For some reason I don’t remember seeing this video before, but I’ll answer some of the questions asked here. At the time I was the Chief of the Harwinton Volunteer Fire Department. This was called in by the homeowner as a chimney fire. Myself and one of my Lieutenants, car five, were at a Christmas party about a mile away and were there in minutes. I went inside to see what was going on while car five did a three sixty. He spotted the extension to the wall and roof at which time I contacted dispatch and ramped this up to a structure fire. This is the reason that all our available equipment rolled which is our protocol. I’m dam proud that we have the turnout we do and will never apologize for instances where more equipment responds than is necessary. Blue lights are legal in Ct and red lights on private vehicles are allowed on Chiefs and deputy chiefs vehicles with a permit which they have. Our tanker type is known a quick dump and carries 2,200 gallons. Harwinton has very few hydrant’s and the response area was miles from any water. In Ct sirens are not required unless you are exceeding the posted speed limit or requesting the right of way at an intersection. Our apparatus respond use our sirens when needed but with the responsibility that we are asking for the right of way not demanding it. If we have to stop we do. The old 81 ALF Century soon realized his headlights weren’t on once he got out from under the streetlight. All our current rigs are set so once the ignition is on the headlights are on. The old 81 wasn’t set up that way. Yes the Sentry siren blows every noon for 30 seconds. In over 50 years that I’ve been a member I can only recall one complaint about the siren and the old chief at the time was said to respond by saying. “We’ll since your awake you might as well come over an help out”.
Call ended up being a chimney fire extended into the siding and roof area of modern 1980's open floor plan home. Big party in progress at the time on a Saturday night a of couple weeks before Christmas. Last time for E3 being 1st out (4 structures) after 20yrs. You can see its replacement new E2 in the middle bay facing out the back, not yet in service. Last pumper out, old E2 (30yrs old, 692TTA Detroit's do sound nice don't they!) was given to Bono, Dominican Republic, recently arrived there.
Ok yea, the tanker could have used a siren but as for the car, (s)he was driving towards a firehouse at night as the tanker was pulling out of the station with the emergency lights on. The driver saw the tanker roll towards the road, so he should have slowed or stopped. And I'm sure the driver of the old ALF engine soon enough realized he was forgetting something.
Last time I Checked A Chimney Was Attached To the house. So that to me would be a full structure response. . That's how we roll down in Nc... Good Job Brothers.
Different Cities ,Counties..Anything On A House (Carport Chimney ) Is Toned Out As A Structure Fire Or Possible Structure Fire... Don't Know How Y'all Get Dispatched But We All Have Different Responses
+Calvin Robinson Well in a village in Upstate NY we would roll all trucks to a chimney fire. Half of our district had hydrants. Better to be cautious. If a full response was not necessary you just radio back to the station to hold back a truck or two. In the middle of the day you may only get enough of a response to roll one or two trucks. First two trucks carried a total of 2400 gallons of water so if you were out of the water district you had enough water for a while and if you knew you needed more, mutual aid was a radio call away. This was a good response.
I was on 2 departments in RI. One volunteer the other full time. A chimney fire with the paid department got a full building box response. 3 engines, battalion chief, a ladder and a rescue. This was a small department. 5 engines. 2 ladders. 2 rescues and 1 chief per shift running out of 4 stations. The volunteer department went with 2 engines, 2 tankers and a rescue. If we had a ladder that would have gone too.
My father and my Grandparents grew up in Litchfield Borough many decades ago . Have fond memories of going there all the time to their house . That's when the town would activate the sirens at night for the FD there . Quite the spectacle at say 1:00 am !
The old ALF that rolled out at 3:50 didn't need to use a siren. didn't you guys here that beautiful sound of an old Detroit Diesel when they rolled out? Oh yeah baby!!!
a little bit slower than im used to but like alot of depts in my area this looks like its very rural and not alot of members live near the station if so this is an awesome response! good video showing how most small town volunteer depts roll lol
Considering they had to drive there, they responded way faster than some other stations ive seen on videos that took them 2 and a half minutes or more to respond to a call.
Ahole has the nerve to honk at a fire truck responding. I think they ought to put stop lights outside the department and let the Aholes stir as people respond. IMHO.
NVTrucker I agree, however, I live near Harwinton and I can tell you it's a small town - I think the only traffic light in town is at the intersection of Routes 4 and 118. You're right; the jack@$$ has some growing up to do.
@@doverpoint1 As a New Yorker I would say 'stick it in your ass', however you're probably right. Idiots dont yield and still don't grasp the 'move over' law.
LOVE those old trucks. My volunteer department had tonss of trucks from the 80's and 90's. Worked better than the neighboring FD's and got sent to maintenance less.
Wow. Are some of you that all knowing and supierior firemen that you rip your brothers apart over what you see in a 7 minute video? smdh I give them all the credit, dumping house and not being complacent. Great PR, shows they care, rolling that many rigs. They'd get a yes vote on a bond levy or a check during donation drives. Also says a lot about their pride and dedication. Don't judge because you are not the perfect firefighter on the perfect fire department. Hell, I'm envious. Kudos!
The YTFD, I love it! Why would anyone bring just one engine for a reported chimney fire?, last I checked chimneys are attached the structure which makes it ..........a structure fire until proven otherwise. So responding the everything you can is probably a better choice than getting on scene and finding the fire has extended into the walls, attic, or more and having to play catch up, especially in a volunteer FD when you never know what the turn out will be. Mutual aid maybe a long way off in some municipalities.
Yo. I have watched this response over & over many times. I remember being so excited when a Harwinton response finally came to youtube. But I NEVER really knew who's channel this was until now. I put 2 & 2 together & I'm like "oh..."
I was just surprised at a full response for a chimney fire although you never know what you get into until you are on scene. But yea the one truck coming out with no lights and at night, I would have been yelling at the driver to turn the lights on the car probably did not see it
Connecticut is a blue light state only for volunteer firefighters and green for emt/paramedics. So no only chiefs have red lights/siren allowed. Hope that helped and have a good night!
Its interesting how the volunteer's all assemble. Really awesome to watch. I also thought it was fascinating that most of their personal vehicles had emergency lights too. How far do they have to travel to get to the station?
It's a 45 but everyone goes 60-80 known speeding area there is a pull over spot where the state cops sits waiting for speeders if he doesn't get you he'll make sure your caught before you get too far always three cops in 6 miles or less
In Kentucky, if you are driving with emergency lights on, law requires you to have the siren activated as well. Even if its the middle of the night. Now not everyone does that most will still use the sirens.
I've never seen a fire tanker before. I don't know the name of something like that, but I'm guessing that's for places where fire hydrants aren't in high supply.
The siren is a sentry 7v8 I knew the siren was a sentry but I didn’t know the type so I looked up the different sounds of some sentry sand found one that sounds exactly like the one in the video
pipesmoker I can understand why they honked, that tanker pulled out onto the road without even checking. It probably scared the shit out of the person in that car. I think these guys need to do some more EVOC training.
+James Gorden The tanker had his red lights on and sitting on the apron for a bit. If the car is approaching the firehouse and sees a emergency vehicle with its red lights on he should slow down. That being said yes the driver of the tanker should also use caution when pulling into traffic. I have seen to many times with civilians that they DO NOT respect an emergency vehicle and that was the intent of my previous comment.
pipesmoker I agree with you, people don't respect emergency vehicles and that is why operators have to be extremely vigilant. If you get in an accident then more than likely you're going to court and you very well may lose. These guys had their lights on by no sirens, and that tanker driver didn't slow down or stop and check the road before pulling out onto it. On my department that's a big deal, if any of us are caught driving like that then we lose that privilege.
Ok I just had to go read some of the prior comments and it forced me to post again. Some people are really out of touch with the fire service and good sound operating guidelines. First, these guys probably know they could be faced with water supply issues, that's the reason they own a tanker/tender in the first place. Second, lets say each of the engines carries 500 gallons, and the tender another 1500 or so, it does look rather small for tender standards, Theoretically that should have them arriving with a minimum of 3,000 gallons for what should be considered a structure fire. Not bad for a volunteer FD. Second, you do not need to have your sirens on just because you have your lights on, and lets not start the liability debate over that one. That's just the wacker syndrome showing through from some of you. The chief you here on the radio would make vehicle number 7 if we really need to get hung up on that one. Blue lights are common in many, many states for FD's and EMS alike. If I have one complaint about this, it would be that some of the members didn't gear up prior to boarding the rigs.
Here in Pa, if your lights are on, your siren will be on. Visual and audible for emergency vehicles in my area. If you get smacked by a passing vehicle, chances are it's your fault.
You don't have to use the siren. Only if you need to clear traffic. If you use it all the way there all you will do is annoy everyone between the department and the scene.
Our rescue rig goes to all our calls regardless of nature since it has our saw, jaws, etc. on it. We have 6 trucks as a volunteer dept serving 3500 or more people. We tell our guys to take the Pierce and Rescue rig first (all seats full) and anyone that gets to the station after those 2 rigs leave will take our brush truck (for manpower on scene) and if that truck is full, then the other FF's can take a Rural pumper. Most of the time though only 3 trucks leave the station due to guys being at work or out of town, at which point we would call for mutual aid from our buddies of a town about 5 miles north. Small town complications, but we make it work lol
+Blake Pamperin yeah the town I live in is Goreville Illinois and our fire department is also voulnteer and we have one engine one tanker one brush and two rescue units and our county ambulance service is the only transportation ambulances we got and they have four for the whole county and our rescue covers our town and all the county side Inbetween one is like a 1980 ford rescue box ambulance looking one and one is I think a 1990 pickup with a cover (that we just got about two months ago) and one of them and a local Goreville officer or sheriffs deputy goes as first responders and help whoever needs help until the county ambulance service gets on scene then they help with lift assistance if they end up transporting. Small towns make the best with what they got :)
Thats a lot of equipment for a Chimney Fire! Response needs to be appropriate for the call. We respond 1 Engine, and if its to an area with no hydrants, then we add the tanker to the response.
My guess would be a volunteer firefighter. A lot of states and/or counties allow volunteers to use private vehicles with lights to respond to the station.
Cleveland, MS does...both the city and the county firemen use lights and sirens....and when they still used the overheads, it was city policy all vehicles pull to the right of the street and stop until the siren stopped sounding...let the firemen through....and it worked....all volunteer...class 4 insurance rated...
Alex W Ah, okay. Thanks. In German all additional lights are absolutely prohibited if you are not a city's fire chief (he also needs a special permission). But every single volunteer firefighter is allowed to break traffic rules while responding to a call on the way to their fire station (if necessary and nobody is put in danger by doing so). As far as I know most US VFs are not even allowed to drive faster than usual. Is that right?
DeBukkIt correct here in Massachusetts we can't speed. Also our red lights are only courtesy meaning other traffic doesn't have to pull over for us.... however most do. Where I'm located everyone pulls over. And we go thru the red lights only when everyone has stopped and allowed us to go thru.
The first ALF (E3) that pulled out was doing it's last run as first due. It was replaced by the pumper in the far end of the middle bay, you can see the back of it when the middle truck pulls out. It was 20 years old at the time of this call. It is equipped for brush fires and water supply duty now and for the last 7 years. It's replacement is being specked at this time. The last pumper out, also a ALF, E2 (with the infamous late appearing headlights) was given to the town of Bono, in the Dominican Republic and is still in service there. On a personnel note I find amusing the number of comments disparaging this department responding 3 pumpers and a tanker to a chimney fire. The severity of chimney fires runs the spectrum from, "no big deal, all we need is a Indian can and a few shots of water," to, "Oh sh*t! it's in the wall and spreading to the roof." I've seen many examples of each. During the "Energy Crisis" in the early 1970's this department responded to over 150 such calls and at the time they were categorized separately from structure fires. This lead people in the fire service to believe Chimney fires need not be taken seriously. They were almost regarded as service calls. Over the ensuing few years it was found to be prudent to bring enough at the start in order to have what you need on scene or on the road if need be. Anyone that has been doing this very long knows, the fire dictates what it's going to take to put it out. I frequently recall the words of an Assistant Chief from Hartford that we had as an instructor for many years, I paraphrase: "We didn't start the fire. Every fire goes out, even the ones we don't go to. We're here to see to it they go out after causing the least amount of damage possible. I'm not here to tell you guys how to run your fire department. You've been doing that longer than anyone and know what works for you."
Just out of Curiosity, are your trucks equipped with Sirens? Might be a good idea to turn them on when exiting the firehouse, Tanker almost caused an accident with a vehicle. Just sayin...
Ok first I have seen some departments run no sirens at night do to the people in town... And you said 7 units responded I seen 5 the ambulance, the 2 front line trucks the tanker and the 4th door second line truck.
Ha love the car honking. That's how you end up with a liability claim right there.... not even counting that fact that the siren wasn't running and the driver of the car would be stupid not to call it out. It's one thing rolling down an empty road with the siren off... The truck is half sticking out of the station (could it be returning or leaving or guys f-ing around? Driver doesn't know really, only that it's 30 feet back from the road.) Guy floors it at 3:10/3:11 to almost crossing into traffic at 3:13 (get's honked at by the car at 3:14) that's not enough time for passing traffic to slow or stop. Just because you have lights and a siren doesn't mean others can stop on a dime and/or have the reaction time of a race car driver... I see this a lot and it's ridiculous. Getting a truck t-boned with a 40/50mph hit would be tough to explain away if the driver of the car wasn't already egregiously doing something else stupid like blowing twice the legal limit or blowing a traffic light altogether.
Ok I rewatched it and the car that honked its horn, yea the tanker did have its lights on so the car would have seen it and should have slowed or stopped, but yea the 4th truck with no lights on that was not smart
With what technology that is out there today for unpaid professionals to use to alert the members of an alarm . The ole air raid alarm type alerting system is outdated. No one uses them much anymore . So why still have it in use ?
+Travis Hanson Harwinton actually runs a large volume of calls. Mostly motor vehicle accidents, as they are number 1 on the list for being toned to the areas major highway. Route 8.
Travis Hanson Well I don't know how you construct chimneys in the US but most chimneys are designed to contain fire consequently chimney fires are usually soot fires. In 25 years I have never required more than one pump to deal with one. The only exception I can imagine more than one pump attendance is for a thatched roof (reed covered). The only time I ever had fires outside of the chimney is what we call a 'timber under hearth' fire where due to poor construction timber joists have projected under the hearth and caught fire due to a crack in the hearth stone. At one time a fire in a dirty flue could result in a financial penalty but a defective flue was exempt. That eventually fell by the wayside due to the fear that home owners would refuse to call it in just in case they got a fine. I presume you do full turnouts because most US houses are timber built.
Quite possible. A friend of mine (Mike g. on RU-vid) works for the most of Reading, Pennsylvania’s fire departments, (he’s an assistant chief) has been honked at so many times before Reading added the stop lights, also, chimney fires are common.
