Regarding "Deferred Apparatus Maintenance Cited in Fatal Wreck," published in Command Post on Feb. 11, 2005:

I could not believe what I was reading regarding this article. As a maintenance supervisor I would never have allowed a piece of questionable equipment to be placed into service with an unsafe condition regardless of a shortage of reserve equipment. The Chief indicated that it was his decision and he would have to live with it. This almost sounds like a cavalier response to a situation that involved his peoples lives and the lives of the public he is sworn to protect.

It seems to me that there was no contingency plan or meeting to come up with a plan to obtain the necessary equipment to temporarily cover the situation that they found themselves in. Could they not have rented the required replacement vehicles until repairing their own? Did they seek help from the builder of the equipment they purchased in effecting more expedient repairs? Nothing was mentioned regarding exhausting all avenues to cover their situation.

I for one cannot conceive in my wildest and twisted imagination placing people at risk by utilizing unsafe fire fighting equipment for any reason. If a Chief came to me and gave me an order to do what is contrary to my better judgment then I would ask that Chief to sign a written document overriding what I know to be unsafe and unsuitable. In fact, I have done just that in the past and the Chief who wanted me to do the unsafe thing refused to accommodate my request for the signed paper deciding the liability is something he did not want.

Vehicle safety is everyone's job and the two most involved individuals who decide what is wrong and right are the Engineer who has tob drive the vehicle and the technician who is supposed to keep it maintained to standards. Nobody wants to have equipment out of service but with lives at stake nobody wants to see people hurt or killed either. We have had flooding conditions here that have caused numerous pieces of our apparatus to become inoperable, damaged or otherwise out of service. At times like these we technicians have worked straight through until enough equipment is placed back into service, in a safe condition, to continue normal operations.

We utilize all of our local vendors to assist us and if needed call our equipment distributor to access replacement units on a temporary basis. I would hope that none of us, firefighters or technicians, ever have to read about a situation like this again.

Kenneth D. Braker
Shop Foreman
Las Vegas Fire & Rescue