East Coast Staffing/West Coast Staffing?

[EricCSU]

Hello everyone. I heard another firefighter in my area talk about what it would take to get a department to East Coast Staffing (hiring x amount of firefighters) and West Coast Staffing (hiring x amount of firefighters. East Coast was more than West Coast, but I don't remember exact numbers. Just so you know, this department runs four on the truck and rescue and 3 on the engines. I never got the chance to ask him, so maybe you can help. What is East Coast Staffing and West Coast Staffing?

Eric

[CALFFBOU]

Well, I am not the official Rep. for the West Coast, but
in CA, it is pretty typical to see 3 people on an
engine and truck.

[SafetyPro]

Originally posted by CALFFBOU
Well, I am not the official Rep. for the West Coast, but
in CA, it is pretty typical to see 3 people on an
engine and truck.

I'd agree. In our area, most of the smaller FDs do run 4 on each engine or truck, but LA County pretty much runs 3 on an engine (not sure about their trucks). Also not sure exactly what LAFD's staffing level is, but they run their truck companies as a two unit (tiller and engine) "light force" staffed (I believe) with 4...FF/driver, FF/tillerman and Captain on the truck and Engineer on the engine. There may be a 5th FF on the engine...not sure.

We try to run 4 on an engine and 5 on our truck (its a tiller). We'll occasionally go with 3 on an engine and 4 (very rarely 3) on the truck. We had a small exterior fire tonight, and we ran a 4-man engine and a 4-man truck.

[lrrlti]

L.A. City Has 5 members on their Truck Company's, or more, Their Engine's Have 4, or more. Their Rescues I'me not sure, but I think two, Their heavy Rescues Im not sure on the numbers but, there's a bunch of guys.

[Adze39]

I think it's mostly dependant on the size of the FD.

The larger paid FDs around here run 4+ and the smaller ones tend to run 3 (and sometimes fewer).