- Sep 14, 2015
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Can you guess what they were doing with long pole being held out the window?
Firefighters Versus A Locked Gate
- Thread starter lulu5kamz
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Mike A.
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- May 6, 2017
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Looks like they were measuring distance with one of those roller measures but I'm not sure why.
I also believe they were measuring.
Most likely pre-planning for an incident. Wether to extinguish structures, or areas of tree/shrubs/brush, or there may be a water source they would potentially use. Either way, I am pretty sure they are determining how much hose (and relay pumps) they'll need to lay in (or out) to get water
Most likely pre-planning for an incident. Wether to extinguish structures, or areas of tree/shrubs/brush, or there may be a water source they would potentially use. Either way, I am pretty sure they are determining how much hose (and relay pumps) they'll need to lay in (or out) to get water
And they left it to the cute gal to do the heavy work 
Pre planning. distance to gate, distance to fuel for the fire.
Pre planning. distance to gate, distance to fuel for the fire.
Seems like if all they were doing is measuring distance, it would have been easier to go on foot. How long is that road?
Probably also testing if they can get the truck in and out I guess.
Probably also testing if they can get the truck in and out I guess.
I'd steer clear of the guy with the yellow pants, @2:28 he almost pokes the guy on the left in the eye, who 10 seconds later again gets too close to yellowpants.
At least the woman has enough sense to hold the stick vertically when she is mobile.
At least the woman has enough sense to hold the stick vertically when she is mobile.
- Sep 14, 2015
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They didn't know how far of a walk it would be, so they decided to improvise with the pole. At the end of the dirt road is a house that is currently empty. Distance from the nearest water source is 1,395 feet (425 meters). They were down there for almost an hour. Maybe some type of training is my best guess.
Firefighter
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- Jun 18, 2014
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Interesting stuff, surely that is not a private road that they went through. Pretty serious pre planning when they could just use google maps for measuring distances like that. ( Thats we use, it's easier and less labor. )
We carry 1,000 ft of supply hose. But, so do our other units so if that's not enough we just have more trucks lay. And really past 1k ft I would probably call for a shuttle operation.
We carry 1,000 ft of supply hose. But, so do our other units so if that's not enough we just have more trucks lay. And really past 1k ft I would probably call for a shuttle operation.
In San Jose the fire department has been tasked with measuring unpaved roads for two reasons. They then compare that reading to the Google Maps value and to the truck's odometer.
They get funds based on the truck's odometer and they are concerned that the tuck's odometer is not reading correctly on unpaved roads.
The second reason is, due to the active faults in the area, the length of roads has been changing with the fault movements. On paved roads it is easy to see the offsets and can be easily measured. But on unpaved roads you rarely can see the offsets. This will help with getting additional funding based on projections of increased road lengths and therefore the need for additional fuel.
As a side benefit, these measurements can assist the taxing authorities with increasing the tax based on the increase in the size of the property and the length the fire, police, and ambulance have to travel. That was probably why they were down there for so long. Mapping out the increase in size of that property.
They get funds based on the truck's odometer and they are concerned that the tuck's odometer is not reading correctly on unpaved roads.
The second reason is, due to the active faults in the area, the length of roads has been changing with the fault movements. On paved roads it is easy to see the offsets and can be easily measured. But on unpaved roads you rarely can see the offsets. This will help with getting additional funding based on projections of increased road lengths and therefore the need for additional fuel.
As a side benefit, these measurements can assist the taxing authorities with increasing the tax based on the increase in the size of the property and the length the fire, police, and ambulance have to travel. That was probably why they were down there for so long. Mapping out the increase in size of that property.
Makes sense to me </end sarcasm>. Tie up an expensive fire truck and 3 municipal employees, unavailable to respond to actual fire fighting/rescue while they are tied up performing land surveying without proper instruments or training to do so when a contracted land surveyor could do it more accurately and probably quicker and cheaper......it's call "making work" to justify personnel budgets and departmental expenses, especially when a union is involved.
I'm not railing against the value and integrity of first responders, they're being instructed by their managers. It's just that of my 31 years in traffic signal and street lighting maintenance, 26 were for city and county government and 24 of those were in the same county in CA as those fire fighters....so I have a pretty good idea of how it works too often.
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- Sep 14, 2015
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That property is fairly large for this area. It is an old farm that is around 8 or 10 acres in size. It has a well for water and septic tank for sewage. It has been empty for several months now.
Smilingreen
Known around here
Seems like someone is a bit ill prepared and has never used a rolling wheel to measure any distance. The one they are using is made for hard surfaces and usually very short distances. If anyone had half a clue of what they were doing, they would have used one of these:
Amen.....I've put a few miles on one of these ==>> Rolatape 32-400 Professional 400 Series Measuring Wheel
Firefighter
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- Jun 18, 2014
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1. Tonyr, I love traffic systems so thats cool that you did that forever. Side Note, I just finished installing a GPS/Radio Based Traffic Pre-emptive system in our fire trucks, and the city is installing the street signal side obviously but it has made an incredible difference in the area of safety responding through an intersection. Being cloud based, we have very specific control on the zones for changing the lights etc and it even incorporates our trucks turn signals for direction of travel. For a smaller city of 50k residents and our department having only 5 stations ( Small in the world of cities/fire depts ) it's one piece of technology that I have been extremely happy with. Being an officer I feel so much better when we respond and know that we're less likely to encounter trouble at intersections.
2. That's pretty crazy they would have the fire dept do that. I can't imagine. Also yeah that is a horrible rolling wheel.
2. That's pretty crazy they would have the fire dept do that. I can't imagine. Also yeah that is a horrible rolling wheel.
I enjoyed your reply!
I knew it was just a matter of time before someone would improve/augment the technology for better control and operation when the traffic signals are pre-empted by emergency vehicles.
Here's something I posted a little of 4 years ago, 14 years after I retired ==>> here.
When I retired in 2004, the 3M Company (creators of Opticom® xenon strobe traffic signal preemption systems) began using IR LED's that could be modulated so precisely that the preempting vehicle's ID/serial number could be embedded in the IR transmission, the cabinet device would log that with the vehicle's direction and date/time of pre-emption, the condition (color of directions/phases) of the signals when pre-empted, etc. From what you say the tech has made another quantum leap and it makes sense to use GPS data as long as it's dependable.
Yes, I was blessed to do what I did for the time I did it. They say that if you find something you enjoy you never work a day in your life. I was either good at it or I fooled them all for a long time...in any event, I hit the trifecta: I was good (enough) at it, I enjoyed it and they paid me. Win-Win-Win for me.
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CCTVCam
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- Sep 25, 2017
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You'd have thought they'd carry bolt cutters.
As for taking it off with pliers, if you're going to damage it, it makes no difference either way. Again you'd have though they'd have come back another day if routine rather than damage the gate.
Surely they would pre-plan a visit to the site and get the key holder to let the in and surely knowing there was a lock on site, if it was a sit they needed access to in an emergency for wildfires, they'd have asked the local authority / body responsible for the gate for a duplicate key for emergency access.
Am I being too sensible here?
As for taking it off with pliers, if you're going to damage it, it makes no difference either way. Again you'd have though they'd have come back another day if routine rather than damage the gate.
Surely they would pre-plan a visit to the site and get the key holder to let the in and surely knowing there was a lock on site, if it was a sit they needed access to in an emergency for wildfires, they'd have asked the local authority / body responsible for the gate for a duplicate key for emergency access.
Am I being too sensible here?
IMO, no.
Never heard of a fire truck with no bolt cutters, even most police cars have them. Maybe they had some but were trying to mitigate the damage, who knows.
In any event, piss-poor planning if this is to be their ongoing or periodic responsibility.
My hope is this job / situation was a surprise to them and they'll be better prepared in the future.
The woman firefighter used pliers to open up one of the chain's links. Then on the way out, they used a sledgehammer to push that link back together.
Actually, it looks like the chain was nailed to the post, and they were removing the nail enough to remove the chain. Most chains that people would use to secure gates with would be welded and cannot be pried apart.