Lynn, Revere fire chiefs: New equipment crucial to avoiding accidents, injuries

LYNN – Last Friday’s deadly fire truck accident in Boston underscores the need to modernize front-line firefighting equipment, said two local chiefs Monday.
The Lynn Fire Department operates nine trucks built by E-1, the same manufacturer that built the Boston ladder truck involved in Friday’s building crash. That truck was 19-years-old and two Lynn ladders were made in 1994 and 1995.
Acting Fire Chief James Carritte said a new Pierce-built engine truck is slated to be delivered to the department in about eight weeks. Carritte also has a long-range plan for replacing aging engine trucks every three years and ladders every six.
“When the City Council passed the budget in June, I told them I’d probably approach them for funding for a new ladder this year,” Carritte said.
Aging equipment and a growing truck maintenance budget prompted Revere Fire Chief Eugene Doherty in 2002 to urge Mayor Thomas Ambrosino to look for money to buy new fire trucks.
“He understood the implications of not doing so,” Doherty said.
The city took delivery of two new engines and a ladder truck this year. The new deliveries make the average age of Revere’s fleet five years.
“We’re very fortunate,” he said.
Carritte said icy street conditions, not equipment problems, caused last week’s accidents involving two Lynn engines.
The Boston Firefighters Union wants the state inspection unit to go through the city’s aging fleet.
Ladder 15 suddenly sped out of control when a turbocharger failed and flooded the engine Sunday. On Friday, Ladder 26 apparently careened out of control and crashed into a high-rise building, killing Lt. Kevin Kelley. Another firefighter aboard suffered a broken leg and two others received minor injuries.
Ed Kelly, president of Local 718, on Sunday said the union will ask Gov. Deval Patrick to order a state inspection of the aging equipment, saying the danger to firefighters is too grave to ignore.
Kelly said the city has fire-fighting apparatus on the street that’s older than some of the firefighters on the job.
The union will send a formal request to the governor’s office on Monday to request that state inspectors assess the city’s fire vehicles, Kelly said.
His call came on the day the president of a North Attleborough repair shop said his company replaced a worn brake hose on Ladder 26, but spotted nothing during an inspection of the truck that could have explained why it apparently careened out of control crashed into a Mission Park building, killing a 52-year-old father and a 30-year veteran of the Boston Fire Department.
Timothy O’Neill, president of Greenwood Emergency Vehicles, said Ladder 26 was brought in for an annual ladder inspection in September. He said most of the repairs were associated with the truck’s aerial ladder components.
He said the shop doesn’t perform routine brake services on Boston fire trucks, but did replace the worn brake hose, which was spotted during the inspection. Brake problems are being looked at as one possible explanation for the accident.
“When you have something in house and there’s an obvious need and it’s a quick fix, you do it,” he said in an interview Sunday. The replacement of the brake hose cost just over $200.
O’Neill said the shop completed a more extensive repair list than usual, because the fire commissioner has asked the shop to perform needed repairs and maintenance on vehicles in the fleet that have been long overdue.
He also said Ladder 26 was in his shop on two other occasions between the September inspection and Friday’s accident. One was to repair a faulty electrical connection on the aerial ladder system in November. The other was to repair damage minor body damage that occurred during an accident in December.
He said inspectors at his shop were the last to do a full inspection on the truck and saw nothing that could have explained Friday’s crash.
“What happened Friday ? something like that is obviously totally unforeseeable,” he said. “I only wish we could h