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Tiny Streets!
OK, We have a sub-division in our city that is designed to look like a town of yester-year. Maybe you have heard of them. They are called Vintage Townships. Here is my issue with them. These "vintage" neighborhoods are built on extremely narrow streets (19 ft. wide) and they allow parking on one side of the street. Most of our aerial apparatus can't drive down these streets. The houses are 2-story stick construction and approximately 10 ft. apart from each other and the facade of the houses are Masonite. Now they have 20 ft. alleys, but the engineers placed the hydrants on the street side of the houses. A lot of us have a bad feeling about the way these neighborhoods are being built. They seem like a disaster waiting to happen. What do you think?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Rulli Jr. on
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I agree with you on this one! In my 1st due we have a street thats a 1/2 mile long on a hill. People insist on parking along the side of the road (they have driveways!) This makes it extremely hard to get our rigs up and down dodging the cars and the day to day traffic. Why the street department lets this go on is beond me! I totaly feel ya bro!!!
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Permalink Reply by rfdjumper on
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We call them half streets. Old school, they were a crappy idea in 1890 and they are a bad idea in 2009. I hope you have a tiller.
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Permalink Reply by Keegan Allen on
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Sounds like the fire department needs to do something about it. But with the alley ways behind the houses, well if you can get a trucks down the alley do so. The hydrants might be out front but you will just have to run hoses to get to the trucks out back. I am from a small town with smaller trucks so i dont really know how that would work because you need lots of room to move and alleys wouldnt have much room after putting a fire truck on it.
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Permalink Reply by Fireyladd - Retired Chief Sharp on
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What kind of relationship do you have with the City or County planning and building Departments. How active is your Fire Codes official. Sounds like all the latter are asleep at the wheel. Those things wouldnt happen in my City without my approval. Or in the County for that matter either.
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Permalink Reply by John on
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Have to agree with you sounds like a disaster waiting to happen Just pray that it doesn't.
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Permalink Reply by Rob on
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First thought is, how is it that the code officials are letting this happen? ICC (if used in your area) has specific requirements on access for fire equipment.
Second, for a quick fix, you said you have 20' wide alleys. Can you run the ladder down the alley and hit what you need with a supply laid by the engine company? Not sure what you have, just thinking. I got a couple of old neighborhoods in my township and if I need a ladder I have to specifically request 1 of the 2 quints our neighbor has since they are 75' Stuphens and have the same wheel base as an engine.
At least I think it is time your FD has a sit down discussion with the local code officials. Maybe even go to the neighborhood and have him sit and watch you try to manuver a ladder in to place and pull up some videos from fires around the country showing how quickly fire spreads from one structure to another and have them compare this time to the time it takes to safely place a ladder with the construction techniques and road design they are using.
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Permalink Reply by Cody W. Nelson on
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One of our major concerns is that once an engine lays a line and proceeds to the scene. No other truck or engine can get to the scene because there is not enough room once a line has been laid. Our FMO assures us that everything they are building is within code. They said that it is as close to legal as they can get it, but it is within code. You can get a truck and engines down the alley, it's tight but can be done. The problem is, once you commit, you are there. No repositioning is possible. Thanks you guys, I was starting to wonder if I was alone in my thoughts.
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