Apparatus staffing can vary widely across the country. In the volunteer sector, company officers don’t often know what the staffing will be until the rig is leaving the firehouse. On the career side, there is always a threat of budget cuts that might reduce the staffing levels of first-out units. With this in mind, we asked Bill Adams and Ricky Riley, “How should fire departments design their fire apparatus around realistic staffing?”
Define Realistic Staffing First
By Bill Adams
“How do you design a rig around realistic staffing?” This is a wide-open question generating an obvious and expected response of, “By making firefighters’ lives safe, easy, and efficient when interfacing with their apparatus.” It is a generalized statement devoid of inspiring conversation and accountability. It can be expounded on in ambiguous and indistinct terminology often found in the same sentence: “Make equipment accessible—by storing it down low. Make equipment easy to remove—by using slide-out trays and pull-out tool boards. Make judicious use of available space—by using powered ground ladder and suction hose storage racks.”
I could list every apparatus improvement made since the elimination of the three-horse hitch. However interesting those improvements may be, they do not address today’s staffing issues. Equipment accessibility and judicious use of storage space should be priorities regardless of crew size. Politically correct and vague suggestions about improving apparatus design are stop-gap measures paying lip service to the problem of staffing. Most are all-encompassing statements mollifying an issue without solving it.
STAFFING
Designing apparatus to specifically meet realistic staffing cannot be answered until realistic staffing itself is defined. Good luck with that. Realistic is defined as sensible, practical, and rational. Does staffing mean one rig’s crew size or the total people responding on an assignment? Is it having 15 firefighters arriving simultaneously with five riding on three rigs? Or is it five rigs responding with three firefighters each? How far apart can they arrive—every four minutes?
Defining adequate staffing is the responsibility of a fire department and its authority having jurisdiction (AHJ). Many fire chiefs, especially in the volunteer sector, will not acknowledge inadequate staffing. Some are in self denial: “We might be light on smells and bells calls, but on real fires, we always get a good turnout.” Acknowledging an issue and merely bloviating about it is an injustice to firefighters and taxpayers alike.
Fire departments and AHJs should do a comprehensive analysis of staffing before addressing apparatus design. Inordinate spending for a new rig supposedly custom designed for limited staffing may not be in their best interests regardless if they are career, volunteer, or combination departments.
STATISTICS
Irrespective of an apparatus design, the number of firefighters available crewing it is what really counts. Reducing a crew size from 5 to 4 is a 20% reduction in people. Going from 4 to 3 is a 25% reduction. Going from 3 to 2 results in an engine “couple” that, in my opinion, is not a functional engine company. Responding with just a driver is inexcusable—but it happens. Don’t blame the fire truck if there aren’t enough firefighters.
VARIABLES
Before you get your bunkers in a twist over designing a rig for available staffing, consider the variables. Define the apparatus’s mission and identify available resources. If needed, who is coming to help (local resources as well as mutual aid and mutual assistance)? Do they have enough people to send? How long will it take for help to arrive?
For those adamant in designing apparatus for their individual interpretation of realistic staffing, are they addressing to-be-purchased or existing apparatus? There can be an enormous monetary difference in redesigning an existing rig than in custom designing and purchasing a new one. Consider the physical limitations in what can physically be done to existing apparatus.
TACTICS AND STRATEGY
There are alternatives that could be evaluated before purchasing a million-dollar fire truck to address staffing. Could fireground tactics and strategies be modified to better use existing apparatus with the available firefighters? Don’t shoot the messenger. I am not advocating that one tactic is better than another. I’m just showing possibilities.
- Current procedure is for engine companies to drop skid loads of attack hose with the crew while the driver reverse lays to a water supply. If staffing is reduced, would it be beneficial to change tactics to make a forward hydrant-to-fire lay?
- Another department favors the “pull-and-break” method of stretching attack lines. If staffing is reduced, would it be feasible to also provide preconnects of various lengths?
- The adequately staffed ladder truck makes liberal use of 28-foot extension ladders. If crew size is reduced, would using 16-, 18-, or 20-foot straight wall or roof ladders compensate for not having enough people to throw extension ladders?
- Some departments use intricate shoulder-loaded single-stack preconnects designed for two firefighters to stretch. If staffing is reduced, would it make sense to also provide a pull-and-dump preconnect for one firefighter to make a stretch?
- The small department can no longer crew its ladder truck and engine with four firefighters each. It purchased a quint that doesn’t have the same physical capabilities of its engine and ladder truck. It is crewed with four people. City hall is ecstatic: “Oh boy, we saved a bunch of money!” Does responding with less equipment and half as many firefighters really address staffing?
Before spending big bucks for a rig that might or might not alleviate staffing, consider experimenting with existing apparatus. Ask firefighters riding in the crew cab if they have ideas or suggestions addressing design and staffing. Evaluate different tactics. Adapting and reorganizing may have merit before designing and redesigning. The rig purchased today might be around for decades. Staffing can change overnight.
Every fire truck should be designed for safe and efficient use. Firefighter safety and fireground efficiency should never be staffing-dependent. Do a reality check (https://bit.ly/3slvo3i).
BILL ADAMS is a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board, a former fire apparatus salesman, and a past chief of the East Rochester (NY) Fire Department. He has 50 years of experience in the volunteer fire service.
Designing for Staffing Means Designing for Efficiency
By Ricky Riley
Over the past few FA Viewpoints columns, we have covered a number of issues related to writing specifications for fire apparatus. Now, we’re looking at the design of apparatus based on the staffing issues that are plaguing many departments.
The days of ordering rigs with large cabs that hold six to eight firefighters are mostly over for organizations, other than the robustly staffed career departments. All those seats and space cost the rig in overall length and wheelbase—two items that are a commodity in spec’ing apparatus today. Most departments are vested in smaller rigs with smaller overall footprints. So, understanding how many firefighters you will actually carry through normal staffing, or maybe some anomalies of upstaffing, is one of the first considerations when starting the specification process.
In almost all rigs, motor size is a major factor when determining the amount of room in the cab. Drivers usually have the most room of all cab positions. The officer is usually cramped by the officer’s seat and the self-contained breathing apparatus that is in that seat, leaving little room to allow for the seat to sit back and provide room for personal protective equipment and the balance of the gear that today’s firefighters carry with them on rigs. The cab door and the motor box define the horizontal space for the officer. Finding a way to increase this space will help make the rig more operational and provide comfort for the officer while he completes many tasks while responding. Look at all manufacturers’ cabs and determine what will best work for your department’s mission and what motor size you will actually need for your response area at the same time. The biggest motor does not always mean the best for cab room and performance.
Now looking at the crew area, this is where we can start to be a little more inventive in how we design this space. Knowing the number of firefighters we will ultimately carry will allow us to make the crew cab ergonomic and efficient for our mission. The seating arrangement is a big factor based on how your department operates. If we can reduce the cab extension with the appropriate number of seats and accomplish our mission, we can then help reduce the overall length and wheelbase of the apparatus—always a good thing when designing your new rig. So, the seating arrangement will need to allow an easy exit from the rig, especially with all the equipment we may carry out of this space. When looking at the seating arrangement, how far does the firefighter actually have to move across a cab to exit? Placing seats close to the crew cab exit door and close to the first step out will allow for some gravity to help with moving the fully dressed firefighter out of the cab.
If we are carrying equipment in the cab that needs to be deployed, making this equipment readily available from the ground is a huge benefit when it comes to helping reduce injuries. This can be accomplished by placing equipment close to the outer edge on the crew cab area to help firefighters easily reach in the cab and retrieve the equipment without having to carry it out while fully dressed or overextend themselves from the ground to remove awkward and heavy equipment from far inside the crew cab area. Adding doors or access points between the cab doors and the crew cab door to access a compartment or interior space can also help ease equipment storage in and removal from the cab. All this is to help our personnel work more efficiently and have the equipment centered around the firefighters, rather than the firefighters having to go to multiple locations for needed equipment and tools.
With ladder trucks and rescue squads, the cab designs are the same concept as above. But, now we have to focus on all the equipment that is carried in compartments on these rigs, its storage, and its easy removal. The equipment on both these types of rigs is usually heavy and cumbersome. Making sure the design helps your firefighters regardless of body type to retrieve this equipment is a realistic and required approach to your specifications. Departments will need to properly identify the equipment and tools that must be carried and then properly plan for placing and mounting these tools. Once placed, we have to ensure quick deployment and a safe return. This could mean adding shelves, pull-out trays, or slide-out/tilt-down trays to assist getting the equipment off. There are so many social media sites that highlight equipment mounting that we should all be looking for the next great idea. And believe me, there are great ideas all across the country from firefighters and departments making their rigs operationally sound and firefighter-friendly. Do not get stuck in a position of not thinking outside the box for the firefighters who will need to operate off this rig for years.
Designing the rig mechanically is important and will help with the overall length of service for the apparatus. But, we must also take the time to design the rig, its compartments, and equipment layouts to help our firefighters extend their service lives and prevent any injuries that could sideline them from delivering protection to our communities. We have plenty of time nowadays while we wait for our rigs to be built. So, take that time to review EVERY aspect of the apparatus and ensure it fits your response area, your building stock, and your department operations and makes the job easier for the people riding the rigs.
RICKY RILEY is the president of Traditions Training, LLC. He previously served as the operations chief for Clearwater (FL) Fire & Rescue and as a firefighter for Fairfax County (VA) Fire & Rescue. He also is a firefighter with the Kentland (MD) Volunteer Fire Department and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board.
