Packing Gear

[rizzhafd]

I was wondering the best way to pack my bunker gear into my bag for faster response time. I just got the bag, so what is the best way to fold it in? Thanks...

[Chenzo]

Ill do my best to describe this but can post pics sometime if you need it as well. I've got your pretty standard red firefighter gear bag. I put my boots and bants on one side, and tuck my hood half in half out of one of my boots. My jacket gets folded twice, once side to side then again top to bottom and it makes a nice square. That goes on the other side of the bag, and my helmet sits on top of that. Hope that helps.I don't respond out of my bag, but that seems to be the best way I have found to pack it.

[fyrfytr240]

1st-unzip it.2nd-put gear in bag.3rd-slow down.Anyway,why isn't your gear on the rack?

[farmerfire1156]

1st-unzip it.2nd-put gear in bag.3rd-slow down.Anyway,why isn't your gear on the rack?

Why should it be on the rack?

[Catch22]

Anytime I've had to deal with a bag, I started with putting the boots/pants in and then figured out where was best for the helmet and coat based on the size of the bag. The coat you can fold and roll and manipulate a lot more than you can a helmet, so the helmet always seems to me to be the biggest pain to figure out where to go. Plus, you have to be careful about not breaking the sheild (whatever kind you may have). Gloves and hood can tuck in about anywhere; pockets on the bag, pockets on gear, inside the boots, or just about anywhere.

Play with it and try different set-ups is the best advise I can give you.

[Catch22]

1st-unzip it.2nd-put gear in bag.3rd-slow down.Anyway,why isn't your gear on the rack?

There are still a lot of departments out there that allow guys to take gear home. I've got several that live 5+ miles from the station that I allow to do so. The rule is, if you're going to go past the station to get to the fire, you swing by to see if any apparatus still need to roll. If you're going to go by the fire to get to the station, go to the scene and let the guys in town roll the apparatus.

Either way, they still have to listen to the radio to ensure the proper response is coming.

[efd1524]

I put coat folded on bottom and pants on top of that with hood in one boot. Like CATCH22 the helmet is always the issue. I try to have it so my bag unpacks in a simliar order to how I don my gear.

[jam24u]

There are still a lot of departments out there that allow guys to take gear home. I've got several that live 5+ miles from the station that I allow to do so. The rule is, if you're going to go past the station to get to the fire, you swing by to see if any apparatus still need to roll. If you're going to go by the fire to get to the station, go to the scene and let the guys in town roll the apparatus.

Either way, they still have to listen to the radio to ensure the proper response is coming.

That is pretty much what we have set up. However we only let them take the wildland gear home with them. The structural turnouts stay at the station. We have only one set of wildland at the station and it must stay in a bag.

[farmerfire1156]

There are still a lot of departments out there that allow guys to take gear home. I've got several that live 5+ miles from the station that I allow to do so. The rule is, if you're going to go past the station to get to the fire, you swing by to see if any apparatus still need to roll. If you're going to go by the fire to get to the station, go to the scene and let the guys in town roll the apparatus.

Either way, they still have to listen to the radio to ensure the proper response is coming.

I know what you are saying here. All of our guys take their gear home at our station. There are only about 5 guys that live near station 1 and 3-4 that live within a mile or so of station 2. Most are in the middle between 4-5 miles, so it is most efficient for our guys to take it with them. A lot of our personnel work outside of the district, so having it with them allows them to either go to the incident or to the station which ever is priority.

[rizzhafd]

Thanks guys, I live 1000 feet from the station, we have 11 stations across the county, all understaffed, so based on how many people respond, I might have to drive across the county to respond. We take care of each other out here... I played around, and found my favorite setup...

[Catch22]

Thanks guys, I live 1000 feet from the station, we have 11 stations across the county, all understaffed, so based on how many people respond, I might have to drive across the county to respond. We take care of each other out here... I played around, and found my favorite setup...

Just curious, if you're 1000' away from a station, why not go to that station and respond in an apparatus from there? I would think responding with an apparatus from that statin would be considerably better than responding POV (making an assumption here).

[LVFD301]

Just curious, if you're 1000' away from a station, why not go to that station and respond in an apparatus from there? I would think responding with an apparatus from that statin would be considerably better than responding POV (making an assumption here).

Thoughts that roll around in that vacant expanse I call a mind include,

1. Do I empty all the stations on all fires? If it is a brush fire in the north part of the district, do I really want 11 brush trucks, 7 engines, 8 tankers, 2 air trucks, etc responding? If the need is manpower, do I need to run all that equipment up there?

2. What is going to be safer? IF all else is equal, do I want that big ole slow stopping, high cornering, 250 thousand dollar engine responding, or do I want a POV? Remember everyone, I said all else being equal. Of course, they might have ride ons at each station. (ride ons - FD vehicles, normally 2 or 4 door pickups, so people can respond to the station and still have a way to do a NON POV response from the station. I saw a couple of stations in Maryland that had more ride-ons than apparatus, and POV's could not have whacker lights but the Ride ons could. back in the early 80's)

3. People may not be checked off on responding the heavier equipment.

And of course, as you and I both know - it all depends on the situation.

When we got new turnouts, I weighed heavily on how each person was responsible
for their gear - and equipment hanging up in a rack often get ... borrowed. That, and
the areas that we cover in the west and midwest are usually MUCH larger than the areas
you might find in the majority of the northeast or other parts of the country, I have guys that only see the stations on training days!