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Permalink Reply by Rob Young on July 17, 2008 at 11:16am

It should be the responsibility of all firefighters, volunteer and paid to assure that equipment is up to par with the needs of the department. In my experience, most paid position are expected to keep equipment up and ready for calls while on their shift, and there is a check in/check out procedure for doing so at the change of shifts which can include a check sheet. Of course the assumption here is that everyone is being honest. The volunteers have a responsibility to make sure the trucks and gear are ready for the next run after each of their calls as well. I assume when you say you work for a living, you actually mean you have another job besides the fire department. The problem is that volunteers need to be willing to put just as much time into keeping equipment up as full time personnel would, meaning more than just checking trucks once a month. After each run the trucks that were used should be gone over to make sure everything is ready for the next run, even if that means staying after a call when you really just want to go back to bed. That next call could be yours again, or it might not come until the paid guys are on, but neither of you wants to be caught short handed by having failed or missing equipment that could have been found after the previous run.

Just remember, you are all in it together, and need to work together to find a solution to the problem. An after run checklist might not be a bad idea to have a record that yes, you checked this truck and everything should be ready for the next run.