Calling all firefighters

Grey Kiwi wrote in post #19274256
Hello all,
I'm a retired Professional Firefighter from Christchurch, New Zealand.
16+ years service then was injured at a fire ('cos some thick sod did something wrong and I ended up wearing it!).
Had to retire a few months later as injury never came right (neck...and it's still wrecked).
Anyway, regards and respect to you all.
I was Regular NZ Army too (Artillery), before leaving and joining Fire Service.
Maybe I just like uniforms?
Edit: I'm a Vietnam veteran (161 battery), so I'm also wondering if any other vets on here?).

Hello, Grey.

Are you talking ceiling/roof collapse?

2 days ago I watched Danger Close on Netflix. Have you seen it? Even with all of the Vietnam War friends I have I never knew New Zealand and Australia had combat troops in that war.

sogs wrote in post #19274190
33 years, now retired.

All 33 in Massachusetts?

Terry McDaniel wrote in post #19274099
I tried to join the Valliant, OK VFD, but they told me I was too old. . I did work a house fire once, since no other members showed up, I rode with the only one who did show up.

Hello, Terry.

They must have had a full roster if they could afford to turn down volunteers. Were you like 105 years old at the time?

In south Hillsborough County, Florida there is an area called Sun City Center. It is a Dell Webb developed retirement community. The greatest population come from the North East USA where all volunteer manned fire departments are common. When Hillsborough still had volunteers Sun City had a very well staffed roster but the average age was 75 years old. The "old guys" wore an odd colored helmet to signify they were not allowed to do anything too demanding.

chuckmiller wrote in post #19274297
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The Forestry and wildland guys have such different names for their vehicles. At my last fire station the property was coinhabited by the Florida Division of Forestry. When they would refill their "tanker" it was actually a 4x4 Ford F-550 chassis "brush truck".
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I have never heard any piece of equipment referred to as a "tanker". . The F-550 with a water tank on it is what we call an engine.

Engines are typed according to how many gallons the tank holds. . The smaller the number, the larger the engine and capacity:

Type 6 engine holds a minimum of 150 gallons.

Type 5 engine holds a minimum of 400 gallons.

Type 4 engine holds a minimum of 750 gallons.

The larger engines, types 3, 2, and 1, are almost always municipal rigs owned by city fire departments. . Private contractors rarely have such equipment on their contracts because the demand is filled by municipal cooperators.
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chuckmiller wrote in post #19274297
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For us, a tanker is a 3,000 gallon water "tender".
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We also call those water tenders, too. . I have never heard of one being called a tanker.

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chuckmiller wrote in post #19274302
All 33 in Massachusetts?

Yes.

Been awhile, but I was around 50ish. Chief said I’d never be able to draw retirement. I didn’t push the issue.

Reply to Chuck...
No mate. I was a driver/pump operator.
Was thrown onto the pavement when trying to hold down a 90mm delivery hose that some silly bugger hadn't coupled up fully.
The watermain pressure here is 120lb so that means that a loose hose with heavy coupling can smash your head in when it takes off.
I was thrown sideways and when I landed with that lovely, yellow 4.5lb helmet strapped to my head the helmet had enough momentum to rip my head sideways more than a head/neck was designed for.
Ripped up a lot of soft stuff in the neck (muscles, sinews, etc) and messed up a disc too.
Left arm went numb right away.
Never came right, never will.
Could be worse...could have snapped my neck.
Vietnam...yeah, Kiwis and Aussies were in there too. United States, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Khmer Republic (later overthrown by Khmer Rouge), Kingdom of Laos and Republic of China (Taiwan).
I was with 161 Battery (Battery Surveyor...he who works out the fire data for the guns).
After a few months was sent out in the bush with an Aussie Infantry Company. Did the map reading (no GPS in those days..all done by compass readings and 'dead reckoning'). We then could call in the fire mission quickly with the right coordinates to get some 'rounds on the ground'.
Previously the Aussie Infantry Officer would do all this but sadly some of them were shocking with their map reading and a couple of times they called our fire directly down onto their own position. Not good to be out by more than a kilometre in your map reading and have six 105mm HE arrive on your doorstep!
Putting us Kiwis out with the Infantry solved the problem. We had a Kiwi Artillery Officer, a Surveyor (like me), and 2 Kiwi Artillery Sigs.
We knew guns, we knew gunner talk, we knew how Artillery 'works'.
Problem solved.

Interesting thread. Do any of you guys get to carry your photo gear with you? With the dramatic lighting that a fire can provide, along with the human drama, it seems like a great opportunity for some amazing candid shots, during breaks in the action, of course.

Scrumhalf wrote in post #19274907
Interesting thread. Do any of you guys get to carry your photo gear with you? With the dramatic lighting that a fire can provide, along with the human drama, it seems like a great opportunity for some amazing candid shots, during breaks in the action, of course.

In my case, definitely not. It’s a big no-no to even have a phone. Privacy issues, mostly. I wish I would have had my camera gear with many times.

120psi in a watermain is a BUNCH of pressure. Is that in a residential or commercial/industrial zone? What is your average size watermain in a residential area?

Around here (central Florida) the typical residential watermain has 60psi-80psi and runs 4in-5in. They can provide:

Fire Hydrant Colors · Blue top– over 1,500 gallons per minute (gpm) · Green top – 1000 to 1,499 gpm · Orange top – 500 to 999 gpm · Red top – less than 500 gpm.

My FD carried 4in supply hose for decades and in the last 5 years has moved up to 5in on all pumpers and 6in on all aerials. Most of the aerials have twin 1000gpm elevated nozzles. Going to the larger supply hose is like bringing the hydrant right to the pump of the supply pumper and has nearly eliminated the need to position a pumper at the supply hydrant. This allows that company to be used at the fire scene.

I hear what you are saying about the weight of the helmet. In my 30 years our helmets changed several times and got heavier each time. 5 years ago they were somewhat modernistic but now the guys wear a very FDNY looking helmet. They look cool but I'm not a big fan of it.

shooz wrote in post #19274928
In my case, definitely not. It’s a big no-no to even have a phone. Privacy issues, mostly. I wish I would have had my camera gear with many times.

Same here. Be activly doing your job or be in rehab getting ready to suit up again. Let the photo journalist stand outside the ropes and gawk. Don't take photos, don't be on your phone, DO NOT comment to the press. I have MANY action photos in my memorabilia box but they were all taken by non FD people. Having said that
....I retired a company captain and I didn't mind if my D/E got a few shots as long as we didn't run out of water.

Hi Chuck...not sure of watermain sizes, but yes 120lb was normal pressure.
In NZ we carry a standpipe (no street hydrants as in USA).
Look for a nice yellow rectangle plate in the street, flip that plate up, screw on the standpipe to the watermain connector, attach your feeder lines and turn the water on.
Next thing is you have 120lb water arrive at the pump.
I pinched these photos from the Internet.
The hoses shown are 70mm, but 90mm is the go for plenty of flow.
We could run a few lengths of hose from standpipe to pump before getting a performance loss.
No need to have a pump right at the source. Just depends on how lucky you are as to where the hydrant is.

Only 5 firefighters have chimed in. I thought there would be more.

I'm surprised there's no photos of fires and/or apparatus.