It’s next to impossible to predict what equipment might be needed on any given rescue call on any given day. Although there may be some routine situations that require standard equipment, responders must tailor rescue apparatus to their needs. This month, we asked Bill Adams (top) and Ricky Riley (bottom): What are the top 10 things that should be on a rescue truck?
It’s a Trick Question
What Is a Rescue Truck? This is a trick question. It’s impossible to prioritize a list of “things” to put on a fire truck that itself can’t be defined nor has an actual job description. Call a fire department in Rhode Island for a rescue truck, and you’ll likely get an ambulance with a couple of EMTs and a ride to the hospital. Call for a rescue truck in most cities outside of New England, and you might get a fully staffed, four-door custom cab and chassis rig with a 26-foot-long body and more tools than Ace Hardware, Home Depot, and Lowes combined. The question allows Ricky Riley and me to bloviate at will.
An online search for “rescue truck” only resulted in this definition for a “heavy” rescue truck: “A rescue vehicle is a specialized vehicle used in technical rescue. It is designed to transport and provide the specialized equipment necessary for technical rescue. They carry an array of special equipment such as the Jaws of Life, wooden cribbing, generators, winches, hi-lift jacks, cranes, cutting torches, circular saws and other forms of heavy equipment unavailable on standard trucks.” There was no description of a light or medium duty rescue< truck.
Rescue truck sizes were recently addressed on www.fireapparatus.com’s “The Rig.” It parallels this narration.
NFPA 1901
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus, does not—and should not—define a rescue truck, nor does it specify what equipment one should carry. That is the fire department’s job. Whatever a rescue truck’s assigned duties are and the equipment it carries should be contingent on the hazards within its own response district and in those where the apparatus responds under mutual-aid and mutual-assistance agreements.
My interpretation of NFPA 1901 is that a rescue truck probably falls under the category of a Special Service Fire Apparatus per Chapter 10. It’s a support vehicle that can transport personnel and equipment either not found on responding suppression apparatus or in addition to what is carried on them. NFPA 1901 has a short list of basic equipment it says shall be carried on Special Service Fire Apparatus. It closely mirrors the essential equipment the NFPA requires on every fire truck—regardless of its function. It includes a couple of portable hand lights, two fire extinguishers, a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) with a spare bottle for each “assigned” seating position, a couple of wheel chocks, a traffic vest for each seating position, five traffic cones with illuminated warning devices, and a first-aid kit and automatic external defibrillator. Any equipment in addition to the basic equipment listed is the fire department’s choice—not the NFPA’s or mine.
Assignment
A rescue truck’s mission must be decided prior to determining what to carry. The mission can range from merely transporting personnel to carrying specialized equipment necessary for vehicle extrication, building collapse, hazardous materials containment, salvage operations, and air supply. It may be assigned only to specific tasks such as traffic control, rope-rescue work, water rescue, and so on.
Defining those assignments, the size of a vehicle to support it, and what equipment is needed to accomplish the tasks is again solely the fire department’s responsibility—and not that of a commentator or some voluntary nationwide consensus standard.
There may be situations where a fire department’s response, including specific ancillary equipment to be carried, could be regulated by governmental agencies. One could be responding to military installations that house specialized weapons. Another is participating as part of job-specific nationwide or regional response teams such as urban search & rescue. Yet another is when NFPA 1901-compliant fire apparatus—including Chapter 10 Special Service Apparatus—also respond as an “accredited” emergency medical services (EMS) provider. No doubt there are probably “rules and regulations” mandated by some governmental EMS regulatory agency that must be followed, depending on the level of service provided.
Size AND Staffing
In some volunteer departments, early rescue trucks were considered auxiliary rigs used primarily to haul extraneous nonsuppression equipment and people to an incident. They seldom had a pump or an aerial device and, until just recently, they really didn’t have anything too complicated to operate except for an on/off switch on a generator.
They were not large apparatus, and specialized training was not necessary. Often, they were the first rigs drivers were trained on and, as the drivers got older, the rescue truck was often the last rig they felt comfortable driving. Some of today’s rescue trucks can be as long as, and have the same wheelbases as, ladder trucks. Volunteer drivers may be intimidated by their size and might decline to drive them. Too bad if close to $1 million is spent on a rig no one will drive.
On the career side, politicos looking to make budgetary reductions might eliminate separate staffing for a designated rescue truck. They may require rescues to be cross-staffed with suppression apparatus and to respond only on an as-needed basis. The worst-case scenario is they may eliminate a vehicle that doesn’t actually extinguish fires.
A result of inadequate staffing in both career and volunteer departments is the increase in multifunction apparatus including pumper-rescues (aka rescue-pumpers). Determining the top 10 “things” to carry on one of these is tricky. An oft-made statement about quints is applicable here: “A pumper-rescue is like a Swiss army knife—it can do a lot of things but can’t really do one thing exceptionally well.”
Another statement made in the past is to park a demonstrator pumper-rescue between your pumper and rescue truck. Load as much equipment as you can from both onto the pumper-rescue. Whatever doesn’t fit might help in determining what “should be” carried. However, the most important “thing” that should be on a rescue truck is enough properly trained firefighters to use whatever you opt to carry on it.
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.
Define the Mission
The apparatus designed by any department must be able to meet that individual department’s mission to its response area and its population. I cannot stress this enough concerning rescue trucks. Although we are discussing several top 10 things that these rigs should carry, what each individual department’s mission, staffing, and training are should determine how the apparatus is designed and built. The rescue truck designed, equipped, and well-staffed proudly serves the mission in New York City. But as well-built, well-equipped, and well-staffed and well-trained this rig is and the personnel who ride it, it certainly will not work in every area of the country. So, defining your mission, people, and training is the top priority for any rescue truck. What a topic and what a wide array of equipment, tools, and sizes of rescue trucks can fit into this discussion. My definition of a rescue truck is a rolling toolbox of equipment, tools, and trained personnel performing a wide variety of rescue missions for any given department. These rolling toolboxes come in varying sizes from the small compact rigs like those used by the Detroit (MI) Fire Department to the big rescue company rigs used by the Fire Department of New York and the LA City (CA) Fire Department.
1. Size
The rig itself can come in many sizes, so making sure you get the right size is important. And with that size comes the life of the apparatus. Have you left room for expansion of the equipment cache? And have you left room for future mission changes in your department? Yes, you are buying a rig for now, but that rig probably will stay with most organizations for well over a decade. So, leave yourself some room to expand and change the rig around. Cramming every inch of the rig with equipment from day one will probably not serve the mission well in the future. So, plan for the equipment changes and give yourself some extra room to make any changes.
2. Electrical Requirements
Electrical, electrical, and more electrical. The rig must be able to support all the emergency lighting, vehicle systems, generators, battery charging, and all specialized equipment required to be plugged in, charged, and operated by the electrical system onboard the apparatus. Ensure that you design the rig to fully support all vehicle operating systems and emergency lighting with plenty to spare. Then, work with your manufacturer’s electrical engineers to ensure that anything onboard that requires an electrical draw is properly accounted for through an electrical analysis. Every light, every charger, and every startup draw and operating draw on the electrical system must be calculated. Always leave yourself some extra ability to add additional draw to the system whenever you get the rig back to your department. We all know there will be one more charger or light that will need to be added once we get back to the station and put the rig in service.
3. Plugs
Plugs, especially on rescue trucks, are important. In most of our latest designed rigs, we have taken a proactive approach to add a two-plug 110-volt outlet with USB ports and an additional 12-volt wire to each compartment. These extra outlets and wires allow us to change equipment around in the future, without basing where we move that equipment on where the electrical power is located. These outlets are usually placed high up in the compartment, to be out of the way and not interfere with shelving.
4. Scene Lighting
Scene lighting on rescue rigs is extremely important. When you pull up to these incidents, your ability to properly see what you are doing and what the scene looks like is highly important. Some nights you can just not get enough lumens, so plan to light up the world when you arrive. These scene lights in our current market are usually 12-volt-based lighting. And, depending on the number of lights you put on the rig, they can certainly be a drain on the alternator and the 12-volt system. Ensure the electrical engineers keep the 12-volt system protected from overuse and possible failure on your scenes. Maybe splitting scene lighting between the 12-volt system and the generator system can keep the rig’s electrical system happy.
5. Shelving
Build in some extra shelves and trays to have handy for when you get back to your department and realize you do not like the equipment layout or there was a wrong measurement of equipment to fit in a certain area. The equipment layout on rescue trucks can be very intricate, and how you ergonomically mount this equipment might need to be changed from the original layout. Give yourself some options with extra trays or shelves to be able to properly distribute the equipment in the compartments.
6. Rescue Tool Systems
Proper hydraulic rescue tool systems are highly important to the rescue truck. Ensuring that you have the right system, pump size, voltage battery tools, and tools for accidents in your area is vital to the success of these systems when called to operate. Don’t fall into the trap of just using what you have always used. Take the time to fairly evaluate the hydraulic tool system manufacturers and choose the right one for your rig and response area. Also make sure that your generator and 12-volt electrical system can support your choice.
7. Bulky Equipment Placement
Big, bulky, and long equipment is always an issue on rescue trucks. This equipment must be placed on the rig correctly. Usually, this equipment does not get the day-to-day use as much as the basic rescue tools. Planning where to put it and being able to retrieve the equipment will require some forethought. Even though it may not be an everyday-use item, it should be able to be removed easily and without a huge amount of equipment removal to gain access to it. Additionally, it should be able to be removed by all personnel without causing possible injuries from retrieving the needed equipment.
8. Cribbing
Cribbing amounts and placement on the apparatus should also be well planned out. Depending on your location, highways and roads can carry a multitude of vehicles and trucks. Your rig might be called to stabilize all types of vehicles. Dedicating the proper compartment space and accessibility to this cribbing should be pretty high priorities in the rig’s design process.
9. Specialized Equipment
Specialized equipment based on your area and your department’s response responsibilities can sometimes make these rescue trucks grow. Cascade systems, extra self-contained breathing apparatus cylinders, water rescue equipment, high-angle equipment, collapse, and hazmat responsibilities all will require room on the truck. They can make the length and wheelbase grow on your rig. After adding all this equipment and tools, you must make sure the rig is not too big for the response area. Ensure you know the turning radius and know where you will be taking this rig in your response area. Will it fit, and will it be able to turn around?
10. Well-Trained Personnel
One of the most important tools carried on these rescue trucks is our personnel. Buying the best designed rescue truck and outfitting it with the best equipment and tools are great. But without dedicated firefighters who are well-trained on all the equipment carried on these rigs, all this planning and expenses will be for nothing if you cannot properly execute the many missions that these rescue trucks can bring to your incident scenes. The apparatus requires a ton of planning and designing, and firefighters also require a lot of time and training to make it all work.
There are plenty of other design thoughts and twice as much equipment and tools that we could cover for rescue trucks; this article is just the tip of the iceberg. So please, go out and look at all the rescue trucks built by all the manufacturers, and take all those ideas and designs and use the ones that work for your community on your next rig. A lot of times, you do not need to reinvent the wheel; the ingenuity of departments and firefighters across the country is amazing. Make use of their thoughts and designs to make your rig the best rig possible for your citizens and community.
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.
