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Sirius Octane 20 has ruined me for FM radio.

We had a chat room. We tried several times to launch, relaunch, and promote it. Still, no one used it.

*Thanks to a longtime friend for sparking some thoughts.... A recent example would be the Eastchester incident. All three requested teams were there (including manpower) quickly, and operated under a unified command. Everyone's citing the want to help their communties, and I think that's great, but what about serving your community WHERE YOU ARE NEEDED, and not where YOU want to be?? I'm sure there are plenty of VAC's that need EMT's, and there are dozens of EMS agencies that could use them. You would be able to keep your skills sharp doing the dozens of EMS call in Westchester that need EMT's everyday. Where are all the people that want to "help" there? A lot cite they "can't deal with medical stuff" or succesfully pass EMS training, but they sure can be a great tech rescue member! What about Habitat for Humanity? Go build some homes in a town that was destroyed by a tornado for a week a year. What about teaching people to read, or mentoring at-risk youth? Why not train FD's in Westchester in a support capacity? Set up an interface course, so they can be of assistance at a Tech Rescue team and better first responders to incidents? I wonder why a County Tech Rescue team that's lauded for working together is so accepted, yet a countywide FD won't ever be pondered? I wonder why one of DES's primary and most important role, 60 CONTROL, isn't properly staffed or compensated? Can't these same people who pushed for a County Tech Rescue team push to support the people that DISPATCH them???? Technical Rescue, or USAR as it should be called, is not the same as taking a hose off of a fire engine and spraying water on it. The victim, or even the rescuer, can be killed very easily by a simple mistake. In fact, a slight flaw in removing the victim can make an injury even worse. With the cost of living in Westchester, where are the volunteers coming up with the time to do all this? Don't they want to spend time with their families? When a team makes an investment in a member, how long will that investment last? Isn't just being a volunteer firefighter enough of an investment of time?? I'm glad I moved. It's a whole different world down here. People actually care about their quality of life. In most cities, firefighters put out fires and do tech rescue and hazmat, police offficers arrest perps, and EMS treats patients (and has teams that support the primary FD in specialties). Every incident isn't a drama, and is handled and mitigated quickly in an organized fashion. And due to proper resource allotment and delpoyment, there's plenty of work to go around. The victim, not the rescuer, is the important part. While working, they train and play hard. When guys go home from their shift, that's it. In most cases, work is left at work. They go home and enjoy their family, life, and hobbies. There's no fines for not participating in the union softball team, or mandated parades, their priorities, in my eyes, are straight. AND, we have one of the best fire training schools in the country: http://www.teex.com/esti/

FULL STORY: http://www.lohud.com/article/20090308/NEWS03/903080344

The brochure for Seagrave's new Aerialscope II, just released: http://my.seagrave.com/ContentManager/DocL...rochure_f-4.pdf

Valid point. I always found Westchester's "bi-annual" cleanup days to be a joke. We have a municipal recycling center here where you can bring just about anything and everything to be recycled or properly disposed of anytime. Open 7 days a week, for free. There are even people there to help you.

FDNY has placed an order for 27 75 foot Aerialscopes. At the present time, no 95 footers are on order. All willl be on tandem rear axle.

2nd axle back is a steering axle, so it's not that bad. John's already manuvered it in some pretty tight spots.

This morning, I had the oppurtunity to photograph Georgetown's Quint 1. It is a 2008 Sutphen SPH100 100' Tower Ladder Quint. I found the capabalities of this truck truly impressive, and the amount of storage space remarkable. Although not a fan of Sutphen in the past, they are really growing on me....and this is just another reason why. Awesome, awesome truck. Georgetown, TX is located in Williamson County, just north of Round Rock and about 20 minutes north of Austin. This station where the Quint is housed is only a few miles from my house. Goergetown is the county seat, and has numerous residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, highway, and other diverse hazards. Anyways, check out the photos. All photos taken by me this morning. I wasn't on my "A" game, but I hope I got enough photos to show what a great truck this is. Here is the photo spread: http://www.emtbravo.com/apparatusprofiles/...etownquint1.php I will have a photo tour of Georgetown's "Squad 1" posted later this weekend. Special thanks to the "B" shift at the Central Fire Station for their awesome hospitality. -Seth G.

The firehouse they are in now is rather new, so now they can fit a much larger truck then they could previously. So, this was Quint 1's predecessor, now a spare. Also, Squad 1 factors into Quint 1, which I will post tommorow. There is another company in Georgetown (Quint 4) that still uses this exact truck, albeit much newer.

Oh, and as far as Greenburgh PD's team is concerned, with Fairview and Hartsdale FD (EXCLUDING Greenville), yes they are well trained and well equipped. BUT, HFD and FFD can't even staff a truck company with more then a driver and sometimes an Engine company with more then two guys. And GPD can barely staff an ambulance or EMS system, much less provide consistent patrol coverage in all their sectors. And they want to run Tech Rescue. As far as GPD is concerned, they want the staffing, but the town won't provide the funding. As with Hartsdale FD, I don't think staffing their truck company is anywhere on their "to do" list. What I'm getting at is if you don't have the resources to do what you're supposed to do, do it properly and well, then don't get involved in all the extracurricular activities especially when there are such vast resources available so close.

My opinion, just call Yonkers FD. You've all seen their USAR tractor trailer, NEW Collapse Unit, and Incident Support Unit, amongst other resources. You'll not only get the equipment, but a ton of throughly trained and in most cases, experienced firefighters. Usually 20+ of them. AND, Yonkers is also lucky to have ESU and other resources to cover while they're out of town (in addition to working together when they are in town), not leaving the community "stripped". Yonkers will also come and help train you to interface with them! They have been the leader and pioneer in Westchester in every firefighting specialty over the years. Too much duplication of resources in Westchester. There is no plan, there is no working together, despite what anyone claims. And people wonder why we're in the budget crisis we're in. The money can be found for a County-based Tech Rescue team, but where's all the "hard work" and money for a new, modern 60 Control facility, more staffing and training, and most importantly...PAYING THEM A LIVING, DECENT WAGE! As far as the whole volunteeer vs. career goes, whatever. Both sides have their egotistical idiots that I wouldn't want anywhere near me or my family in an emergency. Likewise, both "sides" have their educated, professional members. Having experienced both "sides", I really think there's no difference, and I know a lot of volunteers that have seen more fire action then career firefighters. However, with volunteer's dwindling, focus should not be lost on training and response, and dependence on mutual aid-for fire suppresion.

Here's an updated shot, courtesy of John Stiloski: Also, check out http://www.Stiloskis.com for some new fleet additions!

Stickers are now available at http://www.emtbravo.com/store $1.00 each All proceeds benefit the site. Special Promotion: FREE sticker with shirt purchase!

All Aerialscopes built and delivered from this point foward will feature Aerialscope II technoology and features.

FULL STORY: http://www.jems.com/news_and_articles/arti...%26+Oxygen+Myth

Thanks to Joe Pinto for, once again, sharing these AWESOME shots with us! All photos by and copyright of Joe Pinto, and posted by me with express permission. Photos may not be used in any other manner without permission. Beautiful shots, Joe, of BEAUTIFUL rigs! Thanks again! Here we go: City Of New Rochelle Engine 25 2008 Pierce Arrow XT Hawthorne Ladder 56 2007 KME And Port Chester Engine 62 2008 Pierce Arrow XT ALL photos © Joe Pinto (and thanks again for sharing your awesome shots with us all! Strong work as always!)

The stickers have arrived, they look great, and they will be going on sale this weekend. Stay tuned for details!

It really isn't as big as it look in the photos. And the turning radius is pretty awesome.

From Crimsons website- looks like Scarsdale FD is getting a much needed new Engine. And Crimson's are AWESOME. http://www.crimson-fire.com/delivery.aspx?id=10014

How would you go about ventilating this structure?

That goes with any information you put out on the internet. You're not forced on this site to put any public information that would make you identifiable in your public profile. It's you that puts the info in your profile, not us.

What's an "eye-opener"?? Google can see the content in order to add it to their search results when people are searching for something that may attract people to this site. A lot of people find this site through Google search keywords. Those people then have to register to view the topics. This is to increase vested membership and try to grow our daily readship and get more people to post.

A "Google" bot (web crawler) is in the "Members" group. It can only see what a member can see. The reason for logging in to see posts has nothing to do with privacy whatsoever.

This site has become an information outlet that is depended on by many. I can name numerous times where this site has "come in handy", especially the Incident Alerts (which happens to be the most popular section by far). It's something that we've grown and refined from scratch. I know a lot of guys (and gals) who check EMTBravo when they're out of town to see what's going on. Many others don't even listen to a scanner anymore and find out about the "good jobs" here....that goes for some very high ranking officials as well. Even some media outlets find out about incidents through EMTBravo. When there is an active incident, our numbers spike. For those claiming that some people thinking our IA's are "off the wall" or "pointless", I challenge you to turn off your TV, Radio, put down the newspaper and turn off the internet. Because that's what fuels the media....peoples desire to be "in the know". And our community is no different. We do our best to encourage participation and bring everyone together. We can't force people into participation. But for every negative thing a member can point out, I can think of 10 positive things about what the information on this forum has accomplished. Now that digital cameras come in just about every digital device, it's revolutionizing the emergency services and internet photography worlds. Add in text messaging, cell phones, and just plain people on the street, and you've got tons of "rubberneckers". Many departments now have PIO's and have Flickr or Incident feeds on their own official sites! Before this site, there was no "central" place to go for information. Since it's creation....just about everyone comes here to find out what's going on. And I don't see why that's a bad thing. (And we're not the only forum or website of this kind out there.....) Also, do you guys give this kind of grief to sports fans who are obsessed with up-to-the second scores? Man, those sports fans always need to know the scores! What's up with that?