Interesting way to get a train over a fire hose...
- Thread starter caravanman
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Devil's Advocate
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There's a common and measurable bias that convinces most people to assume they are smarter than the average person, which is mathematically impossible but does help explain why photos like this are so common and popular. Our desire for self-satisfaction distracts us from asking why someone alert enough to notice a problem would also be clueless enough to think this course of action would resolve it. The low resolution, blurry compression, and unusual aspect ratio imply this photo was modified or fabricated to promote a reaction distinct from reality. In the future my advice is to assume any internet photo that makes you feel better about yourself is probably mocking you behind your back. 
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Metra Electric Rider
Engineer
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I'm tempted to dub thee SnopesZ - great find!
caravanman
Engineer
Don't worry, I distrust 99% of all I see on the internet. The other 1% I know is certainly fake!
I never thought this was a genuine real event photo, but I thought it was genuinely amusing!
I never thought this was a genuine real event photo, but I thought it was genuinely amusing!
I get the joke, but, Interesting piece of equipment. Sort of falls in line with my local fire dept. that rolls out every piece of equipment they have, regardless of situation.
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Better to roll too much than not enough.
When I first started being a volunteer fireman in '81 in a rural NM fire department, they had one truck which took forever to get started because the battery was always dead and another that carried 500 gallons of water because there were only 5 hydrants in 27 square miles. We saved a lot of foundations and often just "prolonged the agony". And since the county rarely got the story straight when dispatching us, we had to be sure we took anything and everything.
Eleven years later when I left NM, I was chief. The old truck was gone; the other was a backup to a newer, fancier one; we had a pickup with water and a small pump for brush fires; an ex ambulance with rescue equipment, a new fire station and a 2000 gallon tanker on order. Some was my doing (geting us a higher classification to get more state money and instituting training) but mostly it was a 1/4% statewide sales tax that went for fire departments' capital expenses.
We never once regretted having too much equipment on site and always told residents "better you call us when it turns out to be nothing than to not call us when it doesn't".
There actual were "Hose Bridges" just for such a scenario and serious laws against a trolley running over unprotected hoses at the time.
20th Century Rider
Engineer
As an alternative, they could have dug a tunnel under the track, or they could have built a bridge and route it that way. Or, perhaps they could have lifted the truck with one of those big helicopters so the water wouldn't need to cross the track. Thumbs up for a little humor!!!
I agree with you. And I congratulate you on getting all that accomplished. I was referring to 911 medical situations. Rolling in with Paramedics, pumper and a hook and ladder seems like too much equipment. I guess they feel they can deploy to a new call from any location. But also this is Los Angeles County, they have a lot of tax money.
I used to be a volunteer FF/EMT in rural NM for 15 years. We've upgraded the equipments, too!
Big city streetcar dispatchers had a printer in their office that would punch tape from the fire alarm telegraph system showing the box number that had been pulled and they would send an inspector out to the scene. Depending on the situation they might use a hose bridge as shown above, or a detour in a big network, or hold up service.
