Rancho Cucamonga Fire District Maintenance Shop

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Many fire departments are not fortunate enough to have their own full-service maintenance shop and often contract with outside companies to perform vehicle repairs  and maintenance.  However, one fire department, the Rancho Cucamonga Fire District in Southern California, has been able to build a large, well-respected shop, where they service their own vehicles and also those of surrounding agencies and fire service companies.

The Rancho Cucamonga Fire District's Maintenance Shop began over thirty years ago with one man, Sammy Dominick, Sr. and his small arsenal of equipment.  Dominick, who has retired from his position as Maintenance Officer, recalls its humble beginnings. "It was done with primitive tools, a little Craftsman toolbox and one little pick-up truck that was the vehicle that took us in and out of the district whenever we were called.  As time went on and the fleet grew larger, we got to the point where we had to build a facility of our own, and through the Redevelopment Agency, we were able to put this building on the ground," he says of the large three-bay facility that houses the maintenance shop.

When he began his career, Dominick had experience as a heavy duty truck mechanic and a Journeyman Machinist Certification.  He says, "As I hired other mechanics, I got some that were excellent fabricators, some that were great electricians.  So when you build the team together, there was almost nothing we couldn't do."

The impressive facility can handle almost any job.  The three drive-through bays house a 1000 HP dynamometer and a three-axle lift that can handle 75,000 lbs.  With a portable axle lift, it is able to accommodate a four-axle fire truck.

The fire department owns a full compliment of fabricating equipment, purchased by Dominick and his team over the years.  The department buys its own steel, aluminum and stainless steel and can machine its own parts.  They own a lathe, mill, belt sander, cold saw, industrial grinder, plasma cutter, heliarc welder, and a weld table.  The facility also houses a Rigid Pipe Cutter Threader, a drill press, band saws, and a sand blaster.  In their finishing room, the crew has the ability to paint all of their own parts.

According to Dominick, the only jobs that they contract out to third-party vendors is heavy transmission work and certain engine repairs, as well as alignments.

The staff's primary job is to maintain the seventy to eighty vehicles owned by the Rancho Cucamonga Fire District.  However, they also have the ability to offer certain services to other fire departments and agencies.  Their dynamometer testing, to rate a vehicle's horse power, is one of those services.  They also have a steam cleaner with a water separator and clarifier, which can clean vehicles of any size.  They also offer pump test services to outside departments and agencies.  With a 58,000 gallon underground water tank, fire departments use the Rancho Cucamonga Fire District's facility to perform their annual pump tests, as well as re-testing after major engine or transmission work.

Upon Sammy Dominick's retirement, the Rancho Cucamonga Fire District appointed Fred Clow to the position of Shop Supervisor.  Carrying on Dominick's tradition of progress, Clow is undertaking an effort to computerize all of the fire department's parts and maintenance logs.  He says, "We want to create a database of parts and supplies that we need so we can keep our parts rooms well-stocked.  Our duty mechanic, if he needs parts for a specific vehicle, he can pull up that data, get those parts and go out to the field and make the repairs."

He would also like to hire some additional mechanics who specialize in electronics, and would like to have the entire staff cross-trained on all of the latest in fire apparatus technology.  With the City of Rancho Cucamonga planning on building a seventh fire station in the near future, these mechanics will no doubt stay very busy.

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Author:Barbara Brooks - FDNNTV.com