Every organization depends on its equipment, but none more than fire departments, where innovation often makes the difference between a rescue and tragedy.

Fire-Rescue International, the annual conference and exhibition of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, is where 16,000 leaders from emergency services organizations come to see what's new. Veterans of the exhibit hall floor have learned to wear their running shoes. The smartest ones form teams to divide and conquer more than 625 vendor displays.

We took a similar approach this year, inviting members from the IAFC's Apparatus Maintenance Section to assess new products displayed at the Ernest P. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

AMS Chair Don Henry is a faculty member at Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alberta, Canada, teaching automotive service technician and heavy-equipment technician programs. Partnering his college with fire etc., he codeveloped Canada's only post-secondary — level fire apparatus maintenance program. A past president of the National Association of Emergency Vehicle Technicians, he is a principal member of the proposal committee for NFPA 1071, Professional Qualifications for EVTs.

John Stacey, chief of Bellevue (Neb.) Volunteer Fire & Rescue, is a board member of the AMS and chairs the NFPA fire hose committee that develops proposals for NFPA 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965, which cover nozzles, couplings, appliances and hose. Stacey also has authored many articles in fire apparatus maintenance during his 14 years as fire chief.

This duo is not easily impressed by gadgets and hype — they truly appreciate apparatus and equipment innovations that increase safety for firefighters and don't waste a fire department's limited resources. They deemed five products worthy of the title “innovation.”

‘A real back saver’

Hydraulic ladder racks have saved many firefighters' backs, but the overhead ladder gantry by Pierce takes the innovation a step further, delivering ladders with the touch of a button to waist level at the rear of the apparatus — where firefighters have more room and are generally safer from moving traffic.

The ladder gantry system offers a variety of mounting configurations, from 96 inches to 120 inches off the ground. As ladders move off the truck, they tilt down to 36 inches to 42 inches off the ground.

Pierce offers the system in multiple configurations for storage of 14-foot and 24-foot two-section Duo-Safety ladders, two 10-foot pike poles, and a 10-foot folding ladder. The system holds the bottom ladder in place while the single top ladder is being removed. LED warning lights alert drivers. Ladder locks prevent bounce and movement on the road.

The unit on display combined the ladder gantry with the Pack Mule, which lowers the hosebed to waist level.

The price tag for the system wasn't a stretch either, the technicians said. “I think it's an inexpensive-enough innovation that people could afford it,” Stacey said.

For more information on the ladder gantry and Pack Mule, talk to a local Pierce representative or see www.piercemfg.com.

The ‘fifth man’

To produce the Strong Arm, Ferrara Fire Apparatus partnered with Gradall, a company that has been making telescoping hydraulic booms, aerial work platforms and telehandlers for the excavation industry for 50 years. Mounted on the Inferno chassis is a 47-foot, multiple-section boom that can reach up, swing left or right, and rotate up to 110° to position the nozzle against even the steepest roof slopes. The boom tilts 220° and provides full freedom of movement even in limited overhead space, according to the company.

At the boom's tip is the most interesting new feature: a 1,100-pound hardened-steel tip that can penetrate most construction materials — up to six inches of solid concrete — to ventilate the structure and deliver up to 1,500gpm of water. Ferrara calls it “the fifth man.” It can shower a fire with a 50-foot water curtain made by 52 individual jet nozzles. The nozzle also can deliver foam or dry chemicals.

The Strong Arm certainly reduces the need to put firefighters in harm's way to ventilate fires or to enter vacant structures. Our panelists said the boom looked “robust and mechanically sound” and reeled off many incidents where the unit would be a better alternative than sending in firefighters, from vacant warehouse fires to shipping and railway “mystery” fires where you don't know what's inside a smoking container.

Stacey recalled a fire in a rental facility a few weeks earlier where the unit would have been handy. The fire was in a in an 80- by 150-foot steel building with concrete fascia. The building was filled with thousands of folding tables, vinyl chairs, curtains, balloons, oxygen tanks, acetylene and more. As firefighters began their attack, the metal in the building structure quickly started expanding and concrete started falling.

If his department had the Strong Arm, Stacey said, “We could poke a hole in the roof, deluge that area; take it out, go through the wall, go through the other side of the roof…. It would have made that fire extinguishable in an hour and a half.”

The fire service has had piercing nozzles for a hundred years, but nothing like this, said our panelists. “We use piercing nozzles all the time. Make them bigger? Who'd have thought? Very innovative. When they put this out there, it made me stop and take a breath,” Stacey said.

For more information on the rig, visit www.strongarmfirefighting.com.

Better aerial

A new aerial introduced by Crimson Fire had several innovative features. The company boasts its new design will “completely redefine the role the aerial can play in the field.” But the feature that caught our panel's attention was a new patent-pending roller assembly system designed to smooth ladder extension and retraction more than conventional slide pads and grease systems, eliminating the need to grease ladder rails.

Other features of the new aerial include:

• An X-style outrigger system that will level the apparatus on slopes of up to 15° and enable set-up on severe terrain.
• A new ladder-lift cradle design that positions the ladder close to the ground, making it easier to change out equipment at the ladder tip, providing more standing room and better visibility to the turntable operator and enabling the ladder to operate at 10° below horizontal for river rescue and other low-angle rescue operations.
• An automatic retractable waterway managed entirely from the control panel — without pins or tools — reducing maintenance and eliminating the need to crawl to the end of the ladder.
• The “Vibra Torq” mounting system, which reduces stress on the aerial cradle and ladder structures during travel and rest, according to the manufacturer.

“Aerials are kind of a pain,” said Henry. “You're always greasing them or you're aligning them; they're maintenance-intensive. These new innovative roller-sliders will reduce the amount of lubricant and the amount of wasted grease dripping off aerials.”

For more info, see www.crimson-fire.com.

Simple solution

Large-diameter hose is one of the heaviest pieces of equipment that firefighters must work with routinely. Transporting and reloading LDH after a fire is the source of many back injuries. A single 100-foot section of 5-inch hose can weigh 135 pounds and even more when wet.

After injuring his back while lifting 5-inch hose three years ago, firefighter Javier Fernandez of Mukwonago, Wis., decided there had to be a better way. Fernandez designed the Rollnrack, a portable heavy-duty stainless-steel cart that enables firefighters to scoop up a roll of hose of various diameters (adjustable from 1H-inch to 6-inch) and easily roll it on wheels, handtruck-style, wherever they need it. To reload hose after a fire, the firefighter simply sets the adjustable cart for the hose diameter, rolls it aboard, flips the coupling over a top bar and rolls the cart to the truck.

Back at the truck, a toe-brake locks the cart in place, and hose feeds easily from the cart into the hose bed. A job that usually takes four firefighters can be done with two with much less time and effort using this system. The Rollnrack folds down for stowage in truck compartments and comes with soft or pneumatic tires.

“Very good design for the firefighter. It's something that makes his job easier and safer,” said Stacey. “It looks like the guy really put his heart into it. He wanted to make it right.”

For more info, visit www.rollnrack.com.

Nifty nozzle

At the end of the day, most fires are put out by firefighters squirting water from a hose. Our panel's choice from the array of nozzles on display was the single-shutoff Saberjet made by Akron Brass. One three-position handle enables firefighters to easily change the stream from solid-bore to fog to shutoff positions. The nozzle operates efficiently at pressures from 50- to 100psi, according to Akron. A versatile nozzle with multiple applications, it has compressed-air foam capability, a 10-year warranty and is NFPA 1964 — compliant.

“I was very impressed,” Stacey said. “It worked well. The action on the fog is very easy, very smooth.”

For more information on the Saberjet, see www.akronbrass.com.

AMS Information

The IAFC has supported the Apparatus Maintenance Section since 1988, recognizing that maintaining and specifying increasingly complex and technologically advanced fire and emergency apparatus required certified personnel with measurable skills.

The group created and continues to support the Emergency Vehicle Technician Certification Commission, now the recognized certifying agency for EVTs across North America. It requested the National Fire Protection Association create standards for emergency vehicle maintenance and for professional qualifications for EVTs, ultimately leading to NFPA 1071, Emergency Vehicle Technician Professional Qualifications, and NFPA 1915, Fire Apparatus Preventive Maintenance Program.

It annually sponsors a two-day workshop at FRI to meet and discuss the latest developments in apparatus, fire department shops and trends and standards affecting fleet maintenance and specifications. This year, the section began accepting affiliate members and corporate donations to accommodate plans to expand membership and increase its educational events. In addition to its annual workshop at FRI, the AMS plans to organize two new events to serve a wider audience in different regions.

The 400-member organization includes fire department fleet and shop managers, educators and leaders from the apparatus manufacturing industry. The AMS, with FIRE CHIEF magazine, sponsors the Emergency Vehicle Technician of the Year Award, awarded for the first time in 2004.

For more news and developments, check www.ams-iafc.com or e-mail Section Chair Don Henry at don.henry@lakelandc.ab.ca.