ORIGINAL: bamory

Not related to the Dodge forum, but interesting none the less to all you firefighters out there.

We had a house fire the other nite, it was -10* outside. Any other time would have been a get in put it out, knock it down and wrap it up. But because of the cold, mutual aid was needed. The first tanker on scene began supplying water to our pumper, then blew its PTO driveshaft out the *** end d/t its freezing. The 2nd tanker (which was ours) was able to get pumping, but the pump began to freeze, so one of operators kept it going by getting under and kicking the driveshaft as it was spinning, this kept the water flowing but eventually bent the shaft, even with recircs going.

3rd pumper/tanker on scene was able to set up and began to attack only to have everything freeze up 5 minutes into the attack, eventually shearing yet another driveshaft. This was just not a good situation all the way around, no injuries, which is what its all about, and $100,000 worth of damage to home.

Just thought I would share............

ORIGINAL: Cereal Killer

Maybe this is a stupid question...
But isn't it a good deal warmer next to a burning structure? Cause originally I was wondering if you guys even had like clothes to deal with cold weather like that for a prolonged period of time (I dunno how warm fireman gear is) but then I was thinking it's probably not that bad right next to a fire...
I guess that probably doesn't help the trucks too much though

ORIGINAL: bamory

Fire gear is quite warm, actuallysome of the best outdoor gear you can get, way to warm for summertime. Next, to actually get close enough to keep the pumps from freezing we would have actually parked next to the house, now with 100+ gallon of diesel feeding this beast probably wouldnt be a good idea.