It is what firefighters are trained to do - when there is a problem, they improvise every day, finding solutions.
One fire department did just that when firefighters got tired of wearing wet gear.
“We have a weight room where we would hang it to dry. It takes two to three days,” said Brian Holzheimer, the Lyon Township Fire Marshal of how they used to dry gear.
A firefighter worked to come up with a solution. He used a fan, a pallet, wheels, and PVC pipes to build a portable gear drying station.
It cost about $600 to $700, a fraction of what a commercial gear dryer costs.
“If you buy one commercially, they run about $8,000,” said Holxheimer.
The fire department shared a picture of it online to let the community see how with innovative thinking they saved tax dollars.
The next thing they knew it was shared around the world. Firefighters from as far away as France and Peru wanted to know how to build one for their firehouses.
One of the questions they are getting a lot from fire departments around the country is, what are the specs?
The answer? They don’t know. They just visualized it and made it happen.
