Ambulance Sent to Ga. Fire Instead of Fire Truck

[PFDRes47cue 653]

When a home on Garvey Drive exploded and caught fire last month, the only operating truck at the closest Fulton County fire station was an ambulance, Channel 2 Action News has learned.

Several firefighter/medics from Station 15 on Gullatt Road climbed on board and responded, but counted on fire engines from the Fairburn Fire Department instead.

Link to Article

I find it hard to believe that when the Chief new one of his stations only housing an ambulance, that he would not have automatic mutual aid. Engines had to be called after the initial call when it was recognized that they would be needed.

I could not help but notice a comment that was posted below the article...

Unfortunately, this is the result of the "do more with less" mentality. I wonder if these neighbors were pleased when the local government started cutting the FD budget? My department has been facing this trend and we're just waiting for (and hoping we never see) the ugly result.

I know budget cuts have been heavily discussed on this site. Typically, the budget cut discussions focus on personnel but the poster who posted this comment clearly feels that budget cuts are effecting equipment and which equipment is available to answer alarms.

Personally, I do not think this is a direct effect of budget cuts but rather lack of planning or communications. Trucks go down, that is a fact. Departments need to notify the proper people and also see if they can get other apparatus to cover. The Chief in this article mentions that he did check with surround departments but none had available equipment. However, it seems like he just stopped trying and it seems that he was banking on just having EMS calls...no good if you ask me.

Edited September 14, 2011 by PFDRes47cue

[ny10570 745]

Reread the article. Apparently engines were on the way but 1 minute in engines from an additional dept were requested. This is a story about an ambulance arriving before the fire apparatus. Not about an ambulance being sent instead of an engine as the headline states. Apparatus are out of service for many reasons from being involved at another call to being shuttered temporarily for staffing shortages. In this case the chief redeployed his resources based upon who was available and due to the location of the fire the ambulance was the closest unit and arrived first. Nothing more. It happens every day in cities across the country and sometimes the OOS unit misses a first due job.

Maybe budget cuts are responsible for a decrease in reserve apparatus or longer turnaround for repairs, but that's not discussed. This is a poorly written story aimed at getting readers.

[Task Force 7 65]

If you read the article, it says that the Chief alerted Fairburn to respond to any fires in Fulton County Station 15's district. It also says that Bat. Chief 1 as soon as he heard where the fire was he asked dispatch to notify Fairburn which was about 1 minute after the initial dispatch of Fulton County's engines. It also goes on to say Engine 15 was reloctaed to Engine 7, because Engine 7 was OOS, and the reserve piece was also OOS. The article also says the Chief tried to get a reserve Engine from nearby Atlanta, or DeKalb County to replace the Fulton County Engine that was OOS. But neither of those FD had an available engine to loan them.

To me it sounds like they tried to work with what they had available as far as resources are concerned.

[WAS967 97]

Does Hertz rent fire trucks?

[PFDRes47cue 653]

Does Hertz rent fire trucks?

LOL. No but in all seriousness, departments can rent firetrucks...perhaps the short time frame for the rig being OOS meant renting was not worth it.