A dispute between a Maryland fire company and their county fire service brings out an important part of owning fire apparatus.
We all know how expensive it is to purchase rigs. But the cost of buying the unit is only the beginning. what good is it to buy the rig if you can’t maintain it.
Today’s article in the Capital Newspaper from Annapolis Maryland describes a dispute between Anne Arundel County and the Deale Volunteer Fire and Rescue Squad.
What happened to their engine is not in dispute. Who is going to pay for the damage is not quite that simple.
The story describes how the Deale engine, a 1991 E-One pumper, was brought to the county for its annual pumper service test. Sometime during the test, the engine overheated and now is in need of replacement or rebuilding. Fire company representatives are quoted in the article as saying that the engine left the station in perfectly good running order, and the engine overheated during the pump test conducted by the county. They state that the operator should have seen the engine temperature gauge going up and shut down the unit before it was damaged.
AA Counties Apparatus Chief states that by the time the operator noted the engine smoking, it was too late to save the engine. The Deale representatives accuse the county of “gross negligence” for not watching the unit during the test. The county countered that the pump panel temp gauge did not register the same as the dashboard gauge, which did show the temperature pegged and the engine in a severe overheat situation.
Of course the situation is made worse by financial conditions. Three years ago the fire department bought a new aerial ladder, and the payments on this rig are all the department says it can afford to support. The county doesn’t want to put a new $ 39,000 engine into a pumper at the end of its useful life. Because Deale is at a remote section of the county, the volunteers claim there is a hole in engine company coverage that needs to be addressed.
Now the politicians are involved and will either solve the situation or make it worse.
What are the lessons from this for YOUR fleet?
First and foremost….apparatus contain thousands of moving parts, all subject to failure at anytime.
If anyone could accurately predict when a motor is going to blow, they could make millions. Make that billions. The AA county chief states that its good the motor blew at the pump test, and not while pumping lines at an actual fire. Amen.
One of the major reasons to conduct annual pumper service testing is to really stress the components of your apparatus and see if they are operating correctly. The pump test determines if the cooling system, the motor, the transmission, the pump gear case, the fire pump, the electrical systems and all of the associated piping and plumbing are up to standard. If any one of the driveline or pump components are out of kilter or needing repair, the test will not pass.
Too often, we do our weekly or daily apparatus checks and go through the items without really checking. Do the temp gauges and pressure gauges on the dash and pump panel REALLY show the same readings? or do we check them off and assume they are fine.
With the Deale engine, it has become a matter of two sides being far apart.
Bottom line, motors fail without warning, and it OFTEN happens during pump tests. The challenge of pumping at high RPM’s with the rig stationery (no air movement across the radiator) and an older unit with the chance of reduced cooling capacity or an internal failure has all the makings of the perfect storm of motor failure.
At my used fire apparatus company, it happens to us 2-3 times per year. Motors blow during pump tests. You heard it here first. It happens, and happens often.
One second the motor is purring, 3o seconds later the temp gauges pegs over 220 degrees, the motor blows steam out the exhaust and before the operator can shut it down we have a blown engine. The piece drove perfectly normal to the pump test site. 30 seconds from perfectly running diesel engine to trashed motor.
Secondly, do those weekly checks and REALLY check the little items.
Check that the engine oil pressure and temp gauges on the dashboard and pump panel MATCH each other.
Check that there are no fluid leaks, especially coolant.
Check that all your coolant hoses are good, without leaks, collapses or leaking fittings and connections.
Check that the radiator is not blocked with leaves or other debris.
Check that the fan is operating when the engine gets up to temperature.
Many diesel motor failures are traced back to preventable cooling system issues. Run a diesel engine over 220 degrees for a few minutes and it is trashed.
Third and most importantly, have a PLAN B in place for your apparatus failure. Budget for items like an engine or transmission or pump or aerial failure. Its not good enough to buy the unit. You have to have adequate reserves on hand to maintain the vehicles. I recommend a minimum maintenance reserve account of $ 10,000 per YEAR for each pumper and $ 15-20 annually for each aerial device. You may not use all of it every year, but throw in a major component failure every 3-4 years and you will be glad you had the repair reserve fund.
Your thought and experiences?
Great insight here. I think a great deal of fire departments fail to adhere to such guidelines.
The vast majority of fire service folks mistakenly think that service testing is for the fire pump only. Service testing stresses the powertrain (especially the cooling system) more than running to alarms for sure. The enging load is in many cases 80% during service testing, and for a sustained period. Weak links in the pwertrain show pretty quickly at the pump pit. It is difficult to duplicate this stress driving a fire engine around even at highway speeds. Service testing is the best evaluation of the powertrain of a fire engine that I know of.
You are right to budget for catostrophic repairs as well.Great article Glenn!
Glenn: Excellent comments and observations on this situation. I all too often find department’s with severely underfunded accounts to provide the proper maintenance on their units and are shocked when they constantly over spend in these accounts and wonder if it is really worth the expense. Rigs cost good money to properly maintain and companies should expect higher costs as the units get older.
100% agreement about what the annuals do but AA county has a $2.65 million dollar fund for such situations and in view of the small cost of a replacement engine to extend the service life of the pumper vs. an immediate replacement at $350,000-$500,000 it appears that AA county is out of line in refusing the request.
I agree with the thoughts put forth regarding maintenance. And, I’m glad this didn’t happen at a fire. As a rural company, this unit would often be the engine at a water fill site. The failure in this situation could be deadly.
But, this seems like a a disagreement over career vs. volly. It shouldn’t be. If the volly’s own the engine, and the county maintains it. Then the county should tell them, they can fix it if they want. But, no (county) tax dollars should be spent on it. The rig is 20 years old.
Also, no coverage would be lost. A spare pumper, possibly pumper tanker, would be put in it’s place.
Good article, thanks for your thoughts.
Deale VFD did budget for maintenance when it accepted A.A. County’s offer to maintain their vehicles. Now A.A. County has made a no repair decision without input from the VFD. Glenn, if an engine blows in your shop do you scrap the piece without the owners input?
The county shop has a long history of trying to maintain fire aaparatus the same way they maintain dump trucks, yes I’ve heard “whatcha complaining about, it stops just like them dump trucks out there” before.
The County needs to step up, accept responsibility for maintaining the vehicle that they agreed to, and fix the truck.
Mack,
Thanks for joining in.
When an engine blows at a pump test, it’s on MY dime.
I use 2 different outside vendor to do my pump tests, so I am in the EXACT same situation as Deale when an engine blows.
Believe me, it sucks, I know it.
NEVER once have I asked the people running the test to pay for the engine. I already know the answer, and it’s a big fat NO!
I rebuild it before I deliver the unit to my customer. Unless the case is damaged, we rebuild before we put in a new motor. Saves about half the cost.
A rig without a working engine has as much value as a boat anchor. Maybe less.
My view is simple, the people running the pump test are not at fault. Nobody is at fault. Engines blow on apparatus. If you have a fleet of units, you need to accept that fact and move on.
Motors blow, every single day. They are not covered by insurance, normally they are way out of warranty, and its a fact of life if you own apparatus.
I can’t see any way the county did anything wrong here. By the time the temp started climbing the damage was done. The engine was trashed.
I wish I could be more helpful, but I have to be honest.
Glenn: I understand what you are saying and I’m not saying the anyone was at fault with the motor damage. What I am saying is the VFD and the County have an agreement that the county PAYS for the maintenance of the equipment, and that would include fixing it if it breaks during testing or in action. You say you would rebuild or replace the motor before returning it, if they sent it you for testing, that’s all they’re asking for from the county. The county unilaterally decided not to fix it.
I have to wonder, if the county feels E421 is important enough to run calls on Monday, important enough to pump test on Tuesday, why isn’t it important any more to replace it on Wednesday? Is ground support providing a reserve pumper for E421 while it is OOS? Why are they saying there is a hole in south county? Is 424 not capable of running calls as a pumper? Too many questions!
Glenn:
You have provided some very good insights for departments to ponder regarding maintaining their apparatus. I operate an apparatus repair and testing company and have seen rigs that shouldn’t have been driven to the test site, let alone attempt to perform an annual pump test. As you stated the 100% test is completed not only to see if the pump can attain the required g.p.m.’s but also more importantly it is to see if the drive line can sustain the flow over a pre-determined period. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a properly tuned unit with a flawlessly operating cooling system. Like you said it’s not if a motor will fail, it is when. However, proper preventive maintenance will reduce the likelihhod several fold.