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| Innovative Ideas: Equipment accountability |
| Written by Lorne Ulley | |
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This is
the third innovation that we found while on a visit to the Mont
Tremblant (Que.) Fire Department. This is a department with a short new
history being written each day since the Mont Tremblant Fire Department
and the St. Jovite Fire Department were joined two years ago, as were
the two communities making up the village of Mont Tremblant. The old
history was erased and a new chapter started. Currently the population of full-time residents is 8,559, while on any given weekend this will spike up to 15,000. Now an all-year-round area - not just a skiing area - the village's fire service is handling more than 250 runs. The fire department is headed up by director Luc Champagne and assistant director Claude Fortin. They have a full-time secretary. The 44 fire fighters, all part time, are alerted to any call by pagers. The village of Mont Tremblant has two stations with the following apparatus: one 95-foot quint 1,750 gpm, 300 water; three pumpers, 1,050 gpm, 900 gallons; two rescue command units, a service vehicle; along with two boats. Foam is part of their suppression method, while most of the main part of the city has a hydrant system, with the outlying areas being a tanker operation. They have a rescue system for auto accidents, but do not handle any first-responder calls. Since the joining of the two fire departments from Mont Tremblant and St. Jovite, the equipment all had to be checked and an inventory done. It was also time to put in a good "equipment accountability" system so that all the crews were on the same page on this important item in the fire service. All too often, equipment is lost at an incident and is only discovered to be missing months later. The writer came across this very recently, where an expensive floodlight was found by the owner of a burnt out residence six months after the incident. The department never missed it and when it was returned it was beyond repair. This system became the brain trust of assistant director Claude Fortin: what he came up with works for this department and could well be implemented in your department, maybe with some changes to fit your situation. First, it was to be a 100 per cent inventory and get rid of what was no longer required or beyond further use. Once this phase of the job was done, it was time to see what apparatus the equipment would be placed on, taking into account the task each rig had on first-in runs. The two pumps in each station that run on all calls were more or less twins - the compartments on each rig hold exactly same equipment in the same place. These two rigs were standard and therefore the crews could go to either rig at an incident. This was a time saver because no one had to ask the pump operator where things are. On the remainder of the apparatus, which were not twinned, things were laid out as closely as possible to the pumps. Everything had a place. This was also done with the tankers. Overall, the operator of the apparatus had only to glance into each compartment: to see if an item was missing. So as not to leave anything to chance, in each compartment, on a heavyweight piece of art board, the items that were assigned to that compartment were listed. This was put into a heavyweight, see-through plastic hold, with a ring and chain fixed to it and was hung in each compartment. On each run, the operator does a check. If no equipment has been used, they do a quick visual check, but if on the run any equipment is used, a full check is done of that rig. What is a firm SOP with this system is that once a week the rig is checked over using the inside inventory card, but, to be more exact, there is another list for each rig on a clipboard near the office. The compartment card is matched up against the one on the clipboard. This is a double check. It is important to upgrade the list as equipment is added or deleted. Cost is low, since all of the items can be found any good stationery shop. A printed list is better than a handwritten one. Those wishing more data on this innovation can write to: Director Luc Champagne, Mont Tremblant Fire Department, 1145 St. Jovite St. Mont Tremblant, Que. J8E 1V1. Des fiches d'inventaires Le service de sécurité incendie de Mont Tremblant dispose de 2 units qui respondent a tous les appels. Ces unites transportent exactement les mêmes équipement localises aux memes endroits sur le véhicules. Ainsi un pompier peut utiliser un équipement peu importe la provenance du camion. Cette situation peut causer un problème d'inventaire. Afin de solutionner cette situation, le directeur M. Fortin a confectionné des fiches d'inventaires propres a chaque compartiment. Cette fiche est fixée sur une tablette reliée au compartiment par une chaînette. Aprés chaque appel, l'opèrateur peut verifier l'inventaire du casier et corriger son inventaire au besoin. Cette procedure demande de metre a jour les listes dès qu'un équipement est retire au ajouté au compartiment. Pour plus d'information au sujet de cet appareil, vous pouvez contacter M. Luc Champagne, 1145 rue Saint-Jovite Mont Tremblant, QC, J8E 1V1 Si vous disposez d'informations concernant une innovation, nous vous prions de contacter M. Lorne Ulley, 379 Beatty, Verdun, H4H 1X7. |
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