Quote:I can not say exactly what their Fire call load is of any types.... but I will say that is a LOT of tax dollars being spent on a rig that is only staffed with 2 people.. yes, 2!!! as I last spoke with an Apopka Lt, they run 4, 2man engines, 1, 2 man tower which cross staffs their Rescue, 4, 2 man ambulances, a 1 man Battalion and have a "Squad" which is an SUV with 4 men in it, that does a lot of inspector work during the day also running calls as a man power unit. it's a joke in my opinion and NOT safe at all.
I would guess if it's a waste depends on how you look at the money being spent.
For this department my educated guess since I don't know them, would be that they hope to be able to fund more FF's in the future. They look to be in metro Orlando area so I would think it would be possible to justify the need and possibly a plan to fund them. If that's the case it's a hell of lot more affordable to purchase for 4 man crew now then to trade in trucks in the future on bigger rigs. Not sure how many years they keep the rigs but the longer they keep them the more likely this thinking is.
One other thing if they have an apparatus fund, those funds for apparatus can't be used to fund firefighters or redirected to anything but apparatus purchases. (At least up here in Michigan) In that case as long as they don't have other apparatus need's going unfunded they should use them to buy the best product they can with the funds they have. (Note: I did not say the most expensive they can afford)
Just my opinion.
Kris
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