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Very interesting article. http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/tarrant/FW-Fire-wants-more-F-550-trucks-202041881.html

Let me just say bigger isn't always better. I should reiterate, Fort Worth is not placing these in every station or adjoining districts, right now only the ones that could benefit from a truck like this. There are so many departments around here that have specialized apparatus with no truly defined purpose sitting around collecting dust, that they basically have "just in case". And they have a hard time getting it out. One of the main points also being missed is 30 gallons CAFS and 300 gallons water. Fort Worth has has excellent experience and results with CAFS. And lol, firefighters knees take less of a beating getting out of a F-550 then a Spartan. I'm interested to see how this works out for an urban, progressive department.

sfrd and some of our other members, just some advice. There's no need to post what you heard, especially since the people you heard it from probably heard it from some of these guys and their brothers. You don't have to impress anyone. These are some very good people to sit back and listen and learn from, and that's what you need to do in this thread. In addition, posts like yours turn people "in the know" off from posting the factual information. No offense, this was just my 2 cents and I hope you and your fellow younger members will learn from.

Congrats to all! http://newrochelle.dailyvoice.com/news/new-rochelle-honors-firefighters-morning-ceremony

Nice to see a dispatcher behind a tragedy like this get reconized for his crucial role. Kudos! Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Dispatcher-wins-national-honor-Sandy-Hook-role-4442833.php#ixzz2Qpr4hPwp

Stupid question. Is there a diffference between the "W" style guardrail, the "box rail" system, and the steel wire system? Saw them installing a couple kinds of guardrail on the Taconic in, for some reason, brand new locations south of Pleasantville Rd this past week.

http://greenburgh.dailyvoice.com/news/westchester-gets-security-grant-bee-line-buses

Awesome! Very unique! Thanks for the shot!

Thanks, guys! Can the current spare fit in all the houses that trucks are currently assigned to?

Wow. Hits close to home. I know exactly where West is, and lived aout an hour south of it in Austin. VERY small rural Texas town. To add to what TXCHIEF said, For geographical context, People often confuse (and now the media) West (name of the town in Central Texas where this happened), with "West Texas",which is NOT the region where this occured. It's about a 1/2 hour from Fort Hood, 2 hours south of Dallas/Fort Worth, and about an hour 1/2 north of Austin. I-35, which runs from Mexico to the Candian Border, and is a major interstate, runs through West. Many people stop there along the way for the "Czech Stop" a Czech bakery. The town is known most locally for "WestFest", a festival celebrating the towns Czech geritage. The EMS service and hospital I worked for down there provided EMS to a portion of Mclennan County, and sent numerous resources to this incident. Mclennan Community College has a strong Paramedic program. West has one of the stonger EMS systems in the area. My mom actually works at the hospital where most of the critical patients (several children) were transferred to (Scott and White Level I Trauma Center). Two other hospitals recieving critical patients was Scott And White Hillcrest in a Waco and Parkland Hospital in Dallas, which has a world renowed burn center (the Parkland formula), also known for the hospital JFK was taken to. Seton Brackenridge and St Davis Austin also recieved pts. I have heard that some other hosptials in San Antonio and Fort Hood also recieved pts, but cannot confirm. On a side note, the "Waco" incident occured on April 19th, 1993. Waco, the largest "city" in the are besides Temple, is home to Baylor University. Thoughts and Prayers.

I think the question of all questions is what is rumors and what REALLY happened, and could it have happened to any other company? If they are keeping employees on, then they must be either planning to resume operations shortly, has a large rainy day fund, or are awaiting a buyout.

Interesting story about a Rescue truck. http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/dallas/Irving-fire-fighters-unveil-its-one-of-a-kind-rescue-truck-202927301.html

Esentially, however I like it when fire apparatus purchases are covered in a positive light by the media. This one new outlet does just that frequently. And, just to give some geographical context, Irving is the former home of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium (now demolished) before they moved to their current behemoth.

Judging by all the new over the road trucks I see delivered with it, as well as all the CB radios and accesories and truck stops, leads me to believe CB's are alive and well still in this age. However, when it comes to Channel 9 (designated emergency channel), how many agencies actually still monitor it? I used to see a lot of signs along highways (and I think even Route 7 in Ridgefield, CT) advertising they monitor that channel. Traveling across the country this summer, I noticed CB antennas on State Police cars as well. Does NYSP or any other agency still monitor channel 9 or use other channels to get information from truckers?

Testing to see if uploading photos is finally working again (fingers crossed) Mount Vernon Engine 5 and Ladder 3 Photo by me

I wonder if they are going to actually fix the potholes, or fill them with cold mix that lasts for at max for a day or two. Although I think the asphalt plants are up and running again though?

I've never uploaded single files that large to this site and had an issue with the members noticing quality that much. I appreciate you wanting to post the highest quality, but with that comes a tremendous amount of storage and bandwith in our part to host a 13MB photo each. I'll look into increasing it, but it's not going to be 13MB's either. Let's not try to hijack the thread here...I need people to help me upload their photos to test some things so we could even have the discussion above in the first place.

When you say "ALL" screwy, all I'm seeing is errors with the Westchester part....are you seeing errors with the whole thing?

I should clear something up. For right now, profile and photos uploaded PREVIOUSLY to now are not uploaded back into the database. However, any photos posted going forward from NOW will upload and appear as normal. Each of your photos shouldn't be more then 2MB per photo. That takes up an enormous amount of resources.

State Holiday in Boston, the marathon and the Red Sox usually play. I'm hoping this was a utility issue and not a explosive...I mean you could see a plume of smoke from down the Charles River. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/15/17764747-2-explosions-rock-finish-of-boston-marathon-widespread-injuries-reported?lite If one thing at all, Boston EMS is very well prepared and trained for situations like this.

There was a problem with the bulk email system and I apologize for the inconvienence. I wasn't able to get to a computer to shut it down until now and am looking into the issue. No one should be recieving any more copies, and if you do, please reply to the email so I can look into it further.

http://yonkers.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/union-study-shows-yonkers-firefighters-disadvantage-high-rise-blaze

Cool clip. http://youtu.be/sF-x9GJUkoU

Any savings on fuel is a savings on fuel. Having a Spartan go on 250 runs a year as opposed to 1,500 is a big difference. The difference is the cost of parts is tremendous. Plus, they'd have to maintain both anyways, since the minis would be assigned as brush units anyway. These aren't going to replace engines in all of the city. "Second dues" are usually less then 3-5 minutes away. And for those that are pro-CAFS and have used it PROPERLY at several fires, you should know it's effectiveness. Firefighters were given extensive input on how this works, and they really liked how it worked. Expense. Plus they won't fit in a lot of areas they need to go. And the Texas Commision on Wildfire Protection prescribes what is needed for a brush truck, and how it should basically be set up, so that all trucks are similar and that makes it easier when responding mutual aid as a task force. I have photos of both the engines and mini attacks for when the photo system comes back up. Additonally, let me say Fort Worth and most Texas cities really purchase only what they need and will use. Many departments here in the Hudson Valley spend millions on equipment that they will rarely used and is often duplicated several times, and sit around for most of their service life.

Doesn't BLS also have to have a Medical Director? And, again, even if BLS is still running, what is going on with all the Paramedics that were emplyed there?