Truck Training

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Tibbitts on October 31, 2009 at 3:33pm

My first question is staffing do you have the man power so that the engines can run as engines and the truckies can be truckies. Are you a quint, are you expected to use your truck as another line or are you just expected to carry out ventilation and search ops? These are big considerations on how you will function as a truck co. Unfortunately in alot of cases lack of man power doesnt allow for the truck co to operate the way it should until its late into the fire and now you just have an elevated maser stream. I guess with out knowing the answers to the questions listed above I would recommend all the ladder guys take truck co ops as well as an aerial operators class. This will be good ground work for you and your guys so that every one knows the ins and outs of what they are expected to do as well as their limitations. Sorry I couldnt be more help but its hard with out seeing the big picture.

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Permalink Reply by Grant Hamiton on November 1, 2009 at 9:32am

Shawn, Thank you for responding so fast. We have 4 engines and a Quint but there is automatic aid for more engines and a truck in the surrounding cities. We are not using the truck as a second line, it is truck co ops unless we arrive first and the next engine is a ways out we will pull a line off the truck. There are 4 personnel on the truck and 3 on all engines.

I have asked to go to a truck ops class but with the budget shortfalls we are on a limited training budget. I was looking for some good reading material that I could do on my own to help spark conversation with the rest of my crew and help work out some department standards. I saw something about a FDNY Ladders 4 but have been unable to locate it online.

Again thank you for your help

Shawn Tibbitts said:

My first question is staffing do you have the man power so that the engines can run as engines and the truckies can be truckies. Are you a quint, are you expected to use your truck as another line or are you just expected to carry out ventilation and search ops? These are big considerations on how you will function as a truck co. Unfortunately in alot of cases lack of man power doesnt allow for the truck co to operate the way it should until its late into the fire and now you just have an elevated maser stream. I guess with out knowing the answers to the questions listed above I would recommend all the ladder guys take truck co ops as well as an aerial operators class. This will be good ground work for you and your guys so that every one knows the ins and outs of what they are expected to do as well as their limitations. Sorry I couldnt be more help but its hard with out seeing the big picture.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Wilk on November 1, 2009 at 4:17pm

This is what I have found for the FDNY ladders 4. http://sageauthoring.com/fdny/ft&p/ftplad04.pdf

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Tibbitts on November 2, 2009 at 8:28pm

If you would like send me an e-mail with your addressee and I can snail mail you some training books on truck co ops. It sounds like we run darn near the same , we pull our line as a last resort reason being we dont have 2 1/2 on it so its hard to grow with the scene as it deteriorates. We actually run one less engine than you so alot of times unfortunately we cant run as a true truck as we would like. In most cases horizontal venting is sometimes the best we can do, when we arrive ground ladders are thrown windows busted doors opened and rapid searches. When are truck is running heavy when nobody's on vacation we can usually run as a true truck. Its not ideal but with the cuts and all that fun stuff you have to make due with what you can

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