What's a Quint? What's a Life Force?

[SCPD]

I know what an Engine, Truck, Squad, Rescue yadda, yadda is...

...but what is a Quint? What is a Life Force?

LACOFD and now Long Beach FD are dispatching Life Force units, while LACOFD and now Costa Mesa FD are dispatching Quints.

Dave
KA6TJF

 

[LZJSR]

Quint (fire apparatus) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Light force (not life force) is usually a quint or ladder truck in combination with a triple-engine, they roll in tandem. The ladder trucks don't carry water, so the triple (Triple combination engine company – apparatus carries water, pumps water, carries hose and other equipment; firefighters who may carry out direct attack or support other engine companies) performs that function and pumps to the aerial truck.

Often this is due to staffing issues, and the triple is staffed with just one or two people, and the quint/aerial with 3-4 personnel.

 

[Eng74]

A quint has a pump, tank, hose, aerial ladder or elevating platform, and ground ladders. LAFD runs Task Force's and Light Force's. A Task Force (TF) is a two engines and a ladder truck and the Light Force (LF) is a Ladder truck and an engine. When LACoFD runs a LF it is taking the place of a quint since they do not have too many quints in reserve to cover or as stated for staffing reasons the engine and truck will team up and run together. They do have one or two normal LF's

 

[SCPD]

Quint (fire apparatus) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Light force (not life force) is usually a quint or ladder truck in combination with a triple-engine, they roll in tandem. The ladder trucks don't carry water, so the triple (Triple combination engine company – apparatus carries water, pumps water, carries hose and other equipment; firefighters who may carry out direct attack or support other engine companies) performs that function and pumps to the aerial truck.

Often this is due to staffing issues, and the triple is staffed with just one or two people, and the quint/aerial with 3-4 personnel.

Having seen the photo in Wikipedia, would it be safe for me to say that Quint is another word for the old Hook and Ladder?

Dave
KA6TJF

 

[mdulrich]

Having seen the photo in Wikipedia, would it be safe for me to say that Quint is another word for the old Hook and Ladder?

Dave
KA6TJF

The old hook and ladder trucks typically didn't have pumps and water tanks on them and they didn't carry hose other than what would be needed to run up the aerial ladder to supply the water pipe, so that would take them out of the quint category.

Mike

 

[SCPD]

The label "hook and ladder" is an interesting one. I've asked several firefighters, including a friend of mine who is a truck captain, and his tillerman, what it is. No one could provide an answer. The ladder portion is self explanatory, but I don't know what the hook is. Anyone here have an answer.

 

[nd5y]

A hook is another (old?) name for a pike pole.

 

[SCPD]

Damn, this is all very interesting. I'm asking all these questions because my paternal grandfather was fire chief of Newport Beach, CA, from 1927 to 1954. Just trying to figure out how things have changed since his day.

Dave
KA6TJF

 

[KMA367]

Damn, this is all very interesting. I'm asking all these questions because my paternal grandfather was fire chief of Newport Beach, CA, from 1927 to 1954. Just trying to figure out how things have changed since his day.

Dave
KA6TJF

Frank Crocker? You must've inherited some radio genes from him. If I'm not mistaken, it was under his direction that NBFD was the first city in OC to get "3-way" radios, so they could communicate with their own station, with County/CDF dispatch, and with each other, around 1950.

 

[mdulrich]

A hook is another (old?) name for a pike pole.

Actually, the hook name come from the days when houses had thatch roofs. Firemen used large hooks to pull the thatch off the roofs to extinguish the flames and keep the fires from rapidly spreading. Over the years these hooks where no longer needed and the name carried over to pike poles.

Mike

 

[Eng74]

Having seen the photo in Wikipedia, would it be safe for me to say that Quint is another word for the old Hook and Ladder?

Dave
KA6TJF

LACoFD Quints are Tillered Quints, but a Quint can be a mid or rear mount for the aerial ladder or elevating platform. Tillered Quints offer more compartment space, and are more manuverable than a rear or mid mount.

 

[SCPD]

F.W. Crocker

Frank Crocker? You must've inherited some radio genes from him. If I'm not mistaken, it was under his direction that NBFD was the first city in OC to get "3-way" radios, so they could communicate with their own station, with County/CDF dispatch, and with each other, around 1950.

Yep, Frank W. Crocker was my grandfather. From what my dad has told me, my grandfather came to Newport Beach after WWI, built a house on the Balboa Peninsula (when land was ultra cheap) and began raising a family of nine children (my dad was the youngest). My grandfather was an electrician by trade and, because of that knowledge, was recruited into the still volunteer Newport force in the early 1920s. When, in 1927, the City Council decided to create a professional force, they picked my granfather as the first Fire Chief, a position he held for 27 years until his retirement at age 58. He died in 1972, at the age of 76.

I did not know that little tidbit you shared about my grandfather. If I inherited any radio genes they came through my father, who was always fiddling around with some kind of electronic contraption. My dad gave me my first multiband radio at age 9, so I could listen to the LAPD hot shots calls, just like those on ADAM-12.

Dave
KA6TJF

 

[SCPD]

Weren't the various poles used to tear into ceilings (and thatch roofs way back when) carried on all kinds of apparatus? If so why was the ladder truck called a hook and ladder if the engines had them also?