Priceville Volunteer Fire Department

Our job, here at Priceville Fire Department, is to help the community.  Now, we are asking for some help from the community.  Lately, we have had a rash of incidents where people have run over our fire hoses.  It doesn't matter, whether big or small, filled with water or empty, PLEASE DO NOT DRIVE OVER OUR FIRE HOSES!  You will need to find another path around our hose... otherwise you are stuck where you are located until we are done.

To give an example, we recently had a house fire where three sections of our hose were run over.  The hose itself can cost around $700 per section ($2100 possibly ruined after this fire).  Even if the hose doesn't appear to be damaged, we still have to send it out to be inspected (more $$$) to ensure it won't rupture on us in the future.  If you do run our hose over, it is likely we will be asking for your insurance information to bill you for the damages (maybe for a brand-new hose if it damaged beyond reasonable repair).  Another way you can be charged for damages is via a police citation.  A ticket, with court costs, can run near $200.  Finally, if that is not convincing enough, there is a possibility you could injure, or even kill, our teams fighting the fire if you rupture the hose as that water is what keeps them alive inside of a fire.


Here is an analogy that can put this into perspective:  While driving our fire trucks we run into your car.  Do you forgive us and not ask us to pay to fix your car?  Unless you are the nicest millionaire on earth, the likely answer is going to be "No!"  You rely on the car to fulfill some function for you and you weren't the cause of its damage.  The same philosophy goes for us.  If you run over the hose, you can possibly damage it... this can hurt firefighters... it will take the hose out of service until it can be tested... this leaves a truck short of hose to help someone in the event of a fire... and it would have cost us money we should put into serving you, the community, in a better way.


If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.  Below are the links to the Alabama Driver's Handbook and the the state law about not driving over a fire hose.  Thanks, in advance, for your assistance, and please be safe out there!


Driver's Handbook (link to .pdf file) (.pdf file page 67, book page 65)
FOLLOWING EMERGENCY VEHICLES
Only vehicles on necessary official business are permitted to follow within 500 feet of emergency vehicles on an emergency run. Don’t drive over an unprotected fire hose unless authorized to do so by a police officer or fire department official.

Alabama State Law (Section 32-5A-59)
Crossing fire hose.
No vehicle shall be driven over any unprotected hose of a fire department when laid down on any street, private road or driveway to be used at any fire or alarm of fire, without the consent of the fire department official or police officer in command.

(Acts 1980, No. 80-434, p. 604, §11-110.)

The Priceville Fire Department would like to thank Nucor Steel Decatur for their recent donations.  Their donation comes in two parts.  First, they offered to pick up the bill to fill the cascade air system.  Second, they offered us their fire extinguisher training system.  What does all of this mean?  Keep reading and you will know. 

While fighting a fire, we wear air cylinders on our back to provide us with clean air.  They are called Self Contained Breathing Apparatuses, or SCBAs for short.  They are like SCUBA tanks, but for firefighting.  Anyway, when the fire is out and we head to the station, we need to refill those cylinders.  We have two options available, a large air compressor or something called a cascade system.  Air compressors are very expensive ($30,000+ for base units) and not really feasible for small fire departments.  With the cascade system, we use a series of large cylinders with high pressure air to refill the SCBAs.  We pay NAFECO to use their compressor to fill those large cylinders when they get low (costs much, much less).  This is the service that Nucor offered to cover for us.  A special thanks to Maryemily Slate, their Cold Mill Plant Manager, and Chad Potter, their Controller, for making this donation possible.

The second donation is in the form of training equipment.  Fire extinguishers are usually the first line of defense in any fire.  A poorly used fire extinguisher is as bad as not using one at all.  Nucor teaches its employees how to use fire extinguishers with the BullEx Live Fire Training System.  Nucor has offered this training system to us to make us more proficient with fire extinguishers.  Special thanks go to Nucor's Safety Coordinator, George Stephenson, for his wonderful donation.

Priceville Fire Department cannot give enough thanks to Maryemily, Chad, George, and the entire Nucor team for your gracious donations.  This makes it possible for us to continue protecting our community.