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Severe Winter Weather: How Do You Voulnteers Respond?
As a Vollie..Winter is normally my busy time. What with motorists going off the road, hitting each other, and all that fun ice! High winds taking down trees, and power lines, and the occasional chimney fire. (Not one of my favorites to do..that damn chain gets heavy fast!)
What Im looking for here is to get a better idea of how you people of the Winter locations deal with calls this time of year?
I ask because just last night I had a call for simple stand by at a vehicle off the road. It was on a high, and hilly road. No trees to block the 20+ mph winds. That made the temp 25-30 below zero. It was so nasty stuff. I think I have some slight frost bite on my ear! Its pretty sore and hurts to touch it. I had plenty of firefighters in POVS on scene, and canceled a truck responding from station, Just to keep it safe and warm. Snow drifts, and bad viability is nothing for people to be out in.
What are you Vollies doing for this winter? Most go direct with gear? Or are you still rolling your trucks?
What Im looking for here is to get a better idea of how you people of the Winter locations deal with calls this time of year?
I ask because just last night I had a call for simple stand by at a vehicle off the road. It was on a high, and hilly road. No trees to block the 20+ mph winds. That made the temp 25-30 below zero. It was so nasty stuff. I think I have some slight frost bite on my ear! Its pretty sore and hurts to touch it. I had plenty of firefighters in POVS on scene, and canceled a truck responding from station, Just to keep it safe and warm. Snow drifts, and bad viability is nothing for people to be out in.
What are you Vollies doing for this winter? Most go direct with gear? Or are you still rolling your trucks?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Justin Scott on
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We respond on the trucks, with the exception of chiefs. chiefs are the only people on our dept allowed to respond pov. we really dont staff our station during bad weather with a full crew. most the guys who live far out will come to the station but alot of our members can almost walk to the station.
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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Use to be when we had bad weather the two stations would have crews to man everything. Sometimes we ran out of bunk space and some members slept in the rec room on couches or in the offices if they could. Some calls the whole station would go just in case the crews were needed to help unless it was a ambulance call to another area and that crew was on their own unless the fire company in that area sent a crew to help.
Since the membership is very low now we have four career personel in the station and the members just come in and ride if needed. We use to have live-in members that stayed in the station but they all moved out years ago and got married. As to going to the scene, our members are told to go to the station unless they come up on the scene first and help out but they have to go to the station afterwards for credit for the call.
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Permalink Reply by Perry Bryant on
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How about if you are going out for calls just have multiple crews in the station.
Instead of putting people at risk driving to a scene tell them to either go to the station or do not come out for calls at all.
If they want to ride calls at night tell them to sleep at the station. It is not worth someone getting hurt.
We do not allow POV response except for officers.
If the weather is that bad than no one should be POV'ing.
We have firetrucks for a reason. Use them.
If the weather is that bad a county emergency plan is in effect so every time an EMS call goes out a FD 4x4 (Brush Truck or Utility) with a winch is also dispatched.
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Permalink Reply by Reg Mathis on
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VEERRRRYYY Carefuly!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Mac Conant on
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We have two trucks that are 4x4. All of our pumpers are 2x. One is a brush truck. Just a small Chevy Chyanne (sp?) And the other is a F350 mini attack engine. (Has Jaws, some water, foam, ect) Around here, we keep our gear with us. The first person on scene will give a size up, and from there a officer, or driver will get the idea for if we are going to need a Truck or not. I should have added, the truck i canceled was going to take at least 10-15 minutes to arrive depending on the weather.
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Permalink Reply by Smoke Eater on
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We get so many calls in the snow and ice that it's not even funny. We have guys that go POV if they are close and they usually can let the rest of us know before a truck leaves the station if a truck will be needed or not. Usually PD can get on scene fairly quick also and let dispatch know if fire is needed or not.
Stay safe, stay low!!!
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Permalink Reply by Truckinainteasy on
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We sleep in crews on snow events. All members should have a winter bag with extra heavy socks, dry gloves, knit hat or mask, dry sweatshirt, etc... I keep one in my personal vehicle and one hanging with my gear in the station. Being cold sucks!
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Permalink Reply by Carolyn on
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This is interesting.I would like to hear more about what is involved in "cold weather response".We are a small volunteer dept. in New Brunswick, Canada and see lots of cold weather action. Curious to see what "training" could be done to improve those responses.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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One of the most important things we learned in dealing with cold weather believe it or not is looking out for your partner (sound familiar..?)You will recognize when he/she is getting in trouble with either frost-bite or hypothermia long before they will....It is still important to watch your partner...We also try to stage equipment so that we can move people inside if we need to rapidly...learning to dress in layers and keeping dry also is a major concern....Paul
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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In our department those who do not live near the fire houses go directly to the scene in POV.
Most of our members have 4X4 trucks and know how to drive them properly, so getting stuck going to a call usually isn't an issue.
Since many members go directly to the scene they carry their PPE with them, and they wear ALL of it including hood.
If the temperature is below 32 degrees I bring my bunker pants into the house at night. Below 10 my turnout coat comes in too. My gear is kept pretty clean - no contaminants on it - so I respond to fire OR EMS calls with it on in severe weather.
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Happens but you try and keep it from happening....You have to keep the nozzles cracked open to maintain flow or set your pumps to recirculate...it will eventually freeze anyways...we even went so far as to try the salamander heaters but no use....when it hits minus 20 things freeze...Firefighters as well as equipment....many nights we saw men and equipment covered with 1/2 -2" of ice......froze stiff..
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