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Not Carrying Equipment Due to Mutual Aid
In college my roomate worked as a volunteer for a town of in Vermont. And he told me one time that they did not carry jaws on any of their apparatus. When I asked him why he said because the chief told the department that if a extrication comes in they just call one of the mutual aid departments and would rather not spend the money on the equipment.
Now I know almost 90% of the people on here maybe even close to 100% depend on mutual aid at one time or another. Not for every call but alot of departments cant handle certain calls do to staffing issues or other reasons.
But what if mutual aid isnt available?
Is the reason to not spend the extra money because you have mutual aid with the equipment a valid reason?
I know there is certain equipment towns and departments cant afford all the time but what about when you can?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brian Mackie on
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I would suspect that the mutual aid agreement is not being followed, if in fact there even is one. That might pose another type of problem one day. The legal kind. What happens if the call for help in your response district goes unanswered, because of many different reasons. What happens if the neighbouring dept that would normally respond with the jaws, doesn't. Who is going to have to answer to that? Your chief? Some mutual aid districts specify who does what in terms of the specialty stuff. For example, one dept. might be trained and well equipped to handle all the water rescue calls for that district. Another dept. might be best suited for all the hazmat stuff, and yet another might be best for vehicle ex. Perhaps the chief of your dept. does not have the confidence in his dept. members to allow them to respond to vehicle extrications. Maybe the members don't train as often as necessary for this. Perhaps the equipment itself is out dated or not safe, and there is a liability issue if they use it and it fails. There could be many reasons the chief chooses to go that route.
Interesting topic though.
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Permalink Reply by WestPhilly on
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If funds are limited (as I'm sure they are) aren't you forced to think that way?
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Permalink Reply by Sparky3317 on
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Funds are available in the equipment budget.
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There is a mutual aid agreement but my thing was what happens if mutual aid is not available.
And the members of his department do respond to vehicle extrications. They are to start pt care, and get a back up hose line in place for when the other town arrives with the jaws.
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Permalink Reply by Norm Tindell on
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There are state and federal grants available for rescue equipment. Hopefully the department you mentioned has been working on that. The grant applications take years, but the department that does not have hydraulic rescue equipment should be applying now if they haven't already.
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I understand that, but again the department does have the funds set aside to purchase this equipment already in an equipment budget.
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Joshua,
Funds may indeed be available but still limited. Perhaps the chief is conserving monetary resources for other equipment expenditures.
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Understandable
Thank you westphilly
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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I see your problem Josh and there is no reason for a dept to HAVE to depend upon another dept to provide services. Yes, chances are low that a dept with jaws may be out at the same time as when you guys need it, but there is still a potential.
The issue I see moreover, is the response attitude of the FF's. If MA is depended upon for extrication, does that mean it will become a non chalant response by your FF's? Meaning the training isn't there, the problem solving may not be as readily used with basic tools, because they are dependant upon the other dept.
Mutual aid means you assist another dept at times, but you should not have to always depend upon another dept to provide the service you are offering. If one dept depends soley on another for services, then what is your dept offering in return when they call for MA?
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Permalink Reply by Shareef Abdu Nur on
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As long as the surrounding departments agree to collectively purchase different equipment and to work together, there's nothing wrong with departments complimenting each other. Now, if I will not buy equipment because I am depending on calling mutual aid than this is not aid this is abuse. My department calls mutual aid and we also respond mutual aid.
we work so much together with the surrounding departments that there is talk of making us all one fire district instead of 3 or 4 smaller separate departments. Mutual aid is our life's blood.
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Permalink Reply by Doug on
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You can still perform extrication without the Jaws, it just requires a little more creativity and hard work. My department did this for years and years until we purchased a system a couple years ago. If there is a department out there that does not know how to extricate without hydraulic tools, they need to learn how to!
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Yep. I remember one training night, I split the crew into two teams. One team had hand tools, the other had the hydraulic stuff. On a timed event, they had to complete a roof flap. Guess which team won? Yup, the hand tool guys! Was a fun (and safe) time.
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