LANSING, MI – Fire trucks have personalities and the people tasked with figuring out their quirks need specialized education to keep the rigs on the road and the firefighters who use them safe.
That was the message conveyed at last night’s 2018 Fire Truck Training Conference awards banquet in Lansing, MI, hosted by Spartan Motors and Spartan Emergency Response.
For the 24th year, Spartan has attracted hundreds of mechanics and emergency vehicle technicians from all parts of the country and around the world. The week-long event features over 40 classes and two opportunities for attendees to take tests to become certified emergency vehicle technicians.
“Trucks have their own personalities,” said Corey Lane, selected the 2017 Emergency Vehicle Technician (EVT) of the Year by Firehouse. “You can’t always duplicate the problem every time.”
Lane, who has maintained the Master Level EVT Certification for over 11 of his 22 years of service to the city of Loveland, CO, and the Loveland Fire Rescue Authority, said that’s why he gives each of his firefighters his cell phone number. They call any time there’s a problem, and that's OK because that’s his job, he said.
“Fire trucks are so much more complicated than they once were,” Lane said to the 331 EVTs gathered at the conference. He said there was a time when nearly everything was mechanical on a fire truck, but today many components have electronic and digital controls.
“You have to be a mechanic, you have to be a plumber, you have to be an electrician,” Lane said, adding that EVTs need to be versed in many specialty skill subsets. “You have to keep [firefighters] cool and you have to keep them warm,” he added, noting that EVTs also have to be versed in heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
“The fire service is so much more demanding, that’s for sure,” Lane said.
Above all else, Lane said, EVTs have to keep the trucks reliable and on the road.
“I try not to see trucks between annual inspections,” Lane said, but if he does, it’s his job to take care of whatever happens.
“It’s not a glamorous job, but it’s an important job,” Lane said.
Kevin Roberts, president of the EVT Certification Commission, echoed Lane’s comments in his address to those gathered for the event.
“It’s an underappreciated career,” Roberts said.
Roberts said there was a time when students who may not have excelled at math and science were told to go check out the auto shop. Those days are gone given the complexity of apparatus today.
Roberts added that EVTs need to know hydraulics, how to use oscilloscopes, work with millivolts and timing to the nanoseconds.
“We have to keep up with all the new technology,” Roberts said. “It’s an incredibly challenging field.”
Roberts also said EVTs have to be detectives as well. Detectives, he said, have ways of having people tell them what happened and when.
“And isn’t that the way with firefighters,” Roberts asked, adding that sometimes it takes coaxing to get to the truth about what actually happened to a fire truck when it comes in for repairs.
Roberts also said he was pleased with the mechanics who attended the conference to become certified EVTs. He said a piece of paper doesn’t make a good mechanic, but conversely, he said a piece of paper can protect a good mechanic and provide evidence that the person is knowledgeable and sufficiently professional to climb the ladder of their career.
Above all else, Roberts said mechanics must love their professions to be happy and successful.
“Most mechanics like people and want to help people,” Roberts said. “They like to be servants.”
Tom Ninneman, Spartan Motors’ chief operating officer, told the audience that the company was very pleased with the record turnout for the conference. He said there were 331 EVTs attending, representing more than 200 fire departments with the furthest participant traveling from Uganda to learn about fire trucks.
Ninneman said there were more than 30 vendors helping to support the conference, 27 dealers and original equipment manufacturers, and more than three dozen Spartan employees.
He added that EVTs are “the unsung heroes” of the fire service who work largely behind the scenes to make sure the taxpayers’ investments are kept in top shape and ready to run at any time.
Some departments run upwards of 5,000 calls annually and some are lucky to have one call a week or less, Ninneman said, adding that in all cases the apparatus have to perform.
Fire chiefs don’t remember the hundreds and thousands of times the apparatus perform flawlessly, but they’ll never forget the one time a truck breaks down or fails, Ninneman said, adding that it’s the EVT's jobs to make sure that never happens.
Spartan also took time to acknowledge EVTs during the opening ceremony, and that honor fell to Spartan Motors Co-Founder Bill Foster, who presented the third annual 2018 William F. Foster Outstanding Service Award to Grady Jones, an EVT at Metro Fire Apparatus Specialist Inc. in Houston, TX.
Foster also gave an achievement award to retiring Capt. Buddy Caldwell, who is fleet manager of the Charlotte, NC, Fire Department.
The Spartan Fire Truck Training Conference, which has been called one of the largest events of its kind in the country, will continue through Friday.
Ed Ballam
Ed Ballam served as associate editor for Firehouse. He is the assistant chief of the Haverhill Corner, N.H. Fire Department, and a National Registered EMT. He is also a Deputy Forest Fire Warden for the New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands. Professionally, he's been a journalist for over 35 years working for a variety of publications, including employment as managing editor of a national fire service trade journal for more than a decade.
