New Austin FD Units on the air R31 Q34 E38

[KTR722]

Anybody have any info about Austin FD doing a reorg or adding some additional companies up north?

So far it appears that QNT 38 and ENG 34 have swapped stations in the past week (now QNT 34 and ENG 38) and I just heard dispatch notify BAT06 that RES 31 was out of service-previously the only Rescues in Austin had been 14 20 and 28.

BAT02 (NW Austin) has probably needed another Quint/Ladder for some time, any box alarms in far northwest Austin usually pulls QNT38 and LAD08 (Burnet and Research); moving QNT38 to Station 34 makes that hole between Station 8 and 34 even larger. Station 25 would make the most sense (there was a TRK25 there years ago) but Medic 10 is in the 2nd bay in that station now. Perhaps Station 44?

Also, If there is a Rescue in Station 31 now, then did LAD 31 get moved up north and is RES 31 a new 4th Rescue for Austin or did RES 28 get relocated?

I have heard RES14 on the air today so it did not move to ST31..

Anybody in the know that can answer definitively?

 

[Wes]

I did see and confirm the swaps between 34 and 38. I haven't had the chance to check on R31 yet. And yes, there's definitely a need for some more ladder companies.

 

[Wes]

Made it to 31s last night. It's not an actual rescue. It's a special operations truck for water and high angle rescue. Used to be either downtown at 1 or at 14. It's a quad cab pickup with a work/utility body. It's parked outside the garage bay where they have an inflatable boat. I believe it's called Search & Rescue or Technical Rescue 31. It's an unstaffed resource and the crew of E31 or L31 would staff it since 31s is a Special Operations station.

 

[KTR722]

Hey Wes, that truck you saw is SAR 31 which you are correct - it is a reserve status (unmanned) unit. Was LAD31 also in the house when you went by? LAD31 is definitely keying up voice on the radio as RES31 since 12/15 and the radio UID that they are keying up as is 10574031--which is the radio ID that used to be assigned to LAD31.

Assuming they did not take delivery of any new vehicles, the only reserve rescue truck AFD currently owns is RES59 (96 Freightliner) so RES31 would most likely be operating in that unit. If this was just a temporary move, i doubt they would have re-programmed the radio in the reserve and it would still key-up as UID 10574059.

Another thought just hit my mind--if the aerial ladder is out of service on LAD31, they may have reconfigured CAD to classify LAD31 as a rescue so it does not get picked for aerial resource requests. I know Hudson Bend/LTFR has a reserve Quint (QNT603) that the aerial is out of service on and when they put it in service as a reserve, they have CAD configure that unit as an Engine.

I noticed that there were a lot of aerial companies operating recently in reserve units (QNT18 has been in a reserve ladder since October, LAD08 was in LAD94 this month, and QNT01 was in QNT96, which is odd because usually QNT01 or QNT03 will get LAD91 as a reserve since its a 100' stick for downtown and QNT96 i think is only a 75' stick); they may have simply ran out of reserve units for LAD31 to move into.

 

[Wes]

LAD 31 was in the house. No idea as to the radio IDs. Just know what I saw.....

 

[KTR722]

Well if you saw LAD31 in quarters, assuming that they were manning that truck, then the out-of-service aerial theory might be the correct answer. Since AFD ladders do not have pumps, you could not put it in service as an Engine in CAD. Since LAD31 is a spec-ops company, there is probably not too much equipment difference between it and a rescue when you factor the aerial out.

 

[KTR722]

On another note, I just overheard ops support calling dispatch and requesting the alias on a new radio (UID 10574022). Dispatch replied that it was coming across as "LADDER 22 MOBILE" on their display. Station 22 is one of the dual-engine company stations in Austin (ENG22/ENG66), Station 1 is the other (ENG01/ENG13). They may be looking to convert ENG66 into a new quint or ladder company. Never the less, looks like more changes are underway.

 

[Wes]

Wish we knew someone at AFD to give us some more insight....

 

[KTR722]

LAD22

Ladder 22 is confirmed; just heard it dispatched to a medical over locution.

 

[KTR722]

BT38

And...radio service just requested an alias check for UID 10573938, which dispatched identified as Brush Truck 38. Station 34 did not have a brush truck before the swap with QNT38, so it was not a direct consequence of that move. I presume it was relocated from another station and not a new unit.

Stations 44 and 45 had brush trucks in that area. If they were adding a quint or ladder to station 44, its a 3 bay station (BAT02, ENG44 and BT44 currently); they would have to reloctate the BT to make room for an aerial...

MTF im sure...

 

[Wes]

Has anyone reached out to AFD to find out what the current apparatus assignments are?

 

[KTR722]

Aerial/rescue updates

I reviewed the UID logs on my scanner and these are all the changes I have been able to determine thus far:

Dates are approximate:

-ENG34 > ENG38 (12/14/16)
-QNT38 > QNT34 (12/15/16)
-LAD31 > RES31 (12/15/16) *Crew only; LAD31 apparatus relocated
-LAD31 > LAD22 (1/4/17) *Apparatus only; new crew assigned? ENG22/66 still responding
-BT44 > BT38 (1/5/17) *Moved to reserve status for ENG38 to respond vs. ENG44
-ENG44 > ENG35 (1/5/17) *Station 35 was a single quint company, this allows QNT35 to be relocated
-QNT35 > QNT42 (1/6/17) *Moves into Station 42 with ENG42
-QNT15 > QNT44 (1/8/17) *Moves into Station 44 as a single quint company station now (with BAT02)

Notes:
-RES31 (either operating in a new unit or old reserve Rescue 59 where the radio was reprogrammed to read RESCUE 31 MOBILE); the radio reprogramming is significant in that the last "new" company placed into service (ENG46) last year still has not received their new apparatus and ENG46 is still operating in a reserve engine (that they did not re-program the radio on) that is keying on the air with a reserve UID.

-Given that LAD31's crew were members of Battalion 6, I am assuming the personnel from LAD31 moved to RES31.

-Moving LAD31 to a rescue leaves QNT01 as the only remaining spec-ops aerial company in the city

-Personally saw QNT44 on US183 earlier today at the fatality collision by Riata Trace. Looks to be QNT15's front-line unit (and not QNT35)


The only questions still remaining at this point:
-What apparatus is RES31 using as its front line?
-Need to Confirm that LAD22 is a new crew and not from another company placed out of service
-Station 22 now has 3 companies (ENG 22, ENG66, LAD22); is ENG66 still in Station 22 or did it get relocated (and still is using ENG66 as its radio designator)?

 

[KTR722]

Aerial Coverage Map

Did a quick map to visually see how the realignment of the aerial companies looked to see if there were any more obvious holes that were going to be filled.

Based on my review, the only significant coverage hole left is around far NW Austin around the Station 39 area. What isn't pictured on here is that Lake Travis has a quint (QNT605) in the Steiner Ranch area that is on auto-aid for Austin and would get picked for 1st/2nd due easily in that area so most likely they are relying on LTFR for aerial support in that part of town.

East Austin looks sketchy also but with Quints at 40, 18 and 42, the only way to really improve it would be to drop another quint at 26. QNT1101 (TCFR) and QNT211 (Pfluggerville) are also on auto-aid and fill some of the gaps.

My guess is that we have seen all the moves for now.

 

[KTR722]

ENG66, BT15, BT21 and ENG47

Just as an update to my previous post, it looks like ENG66's crew may have been the crew that moved to LAD22 as ENG66 has been off the air now since around 1/7. Radio shop did a radio check on ENG66 a few days ago and requested the alias that was appearing on the radio so it is possible the radio is being re-programed to match the truck's new assignment.

Also I heard a BT15 come up on the air, given that there was a brush truck at station 5 previously (and Station 15 is up the street from Station 5), then most likely BT15 was BT5 and it was relocated as part of the move when QNT15 moved to QNT44.

Third, there is a BT21 now and has been on the air for a few months. Again, looking at a map and given that ST31 is close by, it would seem plausible that BT31 was moved to station 21 in preparation for LAD31's conversion to a rescue company.

Finally, there was a radio check for ENG47 this week, not sure where the potential ESD4 merger stands but that would be the most likely place for a new station for AFD in the near future.

 

[Wes]

Yes, BT21 has been at 21s for a couple of weeks.

 

[KTR722]

Just heard RES20 at the shop changing out of their front line unit into reserve RES59 which means that RES59 is not the unit that RES31 moved into when they stood up the new company back in December. AFD must have purchased and took delivery of a new rescue unit when they added the 4th rescue.

 

[rbarker]

Here is a Wiki list if you can keep it updated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Fire_Department
Here is a list of stations: Index of AFD Stations' Addresses | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin

 

[KTR722]

Saw RES31 finally today. They are in RES14's old truck (2005 Pierce Quantum) which must mean that RES14 has a new rig. I also was told that Pierce is building a new Rescue for AFD that should arrive later this year.

 

[pacrat551]

AFD new rescue in production at Pierce. You can track it's progress

In Production | Siddons-Martin Emergency Group | New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana Fire Truck, Emergency Vehicle Dealer

 

[KTR722]

Some followup to this thread on a few items.

1) Figured out what RES14 has been using as a rig while their new one was being built. ATCEMS had a rescue unit (ESU 1) that apparently AFD is either borrowing or assumed ownership of. Saw it parked in front of Station 14, still painted lime green (maybe AFD's only lime green truck outside AFR units) but marked with AFD decals and 14 on the side. AFD's new RES14 looks to have been delivered also as it was present at a groundbreaking ceremony a few days ago for a new station.

http://www.x635photos.com/albums/userpics/ATCEMSESU1.jpg

2) Looks like AFD has formally activated two additional Battalions. BAT07 i think is running out of ST40 up north and BAT08 is running out of ST37 down south. They first came up on the air around the time of the shuffle and close to SXSW so I had assumed they were surge staffing those units but they have been on the air over 6 months now.

3) SAFETY1 (staffed with a BC) appears to be off the air and my guess is that they moved the manpower from SAFETY1 to one of the new BCs. As much as having a dedicated safety chief sounds on paper, this is a good move by the department in practice IMO. Austin is simply too large geographically where a single Safety BC can respond in a timely fashion. Better to have more BCs strategically located, all of which can assume the safety role upon arrival, than waiting for one to possibly make a 20-30 minute trek through Austin traffic to arrive on an incident. The new approach also plays nicely when you have multiple incidents working simultaneously in the city where 1 dedicated Safety BC cannot cover. The old SAFE01 unit came up on the air the other day identifying itself as "Ops Support", although the dispatcher noted that its alias was still set as SAFE01 after they requested a radio check.

4) I have not heard FTO 1 on the air for a while (Field Training Officer). This unit was staffed with a captain. It was not a consistent responder on alarms and usually self-assigned so it may still be active.

5) Somebody on wikipedia moved Smokebuster 6 to Station 35; I have not heard that unit on the air (it maybe makes 3-5 calls a year?) to confirm, although the other updates are spot on other than they have LAD22 at Station 35 (could be true although it does not conform to their apparatus numbering policy).

6) Finally, along with the groundbreaking on the new station, I understand ESD4 officially merges with AFD on October 1 and they will be keeping 2 ESD4 stations (ST401 and ST407) and closing one (ST404). I assume they will become ST47 and ST48 when activated.