Chief21

Good points on all levels. So what does everyone think about the election? I agree, with seeing my local election was won by two individuals whom (under very bad blood) left the department and came storming back as commissioners. You see all the politicing and wonder how they make some of this stuff up? The only plus side is their District Attorney is a hard a**, and they prob wont be able to do half the stuff they want to. Also, we talk about the perks, getting gifts to their buddies. How can a town allow a fire district to purchase multiple "command vehicle", that literly sit as lawn ordermants in front yards six days out of the week. Since the OIC work out of town and can not leave work for emergencies. While these officers also have the full array of equiment installed in their personal vehicles. And tell the community how great of training is being conducted, when in fact the training has been less than adaquet, if not absolete. Please, do not get me wrong in saying that the board should be a room of firefighters; but if you are just looking for revenge, do not put the community at risk to get even. Thank you and be safe

I agree with Helicopper: If the members want to get involved at 16 (That is wonderful!!!). There are pleanty of classes available to them to get their feet wet before getting thrown to the wolves. CFR being the medical aspect involved in this topic. Let the kid take CFR and set him up with an EMT Mentor for two years to get the policies and practices down. What is the liability of sending your rig out with a 16 y/o EMT and a driver to a daytime call that could range from a stubbed toe to a sever cardiac arrest. We dont want to over do it with these young people. They do have a lot of potential and I feel they will be more susseptable to advance and be a long term member if they arent overwelmed physically and/or emotionally. So I guess what I am saying is truthfully what are we gaining by lowwering the age to 16? It takes a good four months for the class/ two months in house training, so maybe a year earlier getting them in the field? Be safe

This whole story is rediculous. This woman deserves everything she got. Lets see how we can go with this....going by the information above.... First... She should have never entered/moved the vehicle! Period! Would she have moved the police car if it was in the way? I DOUBT IT. Second... We spoke of fire apparatus/beer trucks/police cars/ambulances.. Where do we park? So know we have to be more convenient for the public when we park? You tell the fire to stop for a moment while we move the command post or the water sourse or arial truck or LDH or landing site or ambulance or SWAT van so Joe Smoe can move his car. Third... How often do we keep the vehicles running? If we are worried about idleing the trucks maybe we should work on shortening our on scene time. Fourth... It is a big differance between one of us moving a car and Mr/Mrs. Joe Public. Im sure most of US have moved a vehicle (with permission from the operator). Fifth... The public needs to take a breathe. Im sure if they had asked the responders..instead of just jumping in..beeping the horn.. and backing out.. they would have moved the rig if possible. Im sure if this was a Cardiac Arrest they would not be staying on scene long? That is my Rant.. Thank you Be safe

Hudson, you are absolutely correct. It is way over do for these fine men get compensated for the job they rightfully deserved. It is sad that even today this type of policy continues to happen. Also the fact that the people in charge of causing such an issue walk away without even a slap on the hand. It is just not right. Atleast this is a step in the right direction.

This is an interesting article. And it appears that there are many differant stories being told. First, let me state that "If it was not for the idiots of society we would not need first responders". Second, Id does not take much more than common sence to see a wire down. How many times do you see or hear people going around road cones/barriers, through caution tape, through traffic control. I personally saw once where a gentleman put his 8 year old son on the roof of his van to hild the wires up so he could drive under. In order to do this he went through set of cones, a road closed barrier and more caution tape than should have probably been used. The fact that the fire department departed is a tough case. Logistically how can you tie up apparatus and man power for extened periods of time? Before we get to far in to this story we really need to get all the facts. Hopefully these will come out before this case is sealed.

sympathomedic... what was some of this mis-information that was corrected? Its interesting when a commissioner feeds you mis information to prevent any action against them. perhaps you can pm me?

Well getting out of the relm of legal issues. How about back to the ideas of moral. You have a member who is nothing but trouble in the department. This member is written up on multiple occassions, caused problems on training grounds, at fire scenes, at social functions. Gets kicked out of the department and transfers to another department. Now they get all their buddies together and in december and they get elected as a commissioner. All of a sudden this thorn in the department now continues their antics but now has overall control of the department. Moral is in the crapper and your suck with this person for 5 years. What can a department do?

Times have defenitely changed when it comes to coverage. As it was said some departments ( I do not understand always why) strip their own department to cover either nearby or afar. Then, as I have seen the covering department gets a call in district and can not always divide coverage without stripping the department they were asked to cover. Why when covering another department would a department have to send all Chief Line Officers, along with all their certified manpower. The only time I see this as an option is in a neighboring request, where an Engine is requested by a small department with limited manpower. But under the current disaster circumstances, why would a department strip their district for a known 72 hour tour (maybe 3 hours from home)? I feel the best statement was made when you have your County Coodinator Staffed, and strategically dispatch/request assistance. You get a big incident; You do not : strip every ambulance in the county... activate every tanker in the county.... tie up every ladder in the county... That is the purpose behind Inter-County Mutual Aid. Alternate Department Apparatus, Known your County Inventory, and know your counties response capabilities. Just a few years ago, I remember hearing quite often on the scanner, County Control requesting 5 Interiors and a Class 1 to a large fire. Any more is like throwing darts at a map. What happened to the coordination? Also please, this is not a pun at any county in particular. There are some very well organized counties in this state. Others just seem to fall behind.

What is everyones feelings on "full PPE". I have always followed, if the equipment has been designed and issued, its more than likely made to protect you. We have a guy at our house who changes like the weather. He is like a real A$$ when it comes to telling him "your doing it wrong"; i.e., no nomex hood when in a taxpayer live burn, or no nomex during car fires, not clasping helmet (and losing it coming down a ladder. And yet he is the first one to fight with everyone, if someone besides him does it. We use differant tools for differant jobs, firefighting, EMS, HAZMAT, CS, etc. But when it comesto PPE it can be life or death. Thank you and be safe.

Interesting conversation today with local emergency IC's. The Walkway Over the Hudson, Located at Poughkeepsie, NY: The Structural members on the coast are not hurricaine rated and may only with stand winds up to maybe 90 mph. Beyond this it has the potential to break away from the anchor points and fall apart. I know this does not involve evacuations, as do the previous postings, but if this occurs what are the results? MTA railroads will be impassable with steel and concrete Homes may be compromised and injuries from debrie Close access along a major highway, with possible MVA's Unknown rescues/recoveries? A structure such as this bridge which has made it through so many disasters may not make it through this one. On another note, a notification was made that if the winds get over 60 mph the bridges over the Hudson River will be closed. To all be safe out there.

Correction to last. Internet is space here. We are in southern Jersey.

Out here in BHUTAN. No alarms but lots of USCG and police activity. All cell traffic is overloaded and not getting through. We had a big shake here. Anyone have accurate info or a site about evacuations?

I have to disagree to agree with all parties here. First off we are comparing apples to oranges when it comes to professional and volunteer agencies. Professional agencies are in quaters on shift, so why do you need a siren when you are already in house. For the volees it has pros and cons being they are not always in house. Yes we have unlimited communications, i.e. Minitor Pagers (with repeaters so even if you miss the original page you can play it again), text messaging (from the county - but may come at dispatch or hours later, "don't you feel stupid when you rush to the sation after getting a text that is an hour old), Text messaging for large incidents (1st Responder Network), Emails, Scanners, Mobile Radios, Portable Radios. But what happens when a mechanical issue, outside on a nice day mowing, or Storms? I have been outside doing work and did not her the pager, but I sure hear the siren. Then say a storm knocks out the repeater tower, maybe dispatch can not tone the pager, but they can key up the siren and update you on fireground channel once you get to the station. Another item we have had are the settings on the siren: 5 runs means you got a fire, while 3 runs is ems. So during the night you hear more tha 3 blast you move a little faster. Also outside the main door of our house is a call box. One button, when pushed rolls the siren. There were two cases where there was a serious MVA outside the station, and rather than calling 911, civilians pushed the button. So you are home and the whistle is just blowing you know something is up. So, as I said, lots of pros and cons. Next time JOE PUBLIC says they hate the sound of the siren, say "if it wakes you up.... Here is an application, help out".

Unfortunetly ALF has gone down hill in the last two decades... I am personally a big fan of the once King of the Fleet. But an one time or another the King must step down.

My sincere condolences go out to the Zgrodek family, friends, and Brothers/Sisters of the Plattekill FD. It is a sad time to lose such a young and prosperous individual like Tom. He will surely be missed, but will always be looking over us all.

On a site note.... What ever happened to the War Time Era use of Sirens? In the mid west they are still being used as Tornado Notifications. Maybe it is just me, but people dont think twice up in the North East when that siren fires up? Perhaps we should get an National system up, as they did with the air-raid notifications of years ago?

Helicopper - I think Indian Point is ideally a perfect example for plans being in writting and yet not always working. IP has a siren alarm notification system, which is tested routinely. But it has seemed to me that with every test they find that the majority of the sirens do not work?? I think that as a country in a whole we are making to many modern Action Plans with insufficiate outdated equipment.

x635 , I absolutely agree with you. You have true professionals with a camera as you listed just a few. And yet it is the everyday John Smith with a cell phone who is ruining the artistry that these professionals are capturing. I do agree that it is disrespectful and wrong to be taking photos of individuals (i.e. patients faces, and maybe at an MVA showing licence plate numbers). But beyond that, you can never control every person on every scene, without having a full 15ft tall curtain draiped around it. So, I think rather than abolishing photography, it should just be more restricted. And it can not be up to the OIC to control that. He has enough to worry about. So who is going to enforce it??

I would like to know what the specific purposes are. Sounds quite open ended to me.

RIP Officer Falcone, Respectfully AWARDED the City of Poughkeepsies first Medal of Honor. A retired NY Police Detective respectfully donated his own Metal of Honor to Falcone, in the cities absence of having one on hand. "The detective, who risked his own life, said it would be his honor if John had his ribbon." Our deepest wishes go to the family and friends of Falcone. And lets not forget the 3 year old girl Forever Welch, who lost her family, but was saved by our HERO, Detective John Falcone # 22.

It is always great to see the pictures Bill produce from these devistating times. As had been said, the logistics of placing all those ariels and supply lines must have been a nightmare. My only question is looking at the photos, why was the power still on to the building? I would assume with the magnitude of the incident and apparatus in use, they woud have atleast cut the power. There are a few pictures of the side entrance to the building, with the flood light still on?

Talking through the grape vine, I heard recently that the cutbacks have not ye taken place. Station 3 is still open and there have be no layoffs to date. The Guys throughout the Disrict have been working very hard to keep the guys in the houses and Station 3 Open. Chief Vatter had a great pitch for NFD to run their own EMS coverage. But was turned down after the Public meeting where MLSS (Mobile Life) pitched thier own defence. See the attached link for the most recent attempt by NFD to keep everyone working. http://www.local589.net/. Almost a $1,000,000.00. Thats right One MILLION Dollars in savings rejected by the city. What is wrong with these people.

So, the North East is begining to see more of that white stuff we call snow. Definitely not the 3 plus feet i remember from the 90's, but the roads are getting covered, and drivers for some reason have forgotten how to drive in these wintery conditions. Do you still go down to the house and wrap the chains the day before the predicted storm? Or has technology caught up and your apparatus is spec'd with auto chains? With weather conditions varying from state to state, how does your department prepare?

We used to run chaines on all the engines and tankers until about 10 years ago. Now we run without, I am not even sure if we still have to chains available (being all the rigs but one have been replaced). It is kind of scary and nerveracking when you see a 3,000 Gallon Tandom tanker spinning tires. Be it enroute, at the scene, or trying to get out of a water sourse.

Gentlemen, Everyone has shared very helpful information and contacts. My department recently purchased a used Chevy Suburban with the dual rear doors. The only problem is the previous department kept the command box to be installed in the new vehicle. Anyone out there know of any departments with used boxes for sale? Any Info would be appreciated. Contact me through PM. Chief