The Philadelphia medic noticed smoke rising from the engine just as he steered his ambulance off I-95.
He and his partner were on their way to a medical emergency when their ambulance began to smoke.
Then, a bang – a “loud explosion,” the medic remembered. They pulled over and scrambled from their seats as the smoke grew heavy and thick.
On the side of the road, they watched as flames licked up the side of the ambulance.
I never had that particular experience, but there was a time when my former service had problems like this at one time. In fact, during one memorable hot summer shift, I spent six hour of an eight hour shift either swapping over to back up ambulances or getting back up ambulances repaired. At that time our air conditioning repair vendor was right in the middle of my primary response area. Which was convenient because one of the trucks had no AC and it was about 90 degrees. We spent a quality hour at the shop while they repaired a leak and recharged the system. Immediately after we cleared from that, we were sent back to fleet to change back into our regular ambulance.
When I say that we had problems like that at one time, I mean in the mid 1980s. Yep, just about 30 years ago. Since then vehicle build quality, ambulance conversion quality, and our maintenance shop have all improved tremendously. It’s still a battle, but one that the service wins more often than it loses. Apparently Philadelphia Fired is not so fortunate.
The Fire Department has two workhorse trucks in its aging fleet: 53 engine trucks, which pump water onto fires, and 23 ladder trucks, used for ventilation and rescues.
Horse shit, straight from the union. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of fire based EMS. My view on that has changed a bit and I’ll put up a post about my epiphany in the near future. The true work horses of any fire department that also runs EMS are the ambulances, not the fire suppression apparatus. Which the article points out in a back handed sort of way in this paragraph.
According to figures kept by the department, the average engine truck is 8.9 years old; ladder trucks, 11.5 years; and medic trucks, 3.96 years – old in ambulance years as they answer far more calls than fire trucks.
“Not every department can do [what New York can],” said NFPA division manager Ken Willette. “It comes down to a budget.”
[Mayor] Nutter’s spokesman, Mark McDonald, said the mayor and the Fire Department have been well aware of the situation for years – but hamstrung by tight budgets.