Apparatus safety involves three key areas: operation, maintenance and specifications. Here are five important maintenance practices that can help keep your department's apparatus in good running condition and ensure they are safe to operate:

1] Obtain and Use Manufacturers' Maintenance Manuals. Some of you may wonder why this is number one. It certainly doesn't sound like a big, important item that deserves to be at the top of the list, but it is. If you don't have the manufacturers' maintenance manuals for every component and system on every emergency vehicle in your department, then how do you know if you're performing the proper maintenance? How do you know that you're performing it at the required intervals? How do you know what tools and settings to use? And how do you know what qualifications are required to do it? Things change. The maintenance procedures you've used on other vehicles may not apply to newer models with different components. Without maintenance manuals, your entire maintenance program may be invalid and legally indefensible — and that's bad!

2] Establish a Preventive Maintenance Program. Every department should have an apparatus preventive maintenance program. It can help keep your apparatus operating properly with a minimum of downtime and expense. More importantly, regular preventive maintenance will help you detect and correct small problems before they cause big failures. The NFPA 1915 Standard for Fire Apparatus Preventive Maintenance Program identifies the systems and items to be inspected, the frequency of servicing and maintenance and requirements for testing. Among other things, it specifically states that all inspections shall be conducted in accordance with the manufacturer's recommended procedures and shall be performed at least as frequently as the manufacturer's recommended intervals — which is why the need to obtain and use manufacturer's maintenance manuals is listed as #1.

3] Use Qualified Maintenance Personnel. Your maintenance people should be qualified to do their assigned jobs — not only generally qualified, but also qualified to work on specific components and systems of emergency vehicles. The NFPA 1071 Standard for Emergency Vehicle Technician Professional Qualifications defines many ways to establish a person's qualifications. EVTCC and ASE certifications are good, but so are factory training classes, vocational school degrees and applicable prior experience. Once you establish the qualifications of your maintenance personnel, make sure you only assign them work for which they are qualified. A pump certification does not qualify someone to work on aerials, for example. Asking someone to perform work for which he or she is not qualified will place you (and the person performing the work) at risk of a lawsuit, and may place the firefighters who use the apparatus at risk of injury or death.

4] Perform Required Testing. Even the best-maintained components will age and wear with time. Periodic testing serves as a double check to your maintenance program to confirm that components are still fit for service. The current NFPA 1911 standard defines requirements for annual pump testing, NFPA 1914 covers aerial testing, NFPA 1962 covers hose testing and NFPA 1932 defines testing for ground ladders. In the cases of pumps, aerials and hose, regular testing will also give you points towards your department's ISO rating. Keep written records of all your tests including dates, apparatus or serial numbers, names of personnel conducting the tests and all data, such as pressures, times, flowrates, weights, etc.

5] Establish Replacement Points. At some point, all apparatus need to be replaced. The exact point depends on the usage, condition and amount of maintenance is expected in the future. In some cases, apparatus may be assigned to reserve status to give a few more years of useful life, but in most cases, they should be traded in or sold. Annex D of NFPA 1901 offers recommendations on when to refurbish or replace your apparatus to ensure they provide adequate levels of safety. The key is to establish those points early, so that you can start making arrangements for replacements before the apparatus wears out or fails. Letting budgets dictate replacement points is the same as letting dollars dictate your firefighters' safety. Don't do it — plan ahead and convince the citizens you serve that periodic replacement is necessary, not discretionary.

Proper maintenance is an important part of apparatus safety. That is one of the reasons why a new NFPA inspection, maintenance and testing standard is being written right now. The new standard will combine and expand several existing standards and is expected to take effect in January 2007. Among other things, it will specify inspector qualifications, inspection levels, frequency of inspections, out-of-service criteria, test forms and records. In the meantime, implementing the points outlined above will help keep your apparatus running safely and will help prepare your department to meet the requirements of the upcoming standard when it takes effect.