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Do You Keep Your Bay Doors Closed?
I Just started volunteering at a department 40 minutes away that I knew little about previously. I've noticed on numerous visits to all 4 stations that every apparatus bay door was up at each one. I was able to walk inside each station in plain clothes. Once I walked right through the bay and into the living quarters only to discover everyone was out on the engine staging at some planned event. When I returned 30 minutes later to find them in quarters, one of the FFs told me to go wait for the captain inside as if he were suspicious of me looking at one of the trucks. Some of the stations also have ALS ambulances assigned there.
This makes me very nervous considering today's climate and the fact that I am very security obsessed at home. I hate the idea of people being able to walk in and out or sneak around. Perhaps hide and wait for us to return. I cringe as I run scenarios in my head.
I know the department in my county, which I grew up around, has a policy requiring the doors be kept down at all times. I also know of a foiled plan to steal a fire engine in this county, an incident where a bunch of bunker gear was stolen out of a rural station, and recently a teen had a joy ride with lights and siren in a reserve engine.
So the question: What's your policies, and and also your habits? I am new at the department and feel awkward asking questions, but this is a dangerous practice.
This makes me very nervous considering today's climate and the fact that I am very security obsessed at home. I hate the idea of people being able to walk in and out or sneak around. Perhaps hide and wait for us to return. I cringe as I run scenarios in my head.
I know the department in my county, which I grew up around, has a policy requiring the doors be kept down at all times. I also know of a foiled plan to steal a fire engine in this county, an incident where a bunch of bunker gear was stolen out of a rural station, and recently a teen had a joy ride with lights and siren in a reserve engine.
So the question: What's your policies, and and also your habits? I am new at the department and feel awkward asking questions, but this is a dangerous practice.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by PFC Harmon on
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We close ours when we go out on a run. We have been robbed sevreal times, people keep an eye on the station but if the doors are open no one thinks much about people walking around. If we are at the station working or hanging out we open them so the public feels welcome to walk up and talk or see where their money is going.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Canady on
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We have been very lucky over the years. We have not had anything stolen by walkins since I have been with our department. We do try to keep our bay doors shut unless someone is in the bay. This does happen most of the time.
Point #1,How many times have you been watching TV, cooking at night and someone just comes thru the bay and walks right in on you bypassing the locked entry points? Sometimes if you don't know someone has entered the room, it can get you in trouble. This has not happened yet. But for security, and a controlled enviroment for visitors, it is always a good idea to have them greeted at the door and perform your customer service politely, and professionally.
Point #2
The cost of scrape metal has been going up, up, and up. They are steeling copper, and other metals from houses just sitting there. We have bunches of brass, and alluminum on our trucks. Easy target if truck/station is left unsecure.
Point #3
We know that terrorism is alive and well (foreign, and domestic). Osama may not come to your town, but there a lot of people in the world that do not like us. We also represent the goverment. They may have locked my son for murder and drug trafficing. Iz wantz to pay dem bak. Like Timothy McVae, he had a beef/axe to grind. Your local PoPo pisses off poeple everyday. P.S. Thankyou all of the police officers for what you do. You keep us safe.
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Permalink Reply by dj lee on
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We keep our doors closed if no one is there. But if someone is there and the weather is nice we will open them. Other then that they are closed all the time. Before we leave to go to a call the last truck shuts the doors.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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In nice weather during daylight hours, unless we're out on a call, the bay doors are open. If no one is going to be near the apparatus floor, the doors are then closed. Our "people" doors have push button security locks, and we must enter a code to gain entry. If a member of the public comes to the station and all the doors are down, they can ring the doorbell, (each "people" door has a different doorbell sound).
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Permalink Reply by Jim Brunelle Jr. on
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Yeah I agree gotta keep everything locked down. As a kid I lived a block from my dad's firehouse and I used to go there and wait for them when they'd go on a run . I liked listening to the radio transmissions in the station too and the bay doors were always up. But now there is too much stuff that could net would be thieves a good cash price so we're forced to drop the doors whn we leave for a run and lock it up like fort knoxs when we go home.
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Permalink Reply by anne potter on
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We do leave our doors open alot in the summer time.. Vol dept in the middle of no where. At night we have a 3 number combo to get in to the building....
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Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on
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My department used to leave doors open but it costs us too much money. We end up on a call with no equipment like saws or leaf blowers or cans of fuel to refill the generators & the rescue equipment. So now we keep the doors locked unless there are people around. We do seem to have a habit of leaving the doors up when we go on calls. Many years ago we installed automatic garage door openers on all three of the front bay doors to save the doors & our backs. There is no reason for them to be left open except that they forget to push the button to put them down.
There is only one back door that we rarely go out of which still has manual controls, a good hefty yank brings it down & there is a lock. The glass pane is also easily broken nearest the lock in case of emergencies but it stays down & locked most of the time. We have used several "keyless" entry systems like keycards & combination locks. Keys work best particularly if the power goes out.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Montgomery on
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Sadly Romulus this isn't the case any more.
We had an ex- member (out for over 4 years) turn up one day and snatch all out radio's - base set, truck and handhelds and the truck phone.
Cops got him a couple of days later after a short chase - f**ked up on methamphetamine's and still had all the gear in his car!
Caused us to revise what we do and how we protect our gear, trucks and station.
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Leaf blowers?
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They come in handy on forest fires. Use them to help clear fire lines. Like Jenny's department our leaf blower and chainsaw grew legs and walked off one day.
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Permalink Reply by Royce Terry on
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When we are there there open, sometimes we forget to close them when we leave for a call, but durring a hot day in the summer we leave the doors open and our ambulance which is ALS is there too.
Wow some drug addict could just come through the open oor break the lock and steal the drugs from the ALS box
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I get it. Here in the suburbs of Chicago, we don't tend to get many forest fires. Great outside the box idea though.
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