Why Erving Leaves Fire Department Testing For Professionals
With life-threatening situations only a phone call away, firefighters have to be ready in a pinch — and so does their equipment. Erving Fire Department decided to leave Fire Department testing for Professionals. Annual testing, as outlined in National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) guidelines, helps ensure hoses, ladders, pumps and other equipment will work safely and effectively when firefighters need them.
At one time, fire department personnel in Erving, Massachusetts, performed required hose testing in-house. On a good day (barring any emergency calls), they could test hose from one truck or apparatus in a day. With about 4,000 feet of hose and five pieces of apparatus, it would take roughly a week to complete in-house testing for the Erving fleet.
In 2017, however, the Erving Fire Department decided to outsource hose and ground ladder testing to FailSafe, which is now part of the Industrial Inspection & Analysis (IIA) family. Testing that would previously have taken about a week when performed in house is now completed in a single day. In fact, IIA can test up to 20,000 feet of hose per day.
“With IIA, my entire fleet gets done in one day,” says Chief Philip Wonkka. “If anything fails during the test, they mark it, set it aside, and replace it with spares. They test everything on our trucks and provide a very nice report to track it all. It’s really hands-off for us.”
Outsourcing your testing can dramatically reduce fleet downtime, which is particularly important for smaller fire departments like Erving. And when you turn over testing to professionals, your firefighters have one less thing to worry about and more time to focus on serving their community.
As Chief Wonkka says: “It gives me peace of mind to know that at least once a year our equipment gets thoroughly tested, so when we do need it, I don’t have to be concerned about equipment failure.”
He readily recommends IIA and has high praise for the blend of skill and service our technicians bring to the job.
“The crews at IIA are great to work with – very polite and professional. We can’t pack the hose as well as they do because that’s what they do every day. They leave the trucks looking very nice,” says Chief Wonkka. “The crews from IIA do an amazing job. I am very impressed with the professionalism they display in ensuring that we are 100% ready to perform our tasks when they complete theirs.”
Learn more about IIA Fire Services.
