hudson144

ok , alot is said here and its great to be able to say things about what goes on here in westchester.if the yonkers fd feels that it needs another rescue co,truck co,eng co then good for them.applaud the yfd for trying to upgrade the dept. to better protect the citizens of yonkersas well as their own ff"S. if all communitys were at the point where they can do what yonkers is doing or trying to do then we all would be in better shape! yonkers is just about the one and only dept. in the area that is going in the right direction.many depts. in the usa are limited with manpower and equiptment and plays a large roll in firefighter injurys/deaths. a few career depts have guys using duct tape on their boots,rigs with doors hanging off, and 2 men engine companys.so i salute the yonkers fd and wish that i worked there! as you get older in life and you have a few years as a firefighter under your belt you will understand how older or senior firefighters feel about the job. i am not knocking any junior or young firefighter because it wasn't to long ago I was a young guy also.may thoughts and ideas have changed over the yrs but thats because it comes with age>maturity as well as experience.this goes with life in general.

ok , alot is said here and its great to be able to say things about what goes on here in westchester.if the yonkers fd feels that it needs another rescue co,truck co,eng co then good for them.applaud the yfd for trying to upgrade the dept. to better protect the citizens of yonkersas well as their own ff"S. if all communitys were at the point where they can do what yonkers is doing or trying to do then we all would be in better shape! yonkers is just about the one and only dept. in the area that is going in the right direction.many depts. in the usa are limited with manpower and equiptment and plays a large roll in firefighter injurys/deaths. a few career depts have guys using duct tape on their boots,rigs with doors hanging off, and 2 men engine companys.so i salute the yonkers fd and wish that i worked there! as you get older in life and you have a few years as a firefighter under your belt you will understand how older or senior firefighters feel about the job. i am not knocking any junior or young firefighter because it wasn't to long ago I was a young guy also.may thoughts and ideas have changed over the yrs but thats because it comes with age>maturity as well as experience.this goes with life in general.and when i was a junior guy i spent more time out having a good time chasing you know what and not worrying about tax dollars! be safe!

from reading all of the above thoughts you all have some great points.as I had mentioned before the main purpose of fast/rit is to protect ourselves from the worst thing that can happen,being trapped or lost in a fire/emergency situation. For those of us that feel that the fast team is the answer to everything I want you to take a look at the study that the phoenix fd did about fast teams. I have a close friend on the job there and he says that if any new methods or tools hits the market they usually get it to try it out. The other thing that pfd is big on is admitting to mistakes made and learning from them! alot of depts. don't want to admit to any wrong doing and they go on like nothing happened. Its great to have a forum like this because it gives us all a chance to voice our opinions and learn from others. do we all work the same way? NO! we don't ,each dept has their own set of rules and sog's that may not work in other depts. keep subjects like this going and we all can learn ! be safe

wow,great job answering that one,I know you must have had some help and probably had some laughs!

Throughout the westchester area many departments over the years have gone from small engine companys to responding with trucks as trucks companys. The identification should be either truck or engine. It may and will eliminate problems in the long run. A truck company is responsible for VES,Vent,enter search. by assigning your manpower to the 3 mentioned tasks it is important that the personnel at the fire scene are trained and work accordinly to the situation,in other words a truck co. has to work with the engine co. to know when to vent as well as when not to vent. it is very important that a coordinated attack happens on the fire ground.this is where the riding assignment comes in.at times no members may ride on the truck to the fire scene and it has to be established with your members as they arrive about what tasks are going to be distributed in an order that helps the evolution go into place. yes,1st due lay in,handlines stretched and placed at the front door(remember that hose placement is vital to help protect building occupants eggress from the structure involved) and aggressive attack to be a planned attack. at this point even if the "truck" hasn't shown up someone has to be assigned to vent and give the engine crew the green light to go in and carry out the suppression duties of the engine co. this should all be systematic to help eliminate any type of mistake that might get a ff hurt. I realize at times that manpower might be an issue both on the career side as well as with volunteer depts. most career depts in westchester run with skeleton crews but they have the luxury of showing up around the same time with members being assigned the task for the whole shift. riding positions or job tasks is important to help extiguish the fire as safely as possible!

for that job,MOVE! GO FOR IT!

I didn't realize that the radio frequency was for emergency use.I always thought it was for announcing that a parade was going to take place or that a fire truck needs to be washed or a pasta dinner was going to be served as a fund raiser! how tradition in the fire service is going to take us into the future!

my advice to the younger crowd,if you want to wait to get on the job around here it may take some time,in fact it might never happen.if you are willing to move away alot of places are always hiring. Atlanta fd,fairfax county VA,Las vegas , phoenix to mention a few. i have several friends that work for the mentioned depts. its tough to get hired here in ny.with alot of the residency laws in place its almost not worth the wait unless you are 100 % legit. I really am not saying this to cast a shadow over your dream of getting hired but I know the system quite well and almost relocated to Atlanta back in 1984. If you do want to get hired. go get an apartment in Yonkers and work your butt of to do well on the exams. Yonkers fd is one of the best jobs here in the northeast! good luck and never give up!

always have been a problem in westchester.like everything else there is nothing here that is uniform.and if the county steps in to try to rectify the problem every chief,commish start crying how the county does not have the right to intervene.well ya know what,someone has to! the radio system is a joke,always has been a joke and will continue to be a joke! sit back and listen to the radio,eveyone wants to run their own parade. in some depts. when an alarm is transmitted you have 3 chiefs signing on,3 line officers signing on,5 deputy chiefs signing on and then 5 apparatus signing on,hello,breaker 19 this is not a cb radio. someday an emergency transmission is not going to get through because a message from another dept. will step all over the signal from being sent from the ff in trouble. amazing how some people like to hear themselves on the radio. what is the solution-good question!but its time for board of smart people to sit down and figure something out.for a county such as westchester to still operate like we did back in the 60s something is very wrong. yes over 40 years ago we operated the same way.now i'm telling my age. haha-anyway-10 codes? actually saying what you are doing? know wonder why some departments went out on their own frequencys.

with departments the size of ossining as well as peekskill i go back to what i said the other day,there is no reason for a dept. with a large amount of their own manpower standing around watching not to be formed as a fast team.it takes time for mutual aid companys to respond in from other communitys to be the team.i honestly feel that even though legally a team does not have to be in place until it is clear that all civilian occupants are accounted for.however,what is wrong with having a team in place from the beginning of the incident through the end.our priority is us,us,us!over 100 firefighters die in a year here in the us. way too many!whem **** hits the fan and someone is not acounted for then we really have to rely on the others out front to save us. I know first hand how important it is to have someone out there. departments need to work together with each other and other departments with a bunch of companys need to work with and for each other.to a certain degree,its a form of consolidaton. its happening all over the country!

the original and main purpose of the fast,rit or whatever you want to call it is to protect and save your own if stuff hits the fan.many fires now you hear a 10-75 transmitted and a neighboring dept. dispatched for a fast team. on some occasions by the time that the team arrives on the fire scene there is a "puff" of smoke coming from the fire building and the team sets up in front next to the other 20 guys from the department that has the fire. I do agree that the system does work at times but it needs to be re-defined before it is too late. We all want to get in there and go to work but to be honest how many firefighters do you need on the 1st line? You do need a back up line for the 1st crew as well as a crew to help in case the worst does happen.Some depts may have to train their own to be the fast team until the neighboring dept shows up. if they do have the luxury of having additional men available then it should be considered. Timing is everything,a fire at 10 am during the week may have different amounts of firefighters than 10 pm during the week,"circumstances dictate actions". Its not easy but somehow things need to be re-established and be more defined.As far as letting the fast team go in and get involved lets not forget that structures have collapsed well after the flames and smoke has cleared and firefighters are still in jeapordy while inside working,EG:heart attack,or some other medical problems. if you are assigned to a fast team try to keep your ground and stay as the team.it may take shackles to keep us there but is important that you are available in case you are needed. keep safe!

the mutual aid stand by for the tri-village area does work to a degree,it should be tuned up a little bit and the dispatchers at 60 control should be allowed to use their discretion if they should tone out all 3 depts, alot of times the incident is a minor alarm that turns into chaos over the radio. The dispatchers know when they have a "job" coming in. The 3 departments have been working together for over 50 + years even before the tri-village response.