Ingalsbee is an idiot. Beside conditions being different in
4-0 staffing is shown to be safer, faster and more efficient. The return for investment works well here (not as well for 5-0). Firefighters (ones who actually flow water instead of his drivel) have been trying for years to get 4-0 for those reasons and it was one of the first things cut. Politics is the reason, with little to no regard for the reality of the CA fire situation.
Why this and station ‘brown outs’ (scheduled closing of neighborhood firehouses) haven’t p/o’ed the public is something I can’t understand. It’s pretty darned simple, it’s PUBLIC SAFETY and the bean counters are telling the public to be less safe. [Which is also why there is a dramatic increase in CCW permits.]
While the DC-10 isn’t often useful for much of
Rick
From: Kim Noyes
Cal Fire adapts to cuts; engines are reduced to 3 crew members
Often a critic of firefighting agencies, Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology in
Ingalsbee, who worked as a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, said that the Forest Service regularly uses three firefighters per engine and that they're able to manage the tasks of driving, pumping water and directing hoses.
He said smaller engine crews make more sense than smaller hand crews, which are comprised of firefighters who dig fire lines.
"If there was a place they had to make cuts, that's a place where they'd make sense," Ingalsbee said.
Although Ingalsbee was still somewhat reluctant to fully support the reduction of firefighters per engine, he was quick to call the DC-10 contract modification a money saver.
He said the Victorville-based supertanker, which first flew in 2008, was a "boondoggle."
While the plane carries 10 times the retardant hauled by other tankers in Cal Fire's fleet, he said it lacks the maneuverability to be useful in the north state.
"I think it may have done great work in the flatlands of
Cal Fire may still call on the DC-10 this year,
The cancellation of a full-time contract has been devastating to 10 Air Tanker Carrier, the company that owns and operates the DC-10, said Rick Hatton, a partner in the company.
"We many not continue to be available," he said.
The company has "call-when-needed" contacts with the state and the Forest Service, but both pay only when there's a fire. Hatton said those contracts might not bring in enough money to keep the DC-10, and a second supertanker operated by the company, ready to fly.
He said he's still hopeful that Gov. Jerry Brown may sign a $5 million contract to make the DC-10 available for 90 days later this year as fire season gets into full swing.
"When you need some retardant on the ground, there is no substitute for it," Hatton said.
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