Guest Training Bulletin

Captain John Chevalier from the Hope Jackson Fire Department in Scituate RI provided us with his thoughts on electrical equipment safety. John is a 20 + year fire service veteran who works with electrical generator equipment every day so I am fortunate to have his insight on this subject. Email responses can be sent in using the form below and I will forward them to John.

When is the last time your station trained on setting up and connecting your electrical equipment?
· Truck mounted generators and inverters
· Portable generators carried on apparatus
· Cord reels and junction boxes
· Extension cords and adapters
· Portable lighting
· Smoke ejectors
· Water vacs
· Any other electrical equipment


If you have a solid-state inverter on your rig for AC power, does it operate only dedicated loads or do you have receptacles on the truck for other things? If it is the former than it probably is sized correctly for the load connected. But if you can connect other things to it, do you know its size in Watts so you know what is the maximum load you can operate with it? Most of them are 1500 watts or less, they can power some lighting but most will not power the motors found on Smoke Ejectors. These motors require extra power to start them. Also keep in mind that these units are taking power from your rig's 12 VDC electrical system. Know ahead of time what you must do to operate the unit at full power. Some older trucks have heavily loaded 12 Volt systems with extra warning lights and such. You may have to shut down some lights or at the very least bring the truck up to a fast idle.

PTO operated generators usually are larger and do not take from truck's 12 Volt system. These are usually found on Heavy Rescues and Squad Trucks. Even with these you must know the units capacity. The better setups have Amp Meters mounted on a control panel to monitor the load. Find out what the maximum Full Load Amp rating is for you unit and have a Red-Line marked on your amp meter so you can see when approaching maximum load. This can be done with a permanent marker or even red tape.

Portable generators are pretty simple units, generally in the 3000 watt to 5000 watt range. Many are electric start off the truck battery. They need to be exercised weekly, check the gas and oil frequently. One very important item with these is ventilation. They are not normally designed to be operated in closed compartments. Whenever they are running compartment doors must be open and if they are on roll-out trays then roll them out for proper cooling of the engine and generator. These units take air in over the generator part, which blows it out over the engine for cooling. If you leave it in the compartment it will then be taking warm air off the engine and pulling it back over the generator again and again, heating it a little more each time until the unit finally overheats and, if you are lucky, shuts itself down. Or burns itself up!

Cords and Adapters - We all have collections of these, usually of every size and shape. The biggest problem here is standardization, or LACK OF IT! My own department at one time had what seemed like every size and shape plug made. We had 2 prong straight plugs, 3 prong straight, 15 amp twist-lock plugs, 20 amp twist locks, 2 wire twist, 3 wire twist, you name it. Standardize to one size for your Department. I suggest using 20 amp, 3 wire, twist-lock devices, but if the majority of the receptacles on your generators now are 15 amp then go with that. We did ours several years ago, using heavy duty nylon body plugs and connectors along with purchasing heavy-duty, 3-wire cord designed for use on construction sites. It cost us a few dollars but we have not regretted it one bit since. The extra cost of the heavy-duty cables is well worth it, after many years of use in all conditions of weather and abuse the cords are still in like new condition. With all the plugs being the same makes connecting equipment easy, even for the newest people, who usually end up doing the setup for this stuff.

You will need to make up some adapters; you will need adapters with 3 wire straight male plug on one end and 3 wire twist-lock female on other end to connect your locking plugs to outlets in houses. A couple of these on each truck should be plenty. Another handy adapter is just the opposite; twist-lock male and straight female, this would be for the times you may need to power something like an electric power tool, pump or water vac. Who knows, you may need to power up your communications center or something like that if there is a generator failure, we need to plan for all kinds of emergencies.

Twist-lock plug tip: Ever had trouble trying to plug in that twist lock plug in the dark, try this tip; one of the prongs is longer than the others and has a special tab on it (this is the ground connection), place a mark with either paint or permanent magic marker on the outside of the male plug next to this prong and a similar mark on any female receptacles or cord connectors. This mark must be a contrasting color (white on dark surface or black on light colored surface), it will be easily seen, even at night. Line up the marks and the plug will go right in first shot.

Smoke ejector tip: To make you set up time for smoke ejectors more efficient try this out; keep a short (25 or 30 ft.) cord coiled up on top of you ejectors along with an adapter to connect to a house receptacle and the ejector hanger bar held on with Velcro straps or a bungee cord. Now when two people grab the ejector and take it somewhere to set it up they have everything they need for most locations. Once in a while you may have to stretch a cord to a generator. This will save a lot of time wasted running back to the truck and searching for the cords needed.

Safety concern: whenever operating a power tool, pump or wet vac from your generators or truck make absolutely sure you either have Ground Fault Interrupter circuit breakers on your equipment or use inline GFI units sold for construction site use in the power cord. Your life depends on it and it is the law.

Reel Caution: Whenever electrical cords are coiled up and current is passed through the wire we have created a heater. This is not a serious problem if we have lightly loaded wire (large cable and small load) but if we are operating at near the capacity of the wire we can cause serious heating, even to the point of melting insulation and causing a fire! So with those portable cord reels with 14 gauge wire; if you are running a couple of smoke ejectors or several lights you may want to pull the remainder of the cord off the reel after you reach your destination. This also applies to the fixed cord reels on apparatus too if operating near the capacity of the reel. Another place this comes into play is in the station, many Departments use ceiling mounted cord reels for shorelines for trucks. Many of these are small size wire units designed for droplights; they can get pretty hot over time. Check it out sometime with your thermal imager.

Reel Identification: If you have a truck with more than one fix mounted cord reel save time some night by identifying the reels and the end of the cord (either plug or junction box) with a number. This way if more than one reel is in use you can tell them apart should you need to turn one on or off.

Explosion proof ejectors: Many of our smoke ejectors are equipped with "explosion proof" motors, which are designed to be used to ventilate combustible or flammable atmospheres. BE CAREFUL! The motors are designed for the atmosphere, but the plug connector usually mounted inches away is NOT designed to be plugged in or unplugged under power. The spark you create could ignite the atmosphere and cause an explosion! The correct procedure in these cases is start making all connections at the fan, turn the motor switch on and work your way back to the power source. Make your final plug in at the generator or truck (which is in a safe location I would hope) and then turn on the switch or breaker that supplies the outlet you used. (here is where numbering the cord reels and switches comes in handy).
Another safety tip is whenever you have to ventilate a building with a potentially dangerous mixture of gas; use Positive Pressure Ventilation. In other words, do not try to draw the gas mixture out of the building over your fans, set the fans up to blow fresh air into the area to dilute the mixture. This is much safer and actually more efficient.

Training: Now it is time to get everyone together and drill setting up lighting and ejectors and stuff. Go over all your different equipment and make sure everyone knows how it all operates. This means actually setting up ejector hangers and tripod lights etc. Use this time also to inspect and check your electrical equipment looking for loose connections, cuts in cables, broken plugs, wires pulled out and other problems. If you find any problems, tag the equipment and take it out of service until repaired. Electrical repairs must be left to trained people. If you have someone in your Department who is an electrician then maybe he is willing to take care of needed repairs.

If you do not have one, perhaps there is one in your district who might be willing to help you out at little or no cost.