“Really, the biggest difference is the city's commitment to the funds,” Laizza said. “We tried to do this in the past and they didn't want to do it, [but] now they're backing us up financially, at least at this moment. Ever since the fatal accident in January, all of a sudden we can get anything we need because the city is back-pedaling a little bit. They probably realized that for the past 25 years, they haven't really supported it.”

Fleet services also has hired a civilian director of transportation, Shawn Herlihy, as well as a safety director for maintenance, William Stockwell. Laizza said the city plans to add more civilians to fleet services.

“We've always just sent things out to be repaired by certified vendors, but now they want to do as much as they can in-house with civilian diesel mechanics,” Laizza said. “That's why they are buying all this equipment, to effect this.”

The department purchased a new Rescue 2, due in late November, ordered several other new pieces of apparatus and are ready to order four pumpers for 2010.

“As long as the city backs [the shops] — whether it's by vendors or hired mechanics — the apparatus will be in better shape. With the preventive maintenance, there is no question about how it's going to play out financially,” Laizza said. “Right now the city has the commitment, with the fatal accident in January still only about eight months in the rear-view mirror, but going forward in about another year, what the city has to say and how much we're going to keep spending, that remains to be seen. Right now it's looking better.”

Constant Vigilance

Boston and Houston are just two examples of a larger problem; fire departments across the country are trying to save money and stretch budgets, but in the long run, departments are paying out much more.

“You have to make sure mechanics are properly trained and you have a good fleet-management program in place,” Conneally said. “More importantly, make sure those protocols are being followed. More often than not, apparatus mechanics for fire trucks are similar to those mechanics on airplanes. There is a lot of liability if you don't manage them appropriately.”

Lauria, who also serves as an expert witness, would agree. He said that if a private citizen had been killed instead of a city employee, the department would have faced potential liability in the millions.

“A plaintiff would have them dead to rights,” Lauria said.

While the media exposure Houston and Boston received after their fatal incidents certainly helped to spark change, Conneally said that fire chiefs must remain vigilant.

“You have to keep apparatus and maintenance in front of the policy-makers. … But when the TV, radio and newspaper folks leave, it's easy to forget about that problem because you think you got it fixed. Apparatus in the fire department are very dynamic, and there has to be an apparatus-replacement program. A fire chief has to sell that to the policy-makers, and hopefully the policy-makers will continue to fund that each year.”

Boston Report Findings

Emergency vehicle technicians at conferences have said that Boston's haphazard approach to vehicle maintenance is what happens when chiefs and city managers fail to accept responsibility for the safety of emergency vehicles. The report, “Maintenance Practices Assessment for the Boston Fire Department,” can be downloaded at www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/Final_Report_on_BFD_Fleet_Maintenance_Practices_Assessment.pdf.

Mercury Associates' preliminary recommendations are broken into intervals.

Within three months:

• Develop and implement vehicle-inspection procedures.
• Develop and implement vehicle preventive-maintenance programs for each type of apparatus in the fleet using manufacturer and other suitable industry guidelines, such as NFPA 1911, Inspection, Maintenance, Testing and Retirement of In-Service Automotive Fire Apparatus.
• Hire a fleet-safety coordinator.

Within six months:

• Develop and implement comprehensive policies and procedures governing the management of vendor-performed maintenance and repair services.
• Validate and refine the fleet-replacement plan.

Within 12 months:

• Evaluate the necessity, benefits and costs of expanding, reorganizing and civilianizing the maintenance division.

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• No-Cost Maintenance: Matching ICS Type to Job Needs
• Keeping Basic Maintenance Records