Boston Fire Department

[Guest]

[quote name='edburke' post='24392' date='Aug 19 2006, 18:10 ']Well, as a person that works for the City of Boston, alongside the Boston firefighters, I have heard their complaints. Boston is famous for their ladder work, and it's not uncommon to have three guys working at the tip of the stick. With the current Pierces, you can see a significant bow with just one guy at the tip, and the height of the siderails raises safety concerns when compared to the E-Ones-another issue that heavy duty aerials would address. As far as the tillers go, one has to look no further than 1 city north, to Somerville to see that a heavy duty aerial on a TDA doesn't have to be huge. I've seen Maxim TDA's, Seagrave TDA's with 4 door cabs, E-Ones with canopy cabs and 4 door cabs, and the Pierces in my 25 years of fire scene photography, and in my opinion, the 1976 Seagrave TDAs were the best aerial that the city had.[/quote]



Ed,



-With the clear exception of the undpowered engines on the tractors.

You are also correct about E\-One making their name in Chi-town. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the initial Boston delivery of E\-One commercial cab engines were Chicago spec's....

The rail height of the Pierce aerials reminds me of the rail height of the last section of the Pirsch aerials which served in Metro-Boston.

In my humble estimation, the E\-One scissor jack system, with its ability to fit in the smallest of available spaces is a huge advantage. I also believe that E\-One aerials are faster to throw from arrival on scene, to interlock, to aerial out of the bed in terms of time to put in service on the fireground. I defer to all opinions, but like Ed have witnessed the operation of the new aerials, and have operated mid-mount, rear-mount, and tractor drawn aerial apparatus as well from four different manufacturers during my 11 years on the job, and in our particular neck of the woods, and for our fireload/fire duty E\-One aerials work well. Thanks.