When it comes to routines, it's easy to miss the small details. I mean the little things you don't feel are important or are just easily overlooked — such as lights, mirrors, windshields, side glass, fire-hose, equipment on the exterior of the truck and compartment doors.

But these little things could turn out to be big problems if you don't pay attention.

I once had issues with the latches of the compartment doors that were not fully "clicking" into place. They should have double-clicked for complete security and closure but were only clicking once. I had brought it to the attention of our shop personnel. They stated no one had reported any issues.

No big deal, right?

Soon after, a compartment door opened while we were driving and became "wedged" open since a slide-out shelf acted as a brace to keep it from closing. I felt a bump in the truck, then realized we had scratched the whole side of a car beside us.

Fortunately, nobody was hurt and no equipment fell out causing further damage or injury. We then immediately took the truck to our maintenance facility, which admitted fault for not being more thorough. Subsequently, every apparatus was examined to assure the compartment doors were closing and latching completely.

This event brings up another important safety item that needs to be thoroughly inspected. It's the "open compartment warning," or as I like to call it, the "do not move truck" warning located inside the cab. It alerts a driver both through audio and visual warnings when a compartment is open. It also means there is an event occurring and the truck should not be moved, such as a stabilizer that is deployed or a ladder rack in the lowered position.

A driver must routinely go around the entire apparatus and ensure the sensors located on every compartment activate the audio and visual warnings as part of their morning checks. To test, you need to open and close every compartment door/hatch individually, and release the parking brake to assure each sensor is functioning and activates the warning system. They also need to duplicate situations like those mentioned above to assure the warning system will activate.

Remember, this is important since it is a safety item.

As persons responding on alarms, we want to be both heard and seen. The light lenses need to kept clean for best visualization. In particular, assure no water-drop marks are on the lenses.

Headlights need to be kept clean. Make sure the bulbs and/or lights inside these lenses are illuminating. Turn signals and brake lights are especially important. These lights specifically communicate to others our intentions preemptively about where and how the truck is going to move — not only on emergency responses but also during normal routine movements.

The "scene" lights, such as those that are clear-lensed, spot or floodlights are critically important since these are the lights that allow us to perform our duties and provide scene safety when there is poor to no illumination. The windshield and mirrors need to absolutely be clear and free of water drops and dirt. When faced with oncoming traffic at night, dirt and water drop marks can obscure vision tremendously in oncoming headlights.

Light needs to go through the glass, not reflect off it. Side glass for the crew area of the cab allows personnel to clearly see what they are about to encounter and provides situational awareness.

All mirrors need to remain clean since drivers of fire apparatus depend on them more than drivers of normal passenger vehicles. Cleaning the cab gauges assures we can clearly see the ongoing status of the truck systems. The commonly overlooked reverse camera lens can be handled with a swipe of the cloth. Dirt and water marks can greatly affect the visual clarity on the in-cab screen. As we well know, most accidents occur when "backing."

One neglected area that needs attention is cab response lights. Climb on top of the truck and assure these lenses are not cracked and are kept clean. These are the first lights people see when we are travelling through intersections and in passenger vehicle rearview mirrors. Plus, these are the lights that are always getting hit by low-hanging branches.

If your department still carries items on the outside of the truck, such as axes, pike poles, extinguishers, backboards, ladders, etc., a little tug to make sure these items are secure during your morning check goes a long way. The last thing we need is to have an item fall off and go rolling down the street and cause property damage or even pedestrian injury.

The other big issue that has come up recently and is tremendously important is securing the fire hose in the beds of the truck. The fire hose either needs to be covered and have snaps, straps or elastic cords to hold the cover in place or have safety netting in place, also secured to the truck, to assure is does not start "flaking" off the truck or become loose and drag behind with driver and crew completely unaware.

Some departments even specify compartment-type doors for their hose beds/areas. There have been many incidents where hose has become lodged or wedged under a tire of a parked car or other object while the truck is in motion.

Tension is applied to the point that either the hose snaps or a violent reaction occurs once it becomes dislodged. Subsequently, civilian/pedestrians minding their own business have become the victims at the other end of the hose and have incurred injury and sometimes even death, not to mention property damage.

A little extra time and attention to detail during the morning check will take you a long way and prevent/avoid any further unfortunate incident from occurring. Be safe!