Unit #'s

[pipemen]

Hello, Here in Sussex County, N.J. We have a county numbering system each city, town or boro have there own 2 ditigt number like my boro # is 23 we go 23-00'S are the pd's 23-01 ,02 etc 23-100 is fire 23-101 is cheif,23-102 1ast chief 23-121,122,124 etc is the fire trucks 23-300 is ems 23-700 is dpw etc Hope this helps you


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SEE YA AT THE BIG ONE

[greendrum872]

My Department is in the 3rd District of Illinois. There are about 22 departments and mine has the numbers 100-199. The numbers go up to 2200-2299.
Our Numbers,
Chief-100
101-103,105,106,116 engines
107-Truck
109-ERV
161-164-Medic Units
130-142, officers (Asst. Chief,Lt.s,Capts)
150-155, inspectors

On others third district towns the numbers around 75 are for the private ambulace companies. Ex. "Dolton 1475 is going to the hospial" but in the towns with their own ambulances they have "Calumet City Rescue 311 is en route"

The Box alarms go with the city numbers.
x00-is the medic alarm box
x0x-for fire company response
x99-is for haz-mat

ex.-"Dolton mutual aid to all departments, Tinley Park is requesting box alarm 202,"
then all the departments to respond will go.

I feel it is an excellent system to use.

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These are not the opinions of my department.~

[smokeyben1]

Here in New South Wales, Australia the NSW Fire Brigades use a very simple numbering system. As we have about 400 stations in the state they are numbered as such No 8 stn or No 412 stn.The appliances attached to the stations are then called by their station number and appliance type ie: 8 pumper, 8 bronto[hydr. platform] or as for my station 412 pumper, 412 alpha[2nd call pump], 412 composite[w/tanker]. Senior Officers are called by their position ie: Operational Commander[Inspector] south-west, Regional Commander[Assist. Commisioner] north-west etc. Specialist appliances like B.a hazmat trucks are numbered B.a.3 etc, Rescue trucks are called technical support vehcles and numbered as such 1,2,3. The same applies to Incident Command vehicles. Stay safe smokey.

[smokeyben1]

Radio codes for the NSW Fire Brigades are:-
Code 1 : no sign of fire
" 2 : appliance call off[return to stn]
" 4 : small rubbish fire
" 6 : entering Rural Fire Service area
" 7 : appliance responding
" 8 : appliance arrival at incident
" 9 : appliance available to respond
" 10 : malicous false alarm
" 11 : false alarm given in good faith
" 14 : stop given for rubbish or grass fires
" 20 : stop given for spills [oil,fuel]
" 30 : persons trapped,aphysiated
" 50 : Chaplin required
" 95 : Fire Investigation unit required
any further information is added to the relevent code if required. Smokey.

[FISH]

Helo from Australia - Well i just had a look at all those numbers and thought wow ! thats a lot of fire trucks ? We have three units in our brigade : Tatiara car 1, Which is a 4x4 comand vehicle, Keith 24 and Keith 34,
Keith is the name of our town and 24 & 34 stand for 2000 litre four wheel drive and the 34 is a 3000 litre truck. Thats how we identify our selves.
Protecting our community for Life.

[Mikell]

Here in my department we use our city police com[pliance number. 474A and 474B are the police, 474F1 and so forth are the fire fighters. F1, F3, F5 are chief officers, F4 is paramedic,F6 and so on are fighters. Our pumpers are simply refered to ta truck 1, truck 2 and so on.

[RDWFIRE]

One13Truck, Here in Juneau we number the vehicles by station.
E=Engine, T=Truck, M=Medic unit, U=Utility, R=Rescue, A=ARFF (Aircraft Rescue & FireFighting) Tanker=Well, you get the idea
Juneau station E-11, E-13, T-12, M-1, M-3
Douglas station E-21, E-23, R-21
Glacier Station E-31, E-33, T-32, M-2, M-4, U-31, A-1, A-2, A-3
Auke Bay station E-41, E-42, U-41
Lynn Canal station E-51, Tanker-52

Each area of the USA numbers units according to what works for them. Maybe we will see a "universal" numbering system, but I doubt it. Traditions run strong. Just be familiar with what units run in your area, and if you do wildland firefighting on a large scale, be familiar with ICS numbering, and you should be ok!
On your secon topic about clear text vs codes, I firmly believe that clear text is the only way to communicate on the fireground. There are too many different 10-codes out there and on a large, multi-agency, incident the difference in codes could cost a firefighter's life.
Just my opinion (from experience)

Be safe. The dragon lurks!!!



[This message has been edited by RDWFIRE (edited 11-26-2000).]

[One13Truck]

Great work everybody, keep 'em coming!!! Have a safe and happy new year!!!!

[This message has been edited by One13Truck (edited 01-18-2001).]

[flash32]

Here, in Dodge county for sure, each dept is issued a number. my dept's number is 2200. chief is 2201, *** chief is 2202, dep chief is 2203, then followed by all the capt.(04 through 07), then the lieut.(08 through 11), the safety officer is 2212, and then all other personels use thier helmet numbers.

The trucks are refered to as:
2250-2259 can be any ems/firstresponder vehichle
2260-2269 all pumpers
2270-2279 airels (i think)
2280-2289 all brush or equipment trucks
2290-2299 all tankers


the first truck out is the only one that has to call in to the county to let them know that we are on our inservice, enroute, on scene, heading back to station and out of service. Sometimes we use the ten codes and sometimes we don't.

the numbers start at 1100 and go through 3600, leaving out 2000 and 3000. this works very well.

[This message has been edited by flash32 (edited 02-11-2001).]

[mike021]

Delaware County of Pennsylvania here.

All companies are individually numbered as they joined the Del. County Fireman's assoc.

My company, Norwoo, is station 02.

Numbers work like this, the same all through out the county.

1 throgh 4 are pumpers. some say pipeline, or engine so-so
5 is all ladder trucks, also go by ladder, quint so-so
6 is all rescue's also go as rescue so-so
7 is all medic, and BLS ambulance's
8 is special unit's, hazmat trucks, canteen's etc.
9 is all Chiefs
10 through 14 are officers through the company.
If there are multiple units it then goes by letters, like my dept runs 2 BLS ambulance's so it's 02-7 and 02-7a.
understand? hopefully

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This is your brain... Pierce
This is your Brain on drugs..... E-One
www.nfco1.freeservers.com

[joelene22]

There are eight fire companies in my township. We are numbered 246 through 253. We also have a fire police company numbered 254. Fire Marshalls are 510, FM1 and FM2.

Our engines are 253 Engine 1, 253 Engine 2, etc.

Chief - 253 C-1
Asst. Chief - 253 C-2
Captain - 253 - C-3
1st Lieutenant - 253 L-1
2nd Lieutenant - 253 L-2

It's pretty basic and easy to follow. The dispatcher just tones out and lists them "247,253,254,510 automatic fire alarm activation..." It saves time and confusion.

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Joelene M. Hester
Laurel Gardens Volunteer Fire Company
Station 253, Ross Township
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
***The above represents my personal views and not those of my fire company***

[ThickSmoke3]

I'm with a volunteer fire dept. They are talking about numbering our trucks. Right now fire dept. has five vehicles and usually we take the same trucks three of them. So numbering might be good, it works better for big cities that have equipment for what every the emergency might be.

[Lt.Tim]

Leavenworth County, Kansas, is divided up into townships. Each township fire department is assigned a series of numbers. My department, Delaware Township have 500 numbers. The Fire Chief is 560, Assistant Chiefs,559 & 558, Captain - 557, Lieutenants -556 (me) & 555. The trucks are numbered from 561 to 566. Fairmount Township is assigned 700 numbers, Kickapoo Township is assigned 1700 numbers.So on and so forth for each department, all Chiefs are 60's like 560, 760, 1760. Other officers are numbers in the fifeties as above. The trucks are in the sixties. It is up to each department to number the trucks there is no set disignation for tanker, pumper, or brush truck. The departments work pretty close together and there is a mutual aid association,so when mutual aid is needed all we ask for is a pumper, brush truck, tanker, or aerial.
We are begining an automatic mutual aid system for tanker support. Each automatic call depends on the closest departments in the surrounding area.

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Tim Mondero
Lieutenant/Delaware Township Volunteer Fire Dept.
Firefighter/Fort Leavenworth F.D.

[This message has been edited by Lt.Tim (edited 02-17-2001).]

[ThickSmoke3]

Now Lt. Tim has a valid point.I do not know the size of Leavenworth, Ks.,but their system is what I meant. If you have let's say pumper 561 and tanker 564 and you need just tanker 703 and not a pumper from another dept. That makes sense. You don't need to take equipment that at any given time might be needed in your own area. In rural areas the tanker is king.

[This message has been edited by ThickSmoke3 (edited 02-18-2001).]

[TriTownship600]

We just started using the county wide system. I thought it was a little complicated at first, but it's nice once you learn it.

Each of the stations have a number 1,2,3,.....11,12 etc.
That is the first digits in their ID.

Next digit will determine when that rig goes. First out, second, etc.

Last digit is the type of rig.
1= Pumper/Engine
2= Pumper/Engine
3= Rescue Unit
4= Ambulance
5= Brush Truck or Mini-Pumper
6= Tanker/Tender
7= Air, Haz-Mat, Lighting, etc.
8= Ladder/Arial or Quint
9= Chiefs Car

Members of the station are also coded. If the second number is a zero it is a chief officer, If the second digit is a Forty decade it's a captian, Fifty means Lieutenent, Sixty's are engineers, Seventy's, Eighty's and Ninety's are Firefighters.

100 is the Chief of Station #1
6-21 is Engine 2 from Station #6
2-18 is a Ladder from Station #2

Stay Safe

[oldE6man]

Regarding the 10-codes vs. plain English (and numbering as well):

Unless there is a regional standard, there is a significant likelihood of problems during mutual aid events. If you, like us, only use mutual aid during greater alarm emergencies, that is not the time for radio confusion! You will have enough alligators chomping at your butt without having that additional headache.

For that reason, I think plain English provides the least chance for misinterpretation during emergency events.

[This message has been edited by oldE6man (edited 02-27-2001).]

[fire boy 038]

TOM
KINGSBURY HOSE CO.#1

OUR COUNTY #'S ARE 38
CHIEF IS CAR 38
1ST ASSISTANT IS CAR 3801
2ND IS 3802
3RD IS 3803
4TH IS 3804
OUR ENGINE IS 381
ETA382
ETA383
TANKER384
ETA 385
TANKER 386

TOM
KINGSBURY NEW YORK

[One13Truck]

As I've said, codes work great for us... But what works good one place is a disaster for other places. Our County does all use the same code system though (okay Wilkes Barre City uses a code for in quarters nobody else uses but very rarely is mutual aid needed/provided by them) so they have a universal County-wide meaning to them. Makes for a lot less radio traffic.

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Edwardsville Emergency Services, Station 10
We came, we saw, WE KICKED IT'S *****!!!

[This message has been edited by One13Truck (edited 03-20-2001).]

[E11Hooligan]

The County I work for uses a numbering system I believe works pretty well.
The Chief and asst. have the letter C before their number for ex. Chief 2 is the assistant chief.
The Battalion Chiefs have a B
Training Officers have a T
Captains, Lt.s, FF/Medics, and FF/EMTs use F
In regards to Apparatus numbering the first number or first two numbers are the station number than the last number designates what apparatus it is.
1-First out Engine
2-Second out Engine
3-Third out or Reserve Engine
4-Aerial or Platform Ladder Truck
5-Tanker
6-service unit
7-Squad, Rescue, or Air truck
8-service unit, boat
For ex. Ladder 14 is station 1's ladder truck

[Superfireman]

We have a County wide numbering system here in Camden County, NJ; it's not to complicated: Every township, city, or boro has a number. The station(s) are the next number in the sequence, and the type of apparatus is the final number. ie my home town Pennsauken is district 11. There are six stations, one EMS station, and the Fire Prevention Office which houses the fire inspectors and the fire official. Their #'s are...
11-1 ;Sta#1(pronounced; eleven one)
11-2 ;Sta#2
11-3 ;Sta#3
11-4 ;Sta#4
11-5 ;Sta#5---my station
11-6 ;Sta#6
11-7 ;EMS (not part of the FD)
11-8 ;Fire Prevention Office
The apparatus are the same county wide: All the 1's are Engines, 2's are Engines, 3's are brush trucks or rescue pumpers, 4's are ariels, 5's are rescues, 6's are utility's and brush trucks, 7's are nothing, 8's and 9's are utility's. My station is 11-5, our units are engine 1151(pronounced eleven fifty one), engine 1152, brush 1153, and utility 1156. The officers would be the same county wide also. For my station they are Chief 11501(pronounced eleven five o'one)
1st Deputy 11502
2nd Deputy 11503
1st Captain 11504
2nd Captain 11505
1st Lieutenant 11506
2nd Lieutenant 11507
3rd Lieutenant 11508
Safety Officer 11509
The IC is always 1150(pronounced eleven fifty) if the job is in our local. If is in Sta#4's local the IC would be 1140(pronounced eleven forty) no matter who that person is chief or firefighter if they are in charge they use the IC number! All this is true for the entire county, just different numbers for different towns. The only exception would be The City of Camden which uses its own system. I hope that makes sense?!



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Dan Kerr Jr.
Firefighter/EMT
Pennsauken Fire Dept. Sta.#5
"Puttin the wet stuff on the red stuff, and keepin it safe"