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Fire alarm: The trucks

BY ELIZABETH MOORE | STAFF WRITER

November 15, 2005

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It can carry four firefighters 95 feet into the air to pluck people from multistory buildings, and collapse cinder-block walls with the force of its 2,000-gallon-per-minute stream of water.

"Desire to serve," reads the decal on the door.

But in four years, Yaphank's 30-ton, 45-foot-long Pierce aerial platform ladder truck hasn't gotten much use.

Since its delivery in the spring of 2001, the $700,000 truck has fought only two fires -- one in a pile of discarded wooden pallets this summer and the other at a junkyard in neighboring Medford two months ago. At the six house fires it has responded to, the truck stood with its 500-horsepower motor idling as firefighters went about their work by taking the stairs or climbing hand ladders.

"Knock on wood, but we haven't really needed it," said Chief Robert Walther, who pointed out that the truck is heavily loaded with hand ladders and lifesaving equipment that come in handy at an emergency. "If that truck is not there, I'm short-handed ... Fortunately, I haven't had to use it 100 percent every day for everything that goes on, but without it, we're lost."

Long Island's 179 fire agencies have the best trucks money can buy, and plenty of them: more than New York City and the city and county of Los Angeles put together, which protect almost three times as much land and six times as many people and answer more than 12 times as many calls for help.

And because of Long Island's volunteer shortage, departments often have more trucks than they can fill.

"What I need is volunteers," Mike Carrucci, then a Deer Park fire commissioner, said before the district bought a new pumper four years ago. "We can't even get two trucks out, let alone four and five."

Privately, some officials say that shortage, and the decline in serious fires, mean their costliest trucks get more use in the fire department parades that roll down Main Street almost every weekend from spring to fall than they do in emergencies.

In any given year, most Long Island departments have more fire trucks than fires that need an engine and hose to put them out, records show.

The newest trucks are so large they sometimes don't fit in the departments' own firehouses or down tight neighborhood streets.

And the abundance of top-flight fire equipment extends beyond engines and ladders.

Heavy rescue trucks with specialized tools to cut open wrecked cars and winch firefighters into collapsed spaces can cost $750,000 or more. The New York Fire Department owns one heavy rescue truck for each of its five boroughs, plus a single spare for use citywide. Long Island fire agencies own 146.

Long Island departments commonly provide their unpaid chiefs and each of their assistant chiefs with the use of sport-utility vehicles loaded with electronics. In larger districts there are often personal-use cars for supervisors and mechanics, buses for trips to the county fire academy, parades and funerals, and "district vehicles" used by commissioners.

Though the U.S. Coast Guard and police marine bureaus have primary responsibility for water rescues, fire agencies maintain 129 boats for that purpose. Lakeland owns a hovercraft; Centerport, a pair of Jet Skis; Wantagh, a $75,000 fireboat.

Premium apparatus

Fire districts also use tax money to house, maintain and insure a variety of vehicles not used in firefighting, such as antique fire trucks for parades and high-performance racing vehicles for their tournaments.

There also is no regional coordination of equipment purchases, and under state purchasing laws fire officials can pretty much pick out whatever they want: thousands of dollars worth of gold-leaf decorations, custom-built cabs for 10, and elaborate computerized controls.

Long Island volunteers enjoy a reputation as being well trained, well organized and well funded, said Les Adams, a Maryland-based fire consultant.

"They are known for buying the newest and the latest fire apparatus -- a lot of chrome -- and almost like money is no object," he said.