I am a new Probie at our volly FD but have 17 years of other emergency services experience (PD and EMS). I achieved Health and Safety certification several years ago in a different occupation, but almost ALL of it carries over (that and some common sense).

My VFD says in their P&P that ALL members are (rightly) responsible for safety and so I am not "overstepping my Probie bounds" by politely identifying a hazard to a senior member.

I am looking to help the senior member that will be bringing my identified hazard forward for discussion and I want to have some solutions ready that will stand up to the people that keep their head in the sand.

We have an air compressor attached to the pumper that is kept on to maintain air pressure in the truck. When the pumper has to go out, the driver disconnects it as part of their pre-trip circle check.

The HAZARD is that there is an air compressor, spiral plastic air hose and electrical extension cord (safety orange mind you) on the bay floor. It is a three-fold trip hazard.

I asked why the compressor was not say... against the wall and why they didn't have the air hose strung across the cieling and down vertically to the connector on the pumper (just like the exhaust pipe connections that other departments with live-in quarters have). This would eliminate the trip hazard entirely.

The answer I got was "we thought about that but "people" thought you would get your neck hung up on it running up to the truck and we didn't want anyone to get strangled".... HUH????

1) Why are they running?

2) If it was hung close to the truck, they wouldn't "strangle" themselves.

3) You have to UNPLUG it on your way to the cab ANYWAY, so....

Anyone have any other suggestions for mitigating this hazard? I am suggesting an engineering fix, administrative fixes are the least effective so just saying "oh, be careful walking in the bay so you don't trip" isn't gonna work.

Anyone have any suggestions (or legislation, examples) of how YOU fixed a similar problem and how you "articulated" it to the decision makers so they thought it was their amazing idea?