W.A Fire Appliances

[westernwedgey]

Seen the new Belmont Scania under lights and sirens on Orrong Rd yesterday, looks great.

[Tyranus]

Seen the new Belmont Scania under lights and sirens on Orrong Rd yesterday, looks great.

it does, I saw it in less than great weather/light conditions a while back travelling along Great Eastern Hwy and spotted it ages away...and it moved the traffic then, also got to see the white LED lights, they did a reasonable job.

[kwn]

does anyone know why we don't have any cabin protection sprays on our appliances? i know that we can use the monitors on the heavies and the front two hoses on the LTs. Over east most of their BFS have both fixed spray bars over the windows and also heat shields that can be rolled down in the cabin.

[WPXZBP]

Hazard a guess, we don't have the same sort of territory/vegetative conditions like they do over east and the people who design the appliances don't think it is a major problem/hazard for us. There is an SOP for burn-over protection.

[SamW]

does anyone know why we don't have any cabin protection sprays on our appliances? i know that we can use the monitors on the heavies and the front two hoses on the LTs. Over east most of their BFS have both fixed spray bars over the windows and also heat shields that can be rolled down in the cabin.

Our old 3.4U and Lt had cabin protection sprays, but our new vehicles don't have them.

We have a procedure in our brigade to put the monitor pointing up in the air and we can clip one of the hoses onto the side of the cab, with it also spraying a fog over the cab, but this system takes a few minutes to set up, and in a burn-over situation, really you want something that you can do in only a few seconds. We have also added a large fire blanket that we keep in the cab of the 3.4, that can cover everyone.

[Fastlane]

Hazard a guess, we don't have the same sort of territory/vegetative conditions like they do over east and the people who design the appliances don't think it is a major problem/hazard for us. There is an SOP for burn-over protection.

other 'excuse' I've heard used is that if you give people protective sprays etc, they'll take risks (not my words!)

[Tyranus]

Hazard a guess, we don't have the same sort of territory/vegetative conditions like they do over east and the people who design the appliances don't think it is a major problem/hazard for us. There is an SOP for burn-over protection.

other 'excuse' I've heard used is that if you give people protective sprays etc, they'll take risks (not my words!)

Yeah that's the one I've heard.

[Tyranus]

Just in case people are wondering, the Career FRS 1.4 is currently at Darlington as a spare, while we await our new dual cab 1.4 which will be coming...soonish. I am excluding myself from the "first person on WARSUG" to get a photo of the new 1.4 though I probably will be the first. I'll let you know when it's arrived...

[treeny]

does anyone know where LT1 is? i noticed Kalgoorlie VFRS have the brand new LT484. is LT1 in a museum somewhere? who can answer 1st?

[dlcat1]

Can I just add something to the discussion on burn over crew protection? Before moving over here I was a volunteer RFS bloke on the outskirts of Sydney, and as long as I can remember, we've had some sort of protection system. it has actually been upgraded on the newer trucks.

I haven't been to many fires over here, and i have no idea how it's done in Perth, but form what I've seen, we do it very differently over there, I don't know how much is tradition and how much is due to the conditions. I think in the rugged country over there (200m + terrain, little room for dozers, a lot of handline work) if you don't get in early, to round it up with RAFT crews, you have to work off dozer lines off the ridges, burning back in to the fire when conditions allow. This puts all your units above the fire. Add to that the convective winds and sheer elements you can get in rough terrain, which can seem to have nothing to do with the surface winds, and if your downwind of the mountains the rotors that bring down the high level winds, what was a safe place can change very quickly, hence I reckon the give them protection and they'll do something stupid excuse is a bit of a joke. No offence intended.

I also think that vehicle protection systems should be fiitted on all vehicles combating running fires, even over here. It's all about risk minimisation. The two times I saw or experienced burn over, one was a whole line of trucks that got melted and blistered when a crown fire came out of the valley during urban interface protection, but every house was saved, and the second was a HR burning in 20 tph fine fuel which got into a much denser and drier area when un-forecast wind arrived.

You can't control every aspect of fire behavior or truck position, but you can minimise the risk to occupants should it ever happen.

[Fastlane]

Agree with everything you say dlcat. How all the research that has been done in the eastern states gets ignored over here in relation to crew protection, I have no idea. Hopefully it doesn't come to an adverse finding by a coroner to make things change.

[bohong]

Just in case people are wondering, the Career FRS 1.4 is currently at Darlington as a spare, while we await our new dual cab 1.4 which will be coming...soonish. I am excluding myself from the "first person on WARSUG" to get a photo of the new 1.4 though I probably will be the first. I'll let you know when it's arrived...

Interesting that you have got the CFRS 1.4 as from what I have heard the career guys do not like/want it and will not accept it as a replacement to the LT's as FESA initially 'sold' it as. Apparently there was no consultation into its design and the CFRS does not believe in the live drive on this type of appliance, as well as a whole raft of other issues that make it unworkable.
There were photos on here already of it from what I can remember.

[Tyranus]

We might have received it based on the fact it was sitting at forrestfield Training Centre not being used, and because Darlington is Dual-Registered they have loaned us that one as there are no others. Not sure who said we could use it, all I know is that it was in the station on Tuesday evening.

[kwn]

did kwinana FRS get to try out its new HSR at the spud shed?

[Smithy]

no they still have there pump. i only found out about a new 2.4 for them this morning. apparently its at the workshops now.