Findlay, Ohio is a city and the county seat of Hancock County and lies about 49 miles south of Toledo. The city is named after Colonel James Findlay of Cincinnati, who built Fort Findlay in the War of 1812. The city is designated as Flag City, USA which began in 1968 when John Cooke moved there.
Cooke was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and believed in the value of flying the flag. He went door-to-door asking residents and businesses to raise the colors and fly the flag on Flag Day. Creating a fund, he purchased 14,000 small flags and handed them out to the community. The project continued until 1974, when the Chamber of Commerce campaigned to once again have the flags flown and to have the city officially known as Flag City, USA. The House of Representatives passed a resolution officially granting the city this title. When entering town on Interstate 75, you’ll see the city’s designation or when driving past the Flag City monument and the mural painted on the Marathon Petroleum storage tank. Today the city is comprised of all types of residential dwellings, commercial establishments, large manufacturing, and distribution centers to major companies as well as rural farmland areas.
The Findlay Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency services to the city. Through mutual aid agreements, it also provides these services to surrounding cities, townships and villages. The 65 career firefighting staff and chiefs are housed in four fire stations across the city, working a 24/48 shift rotation. The department also provides emergency medical services, hazardous material mitigation, rescue and disaster response operations. In addition to these services, they also provide non-emergency duties including public fire safety education, fire code enforcement and fire investigation.
The firefighters are all trained to a Firefighter Level II, EMT Basic Certification, Rope Rescue, Confined Space Rescue, Hazardous Materials Operational level and CPR. The department currently runs with the following apparatus: Engine 1, a 2015 Ferrara rescue engine; Engine 2, a 2022 Sutphen heavy duty custom pumper; Engine 3, a 2006 Smeal 75-foot quint; Engine 4, a 2018 Sutphen heavy duty custom pumper; Ladder,1 a 2009 Sutphen 100-foot tower ladder; and Unit 26, a 2001 Hackney rescue apparatus. The department also has a reserve engine, which is their former 2003 Spartan designated as Engine 5. In addition to these apparatus, the department runs with various chief vehicles and units for fire prevention and investigations units.
Engine 1 responds with a 2015 Ferrara rescue engine. Its cab is painted white over red, and the rear body is just red, with the upper portion having the American Flag with Findlay Fire signage, once again reflecting the city’s designation of Flag City, USA. The rig is fully equipped with ROM roll-up doors on the larger compartments and a few hinged door compartments on the smaller ones. Running on the lower portion of the cab are three white reflective stripes – two narrow lines with the larger one in the middle – which transverse to the rear body. Here they transition on an angle and proceed across the mid portion of the body. The rear of the apparatus and front bumper both have DOT reflective chevron striping. On each side of the cab, there are also indicator lights for the water level in the unit’s 750-gallon water tank. The rig is also equipped with an extended front bumper with two recessed air horns and Federal siren.
The unit’s Hale 1,500-gallon-per-minute fire pump’s panel controls, equipped with a dual FoamPro system (Class A & B), are enclosed behind the first roll-up compartment door on the driver’s side of the rig. Inside this compartment, near the upper left portion, there are three medical backboard storage shelves. Stored in the compartment next to the pump panel are fittings, appliances, and hand tools mounted on two vertical pull-out shelves. There is also room for the driver’s gear and self-contained breathing apparatus, some rolled-up shorter hose sections and the controls for the light tower. In the large rear compartment on this side of the apparatus, the lower pull-out tray carries two gas-powered exhaust fans. On the stationary shelves, the rotary saw, fuel, battery operated lights and appliances are stored. The chain saw sits on an angular shelf, when the saw is removed and the shelf is lifted, there is storage for extra bar oil, chains and smaller hand tools for the saws. The rear step compartment is the engine’s extrication compartment, which has two hydraulic cord reels mounted in the upper portion of the compartment. On the lower pull-out tray sit the TNT extrication tool’s power unit, spreaders, cutters, and extension ram. Mounted to the left of this compartment on the rear wall of the apparatus, sits an Akron Mercury Quick Attack Monitor nozzle, ready for rapid deployment.
On the officer’s side of the apparatus, there are also some large storage compartments carrying a large cache of equipment. The rear compartment is home to the air-bag storage in vertical shelves on the left side of the compartment. On the stationary shelves in this compartment, there is storage for the air-bag controls, TNT brake pedal cutter kit and ram accessories, step chocks and cribbing, extra hoses, traffic cones and battery-operated cutters and tools. Moving forward, the next large compartment stores the electric power cord reel and associated portable lights. The bottom pull-out tray carries a portable gas-powered Honda generator. The two vertical pull-out shelves carry the unit’s Paratech struts and their associated chains, cable ties, caps and plates. There are also two high-lift manual jacks stored on the forward pull-out shelf.
Flag City, USA is known to have a great deal of pride and patriotism for earning and maintaining that nickname. These traits are also shown in the Findlay Fire Department firefighters and by looking over the quality and upkeep of their fire apparatus and equipment.
Michael N. Ciampo is a 38-year veteran of the fire service and a Lieutenant in the Fire Department of New York. Previously he served with the District of Columbia Fire Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He was the lead instructor for FDIC International Truck Essentials HOT program. He wrote the Ladders and Ventilation chapters for Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter 1 & 2 and the Bread-and-Butter Portable Ladders DVD. He writes the back page column On Fire in Fire Engineering and is featured in Training Minutes truck company videos on FireEngineering.com. Recently he wrote the textbook Tower Ladders, Tactics, Tips & Tales.
