[quote name='edburke' post='95021' date='Apr 6 2007, 18:44 ']Geez Kenny, you're out of the loop....that info is a few months old.....when the two new trucks that are out on bid now come in, the Pierce MMT's will be going to TL3 and TL10 and L2 and L17 getting the rearmounts.[/quote]
I had read that story also, a few months ago on the website saying that Tower Ladder 2 and 17's rigs were going to be reassigned to Tower Ladders 3 and 10 as TL's 3 and 10's regular rigs are in bad shape if not out of service altogether.
It's a shame to hear that Boston's Tower Ladder fleet is being reduced by one half (from 4 to 2) as the two Midmounts were just added to the Fleet within the last few years.Having two Tower Ladders in service is at least better then having only one for the entire city like you had for over twenty years.
There's something to be said for Tower Ladders in terms of versatility and safety.Aside from New York city which runs with 61 Tower Ladders in their First Line fleet,your other four largest East Coast Cities (Philadelphia,Baltimore,Boston and Washington have reduced the amount of Elevating Platforms that they had been using.
Philadelphia had been using 4 Snorkels and 2 Two Tower Ladders until about 10 or 15 years ago and now they are down to only 3 Snorkels and no Tower Ladders,while Baltimore at one time had Two Snorkels running as Truck companys (not to mention 6 Sutphen Tower Ladder Quints which were too large and heavy for some of their streets).A few years ago Baltimore 's one remaining Snorkel Truck company was put on "reserve standby status'which basically means that if it is requested at an Emergency another manned Truck company has to detail a driver to it to drive it to the scene.
Washington DC only has one Tower Ladder in service after having two service during the late 1980's and part of the 90's.
The East Coast Fire Departments are still in better shape when it comes to Elevating Platforms then most of the West Coast Fire Deparments however as neither Los Angeles,Sanfrancisco or Seattle have any Elevating PLatforms in service what so ever and while they at one time had a few Snorkels over 25 years ago,neither of those three Major Fire Departments have ever owned or even tried out a Tower Ladder unit.
Sandiego recently replaced their one remaining Snorkel and 4 Tower Ladders with a straight Aerial Ladder's equipped with Prepiped waterway's. In San Diego's case at least part of the reason the for not replacing the Snorkel is that the city is in poor financial shape due to fiscal Mismanagement by the previous Mayor and the city couldn't even get the voters to approve a much needed Fire Department bond issue which was on the ballot over a year ago. The Fire Department couldn't even get accredited from the National Fire Accreditation board as the Fire Department had found that they would need at least 22 more fire stations to have every area of the city covered within the 5 minute response time as recommended by Resolution 1710 of the NFPA and ISO as well.Their previous Fire Chief resigned a year ago as he felt that it was futile unless additional funding was found for a much needed expansion of the Fire Department.
The current Mayor (who was the former police Chief) is trying to get the city back in financial order and is throwing a little more money to the Fire and Police Departments but is far from what's needed to bring the Fire Department up to national coverage standards. Firepost <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tower.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
I had read that story also, a few months ago on the website saying that Tower Ladder 2 and 17's rigs were going to be reassigned to Tower Ladders 3 and 10 as TL's 3 and 10's regular rigs are in bad shape if not out of service altogether.
It's a shame to hear that Boston's Tower Ladder fleet is being reduced by one half (from 4 to 2) as the two Midmounts were just added to the Fleet within the last few years.Having two Tower Ladders in service is at least better then having only one for the entire city like you had for over twenty years.
There's something to be said for Tower Ladders in terms of versatility and safety.Aside from New York city which runs with 61 Tower Ladders in their First Line fleet,your other four largest East Coast Cities (Philadelphia,Baltimore,Boston and Washington have reduced the amount of Elevating Platforms that they had been using.
Philadelphia had been using 4 Snorkels and 2 Two Tower Ladders until about 10 or 15 years ago and now they are down to only 3 Snorkels and no Tower Ladders,while Baltimore at one time had Two Snorkels running as Truck companys (not to mention 6 Sutphen Tower Ladder Quints which were too large and heavy for some of their streets).A few years ago Baltimore 's one remaining Snorkel Truck company was put on "reserve standby status'which basically means that if it is requested at an Emergency another manned Truck company has to detail a driver to it to drive it to the scene.
Washington DC only has one Tower Ladder in service after having two service during the late 1980's and part of the 90's.
The East Coast Fire Departments are still in better shape when it comes to Elevating Platforms then most of the West Coast Fire Deparments however as neither Los Angeles,Sanfrancisco or Seattle have any Elevating PLatforms in service what so ever and while they at one time had a few Snorkels over 25 years ago,neither of those three Major Fire Departments have ever owned or even tried out a Tower Ladder unit.
Sandiego recently replaced their one remaining Snorkel and 4 Tower Ladders with a straight Aerial Ladder's equipped with Prepiped waterway's. In San Diego's case at least part of the reason the for not replacing the Snorkel is that the city is in poor financial shape due to fiscal Mismanagement by the previous Mayor and the city couldn't even get the voters to approve a much needed Fire Department bond issue which was on the ballot over a year ago. The Fire Department couldn't even get accredited from the National Fire Accreditation board as the Fire Department had found that they would need at least 22 more fire stations to have every area of the city covered within the 5 minute response time as recommended by Resolution 1710 of the NFPA and ISO as well.Their previous Fire Chief resigned a year ago as he felt that it was futile unless additional funding was found for a much needed expansion of the Fire Department.
The current Mayor (who was the former police Chief) is trying to get the city back in financial order and is throwing a little more money to the Fire and Police Departments but is far from what's needed to bring the Fire Department up to national coverage standards. Firepost <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tower.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
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