Fire Service Today September 07

The Atlanta IAFC trade show held Aug. 24 and 25 saw few big surprises as far as apparatus goes, but a lot of innovations in components and equipment.

The big news was that there was no big news about any SCBA manufacturer having a unit certified to the new NFPA 1981 Standard on Open-Circuit Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus and the new NFPA 1982 Standard on Personal Alert Safety Systems (PASS), both of which became effective Aug. 31.

All the major companies had SCBA on display, but no one could ship units pending independent, third party certification to the new standard.

Perhaps this will be a lesson to the NFPA technical committees writing standards for everything from apparatus to gloves. In the past, the fact that technology didn’t exist to meet the proposed standards was no barrier to NFPA, which said: “We want this; just invent it and we don’t care what it will cost the average fire department.”

Fortunately this NFPA 1981 standard doesn’t require that all air bottles be interchangeable between manufacturers. The proposed standard originally included a requirement that Scott bottles and MSA bottles be interchangeable with Drager and Survivair and ISI and Interspiro bottles.

That was the issue this magazine strongly editorialized against nearly two years ago, and it was finally dropped from the proposed 2007 standard.

We objected to air bottle interchangeability because there wasn’t a single documented incidence of any firefighter being injured or any firefighting operation being slowed down or discontinued due to non-interchangeable air bottles, including at the FDNY response to the 9-11 attacks where mutual aid came from everywhere from Long Island to New Jersey to Newport, R.I.

The air supply “problem,” if one existed at all, had long ago been solved by adoption of one of two resupply systems – air bottle trucks carrying hundreds of prefilled bottles or large compressed air cascade systems that refill empty air bottles from bulk supply tanks in minutes.

Those systems, combined with the fact that for each SCBA fire departments carry an average of three prefilled bottles, mean that, if anything, there is far more air available than ever needed on most fire scenes.Imagine how long we’d be waiting had that interchangeability provision remained in the final version of the 2007 NFPA 1981 standard which, as of this writing, hasn’t been met by even the largest SCBA manufacturers.

Elite Fire Apparatus of Tilleda, Wis., displayed its initial compressed air foam system (CAFS) pumper built to Montgomery County (Md.) specifications. Earlier this year the company reached an agreement to produce 36 more identical pumpers for the county.

(Elite Fire Apparatus displayed the first pumper in a 37-unit order for Montgomery County (Md.), at the IAFC trade show. The all-CAFS pumpers will be delivered at the rate of six every four months over the next two years.) (Staff Photo)

This first unit, scheduled as a training model, is going to the Montgomery Country Fire Training Academy, and the company looks forward to delivering six pumpers every four months for the next two years.

E-ONE’s new president Peter Guile appeared at his first IAFC show to introduce the company’s Comms-ONE vehicle, a mobile command and control unit built on a Chevrolet Suburban chassis.

(The Comms-ONE satellite communications vehicle is built on a three-quarter ton Chevrolet Suburban chassis with two rear-facing seats for console operators.(Staff Photo)

It features a roof-mounted satellite dish powered by Federal Signal’s proprietary suite of public safety software intended to provide “emergency communications, rapid disaster recovery capabilities and instant continuity of operations,” at any emergency scene.

Basically it is an interoperable communications system than can mix or match 20 radio channel signals and 50 cell-phone calls into one seamless communication system without interference.

According to Guile, Federal Signal’s public safety software “includes the SmartMsg and radio interoperability modules, which enables simultaneous text and voice broadcast of alert notifications to first responders with two-way radios, push-to-talk devices, PCs, PBX, IP-based, cell and satellite phones, pagers and wireless PDAs.”

At the same time, he said, “Federal Signal’s Predator mobile data module provides real-time access to local municipal and state databases, and enables Comms-ONE to manage a fleet of first responders from any location.”

And, he added, “Federal Signal’s VelocityCAD module can provide secondary command and control if an emergency operations center is rendered inoperable during a disaster situation.” He said, “Comms-ONE provides a satellite link to deliver landline, mobile two-way radio, Wi-Fi access and video in support of incident command and communications when critical infrastructure is unavailable.”

(E-ONE president Peter Guile, in front of the company’s new Quest pumper, attended his first IAFC trade show in Atlanta. Guile was keenly interested in the Comms-ONE SUV command and control vehicle.) (Staff Photo)

Guile sees this vehicle as the first major attempt by a manufacturer to solve all the communications interoperability problems arising at events such as the September 11 attacks in New York City.

Basically, the unit pulls in signals from disparate field sources and retransmits them to the intended receivers through satellite channels. Each Comms-ONE is delivered with two years of satellite lease time and the electronics can be updated in the years ahead.

The units are expected to sell for $300,000 to $325,000.