I've been in emergency services for over 20 years now, and down at the firehouse, I've been around long enough for the complete lifecycle (buy it-use it-dispose of it) of not only the small stuff (gloves and goggles) and the bigger stuff (air packs) and the biggest stuff (fire trucks), but also to see the changing nature of what we keep in stock at the station and on the trucks.

For example, when I joined, we carried map books, now, we still carry map books, but we never use them - we have mapping on our phones and via GPS.

We used to use a gas-powered hydraulic pump for our vehicle extrication tools, now we use battery-powered tools that are much faster and easier to deploy.

But the newest equipment we now deploy to all of our trucks is a little different, and is in keeping with the current needs of our membership. When you're in the officer's seat (that's the passenger seat) it's a piece of equipment more important than the thermal imaging cameras, combustible gas detectors, more important than any of the types of radios we have on board, or the response management documents. What could possibly be more important?

Can you guess?


Try again....


its....
READING GLASSES.