Woody? Any other firemen? Need your help (not what you think, pervs)

I drive a tiny, early 90s hatchback with no airbags, no radio, no nannies... I live by my mirrors. I see you guys coming a mile away.

Lesley wrote: I drive a tiny, early 90s hatchback with no airbags, no radio, no nannies... I live by my mirrors. I see you guys coming a mile away.

Yeah, but that's because your into firemen.

How do you resist the urge to push cars out of the way?

Cool story! About not getting out of the way: there's a Nissan Rogue TV ad which shows the thing passing a HUGE truck with a rather large boat on it, right at the end of the shot you can see the Rogue start to cut over directly in front of the big truck. It's at about :21 in this video: http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7NDJ/nissan-rogue-imagination

Every time I see that I want to throttle the driver with my bare hands.

Wally wrote: How do you resist the urge to push cars out of the way?

I have an aversion to writing reports.

Woody wrote: You might also be surprised to learn that we really don't go that fast. It's pretty rare for us to exceed 45 mph. It takes a while to get one of these things up to speed, they don't corner well (especially with 750 gallons of shifting water on board, at 8.3 pounds per gallon) and you have to plan your stops well in advance. I don't drive anymore, but I have a speedometer on my side of the truck to keep track of how fast my driver is going. You can't fight a fire if you don't get there.

Because of proximity to hydrants, a city pumper will often carry a lot less water than a truck servicing a light-suburban or rural area. The amount of water on board could have a noticeable effect on fuel economy.

In reply to nderwater:

I dont know about that. I don't think anyone wants to roll up on a working fire with a less than full tank. Depending on the fire the first-in engine can start to attack the fire without a water supply and get the second-in engine to hook up their supply line. So you wouldn't want less than a full tank.

and for rural areas there are tenders with 1000+ gal capacity that shuttle water to the fire.

In reply to nderwater:

Pardon?

Everyone in my family except for myself have been firefighters.

It's not like the fire call comes in and the department goes "oh, it's in town, only fill the truck half way"

The truck is full of water and ready to go at a moment's notice, all the time.

Unprepared fire crew = lawsuit from homeowner in today's society.

My father had a retired 1963 Thibault pumper as a toy. I've driven it full, empty and half-full.

Full is ok, empty is great, half full is downright sketchy. Nothing like 300 gallons of water sloshing around. The tank didn't have baffles. Not sure if newer trucks have baffles.

Also, my wife loves firemen. Even after seeing the reality vs fantasy of my family vs Chicago Fire.

I learned to look and listen as soon as I moved here(Frederick, MD). I grew up out in the country where we seldom saw or heard fire equipment. In 1966 I moved here to start teaching. I moved here one day and the next day I needed to report to the BOE office downtown to do some paperwork.

I headed downtown and had just turned onto the one-way street the BOE office was on when I heard sirens. Looking ahead up the hill I could see two engines side by side taking up both lanes coming over the crest of the hill. Fortunately I was able to duck into a parking space quickly.

That fire company has since relocated but we still have two companies in the city that depending on where the call is end up driving the wrong way on one-way streets for a couple blocks.

The best thing about driving against traffic is they can usually see you coming. In addition to people not yielding is drivers not slowing down or moving over while passing a scene.

Florida has move over laws, though I have seen very few people follow them and I have yet to see any one stopped to ticketed for failing to do so.

most / many states have this law … and neither have I ever seen anyone pulled over for this

Hey Leslie, I've driven that aerial you drove. I'm a Toronto firefighter. Luckily I spend most of my time driving a rescue squad. Its a sports car by comparison. Those aerials are pretty crappy to drive in traffic. Driving to the calls is fine, driving back when you have to keep in one lane and obey the laws, is hard.

when you want to drive a 53' drop frame race hauler tractor trailer combo, give me a shout...