162 & 864 Wet Down

On Saturday Engine 162 and Grafton's Engine 864 were ceremonially put into service at Firemen's Park. The event was hosted by the Thiensville FD.

Harvest Fest

The weekend was relatively slow at the Clubhouse. A few house keeping items got done and a lot of sports were watched. The weekend however was ended with a fatal traffic crash at the intersection of Wauwatosa Rd. and Sherman Rd.. More on the crash can be seen on the local news websites. Overall it was quiet.

A thing called ERV

Well with school starting and the beginning of the football season summer can be declared over. So it's a good time to look back and ponder on what got accomplished at the Clubhouse this summer. For starters many calls have been run out of the station 51 this year about 20 of those came during the summer maybe more. Engine 162 was put together and put into service in four weeks. Engine 163 spent 13 hours in Cudahy
AND... ERV was completed.
The Emergency Response Vehicle was conceived out of the jealousy of Thiensvilles Kuboda. Now some may say that's a little harsh but it is true. Once we all saw Thiensvilles rig we wanted our own. So after many years (about 2) of trying to get a Kuboda just as a joke a deputy Chief found a used Cushman first responder vehicle on craigslist and proposed the idea. However, this idea was taken further then a joke and the price was right $1600. So the membership voted to purchase and effectively resurrect this golf cart for no more then $5000. To get the cart running $700 in batteries was purchased. After spending the beginning of June with the antiques and begin run around the Headquarters complex ERV was taken to Station 2. On the 28th of June the tear down of ERV began. Everything was taken off to be repainted or replaced. Remind you this was Strawberry Fest weekend, the same weekend 162 was put together. After a few weeks of sitting and parts being shipped to different locations the work began again. The frame was grounded, converted, and painted. The picture below shows the finished frame. Around this time we decided to pick an arbitrary date for ERV to be finished which was August 25th.

Once the frame was done the body was ready to go on after being painted professionally.

Picture taken on August 3.
Once the body was on reassembly went quickly. The front was put back on along with the metal rear bumper and metal deck. After the deck and front were put on the windshield and roof columns were reattached. Then the roof and roof rack was mounted. The custom seats came in and were mounted. The stainless steel was polished and mounted with the headlights. The large cabinet and the extinguisher was then mounted next. The front bumper came in and the was mounted after that. By this time the vehicle looked like this.(August 23)

This was the major part of the project but a few things were missing. Like most of the lights. After a few nights of wiring and lifetimes worth of profanities ERV lit up like a paperclip stuck into a wall plug. Picture on August 25th.

At this point the major part of the work was gone and only a few minor things need to be done. On the 26th and 27th the cart was lettered. A few days later the last of the things that could be done were done and we declared ERV done. (September 2nd)

The picture below is the whiteboard which gave us inspiration to get done on time along with a few compliments by the higher powers.

The ERV was taken back to the headquarter complex and shown to the membership at the September business meeting. It's first assignment was on September 11th at the varsity football game. At the game it was actually use for what it was designed to be used for to carry someone injured off the field.

Facts:

Formerly of Delphi

Scheduled to be finished in the winter (HA!)

Top Speed: 2 MPH uphill; 10 MPH Flat; 15 downhill

Seats 3 and 1 laying

Hours working on it: 200+ with ease through the efforts of many

Cost to taxpayer: $0

Primary functions:

Take patients from areas inaccessible to the rescue squads to an accessible location.

Examples: Strawberry Fest, Forth of July, Football games, Harvest Fest, Interurban Trail

As a side note to all those that believed nothing ever got done at Station N0. 2 or bad things were happening there let this summer prove that the Clubhouse Gang busy doing meaningful work and are not causing trouble.

(sorry for any grammer mistakes but it's late)

Fire in Northwest

A report of a garage fire was called to dispatch Monday night. First responding units arrived on scene to find smoke coming out of the building. The fire was quickly extinguished after crews arrived. The house and garage were cleared of smoke.