Four-wheel-drive pickup trucks and SUVs are staples in fire departments across the United States for a variety of uses such as wildfires and rescue and EMS responses. Medic units in urban areas have long been using bicycles to provide rapid care before an ambulance arrives. But are firefighting motorcycles, or fire bikes, the next addition to U.S. emergency-response fleets?
Fire bikes — as they are more commonly known around the world — are used by fire departments in Japan, Singapore and Brazil to reduce response times in high traffic congestion areas of major cities. The purposes are fire suppression (they can carry equipment like simple extinguishers or jet guns with hose rigs) and to provide EMS first response. On the EMS side, medic bikes are also used with a trailer or sidecar for transporting patients.
Fire bikes have proven their mettle in helping reduce response times in congested cities, as shown by their use in other countries, they could fill a variety of tactical roles here in the U.S. Such as:
- Scouting, mapping and information gathering at incidents spread out over a large geographical area, like wildfires or the train derailments. A firefighter on a fire bike could stream live images right to a command post.
- Response, access and delivery of fire suppression services to areas in urban, suburban and rural settings, where access by regular-sized apparatus is hindered. A firefighter on a fire bike could begin suppression actions.
- Advance response to fire alarms. A firefighter on a fire bike could arrive on scene more quickly to evaluate the need for continued response by larger fire apparatus.
In addition to addressing fires, advocates say motorcycle response team can help save lives. When a heart attack occurs, the American Heart and Lung Association says, irreversible brain damage can begin after four minutes.
And besides the tactical functions that motorcycles could provide to fire department or EMS operations, there is also the potential for cost savings that could be realized through less wear and tear on regular apparatus in the fleet.
Of course, fire bikes are not a magic bullet to all response issues. Employing them would require additional insurance, additional training for those fire bike team members and greater risk of personal injury if they are involved in a crash. There’s also the issue of having to park the bikes when the weather is uncooperative, which in some areas is more than half the year.
Several major fire departments in the United States have looked at initiating fire and/or EMS motorcycle programs. But, for financial reasons of one sort or another most never got off the ground. The following use-cases may help advise U.S. cities considering fire bikes for future needs.
Bring Down Response Times
In Brazil, the São Paulo Fire Department uses teams of two fire bikes to bring down first response times to fire or medical emergencies from 10 to 15 minutes to just five minutes in the city’s congested streets.
Their bikes are 400cc machines, and carry basic EMS equipment, tools, signaling devices and other accessories, such as hand lights and elevator keys.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force introduced fire bikes in 1998 to combat increasing traffic congestion, with response time being a critical factor in preventing the spread of fires in the high-rise residential blocks of the urban island state. The force operates two-person fire bike teams manned by junior officers.
In Miami-Metro Dade County, Fla., motorcycle-borne medics equipped with defibrillators cut response times from an average of seven minutes to less than three in some places, a Miami-Metro Dade department spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times in September 2012. The Miami-Metro Dade program consisted of 10 donated motorcycles, but was dismantled in 2008 in the midst of department-wide budget cuts despite its relatively low $36,000 per year operating costs.
Earlier this year, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., added two leased motorcycles for rapid EMS response. The program costs about $600 per bike to insure them and outfit them with lights, radios and equipment. The bikes are being leased for $1 per year.
Rapid on Scene
In Japan, the Tokyo Fire Department uses pairs of motorcycle units nicknamed Quick Attackers for firefighting, rescue and medical first aid. The department has two types of fire bike units, each uses two 200cc bikes. Their Type T unit is equipped with a portable impulse fire extinguishing system, while a Type U unit carries simple rescue equipment and fire extinguishers.
In 2001, 20 Quick Attacker teams were in service; today the Tokyo Fire Department deploys 50 such teams. With Japan having a long history of earthquakes, Quick Attacker units are capable of off-road response and are also used for rapid fact-finding in earthquake and other disaster zones.
The Singapore fire bikes are usually the first to arrive on scene in that city, and, if necessary, will enter an occupancy to knock down the fire or prevent its spread. The riders are equipped with impulse guns, which can fire powerful bursts of water mist at speeds of up to 200 meters per second — that’s 448 mph.
The Right Size for the Job
In the United Kingdom, the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service has operated a number of fire bikes in different roles since 2005. In July 2010, they became the first service in the U.K. to deploy fire bikes specially equipped to fight fires.
Two BMW R1200RT trail bikes are outfitted with two, 6.6-gallon canisters filled with water and foam and a high-powered 98-foot-long jet hose. They are to be used to combat small fires to free up main fire apparatus.
Since 2005, Merseyside has been using a fire bike to respond to automated fire alarm calls in Liverpool to assess situations ahead of the arrival of main fire apparatus resources due to rising traffic congestion and because most of these automated calls are false alarms.
Special Event Consideration
In the United States, there are very few instances of fire departments using fire bikes. But in 2012, the Los Angeles Fire Department launched a pilot unit consisting of five off-road-capable motorcycles on loan from Kawasaki. Each bike was outfitted with a defibrillator, a small fire extinguisher, various medical supplies and a handlebar-mounted GPS system.
A dozen firefighters underwent the necessary training, and a permanent unit could have up to 10 motorcycles and 28 riders. The pilot motorcycle response team was a five-person unit used to speed to the side of an injured victim, provide information to dispatchers and skirt traffic to scout fires and other problems.
The unit first rode during “Carmageddon,” when the 405 Freeway closed for major demolition work and reconstruction. The program is still in operation, however.