Wheelbase is a good size, but overhall height and bulkiness of the unit stands out. Reminds me of the Toyne's the City bought. I haven't heard one compliment on any of the Toyne's. Also, my comment about the Mckeesport engine was taken from you. I remember ya telling me awhile back that they were suppose to come look at it, and never did.
Wheelbase is a good size, but overhall height and bulkiness of the unit stands out. Reminds me of the Toyne's the City bought. I haven't heard one compliment on any of the Toyne's. Also, my comment about the Mckeesport engine was taken from you. I remember ya telling me awhile back that they were suppose to come look at it, and never did.
[/quote]
They had our spec for our recent engine. I heard they were very interested at looking at it. But no one looked at it either. I agree with Shoop, had they got a short wheelbased layed out Seagrave, it would give them the longevity they need.
Ed Saliba Jr.
1st Assistant Chief
City of New Kensington Bureau of Fire
I.S.O. Class 4 Department
Truck 33 has since been relocated, renumbered 32 and has been in a new Seagrave for about 3 years now. Truck 8 got one of the new Pierce ladders last year. Truck 30 is still in the unit pictured. Truck 24 is now in a new Pierce ladder too. Don't recall if they got theirs last year or the year before.
As far as I know, the former Trucks 33/32, 8 and 24 are all now in the reserve pool.
No trucks on order that I know of. Suppose to be more engines ordered in the future. The new engine for 8 has already been reassigned. It is now engine 16.
The reason for the reassignment was related to the apparatus grant that Wilkinsburg had. From what I understand, there was a time issue for using the grant involved and the only way to meet that was to use the grant on one of those new engines. So, what was going to be the new Engine 8 became the new Engine 16 instead. Engine 8 will likely get their new unit with the next order. Not sure where that order stands at the moment.
How come PBF does not run any heavy rescues and what do Pittsburgh EMS and FIRE work together on other than EMS calls why are they to seperate and not the same
How come PBF does not run any heavy rescues and what do Pittsburgh EMS and FIRE work together on other than EMS calls why are they to seperate and not the same
[/quote]Since rescue services have been the exclusive domain of the EMS division for a long time, I guess there isn't a true need for PBF to run that style of a unit for non-rescue related functions.
As for what they work together on, well one could say "nothing". There's a long standing "fued" between the two agencies and things a particular contensious these days. The City has been in Act 47 (municipal reorganizational bankruptcy) for several years now with two separate oversight agencies. The oversight agencies aren't exactly on the same page with some stuff. There has been talk of privatizing EMS, merging EMS into PBF, sharing some duties, etc. The EMS's last contract expired over a year ago and negotiations have stalled out. One of the things coming from the oversight agencies is removing sole responsibility for rescue services from the EMS. Something EMS is so adamantly opposed to that their union supposedly turned down an opportunity several years ago to avoid elimination of their 4 BLS units along with gaining additional BLS and ALS units on duty daily and the increase in personnel needed to do that.
Over the last several years, PBF has trained almost all of their personnel to the EMT level at minimum. They have also trained and certified all of their personnel in Basic Vehicle Rescue (a PA state certification) and acquired HRT and such for their truck companies. However, they aren't able to use these due to the EMS's exclusive rights to rescue services.
IMO, the EMS side lately has been acting like whiny little children acusing the fire union of trying to steal their jobs, which they aren't doing and to date no EMS jobs have been shifted to the fire side. They blatantly accuse the firefighters of being stupid, incompotent, etc.(regarding EMS & Rescue and sometimes firefighting) and that including them in the provision of rescue services will be the end of the world and all victims will suffer a horrible fate as a result despite the numerous examples in the metro area and across the nation that clearly prove that FDs providing rescue services will not hasten the apocalypse. This is also particularly amusing considering that many, many firefighters in the City worked as Paramedics in PGH EMS before being hired by the FD and a sizable number of current PGH EMS personnel are taking the FD test currently in progress.
Based on various comments their personnel and union leadership have made, the EMS seems to think that the City is going to eliminate all of their jobs, turn over their ambulances and rescue trucks to the FD to staff and run while adding little to no additional staffing in the FD. Both are arguably "understaffed" now and you have to be in fantasy land to think that the City could merge fire and EMS and eliminate ANY field staff.
Not sure how they are holding up, because I haven't seen them yet, but the City just took delivery of 5 more. These 5 are assigned to Engines 4, 8, 17, 28, and 32. Not sure what will get reassigned where. For once the City actually has some decent rigs to move around.
Shoop, I've noticed several of the quints like this, Detroit being another, appears to have a larger wheel (and/or tires) on the rear than on the front, it just looks different, any idea behind this? Also, are the Dayton wheels on it factory or something aftermarket?
Quote:It's a heavier axle. There are some better people that can answer this question properly though. Taylor Goodman possibly can?
When I sold apparatus, you could get a heavier than normal rear axle that used larger tires and wheels. I sold Hinsdale, IL a Metz which was a true "quint" (actually had enough water, hose and ground ladders to qualify) but in order to do so we had to go very heavy on the rear axle, tires, wheels, etc. Don't remember the actual rating, might be a 31,500 under your average 75 foot quint, but I think you can go to a 33K or 34K and still stay a single rear axle. I'm sure some states weight rating limits wouldn't approve.
Two side effects - it raised the height of the rear bumper and steps considerably, and you could only get steel wheels with that heavy of an axle. Not sure if someone is making aluminum wheels yet capable of the rating needed, but we couldn't get them from Spartan at the time.
My guess is that the steel aerial and the 500 gallon tank pushed Pierce to the heavier rear axle.
Well that would make sense then, and here I was afraid it was an optical illusion all of this time and I was the only person who noticed it. Thanks for the explanation, that would explain why in every situation they're steel wheels.
![[Image: PittQuint27.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v112/Shoop/PittQuint27.jpg)
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