Firestone Tires on apparatus

[Skip Nerney]

Has anyone had any problems with tires on emergency vehicles? Trucks, Ambulances or Suburbans,...

[Halligan84]

Check out this month's Fire Engineering, they have a pretty extensive article on that problem occurring on emergency apparatus.

[Skip Nerney]

Thanks Halligan84. I saw the article and I am looking for more info. All of our equipment have Firestones. I'm on the safety committee for our local and am concerned.

[F02]

Local ambulance service has had 2 episodes of tread separation.Both were Goodyear.

[firecadet613]

A few months ago the Aurora, IL Fire Dept. had the sidewall tear on a firestone tire that was on one of their ambulances. It was either responding to the call or going from the call to the hospital. If you want to know more about it I can probably make some calls, contact me via e-mail.

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Take care/Stay safe,

Joe E. Thomson
tttennis@corecomm.net
AOL IM: FireCadet613
ICQ# 30864971

May our thoughts and prayers forever be with the Worcester 6 and all our brothers and sisters who make the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

[ADSN/WFLD]

Wait a minute. Let's not get all wrapped up in the media hype over Firestone.

Fist of all the truck tires are made in an entirely different place than the car tires. They are also built slightly different.

As for the Fire Engineering article, This is probably the most irresponsible thing FE has done that I can remember. I just heard today that the tire that had the problem was a retread. (I heard it from an instructor during a state class I took) If FE looked into it they could have called it the Danger with Retreads.

Retreads do not belong on the front tires of ANY truck, especially a firetruck. The DOT only allows retreads on rear tires, and many people don't recommend them for fire apparatus at all.

As for the rest of the firestone hype, in one of the national news reports they showed a picture of a SUV rolled over and it had Goodyear tires. So don't get all worked up over Firestone. Actually after these problems they will probably make the best tires around to avoid additional scrutiny.

[Skip Nerney]

Addison, thanks for your response. I believe that retreads don't belong on any emergency vehicle. I agree, if what you say is true, then FE should have checked into it before printing the article. As I have found out from this discusion, Goodyear has had some problems too.

I guess the main point to be taken from the article is to have a plan if a failure of this kind should happen. Drivers take note.

Skip