GRFD adds smaller, quicker vehicles

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - By the end of this year, three traditional engines will sit idle in Grand Rapids fire stations. They'll be replaced with four pickup-style trucks with some high-tech firefighting capabilities.

The three vehicles plus a training unit cost taxpayers $800,000 -- money that came from a voter-approved income tax hike in 2010. The money, set to run out in 2014, is supposed to fund changes that will make city government more cost-effective.

These new-generation fire trucks use technology that mixes compressed air, foam and water. It makes a foamy substance that penetrates burning materials and cools the superheated air four times faster than the water used by firefighters for centuries.

Grand Rapids firefighters are practicing with a training unit. The actual rigs -- called Quick Response Vehicles (QRV) -- will be red and look like a regular fire engine built on a Dodge commercial chassis. They will cost about half of what the big rigs cost.

The QRVs will potentially save wear and tear on the larger engines, and go from three firefighters on a full-size rig to two on the QRVs. They'll also take over on medical calls.

Fire officials are confident the taxpayer money is being well spent.

"Really, the writing's somewhat on the wall that eventually we'll have less people," said Deputy Fire Chief Gerard Salatka. "But we're trying to explore ways how we do our job more efficiently and get off of a scene quicker so that we're able to respond to more calls."

Union leaders aren't as confident. They believe in the QRVs, but still say manpower is needed if something goes wrong.

"They put out fire. It is a technology that does work," said Grand Rapids Firefighter Union President Bill Smith.

But the gamble with your tax dollars, according to critics like Smith, is the ability of a smaller, big city fire department to handle the jobs that come their way.

"We're an all-hazards fire department. We respond to a variety of things," said Smith. "But the technology is not going to replace boots on the ground."

But the way GRFD officials look at the future, a fire engine that can put out small fires quicker could alleviate crew shortages.

"What we're trying to do with this technology is to make us more efficient so that perhaps we're not tied up as long on a scene," said Salatka.

There has been no final decisions on manning of the units.

Once training is over, the units will be deployed at three fire stations during a trial run. Crews will evaluate their capabilities under real emergency situations.