Lincoln Fire - Substandard Trucks

[NeFire242]

More stories of the Lincoln fire dept and their substandard trucks, and how the Fire Chief Mike Spadt was quickly removed by Mayor Coleen Seng.

http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=12&id=50203
http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/07/12/editorial_main/doc44b4edea60ec2176177737.txt
http://www.ketv.com/news/9498707/detail.html
http://khastv.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5590
http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/3326261.html
http://www.yankton.net/stories/070806/news_20060708030.shtml

 

[hilgerone]

Why not Smeal

I could never figure out why they don't buy Smeal. It's local, and from what I've seen every bit as good, or better, than E One and Pierce. Not to mention that if it needs to go in for something, it's a quick trip up to Snyder instead of Wisconsin or Florida. In David City, that has always been a huge selling point for us and we've had excellent luck with thier equipment.
My $.02
Matt

 

[NeFire242]

Now they've shut down a fire station in North Lincoln (FS2). The reserve trucks are broken too, and with the new ones not being accepted due to flaws they shut down the one station and moved the crews to other houses.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1638&u_sid=2209868
http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/07/21/local/doc44bfb79252d5d137812601.txt

The FBI was even called to help with the investigation by LPD:
http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/07/21/editorial_main/doc44c01f1ca8444655922746.txt

Sheesh.

 

[twister19]

Actually my local department has an E-One truck. It is a very nice piece of equipment, however, i dont think it will last as long as some of the other brands of trucks out there. Now for the Smeal, I know a couple of departments in the area purchased them, but I have never worked with one so I wouldnt begin to beable to tell you how nice they are.

 

[twister19]

I am glad that I moved out of that city. They have a lot of issues there and I dont think you could pay me a million dollars to move back there.

 

[NeFire242]

Bad Trucks

. Now for the Smeal, I know a couple of departments in the area

Many departments will buy Smeal as it's local. They're not a bad truck.

Personally I've had bad experiences with several brands, one coming to mind is Collins Industries. Bad memories, bad, bad memories.

 

[NeFire242]

Lincoln! 102.7 KFRX

I am glad that I moved out of that city. They have a lot of issues there and I dont think you could pay me a million dollars to move back there.

Actually Lincoln isn't too bad, espcially right now before classes at UNL pick back up. I had a friend who went to school there so I was often in Lincoln. It's big enough to where you have a Wal-Mart when Nate decides he needs corn flakes at 3am to go with his Ramon Noodles, yet small enough you don't have the feeling you're going to get shot at a redlight as you do say near 30th and Lake in North Omaha.

 

[SCPD]

Actually Lincoln isn't too bad, espcially right now before classes at UNL pick back up. I had a friend who went to school there so I was often in Lincoln. It's big enough to where you have a Wal-Mart when Nate decides he needs corn flakes at 3am to go with his Ramon Noodles, yet small enough you don't have the feeling you're going to get shot at a redlight as you do say near 30th and Lake in North Omaha.

It was the intersection of 30 and AMES were I got shot at and yes it was at a red light.
Taco Bell is the only late nite food.

 

[NeFire242]

Eh, Taco Bell. I suppose you want their low band freqs to listen?

Wendy's is open late now. Actually if it's like 2am instead of Taco Bell I'll go to Amigo's or something if im in Omaha or Lincoln.

Shot at? So you weren't actually shot then?

 

[twister19]

Okay fill us in...u were shot at?

 

[SCPD]

My friend (Douglas County Dispatcher) and I were driving around in December or January. We drove down Ames from 72st. We stooped at 30st at a red light. Then a guy started shooting at a crowd in the Hardee's parking lot. He turned and started shooting at the cars at the red light, which include my friend and me. The funny thing was when he realized he ran out of bullets and started running for his life. My friend, who was driving, started to follow him as I called 911. Told the call taker what happened where the suspect was. We say a OPD officer who was responding and we tried to get him to stop but he did not. He continued and turned down the wrong street. By that time the suspect was gone. My friend work the northeast precinct the next night. He called that officer and gave him a nice little lecture.
The me getting shot thing happened in OEF, thank god for body armor.

 

[NeFire242]

Safety First!

My friend (Douglas County Dispatcher) and I were driving around in December or January. We drove down Ames from 72st. We stooped at 30st at a red light. Then a guy started shooting at a crowd in the Hardee's parking lot. He turned and started shooting at the cars at the red light, which include my friend and me.

Ok so far so good.

The funny thing was when he realized he ran out of bullets and started running for his life. My friend, who was driving, started to follow him as I called 911.

Sounds like a good plan thus far.

Told the call taker what happened where the suspect was. We say a OPD officer who was responding and we tried to get him to stop but he did not.

Ok now here is where I start to have a problem. First off, the unit would have been on a high priority call, so for you to think he would easily be flagged down is illogical thinking. I would hope you can understand why he didn’t stop and his first priority would be to try and locate the shooter still in the area.

He continued and turned down the wrong street. By that time the suspect was gone.

So you no longer were following the suspect? I hope not. There is no telling if he would have had backup, or another gun somewhere, you were putting yourself and your friend in even more danger by following the suspect. Yes I know you’re a tough guy, but still. SAFETY FIRST.

My friend work the northeast precinct the next night. He called that officer and gave him a nice little lecture.

Why? The officer was doing as instructed by dispatch. If you were not satisfied with his performance you should have spoken with his commander, or filed a formal written compliant. The responding officer could only do what dispatch had been advising, and were most likely performing their duties within the specified perimeters of their training, even if this meant not up to your own personal standards.

Think of how dispatch must have been. I’m sure you were not the only one to be calling 911 at the time for this incident. With even just a few calls of the same incident you have to ask what is going on and how the situation is still unfolding, plus relay all of this information to units en route or already on the scene. It would have been most likely hard to communicate and convey what was going on because I’m sure many of the other callers had their adrenaline flowing and heart racing at what had just happened.

As a criminal justice student I would hope you’ve done a ride along with a public service agency, and if not let me know and I can help you arrange one. I’m sure you are familiar with the dispatching of OPD since you’re friend works there. Your friend should be able to relate how frustrating it is not to have all of the information from either the caller or the officer on scene. Mix in radio issues such as wrong talk groups or poor coverage and a simple situation such as a traffic stop can become a nightmare.

You’re lucky that night turned out the way it did, and I’m glad to hear the two of you were not injured.

The me getting shot thing happened in OEF, thank god for body armor.

Yes, thank God. Otherwise I wouldn’t have you to mess around with on a scanner forum. =p

 

[G70]

Why Not Smeal

I could never figure out why they don't buy Smeal. It's local, and from what I've seen every bit as good, or better, than E One and Pierce. Not to mention that if it needs to go in for something, it's a quick trip up to Snyder instead of Wisconsin or Florida. In David City, that has always been a huge selling point for us and we've had excellent luck with thier equipment.
My $.02
Matt

We were looking at buying Smeal but they had an 18+ month wait time and were proud of it.

 

[phyrngn]

Pierce

Actually, I was hoping we'd get Pierce...I've never heard a bad thing about a Pierce. You can probably get a decent E-One, Smeal, or anything else, if you're willing to pay for it. Bottom line here is that they took the lowest bid....and that will get you crap.

From a Firefighter's POV, the trucks are impractical for these reasons: The bottom of the hosebed is about 9' from the ground...that's pretty unsafe, especially since we aren't hiring NBA players to fight our fires. The ladders are stored just below the hosebed, and, again, are too high...I'm 5' 11", and can't reach the ladders to get them out in a safe and efficient manner. The EMS compartment (that replaced that rear-facing SCBA seat behind the officer) gets too hot and fries the drugs--plus, there is so much crap on the doghouse between the front and rear of the cab that you can't see outside from the rear. There are "rescue style" compartments on the officer's side (which contributes to the excessive height of the rig) that only hold one small tool each...this would have been a better place for an easily accessible ladder rack--the old-fashioned kind that takes you ten seconds to deploy a ladder. There are only Red LED's on a small jet lightbar on the top of the rig--you cannot see them even on a cloudy day--no contrast of blue or white lights. The EQ2B siren is a joke--you can't hear it unless the rig is right behind you. These things (I don't think) even have anything to do with the rigs not meeting spec (all that crossmember BS)...and I love elaborate, beautifully painted and equipped fire engines as much as the next guy...but they just aren't well-designed for what we do. @ least they're still red.