Hard To Believe Somebody Could Steal A Fire Truck

[Henry]

East Dover Fire Truck Missing

"We didn't turn the lights on on this side of the station because we took the truck from the other side, so the lights were off here. It wasn't until we turned all the lights on that we noticed that it was gone," East Dover Fire Chief Jon Abel said. "I made a couple of phone calls-- first to guys who hadn't come on the call to say, you know, do you know where the rescue truck is?"

Heard one guy on TV saying that these trucks are keyless, however you really have to know what you are doing to get it started.  Also very strange nobody saw it driving down the road.

Read more by clicking on the following link:

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=13356777&Call=Email&Format=HTML

[HayesFXFD17]

Keyless trucks would indicate a fairly new piece of equipment either of the commercial or custom form.  The truck that was stolen was an F-Series Ford Chassis which would in all likelihood be a keyed ignition. 

This is probably the first time this has happened in VT so it is a major headline and shock.  The reality is that this type of thievery of fire apparatus, ambulances and even just equipment out these vehicles is a fairly common occurrence nation wide.  For those whom are involved in emergency services and regularly keep pace with web sites such as firehouse.com, these types of headlines are all too common.

I also love how channel 3 does a story with Rutland City Fire and career 24/7 staffed station.  It is not commonly the large staffed stations that are subject to this type of crime due to the fact there are personnel always there.  It is the smaller either all volunteer or combination departments where there is no full time staff present at the fire house.  However, to give the larger staffed departmens credit there was a fire engine stolen in Columbus, Ohio earlier this year while the on-duty crew was inside a grocery store purchasing items for diner.  The truck was left idling outside and stolen by a 16 year old.

[Dick Brown]

I have seen several Fire or Rescue trucks during the past few years at the local markets in Dade City or Zephyrhills whereby the personnel were inside purchasing supplies and have observed them usually locking ( or unlocking )the vehicle . My thoughts have been that it's a prudent action because someone could steal a small piece of equipment.....never entered my mind that the main worry could be that the truck itself might be stolen !!!!  On the other hand , if one is cynical about the nature of people, there is a market for anything that is stolen ( particularly in Florida ) so why not an Emergency Vehicle    ( if one is brazen enough )   As if our First Responders didn't have enough to deal with.   

[Mike Raburn]

Back in the early 90's when I was in FD on Naval Air Station and Naval Security Group, Adak, Alaska, our Pierce Arrow pumpers  started with two buttons pushed. No keys required.

Made good times moving the pumpers on opposite shift whilst they were at lunch at the chow hall. Good times......

[trussell]

(I KNEW this smelled of Raburn)

[Thor]

One of the consequences to this is that, there was/is, a fire department not having an emergency vehicle and the equipment associated with it for their use in the event of an emergency. However, there is another thought as well. For a number of years now, al Qaeda (AQ) and a number of other terrorist organizations have used stolen emergency response vehicles as Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED's). Their procedure was to set off a small device, enough to kill / wound 25 or 30 people, and cause a "scene". Whereby, the first responders, good samaritans and on-lookers would arrive. Who would stop a fire truck or ambulance enroute to an incident? How close can a rescue vehicle get to the epicenter of onlookers un-noticed? Then the driver either self detonates or leaves the truck and it is command detonated. Just food for thought. One vehicle stolen, probably no big deal if it is recovered. A rash of vehicles stolen or attempts, and then it may be pointing to something else. And we haven't had a rash of this activity, although after reading these posts, I realized this was happening "more than once". This fire truck was dumped at a bus station. So they got it back with everything intact. That would lead you to believe that it was quite obviously not terror related. But we cannot take that for granted. Situational awareness is key to prevention.