Meeting Report - Feb. 2020

LIEVT had the regular meeting at the Seaford Fire Department on February 20, 2020. More than forty regular members and new members enjoyed an excellent dinner and dessert. The president, John Manetta, opened the meeting with a pledge to the flag and a moment of silence for our departed members and our troops overseas.

Click read more here or below for the minutes, or click on the picture to see pictures from the meeting.

John asked Kit to read the minutes – she read the minutes from the Copiague meeting of January 23 with technical help from our webmaster, Nate Berry, and the thank you letters she sent to Paul Sailon and the Board of Fire Commissioners of the Copiague Fire District. The minutes were approved and accepted.

The treasurer, Barbara Connolly, reported to the group that she had paid the $1,700 liability policy. We also need this now for the fire departments that host us. She asked the group to let her know what classes they would like. Barbara reminded everyone that we are always looking for fire departments to host our meetings.

The Vice-President, Tarren Kearns, reported that Artie Koenig’s son, Connor is in a semi-coma in St. Charles in Port Jefferson and is moving to a nursing home. Tarren is working with a committee to arrange for EVT testing on Long Island.

The president introduced Scott Weeden, Vice President of Sales and Rich Petrusik of Barnwell House of Tires. Items discussed included:

• NFPA 1911 compliance, point by point
• General tire inspection with John Robst, former owner of Ranger Tire who estimates that he has inspected over a million tires in his career. Discussion of the various tell tale signs of impending failure including strech marks, bubbles.
  • Handling tires safely:
  • Catastrophic tire failure can include the dreaded "zipped" which happens when the flex of a tire causes internal failure. Preceded by tell tale sounds of snapping of internal metal cords. You may have under a second to back away from a zipper if you hear these sounds!
  • Tires that are under-inflated by 20% or more that have been driven on are especially dangerous. Do not attempt to inflate in this state without a cage.
  • Always stand behind a tire when rolling in a shop as tires will blow out to the side.
• Proper care of rims and mounting surfaces
• Rims tend to wear on one side. Roll the rim on the shop floor, if it turns its wearing unevenly.
• DOT numbering schemas
• tire construction
• NFPA requirements for replacing tires based on age - are they being followed? A tire can have a lot of tread and be "too old" as per NFPA.
• Documentation and service records. Barbara asked that everyone should write about how they document the inspection of their apparatus. Bring in examples so we can make sure we are standardizing on good practice.
• Fire service vehicles require a mixed service tire which limits which tires are really available since so many large tires are aimed at the over the road trucking industry. These over the road tires are NOT a good match for the needs of the fire service.
• Some manufacturers will be putting RFID in tires soon

The president gave LIEVT memorabilia to the Seaford Fire Dept. and the Barnwell group. A raffle was held with theater tickets from Fire News, a bottle from the Seaford commissioners and shirts, hats and hoodies from Barnwell.