Copyright 2006 San Antonio Express-News
All Rights Reserved
By LAURA E. JESSE
San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
City officials decided Thursday to scrap the San Antonio Fire Department’s troublesome self-contained breathing apparatus manufactured by Interspiro Inc. and enter another bidding process today to acquire new air packs.
City Manager Sheryl Sculley said it was a collective decision on the part of city management, the city attorney and Fire Department officials.
“We have given opportunities to cure the problems, and each time a corrective measure is offered, another problem surfaces,” Sculley said, adding the city is in the process of notifying Interspiro officials of the decision.
Chief Robert Ojeda said he expects the new equipment will be purchased and delivered within 90 days.
“We anticipated this and started evaluating other equipment a couple months ago,” Ojeda said Thursday.
When asked if litigation against Interspiro is being considered, Ojeda would say only that the city will do everything it can to recoup the money spent on the equipment.
The Fire Department purchased 400 breathing apparatuses from the Swedish company for $1.8 million in February 2005 and put them into service in June.
The first problem was documented in August, and, with more and different failures occurring after that, the city hired Southwest Research Institute to examine the equipment.
The results of that probe, released in February, prompted the city to ask Interspiro officials to address the issues discovered and provide timelines for the fixes to be delivered.
After a new problem was discovered in late February, Mayor Phil Hardberger said the company should prepare for a “hefty lawsuit” if it didn’t deliver permanent solutions in a timely manner.
That new problem involved the valve core inside the bypass valve breaking, which caused the air hose from the tank to the face mask to become permanently detached.
The failures, which total more than 175, have not caused any injuries.
Because of the various failures, which often resulted in complete air loss from the tanks, fire brass asked firefighters not to perform any deep penetrations into burning structures, and they required two district chiefs, additional firefighters, more trucks and an ambulance to respond to all fires.
Additional firefighters at the scene means more overtime paid by the department, but no official accounting of how much overtime has been paid was immediately available.
The city will, however, include all costs incurred as a result of the problems in its discussions with Interspiro, Sculley said.
Councilman Richard Perez said the City Council faces hundreds of problems that are serious in one manner or another.
“But this is one problem that is probably one of the most important that we can face because it involves the safety of our firefighters and citizens,” Perez said.