Fire in a Building Liberty, MO 200 N 291HWY 05-25-14 (KCFD Auto-Aide)

[MFD76]

Liberty is a northland suburb on the northeast corner of the the metro. They are fully career with three fire houses. They staff two pumpers, one truck, one batt chief, and two ambulances. A third ambulance can be staffed if need with Truck 1's crew. They maintain one brush buggy, one water tender as needed, one reserve pumper, and one reserve ambulance. 

 

Sunday Morning May 25 Liberty Police Department dispatched Truck 1 Rescue 3 Car 600, Pumper 2 Rescue 2, and Pumper 3 to a reported building fire at Crowley Furniture. Liberty Police notified Kansas City Fire Alarm Exchange for Auto Aide. KCFD Fire Alarm dispatched a regular alarm assignment of Pumper 14, Pumper 3, Truck 4, Truck 12, Rescue 1, Car 103.

 

Liberty Pumper 2 arrived on scene reporting a working fire with fire venting from the front plate glass and venting from the soffet on side A. KCFD Fire Alarm upgraded to a working fire and sent Air Wagon 1 and Car 120. Pumper 2 made an aggressive interior attack, Truck 1 arrived and Laddered the roof,

Pumper 3 supplied the FDC and reported to the roof. KCFD Truck 12 in RRT3 laddered side C with the aerial ladder and went to the roof, KCFD Truck 4 went interior to open up and search, KCFD Rescue 1 split three to the roof and three to RIT. KCFD Pumper 3 and Pumper 14 joined the fire attack on the interior. The fire was under control in an hour and was out in two. Crowley Furniture is a local family owned company. Since the fire they have run television ads thanking the Liberty Fire Department and Kansas City Fire Department for their strong aggressive firefighting work.

 

Many years ago this building served as a grocery store. The original cart/ covered walk way was enclosed to form a glass window walk up show room. The sprinkler system was not extend into the enclosed area. The fire began above the celling and was able to run the length of the enclosed area including the cornice. The parapet wall kept the fire from extending into the building. The building suffered smoke damage but the fire was contained to the front enclosed area due to an aggressive fire attack. PPV fans were only used after the fire was extinguished for residual smoke removal. 

 

Side note: Liberty still uses the classic Seagrave door logo that first appeared on their 1950's Seagrave 70th Anniversary Aerial. 

 









 

Liberty Truck 1 stowing from the roof. 

KCFD Air Wagon 1

 



 

KCFD Air 1 FAO filling masks. 

Air 1 is housed at Fire House 47. Besides Air, Light, Power it carries shoring lumber and power tools. It is staffed each shift with one FAO. Fire House 47 also houses Command Bus 1 and Pumper 47. It is located adjacent to the Fire Acadmey-Fire Shop Complex. 

 





 

Side B with Liberty Pumper 2 and Truck 1's ground ladder. Liberty's previous Fire Chief was a retired KCFD Deputy Chief he helped move Liberty to aggressive truck work. They do a good effecient job even with their limited staffing. Thankfully fans were only used for residual smoke removal after fire extinguishment.

 



 

KCFD Truck 4. This is the only straight frame aerial ladder in the KCFD. It is the farthest north Truck Company and is housed at Fire House 3 with Pumper 3. Truck 5,7,10 are Dry Tillered Aerial Ladders. All of the other eight Truck Companies are Aerial Ladder Towers. Although Truck 12 has been using a spare tiller. They have moved between Reserve Truck 3 and Reserve Truck 2 consistantly for the last couple of years.

 



 

KCFD Rescue 1 RIP Truck 1, Housed on the north side of Down Town at Fire House 25 with Pumper 25. This is quite a long run however on the new alarm cards a Rescue can be subbed for the third pumper company on the regular or first alarm ticket. Fire Alarm subbed Rescue 1 requiring them to pass through Pumper 6 and Pumper 34 districts on the way to Liberty. 

 





 

Rescue 1 Firemen and the RIT equipment. 

 



 

Truck 12 in Reserve Truck 3. They has been running between the two tillers in Reserve Truck 2 and Reserve Truck 3 over the last couple of years. Their Ladder Tower is still out of service. They pulled around from side C to fill up there masks before returning home to Fire House 6. 

 





 

Firemen of Pumper 14 housed at Fire House 14 with Car 103 and Command Bus 2. 

 





 

 

The Firemen were the Stars and the machines are the Co Stars of the Show. 

Liberty had placed an order for three 2014 Pierce Velocity PUC pumpers. They will replace and dispose of both Pumper 2 and Pumper 3's E-Ones and Reserve Pumper 1 an ALF/Becker. LFD Firemen refer to it as the American LaJunk. One of the new Pierce pumpers will serve in reserve and they will rotate the pumpers. 

 

Liberty Truck 1 in a 2012 Pierce Velocity PUC 100ft PAL Ladder Tower 1500/300



 

Liberty Pumper 2 in a 2005 E\-One Typhoon 1250/750



 

Liberty Pumper 3 in a 2004 E\-One Typhoon 1250/750. Very shockingly similar design to the 2005 and 2006 KCFD pumper order. 


 

Liberty Car 600 or Battalion Chief 

[hank]

good photos!

 

tHANKs

[npfd801]

Awesome photos.  Love this kind of stuff.

 

Curious why the numbers on the doors don't match the number of the rig?

[gmuhr]

Nice work.

[MFD76]

Awesome photos.  Love this kind of stuff.

 

Curious why the numbers on the doors don't match the number of the rig?

City Shop number and Clay County radio number. Each department in Clay County has a county assigned number for inter county mutual aide. However they are not on a common communications system (a long story). With that said Liberty for a short time in the 1980's used the 600 series every day. That changed about 1987 and they returned to the traditional numbers and clear text. When they go mutual aide now they just say Liberty Pumper 2 or Liberty Truck 1. The only machines left with the full 600 numbers affixed area Pumper 2, Pumper 3 and the four ambulances. Truck 1, Tender 1, Brush Buggy 1, BC do not display the 600 numbers only the shop numbers. Pumper 2 and Pumper 3 have the 600 number on the cab front right side and body rear right side.

 

Pumper 1 610

Pumper 2 612

Pumper 3 603

Truck 1 605

Tender 1 616

Batt 600

 

Ambulances:

Rescue 1 625

Rescue 2 627

Rescue 3 624

Rescue 4 626

[MFD76]

City Shop number and Clay County radio number. Each department in Clay County has a county assigned number for inter county mutual aide. However they are not on a common communications system (a long story). With that said Liberty for a short time in the 1980's used the 600 series every day. That changed about 1987 and they returned to the traditional numbers and clear text. When they go mutual aide now they just say Liberty Pumper 2 or Liberty Truck 1. The only machines left with the full 600 numbers affixed area Pumper 2, Pumper 3 and the four ambulances. Truck 1, Tender 1, Brush Buggy 1, BC do not display the 600 numbers only the shop numbers. Pumper 2 and Pumper 3 have the 600 number on the cab front right side and body rear right side.

 

Pumper 1 610

Pumper 2 612

Pumper 3 603

Truck 1 605

Tender 1 616

Batt 600

 

Ambulances:

Rescue 1 625

Rescue 2 627

Rescue 3 624

Rescue 4 626

Here is the Clay County Run down, before warned it is a mess. 

 

Clay County Fire Departments:

Smithville, MO 100's dispatched by Platte County Sheriff uses clear text and 11's Pumper 11

Claycomo, MO 200's dispatched by Clay County Sheriff uses clear text and 20's Pumper 21 

Gladstone, MO 300's dispatched by Gladstone PD uses clear text Engine 1, Ladder 1, Engine 2

Pleasant Valley, MO 400's dispatched by Pleasant Valley PD uses clear text and 40's Pumper 41

Holt, MO 500's dispatched by Clinton County Sheriff uses 500's 501ect

Liberty, MO 600's dispatched by Liberty PD uses clear text Truck 1, Pumper 2, Pumper 3

Kearney, MO 700's dispatched by Kerney PD uses clear text Engine 2, Quint 1, Engine 1

800 unassigned

North Kansas City, MO 900's dispatched by North Kansas City PD uses clear text and 900's Engine 905, Ladder 903, Engine 907 labels machines only with clear text and number E5, L3, E7

Avondale, MO 900's dispatched by North Kansas City PD and assigned as North Kansas City Engine 919 

Birmingham, MO unassigned dispatched by Clay County Sheriff uses Engine 1

Fishing River FPD unassigned 

 

No county number assigned Clay County Fire Departments Fishing River and Birmingham

[npfd801]

Here is the Clay County Run down, before warned it is a mess. 

 

Clay County Fire Departments:

Smithville, MO 100's dispatched by Platte County Sheriff uses clear text and 11's Pumper 11

Claycomo, MO 200's dispatched by Clay County Sheriff uses clear text and 20's Pumper 21 

Gladstone, MO 300's dispatched by Gladstone PD uses clear text Engine 1, Ladder 1, Engine 2

Pleasant Valley, MO 400's dispatched by Pleasant Valley PD uses clear text and 40's Pumper 41

Holt, MO 500's dispatched by Clinton County Sheriff uses 500's 501ect

Liberty, MO 600's dispatched by Liberty PD uses clear text Truck 1, Pumper 2, Pumper 3

Kearney, MO 700's dispatched by Kerney PS uses clear text Engine 2, Quint 1, Engine 1

800 unassigned

North Kansas City, MO 900's dispatched by North Kansas City PD uses clear text and 900's Engine 905, Ladder 903, Engine 907 labels machines only with clear text and number E5, L3, E7

Avondale, MO 900's dispatched by North Kansas City PD and assigned as North Kansas City Engine 919 

Birmingham, MO unassigned dispatched by Clay County Sheriff uses Engine 1

Fishing River FPD unassigned 

 

No county number assigned Clay County Fire Departments Fishing River and Birmingham

Thanks for the info.  Kind of nice to see other areas are just as odd as we are with dispatch.  We were promised county wide dispatch when the sheriff's office built a new 911 center, but alas somehow the funding that was in place vanished.  As it stands now, the largest city (Rockford) dispatches themselves and a number of suburban departments, four others dispatch themselves, and five more of us are dispatched through two hospital based dispatch centers.  Long stories behind all this, and even other oddities I don't have the time to explain, like one department that is dispatched by both our county and another since they are in both... There's at least one, perhaps two departments in our far northwest of the county that I'm sure have people dispatching out of their homes.

 

Our MABAS division (and the neighboring division south) have agreed to a numbering system so we know what rig belongs to who, and we're really lucky that all but one department follows the system.  There's also one is every group I guess.  800 series is my department, with 00-39 engines, 40 series rescues (light and heavy), 50 series aerials, 60 is brush/utility, 70 tenders/tankers, and 80 and 90 for officers.  90s are chiefs and Captains typically.

[BHFire13]

Thanks for the info.  Kind of nice to see other areas are just as odd as we are with dispatch.  We were promised county wide dispatch when the sheriff's office built a new 911 center, but alas somehow the funding that was in place vanished.  As it stands now, the largest city (Rockford) dispatches themselves and a number of suburban departments, four others dispatch themselves, and five more of us are dispatched through two hospital based dispatch centers.  Long stories behind all this, and even other oddities I don't have the time to explain, like one department that is dispatched by both our county and another since they are in both... There's at least one, perhaps two departments in our far northwest of the county that I'm sure have people dispatching out of their homes.

 

Our MABAS division (and the neighboring division south) have agreed to a numbering system so we know what rig belongs to who, and we're really lucky that all but one department follows the system.  There's also one is every group I guess.  800 series is my department, with 00-39 engines, 40 series rescues (light and heavy), 50 series aerials, 60 is brush/utility, 70 tenders/tankers, and 80 and 90 for officers.  90s are chiefs and Captains typically.

Its honestly absurd in this day and age that the possibility of people still receiving 911 calls at thier homes, amd the lack of some type of organize dispatching center for a single county, what a royal mess im glad you guys find a way to make it work but what if something happens on a county wide scale i.e. natural disaster massive structural fire, how do these so called dispatch centers cooperate?

[MFD76]

Its honestly absurd in this day and age that the possibility of people still receiving 911 calls at thier homes, amd the lack of some type of organize dispatching center for a single county, what a royal mess im glad you guys find a way to make it work but what if something happens on a county wide scale i.e. natural disaster massive structural fire, how do these so called dispatch centers cooperate?

Actually since most of the metro has joined the Kansas City Regional MARRS P25 System things have got a lot easier. We now have many channels of P25, P25 encrypted, 800, 800 trunked, and Conventional plus the state wide systems in KS and MO. Before the regional system there was only one conventional fire mutual aide channel. It was maintained and tested every Saturday morning by Raytown Fire Protection District. Currently their are five major Fire Alarm Offices in the metro. I do miss the days of the old red brick KCFD Fire Alarm exchange building. It was fun to hang out their with the Fire Alarm Operators. For all of the issues at MAST Ambulance they had an excellent state of the art communications center.  The new KCFD Fire Alarm Exchange at the old MAST HQ is really built to grow. Johnson County ECC also has a very well built similar Fire Alarm. I doubt it would ever happen but both are built and could handle regional communications for the metro. 

 

Kansas City, Missouri Fire Alarm Exchange KCFD

Kansas City, Kansas Fire Dispatch

Johnson County, Kansas Emergency Communications Center (Pre mid 1980's Johnson County Fire Alarm)

Lee's Summit, Missouri Fire Department Fire Dispatch

Independence, Missouri Fire and Police Dispatch 

[npfd801]

Its honestly absurd in this day and age that the possibility of people still receiving 911 calls at thier homes, amd the lack of some type of organize dispatching center for a single county, what a royal mess im glad you guys find a way to make it work but what if something happens on a county wide scale i.e. natural disaster massive structural fire, how do these so called dispatch centers cooperate?

Once we get to an incident of any sizable nature, we go to a MABAS alarm, which then is handled by our MABAS Division's dispatch center, which is Rockford Fire.  We all have our pre-planned and packaged run cards, so the minute I go beyond auto aid companies virtually everything gets handled by the MABAS folks, who are good at what they do.  MABAS is pretty cool, if you haven't heard of it do a search.  I'll have three radios at the command post, one on our MABAS (IFERN) channel to hear incoming units, a fireground channel, and then I'll monitor our channel in case someone is on it by accident, or I need to call our dispatch to get utilities or something to the scene that I don't need to tying up MABAS dispatchers with. 

 

This is Illinois.  There's a lot of things wrong.  Non centralized dispatch is just one of them.  Keep in mind the department that is dispatched out of homes is probably a 150 call a year department, if that.  Trying to keep track of who dispatches who in the Chiacgo suburbs is also interesting.

 

Our ambulance at my fire department is hospital owned, but staffs a rig in my station.  In exchange for us getting an ALS ambo and their dispatch center, they get free living quarters and a bay to use, plus bill our "customers" for transports.  Our dispatchers are all trained by an outside agency, they're for the most part competent.  Turnover and having new people is the biggest issue.  I'm working on a tax referendum (hopefully) to create a taxing district for a fire department owned ambo.  There's a ton of other issues and details to explain better that I could get into, but this post would become huge.

 

911 calls for the entire county are handled by one of two centers, city and county.  Obviously they get each others calls and will transfer, and both offer redundancy for each other in case of a storm or other disaster.  The 911 calls are then handed off to each agency, or across the floor in the dispatch center (i.e. Rockford 911 answers and gets a Rockford Fire call).  Probably could be more efficient, I'm sure.

[Roto-Ray]

This is interesting to read about the complexity of some of the dispatch centers as well as apparatus designations and mutual aid assignments.  I can't think of a single Virginia locality that isn't dispatched by a countywide PSAP.  We're also unique in the nation that every one of our cities are independent of the county (only others in the US are Baltimore, St Louis, and Las Vegas), so cities dispatch themselves as well.

 

That being said, I am impressed with the MABAS and the way that it's grown over the past 20 years.

[npfd801]

This is interesting to read about the complexity of some of the dispatch centers as well as apparatus designations and mutual aid assignments.  I can't think of a single Virginia locality that isn't dispatched by a countywide PSAP.  We're also unique in the nation that every one of our cities are independent of the county (only others in the US are Baltimore, St Louis, and Las Vegas), so cities dispatch themselves as well.

 

That being said, I am impressed with the MABAS and the way that it's grown over the past 20 years.

Honestly - I think if MABAS Illinois could secure funding to dispatch all of us in regional dispatch centers it would be amazing, but that really isn't their mission.  The assets they've secured from grant monies for our collective use is impressive as hell.  They do have a MABAS dispatch center (RED center) but that's primarily to mobilize their assets if needed state wide.

 

I know a lot of places have lots of advantages over us and how they operate.  I'm just thankful to have enough budget to run a department with some part time staffing, that has safe and modern equipment.  Our buildings are a little old but will suffice until we can work out the details to build a new centralized station to replace two older buildinds that are located at the corners of my response area.

 

There will be a new county sheriff soon, perhaps he'll see the merit of county wide dispatch since the county side of the 911 center is under his kingdom.  I'm not holding my breath.  I could pay Rockford Fire to do it, but they are not cheap, and my current dispatch agreement which allows a hospital based ambo to be parked in one of my firehouses ends up costing me a total of zero dollars a year.  I have a dispatch center, which while isn't perfect, gives me two 24/7 dispatchers that only handle us (1500 calls a year) and an ambulance, that probably run 6,000 to 7,000 calls a year, if that.  Rockford Fire handles dispatching for the city of Rockford and a number of suburban departments with two people as well.  Their volume has to exceed 35,000 a year for all fire calls they handle...