Apparatus Maintenance Revisited

[concerned1]

My questions are:

Who is qualified to work on any given piece of apparatus mechenically?

What certificates and qualifications should they hold?

Can I refuse to drive if the person doing maintenance on apparatus is not even ASE certified?

Our city handbook nor our SOP/SOG maual cover these issues, I would like to know where I stand.

I mean, who is ultimately liable? The city right? Would'nt you thnk they would want a certified mechanic working on our apparatus rather than a seat of the pants shadetree mechanic?

[FIREMECH1]

If a shop does any repairs that result in an incident, then that shop is held liable, not the FD, or City.

As for who can work on a fire apparatus, ANYBODY can. But, to cover the City's butt, I would only allow Techs that have (mandatory) ASE Heavy Truck and Bus certifications. If not, go somewhere else. The bonus side would be if the Techs also have at least ALL, Level I certs, preferably Level II at a minimum. Finding ASE/EVT cert mechanics are hard in the private sector. Most owners don't want to be footing the bill for 2 certifications for each Tech.

Then you have NFPA 1071. Throw this at the higher ups in the FD, and see what happens. If your not happy with that, take it to your City Council, or residing managers. More than likely, it will go nowhere.

As for you refusing to drive, sure, you can refuse to. Then expect to be demoted if that position is a step up from FF.

I wouldn't worry TOO much about it. If you get into a wreck just after a top-to-bottom service inspection was done, it will be the shop that would be liable for any damages. (or should be)

FM1