i wanna do a survey to see what everybody thinks. what is better, a a truck company or an engine company? now i know both have their perks and both do different jobs but i just wanna see what everybody else thinks.
I'm a Truckie at heart... I've been assigned to our truck company ever since I joined the department, and now I'm the Captain of our truck company... Don't get me wrong we need the engines there of course, and you can do truck work with the engines as well but it's just that adrenaline rush when you rush to the scene on that big tower/ladder truck knowing that you are the one that is going to be doing the vent, enter, search duties, and being the first to find the fire....
To be honest, you don't get to make that choice, no one does. if you have minimal resources, then a truck concept is a waste of time and money. >80% of your runs are medical, not working fires needing ventilation, salvage, utilities, etc. In many cases, there is support for the LA County Paramedic Squad concept, which provides a faster response time, uses only two firefighters and is cost effective on top of it with annual servicing needs.
Responding a truck company to all the incidents does not makes sense anymore with the fiscal constraints we are all facing. More tires, wear and tear on ladders that need to be tested annually, and other systems found on a truck company need to be kept in perfect working order for the assignments specific for a truck company.
Responding truck companies to an engine specific call is a waste of time, resources and money. Folks need to leave the emotions out of this discussion and think about how to effectively use resources. If you have enough engine companies out there, then having a fully staffed truck company is a necessity to enable providing the increased level of service, presumably justified through high rise - multiple story structures.
Smaller rural areas without multi-story structures making a decision between a truck company and a fire engine hopefully will use common sense when making this decision... Bottom line is that an engine company carries water, which is a key component to what we FOCUS on...