BALTIMORE, Md. – Representatives from more than 85 fire departments representing 17 states attended Firehouse’s inaugural Apparatus Buyers’ Program at Firehouse Expo on Friday.
Nearly 200 individuals from fire departments looking to purchase apparatus soon were treated to breakfast and an education session by Tom Shand and Mike Wilbur, two long-time Firehouse contributors who call themselves the Apparatus Architects and are considered experts in fire apparatus specifications, fleet assessment and maintenance issues.
For nearly two hours, firefighters, officers and chiefs sat in rapt attention.
“If you were going to build a $500,000 addition to your fire station, who is one of the first people you would talk to,” Wilbur quizzed the audience. The answer was an architect. “That’s because you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Taking that logic to the next step, Wilbur said it makes no sense for fire departments not to take great care and seek help with specifying a $1.2 million aerial that will sit inside the new addition.
Wilbur said there are many very good apparatus sales people in the industry and some that are not so great and fire departments need to be very astute when specifying apparatus or seek professional help to make sure they get exactly the apparatus they want.
One of the first steps along the road is to identify the mission of the apparatus.
“You need to be very clear on what the apparatus is going to be doing and its mission,” Wilbur said. He added there are many apparatus builders that will happily build a department’s wildest dreams that will do everything and include a helicopter landing pad as well.
While he was being factious, Wilbur’s point was well taken. Anytime apparatus is asked to do more than one mission, fire departments need to be very realistic about what they are seeking.
There are some natural combination apparatus, like pumper-tankers and rescue pumpers, but when you start looking at apparatus that will do more than that, like adding an aerial to a pumper tanker, red flags should be raised everywhere, he said.
Apparatus that are asked to do too much are on the path to do nothing very well, Wilbur said, noting that there’s only so much rescue equipment a pumper with a tank in it can carry and only so much water a rescue can carry.
The folks who will be making the decisions on the mission of the apparatus and its specifications are grouped into a committee, Wilbur said, noting that four to seven people are optimal for most truck committees.
More than that will usually result in apparatus that cost much more, up to 18 percent more for a pumper, Wilbur said, explaining that each committee person want to put his or her mark on the apparatus and each feature will cost money.
“They’ll say ‘see that right there, you can thank me for that, I fought for that on the committee,’” Wilbur said.
Shand said the fire apparatus market is on the upswing having plummeted from a high of about 5,600 fire trucks built annual before the Great Recession to a low of about 3,000 units at the height.
Wilbur and Shand explained that during that time, fire departments were deferring apparatus purchases and running them longer. That resulted in apparatus being run way past the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommendation of a 20-year apparatus retirement age.
The duo said they’ve worked with fire departments that seek to consolidate as many as three vehicles into one, looking to retire a pumper, a tanker and a utility vehicle and replace it with one. They said there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as the apparatus manufacturer knows the department’s intent.
“The mission of the vehicle is entirely up to you,” Wilbur said, commenting that the department is obligated to let the manufacturer know what is needed.
Shand said failure to do that can lead to a scenario that is like “trying to fit five pounds of stuff in a three-pound sack.”
“That two pounds of left over stuff isn’t going to make it on the truck,” Shand said.
Wilbur and Shand stressed the importance of keeping the apparatus within its gross vehicle weight limits. Too often, departments try to put too much on apparatus and end up with overweight vehicles that are not safe.
Shand said departments need to be very specific on how much equipment will be carried on any apparatus. Without exact specifications from the department, most manufacturers will default to the NFPA recommendations of 2,000 pounds of loose equipment for a pumper and 2,500 pounds for an aerial.
Any additional amount can be added, but the manufacturer has to know what the department expect to carry and build the apparatus accordingly the experts said.
Departments also need to be realistic about what they want versus what they need, Shand and Wilbur said.
Wilbur said sometimes departments will think they need the biggest engine possible, when they might not and can avoid a huge premium to get the extra horsepower. For example, Wilbur said it can cost up to $20,000 more to move from a 450 hp engine to a 500 hp engine when all the extra supporting components are added, Wilbur said. And, they might not need that much power to get the job done, he added
Even going up as few as 250-gallon on an apparatus can cost up to $32,000, Wilbur said.
Shand commented that departments shouldn’t try to solve staffing issues by trying to build do it all apparatus and adding more equipment and water because the department might only be able to get one apparatus on the scene.
“Don’t take it out on the apparatus,” Shand said, adding that the department should focus on getting sufficient staff rather than wasting money on apparatus that won't perform as desired.
Wilbur said departments that try to put too much on their apparatus and get too much out of them end up with apparatus they’re not happy with.
Shand said some of those trucks only do one thing very well.
“They look good in the Memorial Day parade going straight down Broadway, but they can’t do much else,” Shand said. “You don’t want to end up with a truck that can only go straight down the road."
