taking delivery, they had a training/orientation/demonstration for the crews, in a parking lot. Someone raised the ladder up, and it came into contact with overhead power lines. A fire resulted, and the truck was totaled. Not their finest hour; really pretty unbelievable. Whoever raised the ladder had best leave that off his resume' ...
tree68 BaltACD Especially with Bingo being canceled account covid-19. And a host of other events. One fire department I'm familiar with generally does five figures almost every day of their field days. Some fire departments in this area are doing strictly "drive through" events. The only problem with them is having enough road for the lines, which can reach 100 cars when the event first opens...
BaltACD Especially with Bingo being canceled account covid-19.
And a host of other events. One fire department I'm familiar with generally does five figures almost every day of their field days.
Some fire departments in this area are doing strictly "drive through" events. The only problem with them is having enough road for the lines, which can reach 100 cars when the event first opens...
And we are rapidly approaching the VFD carnival season....
Enzoamps I live in an old folks home, and we had bingo every day in our community room. Now with COVID our community room is closed and no bingo. Believe me that is a huge deal to the seniors here. The fire house is across the street, and no joy there either.
I live in an old folks home, and we had bingo every day in our community room. Now with COVID our community room is closed and no bingo. Believe me that is a huge deal to the seniors here. The fire house is across the street, and no joy there either.
Johnny
BaltACDEspecially with Bingo being canceled account covid-19.
alphasVolunteer fire companies that don't have municipal and/or state help to buy their vehicles as well as their necessary other equipment can't really survive using their own fundraising these days.
Especially with Bingo being canceled account covid-19.
tree68 Semper Vaporo As good as "Emergency" was, it drove me nuts when they would do some event in a rail yard and the background sounds were of steam locomotives chugging and steam whistles blowing,, but the only engines visible at all were all Diesels. If I ever get around to binge watching the show again, I'll look for that. I do recall that Chet was able to run an awful lot of machinery... One problem with binge watching the show is that you start to pick up on the stock shots - like the squad running down the same residential street with the same VW bug parked in the same spot...
Semper Vaporo As good as "Emergency" was, it drove me nuts when they would do some event in a rail yard and the background sounds were of steam locomotives chugging and steam whistles blowing,, but the only engines visible at all were all Diesels.
If I ever get around to binge watching the show again, I'll look for that. I do recall that Chet was able to run an awful lot of machinery...
One problem with binge watching the show is that you start to pick up on the stock shots - like the squad running down the same residential street with the same VW bug parked in the same spot...
Just watch the 50's TV Westerns - the same indians get killed over and over in show after show.
Semper VaporoAs good as "Emergency" was, it drove me nuts when they would do some event in a rail yard and the background sounds were of steam locomotives chugging and steam whistles blowing,, but the only engines visible at all were all Diesels.
tree68 alphas I have over 25 years experience with a large and very busy VFD that averages over 1,200 fire & rescue calls a year, with no EMS participation on our part. That is a very busy VFD. Anyway, the saying among our members is "the CHICAGO FD must have a $200 per show limit for emergency scenes". Its undoubtedly much more than that but only very rarely does the show come remotely close to showing what would be an actual event. About the best TV show for firefighting action was "Emergency," in no small part because Jim Page made sure that if LACo FD wouldn't do it, it wouldn't appear on the show.
alphas I have over 25 years experience with a large and very busy VFD that averages over 1,200 fire & rescue calls a year, with no EMS participation on our part. That is a very busy VFD. Anyway, the saying among our members is "the CHICAGO FD must have a $200 per show limit for emergency scenes". Its undoubtedly much more than that but only very rarely does the show come remotely close to showing what would be an actual event.
I have over 25 years experience with a large and very busy VFD that averages over 1,200 fire & rescue calls a year, with no EMS participation on our part. That is a very busy VFD. Anyway, the saying among our members is "the CHICAGO FD must have a $200 per show limit for emergency scenes". Its undoubtedly much more than that but only very rarely does the show come remotely close to showing what would be an actual event.
About the best TV show for firefighting action was "Emergency," in no small part because Jim Page made sure that if LACo FD wouldn't do it, it wouldn't appear on the show.
As good as "Emergency" was, it drove me nuts when they would do some event in a rail yard and the background sounds were of steam locomotives chugging and steam whistles blowing,, but the only engines visible at all were all Diesels.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Alphas,
I know nothing about this subject, so bear with me. Your VFD doesn't do EMS work at all? Is that typical of VFDs? To be honest, our FD is volunteer (at least mostly; maybe the chief is paid ??), and I don't even know if they have EMTs. But I think they do. I should find out.
I was in a bad car crash (unbeliavably, in a brand-new car I'd bought the day before). Head-on into a drunk who drifted so far into my lane that I attempted to get around him by turning left into his lane. I will never forget how great the first responders (and one woman in particular) were who looked after me at the scene. I was basically in shock, I guess, initially. It was late at night, on a dead-straight stretch of rural two-lane. Me and that jerk were the only two cars out there for at least a half mile in each direction; not other cars in sight. Luckily, I was not badly injured. The car was totaled. The other guy wound up at the hospital (25 miles away) in the ER cubicle right next to mine. I heard a cop interview him; he was still so drunk he could barely speak intelligible English. His wife or girlfriend showed up, and she tore right into hubby; not a happy gal, and she had a mouth on her! The cop then came into my part and said, "Are you okay?" I said, "Yeah, do you need to talk to me?" He said, "I think we know who caused this crash."
The TV (and movie) people don't usually have time for actual firefighting action. Besides, the smoke gets in the way.
NP EddieThe end of "911" shows a train derailment (obviously staged) near Los Angeles. I can see three passenger cars, two coaches and one dome car. The dome car looks likes a B&O Strata Dome car or a non-Budd dome car. Does anyone have information about those three cars and where this "derailment" was staged? Ed Burns
Electroliner and All:
Yes the Filmore and Western was involved in the two TV shows. I will contact to receive information on the locomotive and cars involved.
"Athena Get Attacked" was broadcast on May 5th. My wife plan to watch the season finale tonight (8th).
Ed Burns
NP EddieThe end of "911" shows a train derailment (obviously staged) near Los Angeles.
Can you tell me the air date or the episode number of the show. Was it Athena Gets Attacked | Season 3 Ep. 17 | 9-1-1 that ran this week?
NP Eddie The end of "911" shows a train derailment (obviously staged) near Los Angeles. I can see three passenger cars, two coaches and one dome car. The dome car looks likes a B&O Strata Dome car or a non-Budd dome car. Does anyone have information about those three cars and where this "derailment" was staged? Ed Burns
The end of "911" shows a train derailment (obviously staged) near Los Angeles. I can see three passenger cars, two coaches and one dome car. The dome car looks likes a B&O Strata Dome car or a non-Budd dome car.
Does anyone have information about those three cars and where this "derailment" was staged?
Hi Ed,
If it was filmed in LA, and involved a staged derailment, I can almost guarantee it was filmed on the Filmore & Western. They do a lot of stuff for the TV / movie industry sience they are close to the studios and are willing and able. They have and can provide a wide range of equiptment from various eras and are willing to paint the equiptment to suit the studio's needs. And they seem to love staging wrecks. They are located west of Santa Clarita on track that was once the southern end of the SP Coast line.
http://fwry.com/
I have no idea. But you might try IMDB. (Internet Movie Database) Besides movies, they cover TV shows; you can find out a lot about films and programs there. Also try the 911 show's own web site. Also Google "TV program 911 train crash."
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