The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
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
-
Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
-
Another thing that can be done is to drain the pump and all of the outlets thoroughly. Back in the day we opened up all of the drains, took off all the caps and opened the valves to ensure much of the water was drained.
Then we dried the outlet and cap threads thoroughly, then applied light grease to the threads and installed the caps hand tight. It worked pretty well.
Our old portable pumps, which were carried on our tankers and needed to be primed, we would add antifreeze to the pump housings so they wouldn't freeze en route. Another trick we used was to start the portables before leaving quarters so they were warmed up and ready to go when we got to a water source.
-
Permalink Reply by Mike Gemberling on
-
This our engine 1 so getting to the scene is usually not an issue. In the winter we leave the pump heater switch on all the time so as soon as the master switch is hit, it's heating. Everyone on our department is pretty smart about the cold. We're used to it.
-
Permalink Reply by Mac Conant on
-
Yea. The water freezing is what I worry the most about. Theres no point in bring a 2x truck that bad weather unless somethings on fire. So most car accidents, lines down, its all POVs doing the work. And I feel much safer driving my own vehicle to a call, that has 4x4. Not only that, but im from Maine. Lived here my whole life. I know how to drive in the snow. Im thinking that Friday Night I may stay at the station. Our DOT says we may be getting about 4 feet over the weekend and High winds so its going to be a bad one.
-
Permalink Reply by Derek R. on
-
4 feet???...holy crap. How is DOT at keeping roadways clear in that kind of situation?
-
-
Living as far away from the station as I do, I will never make the trucks, so I'm always en route via POV. As mentioned before, in cold weather, I take my gear inside. I have an extra bag of dry clothes and a heavy blanket. I have a 4X4 Blazer which does pretty good in the snow. I know I'll be ok, it's the pumps and tools I worry about. Pumps, of course, icy ladders and axe handles, nozzles not open far enough, creating skating rinks on scene (NEED to watch out for that). I took a slip one night after trading off at the nozzle so I could go change my bottle. So, I got a new one and grabbed a pike pole and headed to work. Thought I was being careful and boom, down I went. About 10 people standing right there too. Luckily my face was hidden by my mask. Did a recheck of my pack and bottle( I landed on my back) and off I went again.
Just be as safe as you can and work with what you have.
Keep safe and have fun
-
-
The main roadways are normally not THAT bad. But my town has a Major road way going through the middle of it. Its no highway, but people drive down it like it is. My town is tech part of the "Metropolitan" area of Lewiston, Auburn Maine. Honestly tho..the DOT needs work. We've had people driving over half a hour in sand trucks just to get our roads because our towns DOT only had 2 or so trucks on the road plowing. Our town..they have a hard job ahead of them. They stay out late late late with little sleep trying to keep things clear. As much as I like to give them hell and say they did a terrible job on certain roads, they work hard around the clock.
This much snow, is why I drive a 4x4 truck with Mudd/Snow tires, and our firetrucks stay in the barn, and us POVS go out to lend a hand.
-
Permalink Reply by Kayli Borell on
-
we roll trucks n i sleep on the floor at the station the nights im on call
-
Permalink Reply by Kirk D. Baughman on
-
we roll out the trucks it may take two or three mins. longer. their is some of us that even stay out at the station. we go out buy some food and just seat around talk even do a little training in the station. in fact staying at the station works out the best. thats if we don't have to work the next day. in the texas panhandle we may get at less three or four winter storms each year.
-
Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
-
lucky SOB...3 or 4 storms a year...??? LOL...We get 3 or 4 a week....I think average snowfall for this part of the country is around 140 inches a year......then we get our little frigid blast that lasts about 10 days or so in Feb when it hits about minus 30 and stays there...but on a bright side that is usually the end of the nasty stuff...stars to get better after that....Makes fighting firs really interesting.....Paul
-
Permalink Reply by Ryan Alice on
-
Don't forget to push that water out of your tower too LOL!!! a neighbouring community once forgot to do that....and well...thier apparatus team sure had fun trying to get the tower somewere warm when they realized she'd froze fully extended. For the pump we just re-circulate the water on the cold days.....
As for responding, well we all respond to the hall first...no POV response to scene unless it is called by the IC for the guys on stand by at the hall to head to scene.... luckily we are in the WARMER part of Canada LOL so our -20 days don't last as long as I remember when I was in Alberta...but we're on a lake and that cold wind can cause some issues when she blows.... we also get alot of ice conditions as opposed to alot of snow....
My first house fire we pulled up with the ladder, went to grab the hydrant (immediatley across the st. from the house) and wouldn't ya know she was frozen stiff....And well since the concession's like to have hydrants on only either end and nothign in between it was time to start shuttling... I remember the captain on the truck thinking us newbies were just idiots until he tried to open the hydrant too LOL!!!! fun times....
-
-
WOW 140 inches a year man let me telll you we are lucky to get 25 or 35 inches a year. i would love to see all that snow sometime. the most snow i can recall is 24 inches during one storm and that was about 4 years ago. we usally get 3 or6 inches. so what do the city and state do with all that snow????
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Next ›
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
