Philip Stittleburg entered the volunteer fire service in 1972 after working as a paid member of a combination fire department. He has been chief of the La Farge (Wis.) Fire Department since 1977. Stittleburg also is an attorney and has been FIRE CHIEF’s legal columnist for more than 15 years.

Next month, Stittleburg will participate in a mock trial at the Fire Department Safety Officers Association’s Apparatus Specification and Maintenance Symposium.  In the December issue of FIRE CHIEF, Stittleburg shared his insights on what agencies should do in the event of a vehicle accident. Here, he discusses preventative maintenance and record-keeping before an accident occurs.

What would you caution fire chiefs to be aware of especially as it relates to apparatus?
There are a number of things. First, comply with the [gross vehicle weight]. I think we’re getting better at this, but volunteer departments that have to take used vehicles still tend to overload them. Exceeding the GVW is a really good way to have trouble. It’s bad for the vehicle and it makes it more likely that you’re going to have an accident. If you have a bad GVW, you’re going to have a hard time trying to convince people that you were in the right, even if you were.

Make sure your vehicles are maintained by qualified people, not just Joe at the corner shop who claims he knows [what he’s doing]. Make sure these are certified mechanics for the particular type of vehicles you have.

Make sure your drivers are properly trained for your vehicles. Just because they can drive a UPS trtuck, doesn’t mean they can drive an aerial unit, they are different in configuration, braking handling, weight, etc.

Keep good records of your driver training.  Make sure you’ve got real clear SOPs regarding vehicle operations — particularly speed. Are we allowed to exceed the speed limit, in what cases, do we have to stop for red lights, whatever your policies are making sure they are in place, especially high speed restrictions. 

Have a policy for when you’re going to run lights and sirens. Chief Neal Svetanics introduced that 10 years ago in St. Louis, and I thought that was a great idea, not only does every response need to be 10-33 initially, but also — especially in the rural areas where you’ve got a tanker shuttle going, as you get to the point when you’ve got enough water on scene, tankers going back for more water — you don’t need those people running back lights and sirens to get more water then coming back out to the scene and waiting a half hour to dump it.

Manage your calls, so you’re not running lights and sirens later into the incident. Maybe the first hour of the call is lights and sirens, but once you’ve got the fire knocked down enough, make sure your tankers aren’t driving faster than they need to be.
Use only the vehicles that are needed for a call. If we got a call that can be handled by two vehicles, we don’t need seven or eight vehicles out there on the highway taking the chance of running into somebody.

Is that more prevalent in a volunteer department where everybody wants to participate and drive or respond?
I think it is. Part of it is difficult to control. My department is a good example. I have people live in town going out in the first rigs. I have people working out of town that will take five minutes to get to the station and be bringing another vehicle after they get to the station. If I had everyone arrive at the station within a few minutes, I could probably eliminate one or two vehicles. It’s hard to control, but if you know that your call isn’t going to be that significant, call back and say “don’t send any more people.”