I just wondered how many dept allow firefighters to ride on the back of brush trucks. And any thoughts you might have. Half of the depts in our county can ride on the brush trucks and the other half can not.

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It happens, but I certainly do NOT like it. We've got a nozzle mounted on the driver's side - use it, and save yourself the incident report.
Not allowed on tailboard of fire trucks what the difference on a brush truck better read NFPA laws.
On my dept, we're not allowed to ride in the back of anything, brush truck, UTV, nothing... (before anyone says it, yes, we ride in the back of the ambulance, but that's enclosed, and almost always seat belted)
what i have found is if you are allowed to ride in the back of a brush/grass rig kind of depends on the terain in your area.
you can not fight a standing grain (wheat/barly) fire walking next to it, for one you couldnt catch it and thats if you could even get close enough to get water to it.
I have seen lots of wheat fires with 20-30ft flames moving at 10-40mph. On foot you cant move fast enough to fight it or get out of the way if the wind was to change.
Im not saying this is the only way to do it but that this is the way we do it, and with a couple of reasons why.
By the back I ment standing on a tailboard. In kansas there are alot of pasture fires and you need to be able to cover ground quickly. My dept lets us ride on the tailboard but we can not fight fire from the tailboard. When we are riding its only in the feilds not on roads. Does your depts brush/grass trucks have tailboards.
We fight wildfire either from the "back of the truck" or on foot. The "back of the truck" means in the protected area immediately behind the cab. In the photo you can see a 2-foot wide section between the cab and the toolbox. There's a door there that opens inward, allowing the firefighter to stand in the corner just behind the driver. I know he's not wearing a seatbelt, but otherwise he's pretty well protected.

We stay in the cab and use the booster line out the passenger side window. The driver stays in the black the passenger fights the fire. It works very well, one of the things that works well if the person in fighting the fire can tell the driver faster, slower ect..... Alot of fire departments laugh at first until they see it work. You can stay safe and Keep up with just about any fire.
Now look at these fire trucks are they NFPA approved they look great. http://1stattack.com/brush-fire-trucks/brush-grass-fire-trucks
If they are I would love to have one at are department.
If there isn't a seat involved then you shouldn't be riding there.........
We have had folks ride in the bed and run the booster line from the area between the tank and the tailgate.
Only time i ever done it was to sit on a tail gate going up into the woods on a dirt, one lane wide, trail. Pick up truck wide. that was it.
We are not allowed to ride on the rear of anything in route to scene, but once on scene if it is a large field fire we stand on the back with the nozzle to save the constant dragging of the hose...
brush trucks at fire ground r in slow speed fire fighting mode i dont see a problem just watch the branches ouch

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