Hi Charlie, a common misconception is that European cities, because of their age, are cyclist and pedestrian friendly. But most cities in the 1950's and 1960's experienced the same car-boom as the US did. So our roads got adapted to car traffic. Canals got filled in to create more road space for cars etc. Harbours got filled in to create parking lots. In The Netherlands there was a turn-around in the 1970's due to the high fatality among children on bicycles. So that's when the whole bicycle lane development and road re-design started. And it didn't happen all overnight. Each time a road was due some sort of upgrade, for example new sewer or drainage system, or new water mains or gas mains etc, they'd redesign the road to be more safe for cyclists and pedestrians.
I'm FInnish. Bike lanes did not exist in the 70s and 80s. When i went to school i had to balance myself on a 40cm width shoulder, and in the winter i had to drive on deep grooves made by cars, and then hopping to the snowbank to let cars pass. And ALL kids cycled.. So, it was not even because there were no cyclists back then, they have always been significant part of commuting here. Now i can hop on my bike and do the same trip by not having to cross a single road. I can get to the other side of town by crossing couple of intersections, from about 8km distance there are dedicated, separate bikepaths for 7 of them. And we STILL get the "what the fuck are these bikelanes in the center of the town, they make everything worse"... Just recently we converted one block so that it has wide pedestrian path, and bikepath, taking up one parking lane. The old sidewalk was from the 1800s, you could not fit two people walking side by side on it, especially making winter maintenance stupidly difficult.. And what was the first reply i see? "How are they going to plow that?".. when looking at wide pedestrian/bikepath in the pic.... It is like some people just shut down their rationally thinking brain when ever cars are inconvenienced in anyway.. One of the main things i have had to explain, time and time again is how closing one of the streets made traffic BETTER for all... they need to be reminded what kind of a huge traffic jam it was every single day, until they closed that one bit of road, forcing car drivers to use the four lanes bypasses. When you close a street or even install a speedbump it IS deliberately making it less convenient to use that road/street, so that we can redirect traffic elsewhere. Those who need to use those streets will still use them, but everyone who doesn't have to, goes around. It is not rocket science, it makes so much sense but for some reason the general public just can't figure those things. They ALWAYS complain first.
@@Jesse_IDG Ancient :-P I was born in the 1970's. In the city of Groningen the Westerhaven got filled in, and the names Gedempte Zuiderdiep en Gedempte Kattendiep already mention in their name that they're filled in canals. The Herestraat in the city of Groningen is the second-oldest pedestrianised street in The Netherlands. It used to have trams, busses, cars etc driving through until sometime in the 1970's. The city of Groningen had a very progressive city council at the time and that's when the Traffic Circulation Plan for the city centre was designed and implemented, with dividing the city centre into quarters that couldn't be reached directly from one to the other by car. Cars would need to go back to the canal ring and then drive around to enter a different quarter, but pedestrians and cyclists could directly cross the city centre from quarter to quarter. This plan is still in effect today.
@@Jesse_IDGin Bergen op Zoom we had a big parking lot called “De Gedempte Haven” because that’s exactly what it was. (They’ve since partially opened it again, though it’s no longer a harbour, just a waterway.)
@@weerwolfproductionsSimilar things happened in Utrecht, now a renowned bicycle city. All squares in the city were parking lots until well into the 1970s. Since the 1920s some streets in the city centre were widened to accommodate more traffic. In the 1960s there were plans to turn all the canals surrounding the old town into a highway, so people could easily access the old town by car… Thankfully only one side was turned into a road, which is now a canal again. A small harbour near that canal was turned into a road too. A whole neighbourhood was demolished to make room for a mall, which would be reachable by both the train station and that highway. Even nowadays, when everyone can agree bicycle infrastructure is necessary and we need to implement things to keep cyclists and pedestrians safe from speeding cars etc, whenever a new plan is presented that negatively impacts cars some people will protest. My father is an avid cyclist, but whenever he’s in the car and sees a speed bump he deems unnecessary he says it’s just the municipality bullying drivers.
it is not that US cities were made for the cars, they were bulldozed for the car. LA, one of the most car dependent cities in the US, with among the worst traffic used to have the largest electrified tram system in the world, which used to cover most of the greater LA area, and then in the 50-60s we bulldozed it, and thousands of houses for the highways.
Also some fire departments and fire stations in Europe are starting a new trend were they dedicate a special technical support vehicle that is equipped with tools that firefighters use for technical interventions, like car crashes, people stuck in elevators etc.
Not sure what you call 'new'. But when I joined the firebrigade 35 years ago, those cars/trucks were already in use. Exactly for the purpose you mentioned.
Well, for us in Southern Europe (i.e. Serbia, Bosnia) that's a new concept, because our firefighter packed everything in a one firetruck (i.e. the equipment for putting out fire and car accidents / elevator rescue).
In The Netherlands you can also come across a firedepartment car towing a trailer with a rubber dinghy on it. That truck will have diving gear - some firedepartments in The Netherlands have a Dive Team in case something happens around a canal or river.
The argument against roundabouts is insane we have smaller roundabouts in Europe too we just build them so larger vehicles can drive over them carefully because sometimes we need bigger than normal equipment moved too.
Not to forget the ones with an extra "lane" right across the middle that's bordered off somehow and only to be used by oversized transports (the ones that _can't_ make small turns like those wind turbine rotor transports of 70-120m length). Just install poles that can be retracted remotely (not just a few meters away with a remote from the vehicle, but from some central planning location that knows "Ah, these emergency vehicles have just reported that they'll be going down this route, let's clear the roundabouts for them")
I have driven the large American semi truck and sometimes I would prefer a roundabout especially in a manual semi. as long as the people around my truck know how to use a roundabout which is the main problem in American know knows how to use roundabouts.
It's similar to the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests that US police still insist on using... They're more dangerous for the officers, more dangerous for the driver being tested, and more dangerous for passers-by who get distracted by the spectacle. Meanwhile in most of the rest of the world we've been using objectively more accurate roadside breath testing units for more than 40 years now.
just curious, are you talking about breathalyzers? those have been standard here for as long as I remember. they usually still do the field tests but are supposed to do both. either that or take the person in for a legal blood draw.
@@memer_gaming121 That's where Europe and probably the rest of the world are different yet again. I was a police-officer over here in the Netherlands and the portable breathalyzer was used as an indication. If the driver blew an F(ail), he would be arrested on the spot, transported to a police-station that had a far more accurate stationary breathalyzer and would be penalized according to the results of that second test. Refusing to cooperate would be an instant fail and as we called it "going for the bonus", because DA's sure did love drivers who refused to cooperate. Walking a straight line or balancing tests are all subjective and would be thrown out in a court of law if the suspect had a somewhat competent lawyer.
@@tjroelsma exactly, Czech Republic here, 0% blood alcohol tolerance policy, you blew, you lost Drivers licence for 3 years + ticket + you must do drivers licence again + psychotests.
99% of the time field sobriety tests is not for seeing if someone is sober or not, it is because a majority of police departments only allow a breathalyzer test if the person has not drank any alcohol within 20-30 minutes, and they cant trust a person to say if they did or did not drink, so to be able to not poison the evidence they need to have a way to keep a suspect under direct supervision and not drinking for 20-30 minutes and field sobriety tests are a good way to do that.
There's alas always someone that will claim the US is sooo special that nothing any other country does can be implemented, or even adapted, the only thing that makes the US really special is that "No-can-do attitude". It's sad.
I mean it make sense : the USA is TeH BeSt, thus maybe some things in the USA are bad, but it mean that obviously, other countries can't do better. Or no other countries have the same issues at all of course becaues the USA is special.
Another important argument why it's bad that fire engines are so big and heavy. It unnecessarily burdens the road surface. Which causes even more damage such as puttholes etc etc
Please look up the ratio and use of the same roads by Commercial vehicles in the same class/weight and add on to that number the amount of heavy equipment used on those same roads VS the number of fire apparatus nationally combined. FYI for every one Fire apparatus there are between 50 and 100 commercial vehicles in the same weight class and 20 -40 heavy equipment uses per every FA. Add in the fact that Fire apparatus are not on the same road surface with the same frequency as those commercial vehicles. This whole video is very misinformative and misleading on so many points and on others outright lies to fit this original content creators bias and lack of knowledge. Example "lets look at a challenge between an American Fire Truck at one of its military airports and see how it does against a local fire truck" which completely ignores several important differences like the thirty thousand gallon tank of water the American truck has to carry by law and that it is a modified Airport/ari craft fire suppression vehicle not just a typical local fire engine which has smaller tires and weighs about three tons less cause it has no internal; water tank. Deliberately disingenuousness point blank period.
@@jericho1-4 wow you made no real point and hid it in some random comment lol didn't even ask or explain why it's the law, just said it was without questioning it, missed the point of flexibility of smaller trucks versus the larger truck, didn't ask why americans use such large trucks and rigs in the first place for commercial use and if they should be using that at all and how it compares to their international counterparts or anything lmao you thought you were making a point
@@bui3415 I did you just missed it, What I did was show how the comparison of road use by The American FD apparatus vs commercial vehicles of the same or heavier weight class is a factor in road surface degradation by time spent on said road surfaces. As to the laws of which fire suppression vehicles are required for airports that covers both American civilian and military airports and American Air bases abroad which this law applies to is one that comes at the behest of the fire services themselves be it civilian or military, as a member of the fire service why would I question us being given the tools we need to do the job. Even in other countries they have laws about which fire apparatus they can purchase for their needs. Every country has it's own fire codes as they relate to structures, and which apparatus is best to use in any given situation. Take England for example, a few years back they had a residential tower block fire and were caught completely off guard and lacked the ladder and tower trucks that would of given them the fighting chance to save more lifes but that was just one instance in the differences between them and other Fire services internationally. They opted for the smaller apparatus which also carries less personnel vs their American counterparts as their ladders couldn't reach even 75% the distance to the upper floors the American apparatus could but their roads are centuries old in some sections so it makes more sense and efficiency for them to have those apparatus until a tragedy like that tower block fire happens. That is something the Americans face with a lot more frequency regrettably. As for the Apparatus comparison shown I was pointing out how the video tried to make a false equivalency argument by having a specialized fire apparatus which has a specified application compete with a civilian standardized local fire service vehicle that would only give mutual aid support to an airport fire apparatus if called upon by highlighting the difference in vehicle specs and application of said apparatus.
What about those cement trucks? They must really beat the sh*t out of the roads! As for potholes, I suggest that the city stops putting down salt on the road when it snow since that causes potholes. LOL
I think part of the reason we're not following the example of our European friends is that idea of American supremacy. People in the US look at the emergency vehicles of Europe and Asia and laugh, when in reality, those vehicles are vastly more efficient workhorses, while ours are just big and heavy. I'm all about efficiency. I didn't realize our roads were built to accommodate the fire trucks rather than the fire trucks being built with more common sense. It's totally ridiculous.
I am pretty sure, several Americans would scream "efficiency is communism!" (or "gay" or "woke" or whatever their current word for "too complicate for as three year old's mind" is)…
Yeah, I always see a lot of Americans say “That won’t work here, the US is different.” Bicycle paths? Nah, because Americans are all contractors who need a pickup truck for their jobs, which are hours away. There’s always an excuse to keep change from happening, which can always be summarised as “There is no country like the US, so what works in other countries won’t work here.”
@@DanDanDoe Yes they allways say that "You don't need to travel 23 hours to visit family in a different state". Like they do that travel every week, or if it would not be able to solve with a train or plane... They allways come with the size of the country, like they travel through everyday.
@@lixon1501 It's even more ironic when you realize that on average Americans owns more cars per household than Europeans... but somehow the idea of owning a small efficient car for moving around town and owning a truck or a comfortable sedan for their heavy duty work (if any) is somehow alien to (most of) them. And they you see them flabberghasted when they see a video of an European station-wagon hauling a trailer.
But what they don't get is how big our apparatus is for a reason. A lot of times these trucks go onto the freeway, acting as blocker units. There is also the need for a rescue company which is the longest truck you could find out there, but all of those compartments are used efficiently... who cares... we don't need to change a single thing about our rigs in America.
Same here in Ireland as well. And we have both fire ambulances/first responder units which are red and the usual yellow hospital ambulance ones as well.
Austria also has first responders and even emergency doctors with their own small vehicles that can arrive at a bad emergency quickly and give assistance to the ambulance personnal and even give professional care similar to a hospital setting if its truly urgent.
It is a myth that European cities are pedestrian friendly because they are old. It is a recent trend. Up to 1973 things were very much built for the cars.
It's not really a myth. It's more like 'true*' with the asterisk leading to a footnote saying 'if they weren't rebuilt to be car-centric after WW2'. Where the original street plan was retained they *are* extremely pedestrian friendly, because they were laid out for pedestrians almost exclusively and there's just not enough space to fit enough cars for there to be traffic. Note also that this can lead to cities that are simultaneously extremely pedestrian friendly *and* super-hostile to pedestrians with terrible traffic. For example, if you ever go to Canterbury in the UK, the town centre inside the city walls is extremely walkable and mostly preserves the medieval street plan. There's access for vehicles along some of the high street, but that's more or less access only; delivering to shops, dropping off market stalls and the like. Meanwhile, the entire thing is ringed on three sides by a four or six lane dual carriageway, and the more modern road system leading outwards from the town on the other side of it is all exclusively car focused and probably the sort of place I would go to if I were a very depressed cyclist that actively wanted to be smeared into a pulp.
@@mdt105 A lot of them were rebuilt during the 70s to be more car-friendly, but in the 80s and onwards, many cities went back on that, made things pedestrian- and bike-friendly again, and found better solutions to traffic.
The center of Rotterdam was destroyed in WWII and was rebuilt in a car-friendly manner after the war. But in the 80s the realization came that it was not right. They changed it again and now they have a pretty good pedestrian friendly center.
@@mdt105in the 60s American engineers were brought in to Europe in order to remodel cities for cars, buildings and other urban spaces were destroyed to make space to large roads, just like American cities which had up until then grown around trains and were pedestrian friendly. The difference is that Europeans realized this was ruining their cities and reverted the process while the Americas doubled down on the process. The only real difference is that Europeans identified the problem and took charge to fix it, while Americans find excuses and keep making matters even worse.
@@StefandeG67 and one more thing: Cities, which were "rebuild for the car" after the war like Rotterdam or Hannover had huge space to build wide bike lanes everywhere - cities, which weren't destroyed however have to constantly fight for each inch of space and have a lot more problems adding bike lanes. And very recently I found an even more impressive example: Wolfsburg, the home of Volkswagen and basically "build BY the car industry" (and with the same design standards) is now also adding bike lanes almost everywhere.
@@ItsCharlieVest Hello Charlie. Among the reactions is one bull crap reacter with the moniker name 'Alte Kameraden' ('old comrades') . Alte Kameraden is the term german SS veterans use among each other , after the war. And it is also used by Neo Nazis. I reported it to YT, but it will problably remain visible. The use of this name is a gros insult to me. My old man and some uncles had to do forced labour in Germany during the war and my mother saw pass a lot of skin bone people walking 100s of kms for some food during the 1945 Dutch hunger winter. I am sure you don't like this kind of middlefinger name insults . If YT doesn't I hope you will remove this asshole .
@@ItsCharlieVest Actually, there might actually be something to that argument. US building materials are very different to UK and some EU building materials. So the fires might actually be different. It doesn't excuse any of the stupid nonsense of sending a fire truck to a medical emergency, or the truck size. But the fires might actually be different 🤔🤔
@@stephenlee5929 the usa is also bigger than Europe and phase more flatout roads than like the UK its a small tight packed country and needs a smaller firetruck where as the us is bigger and has huge buildings where it may need the huge long ladder trucks to reach higher buildings. i seen a few videos on like why the USA likes there helmets better than say Europeans plus there really isn't the budget for every fire department to have new tech expecally when in places like newyourk where there getting there budget cut over and over agin.
European ladders have a rescue hight of 23 m at 12m away from the base of the ladder, so they are actually around 30m long (~100ft). And the trucks are shorter than the American version.
@@david_stein But the European Ladder Trucks have a crew of two. In NYC, the FDNY Ladder Trucks ride with a crew of six. Therefore, the truck must accommodate more people and more equipment.
Some years ago, I made a scale model of a UK fire engine. Some fire departments used them on a scale map to check possible routes around their area. That way, they would know what route to take to get to certain places.
@@MrShadow1617 . I made a number of vehicles, all at a scale of 1:150. I would imagine they only used maps of the particularly more difficult areas, side streets etc. With architectural modelling, sections of ordinance survey maps were often enlarged to the appropriate scale when building the baseboards.
@@grahvis I recently saw a video of a new Fire Truck from Rosenbauer with active rear wheel steering, which would make the truck even more maneuverable. They are fully electric ... which is something I dont really trust for durability of the batteries ... so there are things to prove, but the rear wheel steering is something american trucks dont even have (unless it is one of those GIANT LADDER trucks where a person has to do the steering in the back.
Not to mention the wear and tear these trucks are experiencing on a regular basis, so when they're needed, the truck has thousands of additional run-time hours, and is often worn-down/has some "quirks" or "moods" as they call them, rather than being a pristine, new, hardly used vehicle that performs optimally all the time. Instead, they are being treated as a casual, everyday vehicle, which does not command/receive the same level of maintenance/scrutiny over it's being in perfect shape, as, in their minds, it just has to get them from point A to point B 96.1% of the time, so that's all they consider regarding the truck. No thought of how well the hose winder is spinning or anything else until the rare occasion when it's needed, and by then...
Australia uses the smaller (though lets be real, they are still quite large) fire trucks like Europe does (mostly Isuzu, Scania, and Volvo), now with the added bonus of being fitted out with fire protection systems that spray water over and around the outside of the truck, key components of the trucks have fire resistant covers, and the trucks are fitted with heat shields, all to protect the truck and crew if they're caught in a bushfire burn over.
Australia has practical fire trucks too. Our National and International Airport Fire Trucks are massive, but hey, they're on an airfield controlled by the ATC of when and where they can go lol.
Sounds familiar ! The dedicated Airport Firetrucks here in The Netherlands are huge as well, but they'll never leave the Airport to begin with ! So yeah, every rule has it's own exception I guess ;-) Small Fire trucks in general and huge firetrucks on the Airports!
Every major airport and even military air base has a dedicated fire department because they need lots of unique equipment on very short notice if there's an incident and while these forces train to coordinate with local fire departments their vehicles equipment and procedures are very different and highly specialized.
A few years ago, there was an excersize with simulated a crashed KC-130. The crash-tender from the nearby airbase had no trouble driving over European streets designed for trailer trucks.
@@Aimless6 Trust me I drove heavy recovery trucks designed and built in Europe and there are plenty of problems with such a vehicle. Routes you cannot use bridges you can't go over or under and every drivers nightmare a wrong turn you have to reverse back out of because the truck just won't fit.
@@dutchyjhomeYes but they are not fully controlled by ATC. It depends on where they are and where they’re going and if they are a priority vehicle. On a list with traffic priorities, they are second (once they become a priority vehicle), after aircraft that takeoff or land but only if it’s a source of conflict.
Not just Europe - Japan and many parts of the far East inc Vietnam and China have bikes and pedestrian cities, with small fire trucks. Why is the US way of thinking "Big and Bigger is Better"?
I wish I knew. As an American all I can say is I wish we'd follow the rest of the world on this (and a lot of other things aside). I despise driving, I'd love to have good public transportation and pedestrian-friendly design around here.
@@ericmoll1530 I do believe that at least 40% of Americans feel the same as you, but as the corp and gov only seeks profit, you will never ever be heard. Maybe as the younger gen becomes your new Gov and the elderly retires from power, then it may change, but not an till these oldies with their old ways and principles gets out of office.
@@ericmoll1530 "Bigger is better" is good for CONSUMERISM, because those bigger american fire trucks probably cost A LOT more than the moderately sized european ones. VW built "small, SIMPLE and reliable" cars until ~2000, when they started making every new generation of car bigger[1] and around 2000 the company was semi-broke until a clever manager started changing the car design from "simple" to "luxury", i.e. MORE AND MORE EXTRAS which you would get "for free" (not really), but the base price of the car increased significantly. [1] A "VW Polo" used to be smaller than a "VW Golf", but now the newer generations of Polo are as big as a Golf was "back in the days" while the Golf is as big as a Passat/even bigger than one now. I have a VW Passat from '87 with a weight of ~1 ton (empty) and we have a VW Golf Plus from ~2007 with a weight of ~1,5 tons (empty). The newer car is decidedly WORSE than the older, because it has far too many round bits, which makes it less capable of carrying loads.
But really whats wrong with some Americans? And not the average citizens. Literally protesting against any improvement and they are the leaders of the given community… not requesting new emergency vehicles- and funds for them instead.
@@inferior_Cawl_Inferior That's the point ... LOBBYING GROUPS are spreading PROPAGANDA ... and since americans live in a religious society they easily BELIEVE EVERYTHING THEY ARE TOLD. "Religious" isnt limited to christianity, because feminism, BLM and rainbow ideology are also religions that are based upon "listen and BELIEVE". This makes americans INCAPABLE OF INDEPENDENT THOUGHT and especially CRITICISM OF AUTHORITIES.
www.youtube.com/@BrandweerLunteren TH-cam channel for everybody who loves firefighters. A small Dutch fire station in Lunteren in The Netherlands makes a video every week, with English subtitles. Just with bodycams and a drone. Not to create excitement, but to document the volunteer firefighter from pager alarm to back in the station. Watch the engine in detail, how they communicate everything. ENJOY!
It is always about money. In USA firetrucks are part of the insular markets, where few companies rule the WHOLE scene. Firetrucks are made by few companies and they haven't had to innovate in decades. Same with US trucks, the way the industry has been protected from competition has made it so that US trucks are at least 10 years behind the progress, if not more. They are worse, use more fuel, can't carry as much load, have less power, have WAY less features that have been standard in Europe for a decade. But, it makes profit without any R&D, and companies do not give a fuck about what is best for the society or the people in it. Trying to suggest removing some of those protections and voters will be up in arms for "taking away our jobs". It is a gridlock. Doing the right thing WILL take away some jobs. Jobs that should not exist, from companies that do not deserve their market share.
My province in The Netherlands has a company called Ziegler that builds custom emergency vehicles on existing chassis. They build mostly fire trucks / fire engines. There are several of those companies. So first there is the building of the actual truck / vehicle to standard in the normal factory. And then there's several of these custom outfitter factories that completely overhaul such a truck and put in everything that's needed. So there's no actual loss of jobs. Just shifting it. And this allows for more competition and innovation since you have the diverse offering in Europe of car manufacturors, and then the different custom outfitters.
@@weerwolfproductions And most European countries favor some national truck company to provide the chassis, but it is always open competition to provide the best solution, if the national manufacturer is unable to do it, we will buy it from Germany, France.. even Japan. It forces the national companies to keep up. In Finland firetruck chassis are usually Sisu, Scania or Volvo, ambulances are from all over the world. And yes, i know Scania and Volvo are not Finnish but Nordic made stuff takes the priority, there is such a long tradition with those brands too. But none of them can rely being the only choice, they have to compete. A bit off topic, but while i have about 50/50 opinion about EU becoming a federation, this is one of the reasons why each country being totally independent works better. Sure, we have TONS of parallel development but it also makes the market work better. The best products win. When it comes to firetrucks, being close to the factory is a big deal, economically but also when it comes to supply chain and having direct impact on the design via close feedback.
Rosenbauer has a "fully electric" fire truck with REAR WHEEL STEERING ... which can do both "better maneuverability" AND "crab walking sideways" (~20° angle, not 90° like a real crab), so maneuverability can get MUCH better.
A friend of mine was a firefighter. I remember him telling about the tendency of firefighters around the world visiting any fire station they could when travelling to other countries. He told me about how amazed US based firefighters are about how Belgian (and in general European) firefighters can manage to do their jobs given our cities are so different: narrow streets, bike lanes, pedestrian areas etc. They’d also be amazed at our ‘tiny’ fire trucks. Then they’d discover our plethora of emergency vehicles, the differences in how our emergency numbers handle calls, the differences in how our emergency services respond, the (to them) seamless cooperation between fire departments, EMT services and police, how road users are taught to immediately move away to form a free emergency lane’ whenever they hear a siren, and things would start to click. My friend said there are good and bad things in both systems. But he sure was glad he was a firefighter in little old Belgium.
steering rear axles is still a thing hardly implemented in the US. its perfect for long trailers and those huge fire trucks. same with air bags on the trailer . here in europe we have a remote in the cab we can use to raise and lower everything. would specially be useful in the US since you still havent realized elevated railway crossings is a bad idea.
I had never really thought about it but while I often see fire dept. ambulances and paramedics on the roads - their vehicles are red so obviously not usual ambulances - you don't see the fire engines very often and when you do they tend to have blue lights flashing and the occupants will be dressing themselves in their fire fighting gear. I mean, I'm in Ireland so it wasn't something I'd ever thought about but now you're mentioning it, the ambulances/emergency response cars are far more often seen than anything else, and I have a fire station just down the road from me.
Imagine a family member of yours _dies,_ because your local firefighters arrive 4 minutes and 30 seconds too late, because they _insist_ on bringing their small-peepee truck to every emergency and are _too dumb_ to learn how to use a roundabout. It's infantile and beyond infuriating.
You call emergency number you specify whats the problem, they send proper response, you dont just say come fast and they send 10 vehicles to rescue a cat . Here our Fire Department music video ... Finnish Fire Truck Light Show 2019 3 min 45 sec YT clip
If they're sending a fire engine, best bet that there is an ambulance is on the way. If the fire engine gets there first, that means that the next available ambulance is too far away but there is one coming. If ONLY a firetruck arrives, that means either dispatch messed up or someone who called didnt give the right info. There is a lot that goes on in the background of these decisions. Not every truck is ginormous. Not every EMS system brings firetrucks to each call. It's dependent on staffing and many other things.
You've done it. You really found a way to talk bad about firefighters. "Small peepee truck" is absolutely unhinged. I hope you never nerf to avail yourself of their services.
Many stations have more than one truck. You might have smaller fire engines then a tanker at the station to carry the bulk of the water. Depends on the department and their ideas. We have small trucks from utility vehicles to large ladder trucks and even smaller ladder trucks.
Comparing American and European fire and emergency response is really Apple and oranges. The buildings , infrastructure are very different and require different tactics. There are many places where they don’t have water everywhere and have to bring thousands of gallons. The us also can’t run smaller trucks due to everything they have to do now, yes fighting fire is a small % but you still require the tools on the apparatus. The argument about brining the big truck only on the small % of calls is not realistic. Pretty much every fire department is understaffed and if you bring the smaller truck but you get there and need the big one you’re kinda screwed. Also most fire departments run EMS and having an engine respond before the ambulance not only lowers response time but decreases injuries to the ambulance crew by having more hands to lift and carry. There’s a reason why things are the way they are and from an uneducated eye it looks unnecessary but everything has a purpose.
As Pole I will tell you how Fire Departments look in Poland. Firstly EMS is totally other organistation called Państwowe Ratownictwo Medyczne (National Medical Service), their have their own bases around whole the country, PRM ISN'T connected with Fire Deparments. Our ambulances are smaller than american, they fit very well in narrow roads. National Fire Deparments (Państwowa Straż Pożarna) are equipped mostly in trucks dedicated to fire fightning (they usually have a 1000 gallons of water but they can be bigger for example 2400 gallons) and technical rescue (have elementary equipment for technical rescue), also every fire station have own ladder truck. Some Fire Stations have their specialization (chemical and biological rescue, high rescue, water rescue, medical rescue [very rare], technical rescue [for exaples cranes for trucks [you can see them if you type Rotator Państwowa Straż Pożarna in google]], search and rescue group [useful in case of construction disaster). We also have Voulunteer Fire Departments but they work similar as in the USA.
Even the ambulances in the USA have gotten bigger / FATTER over the decades, just watch "Cannonball Run" and you will see what I mean. It might be a consequence of the population getting TOO FAT to fit into a small ambulance in case of an emergency. Nowadays their ambulances are big boxes on the back of a truck ... although many of our german ambulances are following that style.
@@Muck006 als ich einmal in Berlin war, sah ich einen S-Krankenwagen und muss ich sagen, der war ja groß. Aber alle deutsche RTW sind im Vergleich zu polnischen viel größer. Schau dir mal im Netz wie klein polnische RTW sind, ich weiß nicht was wäre, wenn ein schwarzer Patient transportiert werden muss
Hey, The firefighters in Europe also have different types of gear and clothes. In US the firefighters have to take of their helmet to put on the airmask. If I speak for the Dutch firefighters, they put the airmask on the helmet. The Netherlands has a thing for emergency vehicles who are driving to a traffic light. When an emergency vehicle with priority drives to a intersection with an traffic light, the system detect there is a emergency vehicle approaching. It gives green from the direction it comes from or give red for everyone so the emergency vehicle can bypass on the opposite road. (not all traffic lights has this, but some on important roads does)
"sorry I'm pausing alot" no no, please... do give your input it is far more better than some "partners" that just munch on chips, suck on bucket o' soda's and just nod silently. Getting your input is going to be more fruitful because I prefer to have various peoples input when watching reaction videos than to constantly see someone have "watch alongs" react videos give much more input.
If a graph goes down, and then there is a moderate blip up: it is not rising, it is plateauing and what you see is most likely just regular noise, little variations in the numbers that do go up and down a bit randomly. We need more data points to conclude it is rising, first instinct when see those is that it is leveling off. There is going to be some minimum when it comes to pedestrian deaths no matter really what you do policy wise..
What about the semi trucks that need to use the same roadways? Our semi trucks are just as wide and sometimes just as long as these fire trucks. Semi trucks need to be able to deliver and pick up their freight in these same cities that are opposing, keeping the roadways wide enough to maneuver.
1:48 - One thing to keep in mind about the pedestrian fatalities, is that those are absolute numbers. It doesn't take anything else into account, like size of the population (higher in the EU) or number of pedestrian miles travelled each year. I may be mistaken, but considering how widespread public transportation is in the EU compared to the US, as well as how pedestrian unfriendly large swaths of the US seems to be, I would be surprised if the pedestrian miles travelled in the EU does not massively surpass the US. My point is, that even around 2010, when the US hit its low and the EU saw more deaths, I would be surprised if the EU wasn't safer for pedestrians simply because of how much more time people in the EU are likely to spend as pedestrians.
Due to the number of EMS calls and the horrible abuse of the system first responder firefighters are needed. The problem is that the big fire truck is needed for the big fire which could occur while they crew is out on on an EMS call. Also, not all fire alarms are false. It's better to show up prepared for a fire and be able to handle it immediately. Fire doubles in size every 30 seconds if left unchecked. Plus at a flow rate of 400 gallons per minute 1000 gallons will last less than 3 minutes.
like shown in the clip, the problem with not fitting the streets is the engine/truck size and other cars on those streets... Some shouldn't even be on the streets as they or their driver are not even 'road legal' Parked cars can get out of the way by parking in a garage (multi level if needed, maybe even 'hidden' by a beautiful facade) -that's an extra lane to drive on When planning streets they could also choose to make just 1 lane wider* or have a small divider road strip between lanes** 'for emergency use only' (this includes: Police 🚓, Ambulance 🚑 and Fire Department 🚒) *** Of course there's still the problem with entitled/dumb people ignoring laws/rules or what should be common sense or just bloody obvious -they should get ticketed, traffic cams should be enough evidence for that *= that means the other smaller lanes would have their usual traffic calming effect, the tighter the lane the more alert you get as you feel less safe (5inches of space either side is still safe enough, you don't need a foot either side) **= just to accommodate the extra width when the truck needs to blast by ***= or something like that, but keeping it free of 'normal' traffic maybe use as bus lanes too, but those should than have an easy way to 'unblock' the road for the Emergency vehicle
Forget about ticketting such drivers - tow such cars ASAP, since five minutes after it was parked there, _some_ emergency vehicle might need to pass right there. People will stop parking there _very_ quickly, believe me... (especially since, as someone put it rather bluntly, "fees means 'legal for rich people'")
@@Wolf-ln1ml Tickets can work if high enough, boots are the worst solution though as the car can't move at all... But yeah, Towing would be a good determent if it can be done clean and fast (like actually using a (heavy duty) crane and possibility to take on more then one car/truck/bus) And if it doesn't get retrieved by the owner auction them off to help fund the changes
@@Wrecker3D I doubt it'd be necessary to tow more than one car at a time except maybe early on. But yep, of course, if they don't get picked up, the next auction to empty out the impound yard will come sooner or later ;D
Some European cities are purchasing fire trucks that steer front and rear. This means that these vehicles can take much tighter turns and still fit through narrow streets.
The EMS system of America developed much different from Europe - Ambulances prior to the middle 1970's did not have EMTs - they were just a ride to the hospital in a funeral home coach most of the time. Around that time because every city had plenty of fire stations, they tasked the Firefighters with learning how to provide medical care, then an offshoot of that was Ambulances staffed with EMT's - the Wedsworth-Townsend Act started it in California, so that's why you still see fire trucks responding first - they will typically get there a few minutes - or much more - before the Ambulance can. There are far fewer Ambulances generally than Fire apparatus & firefighters. It's a house of cards they built - Europe has a much better idea with Motorbike and SUV EMT's for rapid 1st response. It;s definitely a system that needs to be seperated.
10:25. A lot of fire departments around our agency are dual role fire/ EMS system employing FF/PMs to staff ambulances and suppression rigs. Our engines & trucks are Advanced Life Support and carry a Zoll X series cardiac monitor, drug box, advanced airway bags, etc if the front line medic is out of service or tied up on a run we will send a 2-4 man ALS engine to start pr care first while awaiting a second medic rig to transport. The engine will also chase the medic rig for manpower for higher acuity EMS runs depending on the nature
I have a question for Americans to answer. If there's an arson attack on a house or building and the occupants are severely burned who pays for their medical treatment, especially if they don't have medical insurance. You don't object to using your taxes to pay for the fire department to put the fire out or the police to investigate the crime but what about the care of the victims?
@@Jose.AFT.Saddul Not completely true. In an emergency situation your hospital stay is covered and if you have insurance some gets recovered from that. Additionally there are programs that can help people with lower incomes cover their medical costs. You will never have a situation where a person dies because they couldn't pay.
@@RCLapCar I don't think any of what you wrote addresses or counters what Jose wrote...? He didn't say anything about people dying because they couldn't pay, all he said is that if you're not insured (or your isurance doesn't cover the treatment), you go into debt that you have to pay off over time.
@@Wolf-ln1ml So it all depends. Depending on the situation, some hospitals will bill insurance. If they cannot, it'll go to the patient. The reason the hospitals' bills are so high is because they know that the insurance won't pay it all but they're trying to get as much as they can as they eat the cost of people that don't pay. When it comes down to the people themselves that get billed, you pay what you can and talk to the financial people at the hospital. They'll either write it off or get it down so low that its much easier to pay off.
@@Jose.AFT.Saddul "Which you can slowly pay off." If you're lucky and have a good job, and can still perform after being hospitalized, and they don't just get rid of you because you're a liability (legality is irrelevant). If you were scraping by before the accident you're screwed and will likely never escape that debt.
I'm in a fairly rural town in Ireland, I've seen at least 6 defibs, public defibs, around the town and I know there are more out in the housing estates. There's even one in a local burial ground and all the public buildings have one. Actually, now I think about it there must be more than 6, I'd say into double figures. Heck, most of the large shops have one - as in supermarkets - by the entrance and the multi story carparks all have at least one as well.
Okay? And? Not every country uses an own-country vehicle company. Besides, UK uses a lot of different companies for fire engines and trucks; Volvo, Scania, Mercedes, they're all used around the country for fire vehicles. Police cars range from BMW's to Mercedes Vans to Vauxhall(aka Opel) Insignias, to Ford Focus and Ford Fiestas. UK does the smart thing where each emergency service for each county picks and chooses whatever vehicles they think are best for their area and for the job they need the vehicle to do. Picking vehicles entirely because they'd be "British" is just stupid and unnecessary, and countries who do that really are just shooting themselves in their foot and limiting their options for no good reason.
@@Perseus7567I think you misread the intention of this comment. This was more of a "I recognize that truck because it was made in Sweden" and probably maybe "Proud our Swedish trucks are used by UK/ used as an example of why they're better than American" if you wanna look deep into one sentence comment. But in no way it is "Haha you said UK truck but it's actually Swedish haha"
If you only need that truck once a year, you can send ahead the police and clear the street (both sides) to have it drive through. If it's only once a year, it will be fine.
@@jodocusonbenul I didnt missed anything. And I know they are never needed, but it is al they have. BTW een uitgebreide reactie van mij is verdwenen. Of ik heb niet op enter gedrukt.
Bike lanes won't solve the problem. American drivers are taught to' pull to the right for sirens and lights'. If fd uses bike lane, u run the risk of cars pulling into u
In Germany, fire trucks are limited by most building codes to 10m (32 ft) in length and 16t in weight, with a turning circle of 16m for older trucks and down to 12m for the modern ones with rear steering axle. And yes, they are just as good as American fire trucks. E.g., the standard ladder is 30 m, which is about 96 ft., same as American ones.
Oh and the empty compartments: we got a nee engine last year and it still has empty compartments. Of course they were planned empty, but would usually get used for fancy things we got at a later time and usually when we need to repair something or get a different model of tool that is a different size or so they need to shift stuff inside the compartments from one place to another, so we "protect" the empty spaces if possible. Honestly, some of the stuff we have is not really needed, but we want it or it was needed at some point in time😂 years ago. All in all, I think US Fireservices, go smaller. Smaller trucks and engines crawl and seep into the farthest corner of your town or city. And roundabouts are a fun thing.
One thing that was briefly mentioned but not really talked on is EMS tends to be part of the health care system, not the Fire Rescue services. Certainly the case in the UK. So medical issues can be done by paramedic first responders and ambulances - not fire trucks. Like NJB said, you'll way more ambulances and police cars than fire trucks usually.
Here in Brazil they're split. Health care ambulances (called SAMU) will respond to basically anything that doesn't require rescuing, but Fire Departments also operate ambulances for rescue operations (so, car crashes, drowning, etc). You very, very, very rarely see fire trucks actually being used.
9:15 Funny how over here in Germany one US Fire-truck is split into like 3 smaller units with a higher degree of specialization between them. And even more special situations equipment like hazmat is by now most commonly handled by a Roller container and Truck combo, much higher flexibility compared to more rigid box trucks used before.
Yes that is true, although the concept of container/truck combo is also declining by now, for example in my city we used to have some trucks ("swap body vehicle"? Wechselladerfahrzeug or WLF in German) where you could load different containers and troughs, the containers were specialized for incident command, hoses, breathing protection, ABC (atomic/biological/chemical), medical service and some others. Now we got some new vehicles that have one of these specialties installed permanently, they are now called Gerätewagen or GW-X ("tool vehicle")
@@einflinkeswiesel2695 Ich denk mal die Fahrzeug Wahl und Spezialisierung ist sehr abhängig von den Bedingungen innerhalb der Gemeinde und angesiedelten Unternehmen.
@@HrLBolle ja klar, das ist ein Vorteil des Föderalismus, dass jede Kommune da eigene Entscheidungen treffen kann, bei uns sind die entsprechenden alten Abrollbehälter auch alle noch vorhanden, werden aber nur noch in zweiter Reihe vorgehalten, falls sie durch erhöhtes Einsatzaufkommen oder Reparaturen an den GWs trotzdem benötigt werden, auf den WLFs sind seitdem standardmäßig einfach Schuttmulden aufgeladen
Here in Vienna, Austria, there are dedicated parking spaces specifically reserved for Firetrucks, mostly on like a shopping street, where there normally would only be a general loading zones.
A few notes on sending a fire truck , on emergencies here in Arizona ambulance services are not required to have paramedics. Also on the upward trend on roadway deaths isn’t necessarily about speed , distracted driving started an upward trend a few years before and became very common cause of accidents by 2012 . there is also a upward trend on DUI accidents. Today there are more texting accidents, but dui accidents still cause more deaths. Also as you noticed the compartments we empty on the us trucks . Where are the hoses ? U.S. fire trucks generally store internationally. In the back taking up space more in length from the back . I do believe that some more specialized vehicles would work better. About roundabouts. That a sticky thing here in Arizona . Folks don’t slow down. So bad that several have been removed. They were given the name of idiot sticks , if we could learn to use them they would be great. Joy only criticism of his video not just suggesting a better way but his heavy handed criticism leaves many folks becoming defensive without analyzing the evidence presented.
19:51 chile also has american apparatus but their fire truck fleet is a mix of european and american trucks. I have a feeling they did that because the american ones do carry more water and from the vids I've seen they are typically stationed in the cities but they went with European trucks as well cause they maneuver better. Interesting take Edit: 21:22 oh fire trucks from the Netherlands or any European country where they use martin horns as the trucks main siren are LOUD very loud. And can be heard much farther away then the ones shown here.
nobody mentioned it is impossible for us firefighter departments to order eu style trucks. That would lead to massive costs to develope cab over styled trucks. The US has a import tax on EU produced trucks (or something like that). So long as cabovers are not widley produced in the states it unlikley the US will have smaller firetrucks. Its a way bigger problem then betrayed in the video.
Trying to blame just the fire department is odd, especially with the huge trucking industry and even bus systems for some areas. Other big cities overseas have different types of railways rather whether that be trains or light rails or subways so they have a designated space. The US just sends truckers absolutely everywhere, and buissnesses they deliver to can be in the middle of nowhere or more residential too, and they have to make those turns to get goods and supplies where they're supposed to be.
16:00 a majority of the stuff on a euro engine is on top of a American engine (hose) we also have larger diameter hose than them in longer lengths for example 1,000 feet of 4-5 inch supply hose (or 300+ meters for the euros) on top of that there’s usually 2-4 200 foot (60 ish meters) attack lines and usually about 400 feet of smaller supply lines. Whatever is left over is on the inside of the engine
Those ladder trucks must be area dependant. I've never seen one in person. Granted fire departments near me have tractors with plows to stop field fires. (I have lived in big cities too, just never seen one)
From the comments on the original video, the problem is so bad that: "The problem is European trucks aren't available in the US. Rosebauer used to sell some, but no longer do, and they don't have a stellar quality reputation, so many departments are reluctant to take the plunge."
A large issue is traditions. Take a look at how it is with traditional leather helmets vs the euro style. While the euro style has statics to prove its design can be safer for the responder wearing it. Tradition keeps most fire companies and departments from switching. Also Most Rural Volunteer companies have members that are in their 70's to 80's and often hold a majority voting power within said companies. And around here Company officers, both for the emergency response side and the day to day operations side are elected by the company members. Making it impossible for younger members to get into these seats to push and make changes
I love how my city was the first one insulted yet there are others with the same trucks that drive worse -.- Most of the BIG trucks are big because they hold water, you need alot of water in Baltimore we send engines to calls, the only time you see those Tiller trucks (The ones that look like a Tractor trailer) is when they go to get stuff for the station, equipment runs or theres actually a fire As far as Baltimore pushing back we have to deal with Virginia, they wanted to make 2 lane roads 1 lane go have a bike lane that would rarely get used we have plenty of bike lanes that are rarely used, even downtown we had share bikes and bike lanes they went unused DC has plenty of bike lanes along with some towns in PA but you rarely see bikes because most people that have bikes also have cars
The only thing I did not like about the original video is that the guy keeps quoting USA statistics, but then keeps referring to 'North America'. Canada (where I'm from) and Mexico are VERY different places from the USA, and I hate that we are all lumped in together. I also don't like that the EU is all lumped in together. There are very different laws in all three North American countries, and very different needs. The laws between countries in the EU are also different. For example, 6-8 months of the year, an emergency motorcycle is useless on snowy streets in Canada- though it is an excellent idea. Canada and USA have a lot of extremely rural areas compared to the EU, and you need to carry water with you to wildfires, or the firefighting team is hampered.
By the way here in germany on a highway, widely known as the Autobahn, as soon as the traffic gets really slow, or stops entirely you have to leave a lane open, by law, for emergency vehicles. Not doing that or exploiting said emergency lane would result in you not being allowed to drive a vehicle for a couple of months or in hard cases where it can be proven that because of you the emergency vehicle took dramatically longer to arrive can land you in jail aswell.
A HUGE difference between the USA and Europe: *there are NO FIRE HYDRANTS littering the streets in europe, because there are designated "water provision connections" on the ground ... and the fire trucks have the connector that just gets screwed in there to become the hydrant.*
The disadvantage of these underground hydrants is that it is even easier for cars to block them by parking over them or sometimes (that happened in my city) when the street is repaired, the workers put asphalt on the lid and you loose access completely
2:50 Typical US cities have so wide streets that you could split the lanes into two and use one half for pedestrians and bicyclist and have one *narrow* lane for the cars. Then reduce the speed limit to make it safe for everybody. That would instantly result in safer street with good lanes for pedestrians and bicyclists. Yes, it would give *less priority* to passanger cars but those people are sitting in air conditioned bubble so they can drive a little slower just fine. And emergency vehicles can run on the bike lanes if needed, as demonstrated in this video, too. Look up some videos about Oulu, Finland, where they intentionally give priority to bicyclists and pedestrian traffic. As in, cars have signs to yield to light traffic *on every intersection.* The the passanger car drivers could be mildly inconvinienced everywhere!
for your understanding of the first graph. No it will not rise again, proably. the great downfall at the end, for the european graph, is the corona dip. Cause less trafic in 2020, there are less pedestrian Fatalaties. Since there were 2021 also corona restriction the number is 2021 lower then 2022. But even then they do not go back to the pre corona level, they are 1k fatalities lower in comparison pre corona.
The sharp drop and subsequent rise in the traffic fatalities in Europe around 2019 were being caused by the covid-19 pandemic lockdown. The moment the lockdown was lifted the volume of traffic normalized thus the number of accidents increased.
Shoot where I live most of the FDs in the out County areas have the Custom or 4 door commercial chassis. In some of those areas, these truck usually were still have only one or two operating due to lack of manpower (ie volunteers). Which for Tankers/Tenders built on these chassis isn't to much problem, but when you sending Engine/Pumpers/Wagons and Ladder Trucks with one or two seems little over the top.
The ‘veiligheidsregio haaglanden’ (the Hague and surrounding cities) definitely uses them. Possibly also Amsterdam, but im not too sure about that. They are mainly used for small incidents, but also carry an AED. They are also really useful for getting to the scene fast and to get an indication of how much personnel and equipment is necessary.
I'm a Paramedic in the US, and there are some things that are left out this video. The ambulance is still sent, but there are situations where having extra people are needed. Ambulances are also an expensive resource and need to be allocated by need. I don't necessarily disagree with the overall point of the video, but also know this is a more complex issue than this video makes it out to be.
These situations obviously also exist in Europe and when that happens, the Ambulance crew can just reach out to the dispatcher via radio and call for assistance. But most of the time, the two people from the ambulance are enough to deal with the patient
Dunno where you live, but in my town there are tat least 8 or 9 intersections where NOT 2, but 3, or 4 roads converge at the same spot (all good locations for car accidents, which...guess where those tend to happen), and a paper mill. The paper mill ya you're forgiven that a fire truck and an ambulance is sent out because if it gets real, it gets real QUICK, and there are some folk that do really need help. We have an OLD (from the 1970's at LEAST) ladder, and a pumper of roughly the same age, 3 ambulances, a brand new pumper, a trailer for water rescue (we have a relatively large river that splits town in half, not as large as other river bodies, but a good 60-70ft wide), another pumper, and SUV, and a pick-up...and lemme tell ya, most of them get used. All 3 ambulances, and 1 pumper the lil' SUV, and pick-up get used the most. If I had to guess, it's the ambulances that get the most mileage. Something that the pumper I see often has ambulances don't is the Jaws. With large vehicles now getting into accidents with smaller, older vehicles, being able to extract a victim has become common place. There's also probably a host of other stuff but still...Our FD also is the largest in my region. Serving 2 or more settlements without an FD presence, and assisting smaller volunteer fire departments. My town has recently started and are currently in the middle of expanding the fire station to have another 3 bays. If they hold Rescue's (those are trucks that hold everything for car accidents, and other calls, or HAZMAT (trucks that handle, you guessed it HAZMAT), who knows. And for those of us who don't benefit from an almost continent long ocean to the south, and an ocean exclusively to the west, motorcycles in Winter? You best be taking some kind of medication. They wont be use if the first responder hits black ice & wipes out. Also, what this guy fails to mention at 14:29 is that we also do use commercial truck chassis too. MACK, Western Star/Freightliner(same parent company), Peterbilt/Kenworth(same parent company), International,and some other brands have standard truck chassis that have been modified to be fire trucks. In-fact, Freightliner, and International truck cabs are used for some of the long-nose school buses. Also...I dunno know why...but I feel like this dude doesn't know that if you put two roughly identical I-6 truck engines, one from Europe, and one from the US next to each other (obviously I'm excluding Scania's V8) they'll be the same size. So yeah, there is probably a 800 horse Pumper out there, probably a Peterbilt too, and next to MAN, which maybe produces 380hp, that engine (WITHOUT TRANSMISSION) will be the same. Also, Brazil. has some of our trucks too. You think we're unsafe? They'll be going at least 90mph. As far as infrastructural projects, My town needs a kick in the right direction. Bike lanes is a start, aswell as buses. We have to many school buses, close to 40. Some of the ones that are set aside can be used to facilitate public transportation. And an over-pass going over the railroad tracks would be nice (we got 15 railroad crossings, 11 of them are signalized, 4 of them are not and that's a safety hazard that's even stopped our fire department). Also publicly & tactically placed Defib's? Sure am onboard with that. *Note before I'm taken seriously:* Heavy equipment as a whole are an interest of mine, I wrote this comment as I progressed through the video as such.
I do think we can make the "metro yellow" standard for FD vehicles as it is easier to see in low light than red. Personally, I think incorporating "metro yellow" into an overall red paint scheme would be a good compromise of tradition and progression.
I suspect the uptick in US pedestrian deaths will coincide with the growth in demand for SUVs. As you noted, there seemed to be a similar uptick starting in Europe, but about a decade later - again we have had a huge growth spurt in the sale of SUVs here over the last decade. Sadly, SUVs are objectively less safe for both pedestrians and the car occupants, because they are more likely to have an accident due to poor immediate visibility, and driver complacency because they believe they are safe (psychologically, bigger = safer)
Time to do an ultra US-American comparison: USA Fire trucks = USS Galaxy NCC-70637 = the eggs laying wool milk meat pig that does everything, but has serious drawbacks like very big size, bad maneuverbility, high costs, high fuel consumption, ... European replacements for USA-fire-trucks are efficiant circumstances adapted units = USS Lakota (not to big & got teeth via upgrades), USS Defiant NX-74205 (very maneuverable small but mean power house), USS Akira (with a bigger flight deck), ... & also modular commercial truck chassis with modules for standartized frames = defakto the many Miranda class variants (incl. Soyus class, Antares class & USS Saratoga, USS Lantree & of couse the USS Reliant)
Hi, European here. While I do agree, that firetrucks in USA/Canada are huge for the most parts. I also somewhat disagree with it. We tend to have the "igniter" vehicle (Fire chief) always first on the scene (fire) usually high power SUV (Mercedes ML / BMW X5 / VW Touareg / Chevrolet Suburban) Also medic on board. Smaller trucks, "pump cars" 2-6 man crew, basic firefighting equipment, "small" water tank, but when facing a fire there is very little they can do alone, but very effective in scene of an accident. Heavy equipment, Water tanks, and ladder trucks, 2-6 man crew, useless on their own... unless you need a ladder, needs support of a smaller truck. Super heavy. these are more likely to be close to industrial area, They have only 4-6 man crew, but they have tools for every imaginable situation. larger water tank, ladder... well Everything. it does literally everything well, but it usually takes a bit longer to arrive. (much like American firetruck) And on more rural areas, Literal water tanks. These are huge, and main thing is they bring in the water that is needed. Entirely worthless on their own. 8.20 (Or there about) "if there is a car crash, Just use an ambulance". Sure... And when the ambulance/police arrive on the scene, they call in that they need a fire truck, because they need jaws of life, as there is 1-3 injured people stuck inside a vehicle, and they should already be half way down to ER. 9.50 "1000 gallons of water is not cheap to haul around" 1000 gallons is just about enough to extinguish 1 single burning car. On house fire, 1000 gallons is like trying to put out bonfire with a glass of water. it just slows it down a bit. Single electric car fire can take up to 40.000 gallons of water (delivered from hose) and it can still randomly ignite after it has been extinguished. All in all. 1000 gallons, is nothing.
we should have ,multiple vehicles here as well instead of just one type of giant truck and as far as the ambulance goes, can't they just carry some jaws of life as well?
@@ItsCharlieVest Yes, but then they need to carry protective gear for the crew, and if not anything else at least blankets that you can cover the individual you are trying to rescue, as it isn't all that unusual that some debree, (shards of glass, metal, etc.) fly from some of the places you are cutting / spreading etc. which all takes space from the ambulance, and the space for medical equipment there. and potentially adds a need for additional personel in the ambulance crew. as if let's say the driver operates the jaws, cutting away the roof of a car, 1 attends to the patient, now as 2 roof pillars are already cut, Cut third and the roof collapses unless you have couple people lifting it up. So 4 person ambulance crews. Oh damn, hit a wiring harness that i didn't know was there, and now the car is on fire with 2 people stuck inside. That's why most of the time jaws of life would be waste of space in ambulance.
Just filling in some info, here in America a fire engine and a fire truck are not the same thing. A fire truck has the big ladder on top, carries 300-500 gallons of water, and all of the tech rescue gear. And in my area, might only have a crew of 2. A fire engine usually carries around 800 gallons of water and responds to fires and first aid calls. And usually has a crew of 3 or 4. And I agree with these points. We were taught that the onboard water was mostly there to bridge the gap between when you arrived on scene, and when you got connected to a hydrant.
It's nice seeing a more normal American reacting to this! One misconception that you repeated, though, is that American cities were built after the car: Most of them were initially built before the car, but were then bulldozed in the mid 20th century to build more highways and parking. If you see overhead images from before WW2 compared to the 70s, you'd think we were the ones who got bombed to hell in WW2 from how many buildings were destroyed.
3:56 The truck (suspect its a Renault) on the lower left: I've seen similar vehicles configured to seat 10 personal excluding driver and unit commander
Interesting point with the possibility of pedestrian deaths starting to increase in the EU, but it is more likely to be an effect of people driving and going out less during the pandemic. Could be to do with the increasing size of cars though.
Charlie , my man.... your reactions are EPIC!!!!!! LOVE IT!!! And you get us Europeans ( and the Dutch for that) If you ever wanna come to BIG NL... you and the family are very welcome. 😉😉👍👍
34:52 If that Tiller Truck had an European styled Tractor unit, Driver sits on top the front wheels, it would be less of a problem. I work as a Truck Driver in Germany, I do drive Semi-Trucks and I can confidently tell you and everyone in the comment section that I'd be able to make that turn with no correction moves required, 53 feet with 3 none steerable axles (most common build in Europe).
one more thing neither of you mentioned, important difference between custom truck and commertial type of truck? availability and price of repair parts
not only how much gas needed to haul 1000 gallons of water everywhere, but also hauling the absurd amount of gas in the tank too needed to carry all that. Literally random giant rex box driving around carrying tons of steel, thousands of gallons of liquids, in order to check on a grandma that passed out at the walmart. like???????
US 2 Fire trucks For all things, Rest of the world 5 - 6 Fire vehicle for different jobs. 1 Car for Cemical job, 1 for water jobs, 1 fire truck for fire and car jobs and lader truck for tall jobs and so on. edit: Water jobs is like drowning or boat accidents and so on.
US firetruck: Use a hammer for everything. Rest of the world: Specific tools for specific jobs. Furthermore, most euro firetrucks are equipped for mostly the same things as US firetrucks anyway. So that leads me to ask; What's your point?
They have time between the emergencies ... and honestly this is something where "german overengineering" has its place. Rosenbauer has created a fully electric (not so sure about that one for longevity/durability questions) fire truck with REAR WHEEL STEERING, which increases mobility even more ... I dont really see american companies do this unless it is a GIANT truck with three back axles.
And Charlie, there’s one very important thing I forgot to mention there is an organization in the United States that rates fire departments many of your architects and engineers may know about this. It is called ISO Insurance Services office they come in and rate your communities Fire Department if you get a low ISO rating another words you don’t have enough trucks with what they mandate for equipment, and again they get these things from things like NFPA the national fire protection association your community your businesses your residence will be forced to pay higher insurance premiums. The things that would fix this are at the federal state municipal level would be a federal system to make standardization easier, but in order for us as the fire service to downsize NFPA and ISO would also have to change many of theirs and requirements. NFPA is not OSHA doesn’t have laws, but if you are a fire, chief fire commander, even a company, officer battalion chief your livelihood your families home are on the line if you are not following NFPA standards or OSHA law it depends on if your state is an OSHA state or an NFPA state, it’s not just about tradition. We loved our leather helmets, but in the end we chose safety form and function over tradition. There is a saying in the fire service about 100 years of tradition not being out done by progress. It’s a big joke but I started in the 80s as I progressed through rank in the fire service like many other guys I worked with. It was a lifetime of education, college training, and we weren’t afraid of progress, but so many things need to change are outside of our control, whether it be laws, standards, standardization budgets, and of course your political leadership, as I said, I don’t disagree. The problems just much deeper than the surface of firefighters like big truck American firefighters bad European firefighters. Good it’s been an ongoing thing between Europe and America for years. It’s like cops versus fireman. It’s like cops love donuts fireman don’t do anything but sleep. I will leave you with this people that rest their lives for complete strangers. Certainly don’t want to go to work and kill somebody, if we were up to us as individuals responding to EMS call in a midsize SUV isn’t just smart. It’s common sense unfortunately what we are left with his following orders and what works in one community may not work in others specially if there’s no standardization.
Even in Aus we have seprate fire trucks for major bushfires and normal emergencies. Including chemical and biological, cops even have seprate cars for diffrent things.
For that pedestrian accidents graph, based on where the EU dip is I'm pretty sure it plummeted so sharply due to the pandemic. So it's not entirely unexpected to see it hook back up towards where the trend was headed once the lock downs ended. I'm going to be really curious where that line goes in the next five years!
Hi Charlie, a common misconception is that European cities, because of their age, are cyclist and pedestrian friendly. But most cities in the 1950's and 1960's experienced the same car-boom as the US did. So our roads got adapted to car traffic. Canals got filled in to create more road space for cars etc. Harbours got filled in to create parking lots. In The Netherlands there was a turn-around in the 1970's due to the high fatality among children on bicycles. So that's when the whole bicycle lane development and road re-design started. And it didn't happen all overnight. Each time a road was due some sort of upgrade, for example new sewer or drainage system, or new water mains or gas mains etc, they'd redesign the road to be more safe for cyclists and pedestrians.
I'm FInnish. Bike lanes did not exist in the 70s and 80s. When i went to school i had to balance myself on a 40cm width shoulder, and in the winter i had to drive on deep grooves made by cars, and then hopping to the snowbank to let cars pass. And ALL kids cycled.. So, it was not even because there were no cyclists back then, they have always been significant part of commuting here.
Now i can hop on my bike and do the same trip by not having to cross a single road. I can get to the other side of town by crossing couple of intersections, from about 8km distance there are dedicated, separate bikepaths for 7 of them.
And we STILL get the "what the fuck are these bikelanes in the center of the town, they make everything worse"... Just recently we converted one block so that it has wide pedestrian path, and bikepath, taking up one parking lane. The old sidewalk was from the 1800s, you could not fit two people walking side by side on it, especially making winter maintenance stupidly difficult.. And what was the first reply i see? "How are they going to plow that?".. when looking at wide pedestrian/bikepath in the pic.... It is like some people just shut down their rationally thinking brain when ever cars are inconvenienced in anyway..
One of the main things i have had to explain, time and time again is how closing one of the streets made traffic BETTER for all... they need to be reminded what kind of a huge traffic jam it was every single day, until they closed that one bit of road, forcing car drivers to use the four lanes bypasses. When you close a street or even install a speedbump it IS deliberately making it less convenient to use that road/street, so that we can redirect traffic elsewhere. Those who need to use those streets will still use them, but everyone who doesn't have to, goes around. It is not rocket science, it makes so much sense but for some reason the general public just can't figure those things. They ALWAYS complain first.
how old are you? and which harbours got filled?
@@Jesse_IDG Ancient :-P I was born in the 1970's. In the city of Groningen the Westerhaven got filled in, and the names Gedempte Zuiderdiep en Gedempte Kattendiep already mention in their name that they're filled in canals.
The Herestraat in the city of Groningen is the second-oldest pedestrianised street in The Netherlands. It used to have trams, busses, cars etc driving through until sometime in the 1970's.
The city of Groningen had a very progressive city council at the time and that's when the Traffic Circulation Plan for the city centre was designed and implemented, with dividing the city centre into quarters that couldn't be reached directly from one to the other by car. Cars would need to go back to the canal ring and then drive around to enter a different quarter, but pedestrians and cyclists could directly cross the city centre from quarter to quarter. This plan is still in effect today.
@@Jesse_IDGin Bergen op Zoom we had a big parking lot called “De Gedempte Haven” because that’s exactly what it was. (They’ve since partially opened it again, though it’s no longer a harbour, just a waterway.)
@@weerwolfproductionsSimilar things happened in Utrecht, now a renowned bicycle city. All squares in the city were parking lots until well into the 1970s. Since the 1920s some streets in the city centre were widened to accommodate more traffic. In the 1960s there were plans to turn all the canals surrounding the old town into a highway, so people could easily access the old town by car… Thankfully only one side was turned into a road, which is now a canal again. A small harbour near that canal was turned into a road too. A whole neighbourhood was demolished to make room for a mall, which would be reachable by both the train station and that highway.
Even nowadays, when everyone can agree bicycle infrastructure is necessary and we need to implement things to keep cyclists and pedestrians safe from speeding cars etc, whenever a new plan is presented that negatively impacts cars some people will protest. My father is an avid cyclist, but whenever he’s in the car and sees a speed bump he deems unnecessary he says it’s just the municipality bullying drivers.
Cars blocking your way:
"Those darn bikes!"
If only we removed that fucking 2 feets wide bike lane taking all the 1% of the damn road space!!!
cars creating traffic:
"BIKER'S FAULT"
it is not that US cities were made for the cars, they were bulldozed for the car. LA, one of the most car dependent cities in the US, with among the worst traffic used to have the largest electrified tram system in the world, which used to cover most of the greater LA area, and then in the 50-60s we bulldozed it, and thousands of houses for the highways.
It was so fun experiencing it when playing L.A. Noire...
The minority neighbourhoods got extra bulldozing, just in case people were becoming in any way financially secure.
You know what a UK fire engine does with little roundabouts like that - they drive over them.
No way who would have thunk it? XD
You know what the Netherlands Fire Service does with such roundabouts, the exact same thing. If need be they can even go against the flow of traffic
Also some fire departments and fire stations in Europe are starting a new trend were they dedicate a special technical support vehicle that is equipped with tools that firefighters use for technical interventions, like car crashes, people stuck in elevators etc.
the US has those as well, and it's nothing new, in Germany we call those either GW (Gerätewagen) or the bigger Version is a RW(Rüstwagen)
Not sure what you call 'new'. But when I joined the firebrigade 35 years ago, those cars/trucks were already in use. Exactly for the purpose you mentioned.
Well, for us in Southern Europe (i.e. Serbia, Bosnia) that's a new concept, because our firefighter packed everything in a one firetruck (i.e. the equipment for putting out fire and car accidents / elevator rescue).
@@srlebalesh oh no worries we do the same in germany,... the specialist vehicles just carry big dimension gear
In The Netherlands you can also come across a firedepartment car towing a trailer with a rubber dinghy on it. That truck will have diving gear - some firedepartments in The Netherlands have a Dive Team in case something happens around a canal or river.
The argument against roundabouts is insane we have smaller roundabouts in Europe too we just build them so larger vehicles can drive over them carefully because sometimes we need bigger than normal equipment moved too.
Not to forget the ones with an extra "lane" right across the middle that's bordered off somehow and only to be used by oversized transports (the ones that _can't_ make small turns like those wind turbine rotor transports of 70-120m length). Just install poles that can be retracted remotely (not just a few meters away with a remote from the vehicle, but from some central planning location that knows "Ah, these emergency vehicles have just reported that they'll be going down this route, let's clear the roundabouts for them")
@@Wolf-ln1ml we also have once with tram rails that can be used by fire trucks/ambulans/police.
@@Yoonji9212 Or have those tram tracks also be a dedicated bus lane, like in russia with their double artic buses.
I have driven the large American semi truck and sometimes I would prefer a roundabout especially in a manual semi. as long as the people around my truck know how to use a roundabout which is the main problem in American know knows how to use roundabouts.
It's similar to the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests that US police still insist on using... They're more dangerous for the officers, more dangerous for the driver being tested, and more dangerous for passers-by who get distracted by the spectacle. Meanwhile in most of the rest of the world we've been using objectively more accurate roadside breath testing units for more than 40 years now.
just curious, are you talking about breathalyzers? those have been standard here for as long as I remember. they usually still do the field tests but are supposed to do both. either that or take the person in for a legal blood draw.
@@memer_gaming121 That's where Europe and probably the rest of the world are different yet again. I was a police-officer over here in the Netherlands and the portable breathalyzer was used as an indication. If the driver blew an F(ail), he would be arrested on the spot, transported to a police-station that had a far more accurate stationary breathalyzer and would be penalized according to the results of that second test. Refusing to cooperate would be an instant fail and as we called it "going for the bonus", because DA's sure did love drivers who refused to cooperate. Walking a straight line or balancing tests are all subjective and would be thrown out in a court of law if the suspect had a somewhat competent lawyer.
@@tjroelsma exactly, Czech Republic here, 0% blood alcohol tolerance policy, you blew, you lost Drivers licence for 3 years + ticket + you must do drivers licence again + psychotests.
99% of the time field sobriety tests is not for seeing if someone is sober or not, it is because a majority of police departments only allow a breathalyzer test if the person has not drank any alcohol within 20-30 minutes, and they cant trust a person to say if they did or did not drink, so to be able to not poison the evidence they need to have a way to keep a suspect under direct supervision and not drinking for 20-30 minutes and field sobriety tests are a good way to do that.
@@LivingDeathGuy Why wait 20-30m? Why is that rule?
There's alas always someone that will claim the US is sooo special that nothing any other country does can be implemented, or even adapted, the only thing that makes the US really special is that "No-can-do attitude". It's sad.
I mean it make sense : the USA is TeH BeSt, thus maybe some things in the USA are bad, but it mean that obviously, other countries can't do better. Or no other countries have the same issues at all of course becaues the USA is special.
As a US citizen, I hate living here sometimes.
"We have tried absolutely nothing and are all out of ideas"
Well, there is something special about the US. No other 3rd world country poses so successfully as a 1st world one.
Is that what attitude got us to the moon in 1969?
Another important argument why it's bad that fire engines are so big and heavy. It unnecessarily burdens the road surface. Which causes even more damage such as puttholes etc etc
Please look up the ratio and use of the same roads by Commercial vehicles in the same class/weight and add on to that number the amount of heavy equipment used on those same roads VS the number of fire apparatus nationally combined. FYI for every one Fire apparatus there are between 50 and 100 commercial vehicles in the same weight class and 20 -40 heavy equipment uses per every FA. Add in the fact that Fire apparatus are not on the same road surface with the same frequency as those commercial vehicles. This whole video is very misinformative and misleading on so many points and on others outright lies to fit this original content creators bias and lack of knowledge. Example "lets look at a challenge between an American Fire Truck at one of its military airports and see how it does against a local fire truck" which completely ignores several important differences like the thirty thousand gallon tank of water the American truck has to carry by law and that it is a modified Airport/ari craft fire suppression vehicle not just a typical local fire engine which has smaller tires and weighs about three tons less cause it has no internal; water tank. Deliberately disingenuousness point blank period.
@@jericho1-4 wow you made no real point and hid it in some random comment lol didn't even ask or explain why it's the law, just said it was without questioning it, missed the point of flexibility of smaller trucks versus the larger truck, didn't ask why americans use such large trucks and rigs in the first place for commercial use and if they should be using that at all and how it compares to their international counterparts or anything lmao you thought you were making a point
@@bui3415 I did you just missed it, What I did was show how the comparison of road use by The American FD apparatus vs commercial vehicles of the same or heavier weight class is a factor in road surface degradation by time spent on said road surfaces. As to the laws of which fire suppression vehicles are required for airports that covers both American civilian and military airports and American Air bases abroad which this law applies to is one that comes at the behest of the fire services themselves be it civilian or military, as a member of the fire service why would I question us being given the tools we need to do the job. Even in other countries they have laws about which fire apparatus they can purchase for their needs. Every country has it's own fire codes as they relate to structures, and which apparatus is best to use in any given situation. Take England for example, a few years back they had a residential tower block fire and were caught completely off guard and lacked the ladder and tower trucks that would of given them the fighting chance to save more lifes but that was just one instance in the differences between them and other Fire services internationally. They opted for the smaller apparatus which also carries less personnel vs their American counterparts as their ladders couldn't reach even 75% the distance to the upper floors the American apparatus could but their roads are centuries old in some sections so it makes more sense and efficiency for them to have those apparatus until a tragedy like that tower block fire happens. That is something the Americans face with a lot more frequency regrettably. As for the Apparatus comparison shown I was pointing out how the video tried to make a false equivalency argument by having a specialized fire apparatus which has a specified application compete with a civilian standardized local fire service vehicle that would only give mutual aid support to an airport fire apparatus if called upon by highlighting the difference in vehicle specs and application of said apparatus.
What about those cement trucks? They must really beat the sh*t out of the roads! As for potholes, I suggest that the city stops putting down salt on the road when it snow since that causes potholes. LOL
I think part of the reason we're not following the example of our European friends is that idea of American supremacy. People in the US look at the emergency vehicles of Europe and Asia and laugh, when in reality, those vehicles are vastly more efficient workhorses, while ours are just big and heavy. I'm all about efficiency. I didn't realize our roads were built to accommodate the fire trucks rather than the fire trucks being built with more common sense. It's totally ridiculous.
I am pretty sure, several Americans would scream "efficiency is communism!" (or "gay" or "woke" or whatever their current word for "too complicate for as three year old's mind" is)…
Yeah, I always see a lot of Americans say “That won’t work here, the US is different.” Bicycle paths? Nah, because Americans are all contractors who need a pickup truck for their jobs, which are hours away. There’s always an excuse to keep change from happening, which can always be summarised as “There is no country like the US, so what works in other countries won’t work here.”
@@DanDanDoe Yes they allways say that "You don't need to travel 23 hours to visit family in a different state". Like they do that travel every week, or if it would not be able to solve with a train or plane... They allways come with the size of the country, like they travel through everyday.
@@lixon1501 It's even more ironic when you realize that on average Americans owns more cars per household than Europeans... but somehow the idea of owning a small efficient car for moving around town and owning a truck or a comfortable sedan for their heavy duty work (if any) is somehow alien to (most of) them.
And they you see them flabberghasted when they see a video of an European station-wagon hauling a trailer.
But what they don't get is how big our apparatus is for a reason. A lot of times these trucks go onto the freeway, acting as blocker units. There is also the need for a rescue company which is the longest truck you could find out there, but all of those compartments are used efficiently... who cares... we don't need to change a single thing about our rigs in America.
Uk has first responders on moterbike then they can call an ambulance if it’s needed . They also have first responders in cars
We have them too in the Netherlands.
Same here in Ireland as well. And we have both fire ambulances/first responder units which are red and the usual yellow hospital ambulance ones as well.
Austria also has first responders and even emergency doctors with their own small vehicles that can arrive at a bad emergency quickly and give assistance to the ambulance personnal and even give professional care similar to a hospital setting if its truly urgent.
yes scouts we have them too pt here
Medical recon. I like it.
It is a myth that European cities are pedestrian friendly because they are old. It is a recent trend. Up to 1973 things were very much built for the cars.
It's not really a myth. It's more like 'true*' with the asterisk leading to a footnote saying 'if they weren't rebuilt to be car-centric after WW2'. Where the original street plan was retained they *are* extremely pedestrian friendly, because they were laid out for pedestrians almost exclusively and there's just not enough space to fit enough cars for there to be traffic.
Note also that this can lead to cities that are simultaneously extremely pedestrian friendly *and* super-hostile to pedestrians with terrible traffic. For example, if you ever go to Canterbury in the UK, the town centre inside the city walls is extremely walkable and mostly preserves the medieval street plan. There's access for vehicles along some of the high street, but that's more or less access only; delivering to shops, dropping off market stalls and the like.
Meanwhile, the entire thing is ringed on three sides by a four or six lane dual carriageway, and the more modern road system leading outwards from the town on the other side of it is all exclusively car focused and probably the sort of place I would go to if I were a very depressed cyclist that actively wanted to be smeared into a pulp.
@@mdt105 A lot of them were rebuilt during the 70s to be more car-friendly, but in the 80s and onwards, many cities went back on that, made things pedestrian- and bike-friendly again, and found better solutions to traffic.
The center of Rotterdam was destroyed in WWII and was rebuilt in a car-friendly manner after the war. But in the 80s the realization came that it was not right. They changed it again and now they have a pretty good pedestrian friendly center.
@@mdt105in the 60s American engineers were brought in to Europe in order to remodel cities for cars, buildings and other urban spaces were destroyed to make space to large roads, just like American cities which had up until then grown around trains and were pedestrian friendly. The difference is that Europeans realized this was ruining their cities and reverted the process while the Americas doubled down on the process. The only real difference is that Europeans identified the problem and took charge to fix it, while Americans find excuses and keep making matters even worse.
@@StefandeG67 and one more thing: Cities, which were "rebuild for the car" after the war like Rotterdam or Hannover had huge space to build wide bike lanes everywhere - cities, which weren't destroyed however have to constantly fight for each inch of space and have a lot more problems adding bike lanes.
And very recently I found an even more impressive example: Wolfsburg, the home of Volkswagen and basically "build BY the car industry" (and with the same design standards) is now also adding bike lanes almost everywhere.
well, the american fire is obviously different from eurasian fire
😂
The stupidity fans the flames 😅
@@ItsCharlieVest Hello Charlie. Among the reactions is one bull crap reacter with the moniker name 'Alte Kameraden' ('old comrades') . Alte Kameraden is the term german SS veterans use among each other , after the war. And it is also used by Neo Nazis.
I reported it to YT, but it will problably remain visible. The use of this name is a gros insult to me.
My old man and some uncles had to do forced labour in Germany during the war and my mother saw pass a lot of skin bone people walking 100s of kms for some food during the 1945 Dutch hunger winter.
I am sure you don't like this kind of middlefinger name insults . If YT doesn't I hope you will remove this asshole .
@@ItsCharlieVest Actually, there might actually be something to that argument.
US building materials are very different to UK and some EU building materials.
So the fires might actually be different.
It doesn't excuse any of the stupid nonsense of sending a fire truck to a medical emergency, or the truck size.
But the fires might actually be different 🤔🤔
@@stephenlee5929 the usa is also bigger than Europe and phase more flatout roads than like the UK its a small tight packed country and needs a smaller firetruck where as the us is bigger and has huge buildings where it may need the huge long ladder trucks to reach higher buildings. i seen a few videos on like why the USA likes there helmets better than say Europeans plus there really isn't the budget for every fire department to have new tech expecally when in places like newyourk where there getting there budget cut over and over agin.
I already watched the original video since I'm a huge big fan of Jason's channel. Your wonderful reaction turned out to be exactly as I expected!
It goes up in the EU because SUVs getting more and more popular.
Btw. the ladders have the same max length in US and EU at about 23 m (75 ft)
I fucking hate SUV's. An people keep buying them IN SPITE of small roads. I really think we need Kei-car rules in europe.
Ah yes, SUVs, the legal battering ram which is less effective and more deadly than a proper car, just love em don't we?
The tractor drawn aerials that are vilified here are 100 feet.
European ladders have a rescue hight of 23 m at 12m away from the base of the ladder, so they are actually around 30m long (~100ft). And the trucks are shorter than the American version.
@@david_stein But the European Ladder Trucks have a crew of two. In NYC, the FDNY Ladder Trucks ride with a crew of six. Therefore, the truck must accommodate more people and more equipment.
Some years ago, I made a scale model of a UK fire engine. Some fire departments used them on a scale map to check possible routes around their area. That way, they would know what route to take to get to certain places.
To which scale did you make your model? Since scale determines the size of the map the FD can use your model on. Just out of interest
@@MrShadow1617 .
I made a number of vehicles, all at a scale of 1:150.
I would imagine they only used maps of the particularly more difficult areas, side streets etc. With architectural modelling, sections of ordinance survey maps were often enlarged to the appropriate scale when building the baseboards.
@@grahvis I recently saw a video of a new Fire Truck from Rosenbauer with active rear wheel steering, which would make the truck even more maneuverable. They are fully electric ... which is something I dont really trust for durability of the batteries ... so there are things to prove, but the rear wheel steering is something american trucks dont even have (unless it is one of those GIANT LADDER trucks where a person has to do the steering in the back.
Not to mention the wear and tear these trucks are experiencing on a regular basis, so when they're needed, the truck has thousands of additional run-time hours, and is often worn-down/has some "quirks" or "moods" as they call them, rather than being a pristine, new, hardly used vehicle that performs optimally all the time. Instead, they are being treated as a casual, everyday vehicle, which does not command/receive the same level of maintenance/scrutiny over it's being in perfect shape, as, in their minds, it just has to get them from point A to point B 96.1% of the time, so that's all they consider regarding the truck.
No thought of how well the hose winder is spinning or anything else until the rare occasion when it's needed, and by then...
Australia uses the smaller (though lets be real, they are still quite large) fire trucks like Europe does (mostly Isuzu, Scania, and Volvo), now with the added bonus of being fitted out with fire protection systems that spray water over and around the outside of the truck, key components of the trucks have fire resistant covers, and the trucks are fitted with heat shields, all to protect the truck and crew if they're caught in a bushfire burn over.
Australia has practical fire trucks too. Our National and International Airport Fire Trucks are massive, but hey, they're on an airfield controlled by the ATC of when and where they can go lol.
Sounds familiar ! The dedicated Airport Firetrucks here in The Netherlands are huge as well, but they'll never leave the Airport to begin with ! So yeah, every rule has it's own exception I guess ;-) Small Fire trucks in general and huge firetrucks on the Airports!
Every major airport and even military air base has a dedicated fire department because they need lots of unique equipment on very short notice if there's an incident and while these forces train to coordinate with local fire departments their vehicles equipment and procedures are very different and highly specialized.
A few years ago, there was an excersize with simulated a crashed KC-130. The crash-tender from the nearby airbase had no trouble driving over European streets designed for trailer trucks.
@@Aimless6 Trust me I drove heavy recovery trucks designed and built in Europe and there are plenty of problems with such a vehicle. Routes you cannot use bridges you can't go over or under and every drivers nightmare a wrong turn you have to reverse back out of because the truck just won't fit.
@@dutchyjhomeYes but they are not fully controlled by ATC. It depends on where they are and where they’re going and if they are a priority vehicle. On a list with traffic priorities, they are second (once they become a priority vehicle), after aircraft that takeoff or land but only if it’s a source of conflict.
Not just Europe - Japan and many parts of the far East inc Vietnam and China have bikes and pedestrian cities, with small fire trucks.
Why is the US way of thinking "Big and Bigger is Better"?
I wish I knew. As an American all I can say is I wish we'd follow the rest of the world on this (and a lot of other things aside). I despise driving, I'd love to have good public transportation and pedestrian-friendly design around here.
@@ericmoll1530 I do believe that at least 40% of Americans feel the same as you, but as the corp and gov only seeks profit, you will never ever be heard. Maybe as the younger gen becomes your new Gov and the elderly retires from power, then it may change, but not an till these oldies with their old ways and principles gets out of office.
@@ericmoll1530 "Bigger is better" is good for CONSUMERISM, because those bigger american fire trucks probably cost A LOT more than the moderately sized european ones.
VW built "small, SIMPLE and reliable" cars until ~2000, when they started making every new generation of car bigger[1] and around 2000 the company was semi-broke until a clever manager started changing the car design from "simple" to "luxury", i.e. MORE AND MORE EXTRAS which you would get "for free" (not really), but the base price of the car increased significantly.
[1] A "VW Polo" used to be smaller than a "VW Golf", but now the newer generations of Polo are as big as a Golf was "back in the days" while the Golf is as big as a Passat/even bigger than one now.
I have a VW Passat from '87 with a weight of ~1 ton (empty) and we have a VW Golf Plus from ~2007 with a weight of ~1,5 tons (empty). The newer car is decidedly WORSE than the older, because it has far too many round bits, which makes it less capable of carrying loads.
But really whats wrong with some Americans? And not the average citizens. Literally protesting against any improvement and they are the leaders of the given community… not requesting new emergency vehicles- and funds for them instead.
@@inferior_Cawl_Inferior That's what's so baffling. It IS broke and they're pooring more money into it to KEEP IT broke.
@@inferior_Cawl_Inferior Yep, but it is broke.
@@stephenlee5929 EXACTLY!
@@inferior_Cawl_Inferior I think the sentence ain't wrong, but they just don't realize that the system is actually broke.
@@inferior_Cawl_Inferior That's the point ... LOBBYING GROUPS are spreading PROPAGANDA ... and since americans live in a religious society they easily BELIEVE EVERYTHING THEY ARE TOLD. "Religious" isnt limited to christianity, because feminism, BLM and rainbow ideology are also religions that are based upon "listen and BELIEVE". This makes americans INCAPABLE OF INDEPENDENT THOUGHT and especially CRITICISM OF AUTHORITIES.
www.youtube.com/@BrandweerLunteren
TH-cam channel for everybody who loves firefighters. A small Dutch fire station in Lunteren in The Netherlands makes a video every week, with English subtitles. Just with bodycams and a drone. Not to create excitement, but to document the volunteer firefighter from pager alarm to back in the station. Watch the engine in detail, how they communicate everything. ENJOY!
It is always about money. In USA firetrucks are part of the insular markets, where few companies rule the WHOLE scene. Firetrucks are made by few companies and they haven't had to innovate in decades. Same with US trucks, the way the industry has been protected from competition has made it so that US trucks are at least 10 years behind the progress, if not more. They are worse, use more fuel, can't carry as much load, have less power, have WAY less features that have been standard in Europe for a decade.
But, it makes profit without any R&D, and companies do not give a fuck about what is best for the society or the people in it. Trying to suggest removing some of those protections and voters will be up in arms for "taking away our jobs". It is a gridlock. Doing the right thing WILL take away some jobs. Jobs that should not exist, from companies that do not deserve their market share.
My province in The Netherlands has a company called Ziegler that builds custom emergency vehicles on existing chassis. They build mostly fire trucks / fire engines. There are several of those companies. So first there is the building of the actual truck / vehicle to standard in the normal factory. And then there's several of these custom outfitter factories that completely overhaul such a truck and put in everything that's needed. So there's no actual loss of jobs. Just shifting it. And this allows for more competition and innovation since you have the diverse offering in Europe of car manufacturors, and then the different custom outfitters.
@@weerwolfproductions And most European countries favor some national truck company to provide the chassis, but it is always open competition to provide the best solution, if the national manufacturer is unable to do it, we will buy it from Germany, France.. even Japan. It forces the national companies to keep up. In Finland firetruck chassis are usually Sisu, Scania or Volvo, ambulances are from all over the world. And yes, i know Scania and Volvo are not Finnish but Nordic made stuff takes the priority, there is such a long tradition with those brands too. But none of them can rely being the only choice, they have to compete.
A bit off topic, but while i have about 50/50 opinion about EU becoming a federation, this is one of the reasons why each country being totally independent works better. Sure, we have TONS of parallel development but it also makes the market work better. The best products win. When it comes to firetrucks, being close to the factory is a big deal, economically but also when it comes to supply chain and having direct impact on the design via close feedback.
Rosenbauer has a "fully electric" fire truck with REAR WHEEL STEERING ... which can do both "better maneuverability" AND "crab walking sideways" (~20° angle, not 90° like a real crab), so maneuverability can get MUCH better.
It's your money! Stand Up. The people can also come to make it better.
A friend of mine was a firefighter. I remember him telling about the tendency of firefighters around the world visiting any fire station they could when travelling to other countries. He told me about how amazed US based firefighters are about how Belgian (and in general European) firefighters can manage to do their jobs given our cities are so different: narrow streets, bike lanes, pedestrian areas etc. They’d also be amazed at our ‘tiny’ fire trucks. Then they’d discover our plethora of emergency vehicles, the differences in how our emergency numbers handle calls, the differences in how our emergency services respond, the (to them) seamless cooperation between fire departments, EMT services and police, how road users are taught to immediately move away to form a free emergency lane’ whenever they hear a siren, and things would start to click.
My friend said there are good and bad things in both systems. But he sure was glad he was a firefighter in little old Belgium.
steering rear axles is still a thing hardly implemented in the US. its perfect for long trailers and those huge fire trucks.
same with air bags on the trailer . here in europe we have a remote in the cab we can use to raise and lower everything.
would specially be useful in the US since you still havent realized elevated railway crossings is a bad idea.
The larger tractor trailer ladder trucks have a 2nd driver seat on the back who controls the trailers steering, way to big but its cool to see
I had never really thought about it but while I often see fire dept. ambulances and paramedics on the roads - their vehicles are red so obviously not usual ambulances - you don't see the fire engines very often and when you do they tend to have blue lights flashing and the occupants will be dressing themselves in their fire fighting gear. I mean, I'm in Ireland so it wasn't something I'd ever thought about but now you're mentioning it, the ambulances/emergency response cars are far more often seen than anything else, and I have a fire station just down the road from me.
Imagine a family member of yours _dies,_ because your local firefighters arrive 4 minutes and 30 seconds too late, because they _insist_ on bringing their small-peepee truck to every emergency and are _too dumb_ to learn how to use a roundabout. It's infantile and beyond infuriating.
big truck = small pp
You call emergency number you specify whats the problem, they send proper response, you dont just say come fast and they send 10 vehicles to rescue a cat .
Here our Fire Department music video ... Finnish Fire Truck Light Show 2019 3 min 45 sec YT clip
If they're sending a fire engine, best bet that there is an ambulance is on the way. If the fire engine gets there first, that means that the next available ambulance is too far away but there is one coming. If ONLY a firetruck arrives, that means either dispatch messed up or someone who called didnt give the right info. There is a lot that goes on in the background of these decisions. Not every truck is ginormous. Not every EMS system brings firetrucks to each call. It's dependent on staffing and many other things.
You've done it. You really found a way to talk bad about firefighters. "Small peepee truck" is absolutely unhinged. I hope you never nerf to avail yourself of their services.
America: We might need a 1000 gallons of water so the only solution is a really big truck.
Pretty much everywhere else: Lets get more than one truck.
Many stations have more than one truck. You might have smaller fire engines then a tanker at the station to carry the bulk of the water. Depends on the department and their ideas. We have small trucks from utility vehicles to large ladder trucks and even smaller ladder trucks.
Comparing American and European fire and emergency response is really Apple and oranges. The buildings , infrastructure are very different and require different tactics.
There are many places where they don’t have water everywhere and have to bring thousands of gallons. The us also can’t run smaller trucks due to everything they have to do now, yes fighting fire is a small % but you still require the tools on the apparatus. The argument about brining the big truck only on the small % of calls is not realistic. Pretty much every fire department is understaffed and if you bring the smaller truck but you get there and need the big one you’re kinda screwed. Also most fire departments run EMS and having an engine respond before the ambulance not only lowers response time but decreases injuries to the ambulance crew by having more hands to lift and carry. There’s a reason why things are the way they are and from an uneducated eye it looks unnecessary but everything has a purpose.
As Pole I will tell you how Fire Departments look in Poland.
Firstly EMS is totally other organistation called Państwowe Ratownictwo Medyczne (National Medical Service), their have their own bases around whole the country, PRM ISN'T connected with Fire Deparments. Our ambulances are smaller than american, they fit very well in narrow roads.
National Fire Deparments (Państwowa Straż Pożarna) are equipped mostly in trucks dedicated to fire fightning (they usually have a 1000 gallons of water but they can be bigger for example 2400 gallons) and technical rescue (have elementary equipment for technical rescue), also every fire station have own ladder truck. Some Fire Stations have their specialization (chemical and biological rescue, high rescue, water rescue, medical rescue [very rare], technical rescue [for exaples cranes for trucks [you can see them if you type Rotator Państwowa Straż Pożarna in google]], search and rescue group [useful in case of construction disaster).
We also have Voulunteer Fire Departments but they work similar as in the USA.
Even the ambulances in the USA have gotten bigger / FATTER over the decades, just watch "Cannonball Run" and you will see what I mean. It might be a consequence of the population getting TOO FAT to fit into a small ambulance in case of an emergency. Nowadays their ambulances are big boxes on the back of a truck ... although many of our german ambulances are following that style.
@@Muck006 als ich einmal in Berlin war, sah ich einen S-Krankenwagen und muss ich sagen, der war ja groß. Aber alle deutsche RTW sind im Vergleich zu polnischen viel größer. Schau dir mal im Netz wie klein polnische RTW sind, ich weiß nicht was wäre, wenn ein schwarzer Patient transportiert werden muss
Hey, The firefighters in Europe also have different types of gear and clothes. In US the firefighters have to take of their helmet to put on the airmask. If I speak for the Dutch firefighters, they put the airmask on the helmet. The Netherlands has a thing for emergency vehicles who are driving to a traffic light. When an emergency vehicle with priority drives to a intersection with an traffic light, the system detect there is a emergency vehicle approaching. It gives green from the direction it comes from or give red for everyone so the emergency vehicle can bypass on the opposite road. (not all traffic lights has this, but some on important roads does)
"sorry I'm pausing alot" no no, please... do give your input it is far more better than some "partners" that just munch on chips, suck on bucket o' soda's and just nod silently.
Getting your input is going to be more fruitful because I prefer to have various peoples input when watching reaction videos than to constantly see someone have "watch alongs" react videos give much more input.
if your house is on fire do you want the crew to return to the station to get the fire truck?
If a graph goes down, and then there is a moderate blip up: it is not rising, it is plateauing and what you see is most likely just regular noise, little variations in the numbers that do go up and down a bit randomly. We need more data points to conclude it is rising, first instinct when see those is that it is leveling off. There is going to be some minimum when it comes to pedestrian deaths no matter really what you do policy wise..
What about the semi trucks that need to use the same roadways? Our semi trucks are just as wide and sometimes just as long as these fire trucks. Semi trucks need to be able to deliver and pick up their freight in these same cities that are opposing, keeping the roadways wide enough to maneuver.
1:48 - One thing to keep in mind about the pedestrian fatalities, is that those are absolute numbers.
It doesn't take anything else into account, like size of the population (higher in the EU) or number of pedestrian miles travelled each year. I may be mistaken, but considering how widespread public transportation is in the EU compared to the US, as well as how pedestrian unfriendly large swaths of the US seems to be, I would be surprised if the pedestrian miles travelled in the EU does not massively surpass the US.
My point is, that even around 2010, when the US hit its low and the EU saw more deaths, I would be surprised if the EU wasn't safer for pedestrians simply because of how much more time people in the EU are likely to spend as pedestrians.
Due to the number of EMS calls and the horrible abuse of the system first responder firefighters are needed. The problem is that the big fire truck is needed for the big fire which could occur while they crew is out on on an EMS call. Also, not all fire alarms are false. It's better to show up prepared for a fire and be able to handle it immediately. Fire doubles in size every 30 seconds if left unchecked. Plus at a flow rate of 400 gallons per minute 1000 gallons will last less than 3 minutes.
like shown in the clip, the problem with not fitting the streets is the engine/truck size and other cars on those streets...
Some shouldn't even be on the streets as they or their driver are not even 'road legal'
Parked cars can get out of the way by parking in a garage (multi level if needed, maybe even 'hidden' by a beautiful facade) -that's an extra lane to drive on
When planning streets they could also choose to make just 1 lane wider* or have a small divider road strip between lanes** 'for emergency use only' (this includes: Police 🚓, Ambulance 🚑 and Fire Department 🚒) ***
Of course there's still the problem with entitled/dumb people ignoring laws/rules or what should be common sense or just bloody obvious -they should get ticketed, traffic cams should be enough evidence for that
*= that means the other smaller lanes would have their usual traffic calming effect, the tighter the lane the more alert you get as you feel less safe (5inches of space either side is still safe enough, you don't need a foot either side)
**= just to accommodate the extra width when the truck needs to blast by
***= or something like that, but keeping it free of 'normal' traffic maybe use as bus lanes too, but those should than have an easy way to 'unblock' the road for the Emergency vehicle
Forget about ticketting such drivers - tow such cars ASAP, since five minutes after it was parked there, _some_ emergency vehicle might need to pass right there. People will stop parking there _very_ quickly, believe me...
(especially since, as someone put it rather bluntly, "fees means 'legal for rich people'")
@@Wolf-ln1ml Tickets can work if high enough, boots are the worst solution though as the car can't move at all... But yeah, Towing would be a good determent if it can be done clean and fast (like actually using a (heavy duty) crane and possibility to take on more then one car/truck/bus)
And if it doesn't get retrieved by the owner auction them off to help fund the changes
@@Wrecker3D I doubt it'd be necessary to tow more than one car at a time except maybe early on. But yep, of course, if they don't get picked up, the next auction to empty out the impound yard will come sooner or later ;D
Some European cities are purchasing fire trucks that steer front and rear.
This means that these vehicles can take much tighter turns and still fit through narrow streets.
U.S. has these as well.
The EMS system of America developed much different from Europe - Ambulances prior to the middle 1970's did not have EMTs - they were just a ride to the hospital in a funeral home coach most of the time. Around that time because every city had plenty of fire stations, they tasked the Firefighters with learning how to provide medical care, then an offshoot of that was Ambulances staffed with EMT's - the Wedsworth-Townsend Act started it in California, so that's why you still see fire trucks responding first - they will typically get there a few minutes - or much more - before the Ambulance can. There are far fewer Ambulances generally than Fire apparatus & firefighters. It's a house of cards they built - Europe has a much better idea with Motorbike and SUV EMT's for rapid 1st response. It;s definitely a system that needs to be seperated.
10:25. A lot of fire departments around our agency are dual role fire/ EMS system employing FF/PMs to staff ambulances and suppression rigs. Our engines & trucks are Advanced Life Support and carry a Zoll X series cardiac monitor, drug box, advanced airway bags, etc if the front line medic is out of service or tied up on a run we will send a 2-4 man ALS engine to start pr care first while awaiting a second medic rig to transport. The engine will also chase the medic rig for manpower for higher acuity EMS runs depending on the nature
I have a question for Americans to answer. If there's an arson attack on a house or building and the occupants are severely burned who pays for their medical treatment, especially if they don't have medical insurance. You don't object to using your taxes to pay for the fire department to put the fire out or the police to investigate the crime but what about the care of the victims?
You pay for your own medical expenses.
If you can't afford it you go into debt. Which you can slowly pay off.
@@Jose.AFT.Saddul Not completely true. In an emergency situation your hospital stay is covered and if you have insurance some gets recovered from that. Additionally there are programs that can help people with lower incomes cover their medical costs. You will never have a situation where a person dies because they couldn't pay.
@@RCLapCar I don't think any of what you wrote addresses or counters what Jose wrote...? He didn't say anything about people dying because they couldn't pay, all he said is that if you're not insured (or your isurance doesn't cover the treatment), you go into debt that you have to pay off over time.
@@Wolf-ln1ml So it all depends. Depending on the situation, some hospitals will bill insurance. If they cannot, it'll go to the patient. The reason the hospitals' bills are so high is because they know that the insurance won't pay it all but they're trying to get as much as they can as they eat the cost of people that don't pay. When it comes down to the people themselves that get billed, you pay what you can and talk to the financial people at the hospital. They'll either write it off or get it down so low that its much easier to pay off.
@@Jose.AFT.Saddul "Which you can slowly pay off." If you're lucky and have a good job, and can still perform after being hospitalized, and they don't just get rid of you because you're a liability (legality is irrelevant). If you were scraping by before the accident you're screwed and will likely never escape that debt.
UK fire engines also carry equipment to get people out of vehicles and their smaller as well
I'm in a fairly rural town in Ireland, I've seen at least 6 defibs, public defibs, around the town and I know there are more out in the housing estates. There's even one in a local burial ground and all the public buildings have one.
Actually, now I think about it there must be more than 6, I'd say into double figures. Heck, most of the large shops have one - as in supermarkets - by the entrance and the multi story carparks all have at least one as well.
The UK firetruck was A Swedish Volvo 😁
Okay? And? Not every country uses an own-country vehicle company.
Besides, UK uses a lot of different companies for fire engines and trucks; Volvo, Scania, Mercedes, they're all used around the country for fire vehicles.
Police cars range from BMW's to Mercedes Vans to Vauxhall(aka Opel) Insignias, to Ford Focus and Ford Fiestas.
UK does the smart thing where each emergency service for each county picks and chooses whatever vehicles they think are best for their area and for the job they need the vehicle to do.
Picking vehicles entirely because they'd be "British" is just stupid and unnecessary, and countries who do that really are just shooting themselves in their foot and limiting their options for no good reason.
@@Perseus7567I think you misread the intention of this comment. This was more of a "I recognize that truck because it was made in Sweden" and probably maybe "Proud our Swedish trucks are used by UK/ used as an example of why they're better than American" if you wanna look deep into one sentence comment. But in no way it is "Haha you said UK truck but it's actually Swedish haha"
@@Perseus7567 Why are you feeling so pressed?
As long as you have these size trucks, you need big roads, even if you only use them 1 time a year.
You missed the entire point of the video: the are NEVER needed.
Just buy a new truck.
If you only need that truck once a year, you can send ahead the police and clear the street (both sides) to have it drive through. If it's only once a year, it will be fine.
@@jodocusonbenul I didnt missed anything.
And I know they are never needed, but it is al they have.
BTW een uitgebreide reactie van mij is verdwenen. Of ik heb niet op enter gedrukt.
I think you need the roads to be that big if the big truck need to get there, you don't need the big truck in the suburbs, maybe?
Bike lanes won't solve the problem. American drivers are taught to' pull to the right for sirens and lights'. If fd uses bike lane, u run the risk of cars pulling into u
In Germany, fire trucks are limited by most building codes to 10m (32 ft) in length and 16t in weight, with a turning circle of 16m for older trucks and down to 12m for the modern ones with rear steering axle. And yes, they are just as good as American fire trucks. E.g., the standard ladder is 30 m, which is about 96 ft., same as American ones.
Oh and the empty compartments: we got a nee engine last year and it still has empty compartments. Of course they were planned empty, but would usually get used for fancy things we got at a later time and usually when we need to repair something or get a different model of tool that is a different size or so they need to shift stuff inside the compartments from one place to another, so we "protect" the empty spaces if possible. Honestly, some of the stuff we have is not really needed, but we want it or it was needed at some point in time😂 years ago. All in all, I think US Fireservices, go smaller. Smaller trucks and engines crawl and seep into the farthest corner of your town or city. And roundabouts are a fun thing.
One thing that was briefly mentioned but not really talked on is EMS tends to be part of the health care system, not the Fire Rescue services. Certainly the case in the UK. So medical issues can be done by paramedic first responders and ambulances - not fire trucks. Like NJB said, you'll way more ambulances and police cars than fire trucks usually.
Here in Brazil they're split. Health care ambulances (called SAMU) will respond to basically anything that doesn't require rescuing, but Fire Departments also operate ambulances for rescue operations (so, car crashes, drowning, etc).
You very, very, very rarely see fire trucks actually being used.
9:15
Funny how over here in Germany one US Fire-truck is split into like 3 smaller units with a higher degree of specialization between them.
And even more special situations equipment like hazmat is by now most commonly handled by a Roller container and Truck combo, much higher flexibility compared to more rigid box trucks used before.
Yes that is true, although the concept of container/truck combo is also declining by now, for example in my city we used to have some trucks ("swap body vehicle"? Wechselladerfahrzeug or WLF in German) where you could load different containers and troughs, the containers were specialized for incident command, hoses, breathing protection, ABC (atomic/biological/chemical), medical service and some others. Now we got some new vehicles that have one of these specialties installed permanently, they are now called Gerätewagen or GW-X ("tool vehicle")
@@einflinkeswiesel2695 Ich denk mal die Fahrzeug Wahl und Spezialisierung ist sehr abhängig von den Bedingungen innerhalb der Gemeinde und angesiedelten Unternehmen.
@@HrLBolle ja klar, das ist ein Vorteil des Föderalismus, dass jede Kommune da eigene Entscheidungen treffen kann, bei uns sind die entsprechenden alten Abrollbehälter auch alle noch vorhanden, werden aber nur noch in zweiter Reihe vorgehalten, falls sie durch erhöhtes Einsatzaufkommen oder Reparaturen an den GWs trotzdem benötigt werden, auf den WLFs sind seitdem standardmäßig einfach Schuttmulden aufgeladen
Here in Vienna, Austria, there are dedicated parking spaces specifically reserved for Firetrucks, mostly on like a shopping street, where there normally would only be a general loading zones.
A few notes on sending a fire truck , on emergencies here in Arizona ambulance services are not required to have paramedics. Also on the upward trend on roadway deaths isn’t necessarily about speed , distracted driving started an upward trend a few years before and became very common cause of accidents by 2012 . there is also a upward trend on DUI accidents. Today there are more texting accidents, but dui accidents still cause more deaths. Also as you noticed the compartments we empty on the us trucks . Where are the hoses ? U.S. fire trucks generally store internationally. In the back taking up space more in length from the back . I do believe that some more specialized vehicles would work better. About roundabouts. That a sticky thing here in Arizona . Folks don’t slow down. So bad that several have been removed. They were given the name of idiot sticks , if we could learn to use them they would be great. Joy only criticism of his video not just suggesting a better way but his heavy handed criticism leaves many folks becoming defensive without analyzing the evidence presented.
19:51 chile also has american apparatus but their fire truck fleet is a mix of european and american trucks. I have a feeling they did that because the american ones do carry more water and from the vids I've seen they are typically stationed in the cities but they went with European trucks as well cause they maneuver better. Interesting take
Edit: 21:22 oh fire trucks from the Netherlands or any European country where they use martin horns as the trucks main siren are LOUD very loud. And can be heard much farther away then the ones shown here.
The real problem in the U.S. is that people are too attached to their smart phones in the early 2010's and cell phone later.
oh okay thank you mister abbott, that definitely relates to the fire trucks in question
nobody mentioned it is impossible for us firefighter departments to order eu style trucks. That would lead to massive costs to develope cab over styled trucks.
The US has a import tax on EU produced trucks (or something like that). So long as cabovers are not widley produced in the states it unlikley the US will have smaller firetrucks.
Its a way bigger problem then betrayed in the video.
Trying to blame just the fire department is odd, especially with the huge trucking industry and even bus systems for some areas. Other big cities overseas have different types of railways rather whether that be trains or light rails or subways so they have a designated space. The US just sends truckers absolutely everywhere, and buissnesses they deliver to can be in the middle of nowhere or more residential too, and they have to make those turns to get goods and supplies where they're supposed to be.
He made videos about trucks. He does one point at a time
16:00 a majority of the stuff on a euro engine is on top of a American engine (hose) we also have larger diameter hose than them in longer lengths for example 1,000 feet of 4-5 inch supply hose (or 300+ meters for the euros) on top of that there’s usually 2-4 200 foot (60 ish meters) attack lines and usually about 400 feet of smaller supply lines. Whatever is left over is on the inside of the engine
Those ladder trucks must be area dependant. I've never seen one in person. Granted fire departments near me have tractors with plows to stop field fires.
(I have lived in big cities too, just never seen one)
From the comments on the original video, the problem is so bad that: "The problem is European trucks aren't available in the US. Rosebauer used to sell some, but no longer do, and they don't have a stellar quality reputation, so many departments are reluctant to take the plunge."
Based on other comments on that video, seems like how funding is organized their are also issues around that.
A large issue is traditions. Take a look at how it is with traditional leather helmets vs the euro style. While the euro style has statics to prove its design can be safer for the responder wearing it. Tradition keeps most fire companies and departments from switching. Also Most Rural Volunteer companies have members that are in their 70's to 80's and often hold a majority voting power within said companies. And around here Company officers, both for the emergency response side and the day to day operations side are elected by the company members. Making it impossible for younger members to get into these seats to push and make changes
@@typo1791 yeah, it's sad, people should do what is best for everyone involved, not whatever they did in the past
I love how my city was the first one insulted yet there are others with the same trucks that drive worse -.- Most of the BIG trucks are big because they hold water, you need alot of water in Baltimore we send engines to calls, the only time you see those Tiller trucks (The ones that look like a Tractor trailer) is when they go to get stuff for the station, equipment runs or theres actually a fire As far as Baltimore pushing back we have to deal with Virginia, they wanted to make 2 lane roads 1 lane go have a bike lane that would rarely get used we have plenty of bike lanes that are rarely used, even downtown we had share bikes and bike lanes they went unused DC has plenty of bike lanes along with some towns in PA but you rarely see bikes because most people that have bikes also have cars
In europe, sometimes firedepartments don't even use the fire trucks, if they can they use a MPV or a van
The only thing I did not like about the original video is that the guy keeps quoting USA statistics, but then keeps referring to 'North America'. Canada (where I'm from) and Mexico are VERY different places from the USA, and I hate that we are all lumped in together. I also don't like that the EU is all lumped in together. There are very different laws in all three North American countries, and very different needs. The laws between countries in the EU are also different. For example, 6-8 months of the year, an emergency motorcycle is useless on snowy streets in Canada- though it is an excellent idea. Canada and USA have a lot of extremely rural areas compared to the EU, and you need to carry water with you to wildfires, or the firefighting team is hampered.
North America goes all the way down to Panama, most people just do call anything south of Mexico as North America and just call it Central America.
By the way here in germany on a highway, widely known as the Autobahn, as soon as the traffic gets really slow, or stops entirely you have to leave a lane open, by law, for emergency vehicles. Not doing that or exploiting said emergency lane would result in you not being allowed to drive a vehicle for a couple of months or in hard cases where it can be proven that because of you the emergency vehicle took dramatically longer to arrive can land you in jail aswell.
A HUGE difference between the USA and Europe: *there are NO FIRE HYDRANTS littering the streets in europe, because there are designated "water provision connections" on the ground ... and the fire trucks have the connector that just gets screwed in there to become the hydrant.*
The disadvantage of these underground hydrants is that it is even easier for cars to block them by parking over them or sometimes (that happened in my city) when the street is repaired, the workers put asphalt on the lid and you loose access completely
@27:03 And roads like these don't help at all. When even a truck loses contact with the ground, I call that off-road.
26:50 That Motorola Ring sound startled me for a second because I too use a Motorola phone :D
2:05 What differentiates the US data from Europe is that the number of pedestrians in the European Union is 10x greater. But it has fewer victims.
2:50 Typical US cities have so wide streets that you could split the lanes into two and use one half for pedestrians and bicyclist and have one *narrow* lane for the cars. Then reduce the speed limit to make it safe for everybody. That would instantly result in safer street with good lanes for pedestrians and bicyclists. Yes, it would give *less priority* to passanger cars but those people are sitting in air conditioned bubble so they can drive a little slower just fine. And emergency vehicles can run on the bike lanes if needed, as demonstrated in this video, too.
Look up some videos about Oulu, Finland, where they intentionally give priority to bicyclists and pedestrian traffic. As in, cars have signs to yield to light traffic *on every intersection.* The the passanger car drivers could be mildly inconvinienced everywhere!
I'm happy to see another American who agrees
for your understanding of the first graph. No it will not rise again, proably. the great downfall at the end, for the european graph, is the corona dip. Cause less trafic in 2020, there are less pedestrian Fatalaties. Since there were 2021 also corona restriction the number is 2021 lower then 2022. But even then they do not go back to the pre corona level, they are 1k fatalities lower in comparison pre corona.
The sharp drop and subsequent rise in the traffic fatalities in Europe around 2019 were being caused by the covid-19 pandemic lockdown. The moment the lockdown was lifted the volume of traffic normalized thus the number of accidents increased.
Great video and comment & additional information Charlie 👍❤️ At 22:42 i think it looks like it's going up that way because they used a big telelens
Shoot where I live most of the FDs in the out County areas have the Custom or 4 door commercial chassis. In some of those areas, these truck usually were still have only one or two operating due to lack of manpower (ie volunteers). Which for Tankers/Tenders built on these chassis isn't to much problem, but when you sending Engine/Pumpers/Wagons and Ladder Trucks with one or two seems little over the top.
I live in a small town and we have 3 defibrillators on the shopping street, one outside the elderly meeting place. Each golf course has one as well.
Golf courses are evil, though.
Fire department in the Netherlands has motor bikes...
Never heard about that, do you know which fire station uses them?
Never heard about that, do you know which fire station uses them?
The ‘veiligheidsregio haaglanden’ (the Hague and surrounding cities) definitely uses them. Possibly also Amsterdam, but im not too sure about that. They are mainly used for small incidents, but also carry an AED. They are also really useful for getting to the scene fast and to get an indication of how much personnel and equipment is necessary.
I'm a Paramedic in the US, and there are some things that are left out this video. The ambulance is still sent, but there are situations where having extra people are needed. Ambulances are also an expensive resource and need to be allocated by need. I don't necessarily disagree with the overall point of the video, but also know this is a more complex issue than this video makes it out to be.
These situations obviously also exist in Europe and when that happens, the Ambulance crew can just reach out to the dispatcher via radio and call for assistance. But most of the time, the two people from the ambulance are enough to deal with the patient
Dunno where you live, but in my town there are tat least 8 or 9 intersections where NOT 2, but 3, or 4 roads converge at the same spot (all good locations for car accidents, which...guess where those tend to happen), and a paper mill. The paper mill ya you're forgiven that a fire truck and an ambulance is sent out because if it gets real, it gets real QUICK, and there are some folk that do really need help. We have an OLD (from the 1970's at LEAST) ladder, and a pumper of roughly the same age, 3 ambulances, a brand new pumper, a trailer for water rescue (we have a relatively large river that splits town in half, not as large as other river bodies, but a good 60-70ft wide), another pumper, and SUV, and a pick-up...and lemme tell ya, most of them get used. All 3 ambulances, and 1 pumper the lil' SUV, and pick-up get used the most. If I had to guess, it's the ambulances that get the most mileage. Something that the pumper I see often has ambulances don't is the Jaws. With large vehicles now getting into accidents with smaller, older vehicles, being able to extract a victim has become common place. There's also probably a host of other stuff but still...Our FD also is the largest in my region. Serving 2 or more settlements without an FD presence, and assisting smaller volunteer fire departments. My town has recently started and are currently in the middle of expanding the fire station to have another 3 bays. If they hold Rescue's (those are trucks that hold everything for car accidents, and other calls, or HAZMAT (trucks that handle, you guessed it HAZMAT), who knows. And for those of us who don't benefit from an almost continent long ocean to the south, and an ocean exclusively to the west, motorcycles in Winter? You best be taking some kind of medication. They wont be use if the first responder hits black ice & wipes out. Also, what this guy fails to mention at 14:29 is that we also do use commercial truck chassis too. MACK, Western Star/Freightliner(same parent company), Peterbilt/Kenworth(same parent company), International,and some other brands have standard truck chassis that have been modified to be fire trucks. In-fact, Freightliner, and International truck cabs are used for some of the long-nose school buses. Also...I dunno know why...but I feel like this dude doesn't know that if you put two roughly identical I-6 truck engines, one from Europe, and one from the US next to each other (obviously I'm excluding Scania's V8) they'll be the same size. So yeah, there is probably a 800 horse Pumper out there, probably a Peterbilt too, and next to MAN, which maybe produces 380hp, that engine (WITHOUT TRANSMISSION) will be the same. Also, Brazil. has some of our trucks too. You think we're unsafe? They'll be going at least 90mph. As far as infrastructural projects, My town needs a kick in the right direction. Bike lanes is a start, aswell as buses. We have to many school buses, close to 40. Some of the ones that are set aside can be used to facilitate public transportation. And an over-pass going over the railroad tracks would be nice (we got 15 railroad crossings, 11 of them are signalized, 4 of them are not and that's a safety hazard that's even stopped our fire department). Also publicly & tactically placed Defib's? Sure am onboard with that.
*Note before I'm taken seriously:* Heavy equipment as a whole are an interest of mine, I wrote this comment as I progressed through the video as such.
I do think we can make the "metro yellow" standard for FD vehicles as it is easier to see in low light than red. Personally, I think incorporating "metro yellow" into an overall red paint scheme would be a good compromise of tradition and progression.
I suspect the uptick in US pedestrian deaths will coincide with the growth in demand for SUVs.
As you noted, there seemed to be a similar uptick starting in Europe, but about a decade later - again we have had a huge growth spurt in the sale of SUVs here over the last decade.
Sadly, SUVs are objectively less safe for both pedestrians and the car occupants, because they are more likely to have an accident due to poor immediate visibility, and driver complacency because they believe they are safe (psychologically, bigger = safer)
Time to do an ultra US-American comparison:
USA Fire trucks = USS Galaxy NCC-70637 = the eggs laying wool milk meat pig that does everything,
but has serious drawbacks like very big size, bad maneuverbility, high costs, high fuel consumption, ...
European replacements for USA-fire-trucks are efficiant circumstances adapted units = USS Lakota (not to big & got teeth via upgrades),
USS Defiant NX-74205 (very maneuverable small but mean power house), USS Akira (with a bigger flight deck), ...
& also modular commercial truck chassis with modules for standartized frames = defakto the many Miranda class variants (incl. Soyus class, Antares class & USS Saratoga, USS Lantree & of couse the USS Reliant)
Hi, European here.
While I do agree, that firetrucks in USA/Canada are huge for the most parts. I also somewhat disagree with it.
We tend to have the "igniter" vehicle (Fire chief) always first on the scene (fire) usually high power SUV (Mercedes ML / BMW X5 / VW Touareg / Chevrolet Suburban) Also medic on board.
Smaller trucks, "pump cars" 2-6 man crew, basic firefighting equipment, "small" water tank, but when facing a fire there is very little they can do alone, but very effective in scene of an accident.
Heavy equipment, Water tanks, and ladder trucks, 2-6 man crew, useless on their own... unless you need a ladder, needs support of a smaller truck.
Super heavy. these are more likely to be close to industrial area, They have only 4-6 man crew, but they have tools for every imaginable situation. larger water tank, ladder... well Everything. it does literally everything well, but it usually takes a bit longer to arrive. (much like American firetruck)
And on more rural areas, Literal water tanks. These are huge, and main thing is they bring in the water that is needed. Entirely worthless on their own.
8.20 (Or there about) "if there is a car crash, Just use an ambulance".
Sure... And when the ambulance/police arrive on the scene, they call in that they need a fire truck, because they need jaws of life, as there is 1-3 injured people stuck inside a vehicle, and they should already be half way down to ER.
9.50 "1000 gallons of water is not cheap to haul around"
1000 gallons is just about enough to extinguish 1 single burning car. On house fire, 1000 gallons is like trying to put out bonfire with a glass of water. it just slows it down a bit.
Single electric car fire can take up to 40.000 gallons of water (delivered from hose) and it can still randomly ignite after it has been extinguished.
All in all. 1000 gallons, is nothing.
we should have ,multiple vehicles here as well instead of just one type of giant truck and as far as the ambulance goes, can't they just carry some jaws of life as well?
Yeah - sometimes, you need a big truck.
@@ItsCharlieVest Yes, but then they need to carry protective gear for the crew, and if not anything else at least blankets that you can cover the individual you are trying to rescue, as it isn't all that unusual that some debree, (shards of glass, metal, etc.) fly from some of the places you are cutting / spreading etc. which all takes space from the ambulance, and the space for medical equipment there. and potentially adds a need for additional personel in the ambulance crew. as if let's say the driver operates the jaws, cutting away the roof of a car, 1 attends to the patient, now as 2 roof pillars are already cut, Cut third and the roof collapses unless you have couple people lifting it up. So 4 person ambulance crews.
Oh damn, hit a wiring harness that i didn't know was there, and now the car is on fire with 2 people stuck inside.
That's why most of the time jaws of life would be waste of space in ambulance.
@@MrPomomies yeah that makes sense
Just filling in some info, here in America a fire engine and a fire truck are not the same thing. A fire truck has the big ladder on top, carries 300-500 gallons of water, and all of the tech rescue gear. And in my area, might only have a crew of 2. A fire engine usually carries around 800 gallons of water and responds to fires and first aid calls. And usually has a crew of 3 or 4. And I agree with these points. We were taught that the onboard water was mostly there to bridge the gap between when you arrived on scene, and when you got connected to a hydrant.
It's nice seeing a more normal American reacting to this! One misconception that you repeated, though, is that American cities were built after the car: Most of them were initially built before the car, but were then bulldozed in the mid 20th century to build more highways and parking. If you see overhead images from before WW2 compared to the 70s, you'd think we were the ones who got bombed to hell in WW2 from how many buildings were destroyed.
3:56
The truck (suspect its a Renault) on the lower left: I've seen similar vehicles configured to seat 10 personal excluding driver and unit commander
Thanks for the react,i watched this video a few days ago.
thanks for suggesting it!
in my area in the midwest they dont use fire trucks for medical calls, they use ambulances
Interesting point with the possibility of pedestrian deaths starting to increase in the EU, but it is more likely to be an effect of people driving and going out less during the pandemic. Could be to do with the increasing size of cars though.
Charlie , my man.... your reactions are EPIC!!!!!! LOVE IT!!! And you get us Europeans ( and the Dutch for that) If you ever wanna come to BIG NL... you and the family are very welcome. 😉😉👍👍
Really the only gripe I have is 20:40...
Its an AIRPORT fire truck, it doesnt need to be maneuverable. Everything else is prety good though.
34:52
If that Tiller Truck had an European styled Tractor unit, Driver sits on top the front wheels, it would be less of a problem.
I work as a Truck Driver in Germany, I do drive Semi-Trucks and I can confidently tell you and everyone in the comment section that I'd be able to make that turn with no correction moves required, 53 feet with 3 none steerable axles (most common build in Europe).
one more thing neither of you mentioned, important difference between custom truck and commertial type of truck? availability and price of repair parts
not only how much gas needed to haul 1000 gallons of water everywhere, but also hauling the absurd amount of gas in the tank too needed to carry all that. Literally random giant rex box driving around carrying tons of steel, thousands of gallons of liquids, in order to check on a grandma that passed out at the walmart. like???????
US 2 Fire trucks For all things, Rest of the world 5 - 6 Fire vehicle for different jobs. 1 Car for Cemical job, 1 for water jobs, 1 fire truck for fire and car jobs and lader truck for tall jobs and so on.
edit: Water jobs is like drowning or boat accidents and so on.
US firetruck: Use a hammer for everything.
Rest of the world: Specific tools for specific jobs. Furthermore, most euro firetrucks are equipped for mostly the same things as US firetrucks anyway.
So that leads me to ask; What's your point?
Watch "Cannonball Run" and compare the ambulance they have in that race with the "big box cars" of today.
European firemen are out here playing Inventory Tetris
All that time playing Resident Evil paid off.
There's truly something beautiful about how efficient and organized that setup is.
@@ericmoll1530 agreed
They have time between the emergencies ... and honestly this is something where "german overengineering" has its place.
Rosenbauer has created a fully electric (not so sure about that one for longevity/durability questions) fire truck with REAR WHEEL STEERING, which increases mobility even more ... I dont really see american companies do this unless it is a GIANT truck with three back axles.
And Charlie, there’s one very important thing I forgot to mention there is an organization in the United States that rates fire departments many of your architects and engineers may know about this. It is called ISO Insurance Services office they come in and rate your communities Fire Department if you get a low ISO rating another words you don’t have enough trucks with what they mandate for equipment, and again they get these things from things like NFPA the national fire protection association your community your businesses your residence will be forced to pay higher insurance premiums. The things that would fix this are at the federal state municipal level would be a federal system to make standardization easier, but in order for us as the fire service to downsize NFPA and ISO would also have to change many of theirs and requirements. NFPA is not OSHA doesn’t have laws, but if you are a fire, chief fire commander, even a company, officer battalion chief your livelihood your families home are on the line if you are not following NFPA standards or OSHA law it depends on if your state is an OSHA state or an NFPA state, it’s not just about tradition. We loved our leather helmets, but in the end we chose safety form and function over tradition. There is a saying in the fire service about 100 years of tradition not being out done by progress. It’s a big joke but I started in the 80s as I progressed through rank in the fire service like many other guys I worked with. It was a lifetime of education, college training, and we weren’t afraid of progress, but so many things need to change are outside of our control, whether it be laws, standards, standardization budgets, and of course your political leadership, as I said, I don’t disagree. The problems just much deeper than the surface of firefighters like big truck American firefighters bad European firefighters. Good it’s been an ongoing thing between Europe and America for years. It’s like cops versus fireman. It’s like cops love donuts fireman don’t do anything but sleep. I will leave you with this people that rest their lives for complete strangers. Certainly don’t want to go to work and kill somebody, if we were up to us as individuals responding to EMS call in a midsize SUV isn’t just smart. It’s common sense unfortunately what we are left with his following orders and what works in one community may not work in others specially if there’s no standardization.
Even in Aus we have seprate fire trucks for major bushfires and normal emergencies. Including chemical and biological, cops even have seprate cars for diffrent things.
For that pedestrian accidents graph, based on where the EU dip is I'm pretty sure it plummeted so sharply due to the pandemic. So it's not entirely unexpected to see it hook back up towards where the trend was headed once the lock downs ended. I'm going to be really curious where that line goes in the next five years!
Most firefighter dont go to cats in trees calls anymore