CC WORKSESSION 06031997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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s I would like to begin by answering some frequently -asked questions. Why do we need 3 pumpers in a community as small as St. Anthony? The Insurance Services Office evaluates fire protection in a community and sets fire insurance premiums. They have discovered that fire has a poor sense of geometry and that a fire in the St. Anthony High School would require the same resources to extinguish as a high school fire in New York City. In evaluating St. Anthony, they have determined that we need a minimum of 3,000 GPM pumping capacity to protect key buildings in the City. This capacity requires 3 pumpers. We could probably get by with 2, but the resulting increase in insurance premiums throughout the city would exceed the cost of buying and maintaining the third pumper. Why is it necessary to replace a piece of equipment with only 21,000 miles on it? Most of a pumper's work is done while it's standing still and so engine hours are used to determine life expectancy and maintenance schedules. Interstate Diesel has supplied us with a formula to convert engine hours into miles driven and, using this formula, all of our pumpers exceed 100,000 miles. Our newest pumper has an equivalent of 230,000 miles on it and is overdue for reserve status. Another factor is the fact that nearly every urban fire truck exceeds allowable vehicle load limits. The State allows us to do this and so we take advantage of it (the alternative would be to purchase more vehicles to carry the same amount of stuff). Consequently, the wear and tear on brakes, suspensions, and frames is greater than on regular commercial trucks. Why couldn't we purchase a smaller vehicle (i.e. a Suburban) to be used on non -fire activities? This would save wear and tear on our more expensive pumpers. This idea would work if we had the space to store an additional vehicle. We still require 3 pumpers and so the fire station would have to be expanded to accommodate the extra vehicle. Although this idea would give our pumpers a longer life expectancy, they still have to be replaced periodically and, with an additional vehicle being added to the replacement schedule, the savings would be minimal. Furthermore, the fire car is currently used to run many errands that were previously done with a pumper.