wraftery

In my 35 years I have not made use of an actual brush truck south of 287. Most of our brush fires were extinguished as mentioned by PCFD Eng58 and DC2t...Brooms and Indian tanks. (Never tell the Probies that once the fire is out, you can dump your Indian Tank and walk out of the woods. It as always fun to watch his face as you swing your empty can around) There were other methods of extinguishment as well: 1. Hump 2 1/2 and standpipe packs into the woods (Not a preferred method) 2. Roy Patrick had a WWII jeep. We would have a cop drive Roy back to the station to get his jeep. This took the humping out of Option #1 3. Wait for the Gator or the Bambi Bucket to be invented 4. Wait for rain 5. Wait until the fire got within 200ft of a road, Stick your ladder pipe up and make rain

Just because a tall cow is mentioned, calling it a "rural size-up" is udderly ridiculous. I learned it from city guys who have never been within 50 feet of a cow. But yes, it is another way (maybe the first) of remembering things to note in a size-up. All these anagrams use the same letters, more or less. They don't have a rule or SOP, but they are things to consider in your size-up. They are good for test questions, but they also might help your fireground decision making if you train on them. Try putting up some slides or videos that show a building either pre-fire or on arrival. Then discuss them and size the picture up using your choice of Coal, Wallace, or Tall cows as a checklist. Hopefully, when you get to a real fire, some of these "Points to Consider" that you did in training will come out of hiding in the way back of your brain and become a useful part of your strategy. Tommy Brennan (my hero, RIP) used to say that a good fire officer has the ability to fill his head with "stuff" and then be able to pull that "stuff" back out at 2 o'clock in the morning and put it to use.

This is a good example of an arrival report

We are confusing arrival reports and size-up...again. The arrival report is quick and concise radio transmission of what you are seeing when you first pull up on the scene. It usually does not wait for a full 360, but it more often than not contains a 270 because you should get a view of the A, B, and D sides. On the other hand a size-up is an analysis of the incident that is done to formulate your strategy and tactics to be use in controlling the incident. Notice I said incident because it's not necessarily a fire that you are responding. A size-up is not a radio report. Its a thought process. I don't believe there is such a thing as a size-up report. It there were, you would be on the radio for several minutes going through your thoughts as you run down the list of "She was a tall cow," "Twas wealth," or whichever acronym you choose to use. The "preliminary report" or "initial progress report" is a short version of what you consider important after doing your size-up, what you have done up to this point, whether more resources are needed, and anything else pertinent, unusual, or of urgency to the situation. If you talk on the radio for 1 minute (and in radio time, that's a lot), the fire has the potential of growing ten times its original size. Keep it concise.

Don't be to hard on Captain Smart. He's just watched "Full Metal Jacket" too many times.

If I am th IC, what are my options in this Alleged mass contamination? Looks to me like we have to take about 50 naked people on each school bus and open the windows. Drive said busses betwee two fire engines wih deck guns flowing and aimed at the windowline. Keep driving. You now need the US Marines' Mobile Decon Team out of Maryland. They have a 4 hr response time which coincides with the amount of time a school bus can drive around without reflling. Whoops! I forgot. I cannot just call for the Marines by myself. I have to convince the chain (Local mayor, County Exec, Governor, and finally Barak O) that sending me the USMC is a good idea. I think about the fact that, up to now, I haven't been able to convince "the chain" of anything, my guess is that the busses will run out of fuel before I get the Marines. Hopefully, the busses will run out of fuel in someone else's jurisdiction. I have no Plan B.

It looks like a larger regional Fire Department might be the only thing that could get a handle on things like this. Chiefs seem to join into things like the Southern Westchester Spec Ops Task Force and after a couple of years thay either "unjoin" or change their piece of the plan without telling anyone. At least a regional FD would be structured and goal oriented fpr the area as opposed to the committee system with no teeth that we have now.

The Hampton Roads area (Norfolk, Vrginia Beach, Chesapeake, etc) have been using this system for many years and it is probably a success or they would have trashed it, pardon the pun. I actually have two containers, one for trash, one for recyclables. Populations in these cities range from 450,000 to 250,000 and they all range from industrial to suburban to urban to rural. I think the containers are .9 cubic yards. They are pretty good at handling trash, but are garbage at handling snow.

Hear about the guy from Alabama who was pulled over by a Trooper on the NY State Thruway? Trooper says "Got any ID?" Redneck answers "Bout whut?"

YOU CAN SEE HOW FAR WE'VE COME TOWARD OUR GOAL OF COMMON TERMINOLOGY I BELIEVE WE HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS FOR AT LEAST 30 YEARS NOW. BTW...WHAT'S A RESCUE UNIT?

A squirt is not a ladder, or else the people that bought them would have called them ladders. There are many good reasons for buying a Squirt. However, there are many more actual reasons some FDs have Squirts: You have nothing over 2 stories in your district Your governing body is saving money on manpower You have so much money you just want all the bells and whistles on your engine You never go inside to put a fire out You never vent the roof Your response time is so long it's through the roof by the time you get there it's thru the roof You are using PPV on attack and are making everything go thru the roof You never learned how to raise a ground ladder Then again, if you have a lot of new developments with truss construction, you might want every rngine to be a Squirt.

I took the bomb course in Socorro. It was excellent.

Consolidation in southern Westchester is long overdue. It would eliminate duplication of services to some extent, but more importantly, it would boost the services that we are lacking such as NFPA compliant manower, better trained and better equipped special operations teams, organized and consistent multple alarm responses with assigned units up to a 5th alarm level, and on and on. About 8 or 9 Chiefs would have to be eliminated since there can only be one Chief, but in a larger department there is a need for more subordinate Chiefs (Training, resource management, personnel, prevention, communications,etc). There should be plenty of slots for existing DCs because the area would have to be broken down into divisions or Battalions with at least 4 DCs for each. In addition, there should be an overall tour commander. I have become very familiar with the Virginia Beach FD, which only organized in 1963 out of many small departments in Princess Anne County. They have since become one of the premier departments in the country. If they can do it, so can southern Westchester. The Career Chiefs started on a good path to this end,with the proby school and special ops task force,but I have seen personalities almost put an end to our Proby school. "I'm going to do my own school this year" or "I'm sending my guys to Montour Falls" are a couple of Chief's answers to often minor problems with one or two classes. That's not progress. Other departments refused to participate in a consolidation feasibility study, when those departments were just as behind on manpower and money as anybody else Unless we wake up and look outside Westchester we will become has beens in the fire service. We have to look at the good of all and stop with "my fd is better than yours." I don't think any one Westchester department is giving its best to its public. We all can do better. As for northern Westchester, I'm not volunteer bashing. I like you guys and I know you are dedicated and often very professional, but like it or not you are underqualified when held up against the southern Westchester personnel. It's not the individual firefighter's fault. Every time somebody tries to get minimum qualifications, FASNY squashes it with the theory that the vol Depts will loose people. You have to do something about that. "Just sayin" JustSayin"

RIP, Doc, a good friend

We have a strictly enforced rule in our family: NO HATS at the dinner table! Since I can't figure out the Mayan Calendar and have no Mayans available, should I leave my helmet on? My wife doesn't think the world will end and will enforce the hat rule. I would then have to file a grievance. Barry; maybe you can help...please go down to Union Av and ask some Mayans what they think. Please answer before 6:00pm Thanks

Years ago, NFIRS defined a structure fire as a fire that actually did damage to the structure. There were two categories in the Type of Fire sectionof the incident report that addressed this. One was Structure fire as I just defined, the other was Fire in a structure that did not cause damage to the structure. I thought that was a pretty good criteria and I don't know why it changed. It might be that the fire service wanted to say they had a lot of structure fires and one way to do that it to widen the category to include things like "Food on the stove/out on arrival." far as Working fire goes, I always considered a worker as a fire that required the FULL use of at least one 1 3/4 line. That's not pulling it and giving a squirt to a trashcan. It's when you need the full 100gpm. So a car fire is not a worker. Three cars in a shopping center lot is. A garbage can fire in a private dwelling is not a worker. The same trash can in a nursing home may. A "using all companies" is not necessarily a worker either. Here in the Virginia Beach area, they use the term "Working incident" for a non-fire incident that has all companies committed. So, I would say that a working fire is like pornography...it's sometimes hard to define, but after a little experience , you'll know it when you see it.

"and entering into a world where putting out the fire with water may not always be the best thing" Wrong wrong wrong. If we have learned anything in the past few years it's get water on the seat of the fire fast and first. There is only one reason the manufacturers are selling you foams, rapid, slippery water, penetrating juices, surface tension breaking potions, little grenades that are thrown in the window, and on and on. It's because they are unable to sell you WATER! Once manufacturers realize that people are drinking bottled water at a cost per gallon that is greater than the price of gasoline, and that they can buy the same NYC tap water for pocket change, they will then be able to sell us water, the universal solvent.

AND it is probably the last time you went to that restaurant. While we are on the subject of apple pie, if your neighbor said he was a little hard up financially, I am sure you would share some of your pie with him. But if he starts you for pie too often, you would probably tell him to find somebody else to mooch food from.

He's no more a rip-off than the "biggies" that suck you in. Check out the cut the execs of United Way, Red Cross, etc. get out of that donation pie. I stick with the Salvation Army who put your donation where it belongs. Besides that, their coffee is a godsend at 2am in 10 degree weather. Thanks again, Sal.

We all know what this job is about. This is one place that tradition comes into play in a meaningful way, and I don't care to hear from the naysayers and that "200 years of tradition uninterrupted by progress. I'm not talking about tactics and strategy, fog vs. straight, PPA. Those things are not tradition. A firefighter''s helmet is a symbol of who he is or who he was. Whatever style of helmet he wore is not the operative here. The symbolism here is that it is HIS helmet. Wearing this helmet he has accomplished things that the average person could not ever fathom. He has seen life and he has seen death. He calls anyone who wears similar headgear his brother because he knows where that person has been. If a firefighter meets his death on the job, it is his helmet that leads him to his funeral service. I just got this picture of my newborn grandson. I rest my case.

We all know what this job is about. This is one place that tradition comes into play in a meaningful way, and I don't care to hear from the naysayers and that "200 years of tradition uninterrupted by progress. I'm not talking about tactics and strategy, fog vs. straight, PPA. Those things are not tradition. A firefighter''s helmet is a symbol of who he is or who he was. Whatever style of helmet he wore is not the operative here. The symbolism here is that it is HIS helmet. Wearing this helmet he has accomplished things that the average person could not ever fathom. He has seen life and he has seen death. He calls anyone who wears similar headgear his brother because he knows where that person has been. If a firefighter meets his death on the job, it is his helmet that leads him to his funeral service. My father passed away, non-LODD, when I was 15 years old. His helmet was solemnly and ceremoniously presented to me by one of his brothers. When my first son got on the job, I presented him with that same helmet. When my second son got on the job, I presented him with my old helmet. Those helmets are kept in places of honor in their homes. Why? Because that helmet says "That's who we are." Politicians, City Managers, the general public, and unfortunately, some firefighters don't understand the symbolism. As for the rest of us, "You can leave this job, but you can't leave this job behind" So, then, is that stinky, strange-looking hat worth $100?

Most of us on the job recognize the "6 companies in 8 years" as a big red flag. I fear that a judge will interpret this differently and say it is a widespread prejudice against vegetarians, with FDNY ignoring the problem. A guy who transferred that much should be scrutinized in his bid for Lt. Something is wrong.

I bet that's what they told him in his firehouse. Another possibility is that he is just too cheap to go in on meals with the rest of the guys and he brings in a carrot or two for his supper. We've all worked with guys like that. The worst of them sneak out at midnight and eat the leftovers.

Wow, news spreads fast! A little history: When the Pope (and I don't know which one) gave the order that Catholics must go meatless on Fridays, it was because the Spanish fishing industry was having finacial difficulties. To bolster the Spanish fishing industry, he made the fasting on Friday order. (sounds a lot like the GM bailout, doesn't it?). In return, the Pope was given a castle in Spain. As for me, I like seafood, but I question the motives of Popes and Politicians.

It looks like a "Chess Move." He's on the Lt list but needs a little extra to get the promotion. So he sues the city and the carnivores (that's a new FDNY Society) and if he is not promoted he goes before some clueles judge and yells "harrassment". I almost guarantee he gets promoted and a cash settlement on top. Then the city will then have to spend $3.6 million to train the whole department on the nutritional value of veggies as ruled by the judge. Judge Garufis then gets a hold of the case and orders "rolling meat-outs" citywide. Companies will be required to give up meat on certain days. OOPS... it wasn't Garufis, it was the Pope that ordered that one.