Rescue or Engine?

How does your dept. handle MVA's? Do you have a rescue truck or do you just use your engine? If you have a rescue, is it light, medium, or heavy? What kind of equpment do you have on it? My dept. runs a medium duty rescue that has an onboard PTO generator that runs pre connected extrication equipment, a 20 ft. telescoping light tower, full sets of lift bags and rams, hand tools, various saws and scene lighting. As well as other tools and water rescue equipment.

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Permalink Reply by Just Plain Craig Moyer on February 27, 2011 at 9:44pm
We run a rescue/engine but a company the county that probably runs more MVC's then anyone else only runs an ambulance unless its called in as overturned or subj trapped. I asked the chief and he says 95% only need transport and the fire police put down oil dry if needed. Plus the district is only 5 miles long so response time isn't that much.
Permalink Reply by DAVID GONZALEZ on March 15, 2011 at 3:42am
All three of our engines have The same Extrication Equipment as our light rescue unit All powered by Amkus each has
1 48" spreader
1 cutter
1 medium ram
1 large ram
with rope rescue gear
we dont have a truck company.
Permalink Reply by Eric Gregory on March 15, 2011 at 10:27am
Years before I joined the department an MVA resulted in an entrapment shortly followed by fire. As I understand it the rescue truck was there early enough to watch the car go up with the patient inside because there was not engine on scene. Current policy is engine first ALWAYS. The engine carries hydraulics, hand tools and a first aid/first responder kit as well as chains and some cribbing. We have a rescue truck that is our second out truck for an MVA which carries a set of powerhawk extrication gear, more hand tools, lots of cribbing and a second set of first aid/first responder gear as well as spare air bottles, space scbas, 2 extra sets of bunker gear, back boards, splints, etc.
Permalink Reply by bruce baird on May 5, 2011 at 11:26am
We currently run a rescue rig with tools, etc then follow it with an engine. We are also in the process of specing a rescue pumper. We are very excited about this one, its my first time on a commitee.
Permalink Reply by Mark Oomkes on May 5, 2011 at 11:41am
Engine with a full set of extrication equipment.

Tanker (tender) for a blocker.

We have a second engine set up the same as the first, so we can respond with both or be available for another call.
Permalink Reply by Bill States on May 5, 2011 at 9:44pm
We run an engine and our heavy rescue to MVAs. Our engine has extrication tools on the front bumper pre-plumbed, and the heavy rescue has extrication tools on the rear that are pre-plumbed. Both trucks have generators and light masts.
Permalink Reply by Eduardo Flores on May 5, 2011 at 10:32pm
On my end on tijuana I mean south of the border we run the engine along with the ambulance if one of ours is available on our house usually is and we ask for a Heavy Rescue to tag along from the nearest house wich is about say 300 meters from us.
Permalink Reply by Wilson Smith on July 30, 2012 at 3:03am
We run our rescue/service truck first out with a combi-tool, ram, and jacks. Rescue Pumper is usually less than 2 minutes behind with a ram, cutter, and spreader. The Rescue Pumper also has a front jump line w/ a POK foam nozzle for suppression. If reports indicate fire may be involved, then we reverse the response, with Rescue Pumper being first out. If it is just a minor accident, then we usually just roll the rescue and possibly the command car. EMTs usually go direct to begin patient care, while the firefighters pick up apparatus. Our closest transport unit is anywhere from 5-15 minutes away depending on which company we get.
Permalink Reply by Paul Frenzel on March 27, 2013 at 5:03am

Well we do have Rescue trucks, to be precise we have 3 Rescue trucks at our station: 1 Heavy Rescue, 1 Technical Rescue (medium), 1 Water & Heights Rescue (medium).

Which combination of Engine and Rescue we send out depends on where it is and how severe it is:

  • For an MVA on some inner city streets we respond 1 Engine and the Technical Rescue
  • For a "normal" MVA on the highway we respond with 1 Engine, 1 Tanker, and get supported with another Engine and a Utility from the VFD to secure the scene

So up to this point we don't need the Heavy Rescue truck: most rescue operations can be handeled by our Engines with each of them having generators and extrication equipment, floodlights and tools.

  • Just for a heavy MVA, e.g. when there's a truck involved, then we send out the so-called Rescue Convoy, consisting out of Command van, Engine and Technical Rescue - depending on if there's also a fire, or hazardous materials etc the Rescue Convoy is extended by a Tanker and/or a pod carrier with a special equipment container.
  • And in case of a medium size to heavy MVA inside one of the two highway tunnels in the city then there's an armada of trucks responding: Command van, Chief, Tanker, Heavy Rescue, pod carrier with the container "breathing and radiation protection", maybe one Engine from station 1 (career), and from 7 other stations (6 VFD + 1 Factory FD) 3 Engines, 1 Rescue Engine, 3 Tankers, 1 Hose truck, 2 crew vans and a High Capacity Ventilation truck - all that rather is for the case of a tunnel fire than the actual rescue operations.

Permalink Reply by Jim Conrad on March 27, 2013 at 10:51pm

The county dispatches an ambulance and the fire department as we are separate outfits.  We have a heavy rescue pumper with 750 gallons.  All our rescue gear in on it.  If more people show up we will send the command vehicle that has ropes and such.  Pretty basic for us as we have no truck or truck company. 

Permalink Reply by Shane Griffith on April 30, 2013 at 1:45pm
We roll our rescue first then an engine. We sometimes roll our brush truck to handle traffic control.
Permalink Reply by ashfire on April 30, 2013 at 7:55pm

Depending on where and what a caller or callers tell 911 will depend on what gets dispatch in our county.

It could be just a engine and ambulance.

If its in a stations area that has a heavy squad it be the squad and ambulance.

Anything over 45MPH will get a engine, squad, ambulance, medic unit and batt chief.

We have a street that is 35MPH but most of the traffic travel higher, almost freeway speeds on it so we had a chief that requested a squad and medic unit on all MVA in our area because by the time we got there we with our engine and ambulance had to call for them and wait so we could cut the people out. We have two stations so we have a heavy squad in our sub station which would run some of our area while another dept's squad would run the other end.

Since we have a bridge that carries I-95 between two states, when a accidents happens in that area you should hear the number of units dispatch for that one. Three jurisdictions are dispatch because of the different lanes the bridge carries for local and interstate through traffic. You got inner and outer lanes North or South which have to be accessed from different entrances.  

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