Stations/Apparatus #'s

[One13Truck]

I started this topic a while back on the Firehouse forum and it got a good response. Seeing a lot of people on here with names that have to so with something at their department I figured it's worth a try to start it here too.

What unit #'s does your apparatus/stations have?

Why do they have those #'s? Is it a county designed system? Totally random? Mutual aid dictated? Did your Chief just happen to like the #5 back in 1970 when the new Engine or Truck came in?

Like I said I've seen some very interesting and various answers to those questions. It was always interesting to read the replies and see what works better than what we have, what was too confusing for my simple mind, and what ones I was surprised didn't cause mass confusion on fire grounds but worked for the people that used it.
If the mods want to move this to a place they'd think it's more suited just PM me after it's moved so I know where it went.

[Deuce Engine]

My volunteer department is Station 2 in a county that has five stations. We have Engine 2, Tanker 2, Rescue 2 (heavy rescue), EMS 2, Brush 2, and Car 2 (chief's vehicle). The other stations in the county are also done the same way. All five stations are dispatched by the county, and share all of the same freq's.

At work, it's the exact same thing. The apparatus type followed by the station it comes from. "Engine 12, Engine 16, Truck 12, Battalion 1, the house fire...."

If we go mutual aid into a surrounding county/city, we just put our county name in front of the apparatus designation. IE: "[county name] Engine 8 to [mutual aid dept] Dispatch..."

Things in Virginia are a little more simple to follow than in PA, where I've heard of a single county having 200+ departments!

[One13Truck]

Gotta love Pa. So many departments, the land where "bigger doesn't always mean better". LOL I don't think we hit 200 departments but being pressed for time tonight I didn't stop to try and count. It'd easily be 150 at least I'd say. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll have the half hour to an hour to be able to sort it all out and get it posted. And I won't even begin to get into the 75-100+ Station 1's and 2's we have in the county. Nowhere near enough time tonight.

[38-3]

My station is New Creek VFD out of Mineral County West Virginia. Our station # is 38, and we have 11 fire depts and 3 seperate ambulance companies. My station runs mutial aid into mainly 2 other counties, but occasionally 4.

Our unit #'s are designated in the old way. Engines are #'d like 11-19 Tankers 20-29, utilities 30-39, rescues are 40-49, ladders are 50-59, brush are 60-69, ambulances 70-79 and specialty units are 80-89.

My dept has 1 engine, 2 engine/tankers, 1 tanker, 1 air cascade, 1 brush unit, and 1 rapid response unit. #'s are 38-11 - 38-12 - 38-13 - 38-20 - 38-30 - 38-61 - 38-80.

[One13Truck]

Little late but let's see, there will be a quiz on this at the end, try and follow along.... The COUNTY designated goes like this: Ems units are 1-84 some still in service, some long out of service, some were NEVER in service but were given #'s just in case... Some (Like Hazleton City) have 2 #'s HCA is Unit's 17 and 18. Other's got 1 #, ours is 11A & B. The North East part of the state had each county go ALS with different #'s, ours was 300's, another 400's, another 5, 6, 7 etc.... As time went on We now only have Medic 303 left and all the rest are Medic 2 through 25. Some serve specific towns, others are private companies and have large areas and multiple #'s. Some others like Plains are Medic 2 on ALS calls and Unit 57 on BLS calls. Fire Dept's are #'s in the 100's and units go E-1, Truck-1, chiefs are F-1, etc. SOme other departments are on a "special list" and have a rescue given a 200 . 28 of those and they go 201-228. Therefore if you go by the County given #'s which only @ 30-40% of the county does we would be Station 172. Engines 172-1,172-2, Ladder 172, Rescue 172, Units 11A & B, and 172 F-1, F-2, F-3, and F-4 would be our Chiefs. Some mutual aids in the county use county #'s, other's use a combined system, 3 others incluing ours use their own systems that we "converted" the county to because they were used pre-911 and that's what we wanted to keep. I won't get into the others but ours the stations end in 0, engines end in 1 or 2.... rescues and trucks 3, ems end in 4 and 5, chiefs 6, 7, 8, and 9. There are eceptions to the rule (Cascade 33, Rescue 137, Cascade 139, Rescue 87) but mostly it stays to that system. Therefor the ones we use daily We're Station 10, E-11, E12, A14, A15, Rescue 15 (kept it's name when we bought a rescue, previously the rescue was a rescue/ambulance thus the 15), and Ladder 113 which should be 13 but at the time the highest station # was 90 and 113 was picked over 13 because of the luck superstitions. :o

All total with the departments using the free for all we're working on our current dispatch channels becoming talk back only and going to a single channel dispatch but currently have "narrowed down" things to using 13 channels for day to day dispatches and traffic. There's too many Station 1's and 2's to count but offhand there's 6 Station 3's, 4 Station 4's, 4 Station 5's, 3 Station 6's, 2 Station 10's, 2 Station 20's, 2 Station 21's, 3 Station 30's, 2 Station 31's, 3 Station 71's, 2 Station 81's, 2 Station 91's, 2 Station 101's, 2 Station 120's, 2 Station 130's, 2 Station 131's, 2 Station 132's, 2 Station 140's, 2 Station 141's, 2 Station 142's, 2 Station 150's, 2 Station 151's, 2 Station 152's, 2 Station 160's, and 2 Station 170's. I think I got them all, I won't even START on the repeated fire-ems unit #'s. :rolleyes:

Like I said it's a mess but it's our mess and somehow it works even though we're probably arguably the busiest county in the state outside of the greater Philly and Pittsburgh areas. Part of this is to see what else is out there that might work good for us since we're trying to put together some different proposals to work with 911 and with the field units to create 1 big county # system and get rid of all the double #'s. The biggest sticking point is the county wants to include PD with it as well and PD wants nothing to do with it.

[Ghetto FF]

One13Truck,

Im going to have a few drinks and re-read your last post and see if I understand it then. LOL.

[One13Truck]

WE don't even understand it half the time and we have to live with it. And people are fighting to keep what we have in place now, the 911 center is firing the high management because the Comm Center turned into an even bigger mess than it already was, the CAD's always crash, multiple minutes delay in dispatches (reaching double didgits at times), horrible info given on patients/locations that's never right, the radio system is halfway done with an overhaul that may or may not ever get finished..... I LOVE Pa. Land of ZERO progress!!!! LOL

Simplified cause we all know alcohol is bad. LOL

Station 10, E-11, E12, L113, R15, A14, A15, Chiefs 16,17,18, and 19. Better? LOL