APPARATUS SETUP CONT.
The level of detail and exactness for County Fire’s tool placement is a point of pride.
Mechanic John Fortuna fabricates tool mounts for a new Type 1 KME.
“We try to keep things uniform, all the trucks,” says Fortuna, whom
County Fire poached from the local KME outlet. “Most of them are
already set up [from prior generations] so we already know where
things go, even though there are some changes here and there. We
try to keep it the same as the other trucks, and keep notes and
pictures on what had to be changed for the future.”
EMS compartment
The matrix for apparatus production
Moreover, each time NFPA, ICEMA or the EMS equipment committee
itself recommends a new standard or requires a change/addition, this
requires a coordination of the re-imagining of that space—it is not
responsible to simply announce a new piece of gear without describing
how it will be safely and efficiently stored. And so that change must be
communicated down each step in the chain.
Eventually, the vehicle is delivered to the shop for some of the most detailed
work, the setup. Here is where a stock engine becomes a County Fire rig, with the
familiar placement of tools and such. Over time, it has changed as to how much
of the fabrication of compartments is left to the manufacturer and how much is
done in house. The committee feels as though there is a good balance now, with
our own mechanics handling the most detailed work so our tools fit just so.
Eventually the final inspection is completed and the rig is released to
its new caretakers at its home firehouse. The process is exhausting
and never really completed, as each rig often comes back for tweaks
and fixes on bugs here and there. Ultimately it is a labor of love that
benefits our operations.
“We had a couple batches where we had KME do the setup, and we found it
was too expensive and we were able to do it better than that,” McClintock
says. “But we put a lot more on our engines than most other agencies...it’s
made us pave our own way on the setup. We have to, or otherwise it wouldn’t
work.”
While Shop Supervisor Dale Sandoval deals with the big picture, Lead Mechanic
Tom Pitts usually assigns and manages the setup with the fabricating mechanics.
This is where coordination is key.
“Our process is beneficial for all parties,” McClintock says. “We can
make changes to our engines that will save money, make it user-
friendly and make it a better end-product.”
Wells states that many other agencies have begun to come to see
our finalized rigs to get ideas. This is not a new thing, as many of our
specifications and designs don’t happen in a vacuum. Our committee
members have likewise gleaned ideas and designs from other agencies
near and far.
An appliance compartment starts as a blank slate, and ends up
with the familiar layout of adapters, nozzles and appliances.
“Once we get the vehicles from KME and we’ve done the acceptance, we
schedule with the warehouse when tools will be delivered,” Pitts says. “And
we get with the apparatus committee to go over whatever changes there are
from the last time. It’s the timing of all this that’s the difficult part, because
you’re trying to time with the warehouse, plus your other work priorities.”
Still, it is up to those of us driving and using the rigs to be as engaged
as possible.
“When we send out input requests, we truly need the help on that,
because the guys on the floor are the ones who drive,” Wells says. “The
committee thinks every idea can be a good idea, but not every idea
works for County Fire. That’s what the committee has to weigh.”
From here, painstaking work of fabricating the tool mounts and equipment
spaces is done by setup mechanics like John Fortuna, who essentially plays
basically a big game of Jenga with a huge diesel vehicle and all its equipment
sitting on the floor in front of him.
All this eventually finds a home on an engine.
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FIREWIRE • FALL 2018
A new brush engine prior to getting
the compartment box.
Fortuna names the rear saw compartment and the EMS compartment
on the typical KME Type 1 as two of the most challenging areas. In the
case of the latter, even more coordination is required. When picturing
the latest generation of engines, for example, the EMS equipment
committee submitted its own hand-drawn design for the spaces
which would hold our required medical complement. This had to be
coordinated with the apparatus committee and then turned into reality
by the setup mechanics.
The final product: ME78, a recent-generation Type 1
Wells reviews a ladder truck with Pierce representatives.
FALL 2018 • FIREWIRE
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