Ive been reading with great interest regarding the Richmond situation. Oh sure, the TQC sounds good on paper, the purse holders love the idea, combine two trucks into one, therefore we can save money. Well the dimes that you are saving is now turning into dollars youre spending just to keep these rigs on the road. They have to understand that there is alot of weight on that chassis and if your roads are not in the best of shape these rigs are going to get abuse. Add the thousands of runs per year that they handle, and sure they are going to break down faster and be out of service for longer periods of time. St. Louis who pioneered the idea of the TQC is going back to the traditional engine/truck concept. Quints do have their place in the fire service, but not as an option to phase out engine companies. Best of luck to the RFD in the return to traditional apparatus, I can only hope that this was a lesson learned......
Quote:Ive been reading with great interest regarding the Richmond situation. Oh sure, the TQC sounds good on paper, the purse holders love the idea, combine two trucks into one, therefore we can save money. Well the dimes that you are saving is now turning into dollars youre spending just to keep these rigs on the road. They have to understand that there is alot of weight on that chassis and if your roads are not in the best of shape these rigs are going to get abuse. Add the thousands of runs per year that they handle, and sure they are going to break down faster and be out of service for longer periods of time. St. Louis who pioneered the idea of the TQC is going back to the traditional engine/truck concept. Quints do have their place in the fire service, but not as an option to phase out engine companies. Best of luck to the RFD in the return to traditional apparatus, I can only hope that this was a lesson learned......
From a managment perspective, the apparatus costs in moving to a TQC deployment are not really the primary concern in regards to "cost savings". The primary concern is the savings in labor costs. Typically, the move to TQC is accompanied with a reduction in overall staffing in the department and the labor cost savings that accompany the reduction in overall staffing are sufficient to offset any increased vehicle related costs.
As for St. Louis, they didn't actually return to the "traditional engine/truck concept". They only switched some of their companies from Quint apparatus to Engine apparatus. I'd estimate that less than half of their companies made that switch. As I understand their deployment plan now, units still assume operational roles based on order of arrival, but with some modifications. Companies with engine apparatus assume the appropriate engine role - 1st arriving engine, 2nd arriving engine, etc. Quint companies (the 75' ones titled "Truck") still assume the appropriate engine or truck role as before. If a company assigned one of the new engines is using a reserve unit (a 75' quint - no engines in the reserve pool) their unit ID changes from "Engine #" to "Truck #" and they function the same as before while in that reserve unit.
The man who brought quints to Richmond has been in the Fire Service for many years in quite a few places. When he was Chief of Clayton County, GA (11 engines, 2 trucks), he brought in their first quints. One was assigned as a truck and the other three were assigned to engines in areas that lacked aerial coverage. The department has grown since (now 14 stations) and there are three truck companies (two TDA's and one quint), plus as many as six quints assigned to engine companies.
After he left Richmond, he returned to Georgia. He is the current Chief of Sandy Springs, a young four station department that runs two engines and four quints. He also has a thing for Roto-Rays!
In my own FD, we currently run two engines and a truck from two stations. We will soon open Station 3, which will be assigned a 75' quint. This will give us a third engine with the added benefit of a second aerial for our city.
Quote:The man who brought quints to Richmond has been in the Fire Service for many years in quite a few places. When he was Chief of Clayton County, GA (11 engines, 2 trucks), he brought in their first quints. One was assigned as a truck and the other three were assigned to engines in areas that lacked aerial coverage. The department has grown since (now 14 stations) and there are three truck companies (two TDA's and one quint), plus as many as six quints assigned to engine companies.
After he left Richmond, he returned to Georgia. He is the current Chief of Sandy Springs, a young four station department that runs two engines and four quints. He also has a thing for Roto-Rays!
In my own FD, we currently run two engines and a truck from two stations. We will soon open Station 3, which will be assigned a 75' quint. This will give us a third engine with the added benefit of a second aerial for our city.
Plus he is getting ready to replace the fleet with new ones about the same.
BTW the city manager then told him to reduce the members on the department or he would be looking for another job.
John Hinant Retired Member of Richmond VA Fire Bureau
October 25, 1858 - October 25, 2020 = 162 years old The sixth oldest paid, documented, Fire Department in the United States First established in 1782
"In God We Trust - All Others We Take For Granted"
Quote:Plus he is getting ready to replace the fleet with new ones about the same.
BTW the city manager then told him to reduce the members on the department or he would be looking for another job.
Sandy Springs Fire Rescue was launched in 2006 and is running over 10,000 runs annually from four stations, protecting a population of almost 100,000. I am not the least bit surprised that the rigs are wearing out. Most silly managers, I mean city managers, are nothing but bullies and certainly not problem solvers. If Chief Fish has to make cuts, he'll probably cut Engine 2 first. It's the busier of the two engines, but Engine 1 runs out of a nearby Roswell station part of the time, to reduce response times to a section of Sandy Springs that is remote from their stations. The City of Sandy Springs has never built a fire station, they incorporated their city limits and took over three Fulton County stations and one Atlanta station.
If Chief Fish has to look for another job, I don't think he'll have much trouble.....
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