Originally Posted by
SafeWNY
It's not even about that - the equipment that is needed for any piece of fire apparatus is unreal. A typical chief's vehicle has, at minimum, the following:
Removable equipment:
*set of turnout gear with helmet
*Self Contained Breathing Apparatus
*EMS Bag
*Oxygen cylinder
*Defibrillator
*Clipboard
*Emergency Response Binder
Installed Equipment
*Lightbar
*Siren
*Light Control Box
*Siren Control Box
*Fire Radio (at least 1 - depending on the company)
*Portable Radio Charger
The volunteer fire service is designed to have chiefs act as the initial responders so that the incident can be assessed and management of the incident started while the rest of the volunteers man the apparatus. In years past, the chief's used their private vehicles (and still do in a lot of cases) and essentially ruined their vehicles. Plus, the insurance company had a nasty habit of either jacking the rates or cancelling the insurance of anyone who was found to be using their vehicle in that capacity.
Now before anyone says that paid fire services don't have a chief as the first responder, the major difference is that a paid engine or rescue company will have a senior ranking member on the 1st in unit, who acts as the Incident Commander prior to the arrival of someone of higher rank.