emt301

"I think most people know on this site that for the most part Professional ff's and volunteers don't march in the same parades." Perhaps, although Hartsdale participated in the Pleasantville parade this week.

There also departments in the county who, while normally self-dispatch, will be dispatched by 60-control initially if 60 receives the call. For example, if 60-control receives a call that will be in Armonk, Chappaqua, Ossining, Larchmont, or Briarcliff....60-control will do the initial dispatch, and then follow up with a phone call to the appropriate pd/fd so they can do a re-dispatch as per normal protocol.

Actually, North White Plains is dispatched by 60-Control. Once they're toned out by 60, North White re-tones the call from their own quarters.

Date: Tuesday 5/10/05 Time: 0800 Hrs Location: Route 52/Old State Rd City/County: East Fishkill, Dutchess County Agencies: East Fishkill FD & PD, Mobile Life ALS, Stat Flight Air 1 and 2 Frequency: 453.900, 453.925, 453.625 Writer: EMT301 Description: MVA w/Extrication, 2 patients transported to Westchester Medical Center via Stat Flight Air 1 and Air 2

When you're responsible for dispatching only 1 career FD, such as City of Poughkeepsie, I can see where you may want to know when a unit is back in quarters...and I believe that's the practice up there. However, for a dispatch center such as 60-control or Dutchess 911, dealing with multiple FD & EMS agencies, career and volunteer, & using multiple dispatch/response frequencies...the whole "back in quarters" issue creates only extra work & more importantly, excess radio traffic during sometimes already extremely heavy radio traffic such as when there's a storm in the area or multiple incidents ongoing. As a dispatcher, I generally don't need to know if you're in quarters, only that you're in service & available for the next call. In Dutchess, it's actually policy that units calling back in quarters aren't even acknowledged if they're already called back in service...as the unit is then wasting valuable radio air time.

Truck 6018.... Agree with you 100%. In Service means a unit is available for a new call. If a unit is already responding, it's actually out of service/tied up (not available for a new call). Calling out "In service, responding" (or just "In service" when responding to a call) is contradictory. A rig is in service when it's sitting in the bay waiting for a new call, when it clears a call and is available for another one, or when the rig returns from maintenance or a special detail, and is available for a new call. Also, despite what the FD's in a certain battalion apparently were told/instructed recently....60-control DOES NOT RECOGNIZE the phrases "in service, responding" or "in service" (when used to call out responding to a call). 60-control dispatchers do recognize "responding" as the plain language way of saying a unit is enroute to a call, and "in service" as stating that a unit is available for a new call.

When a unit calls "in service, responding" it makes absolutely NO sense. You can't be in service (available for a call) & responding (enroute to an incident & therefore unavailable for another call) at the same time. When a unit responds it should state unit xyz is responding. When clear from the call, it should state unit xyz is "in service", or if you prefer, "back in service". Really A VERY simple concept !!!!

I'm all for recognizing length of service time of employees in the fire service, but just to provide a differing point of view.... Isn't the "senior man" already being compensated for his length of time in service with better pay, more vacation time, better vacation picks, and longevity pay than the "junior man"? Certainly, the "junior man" should get more of the "grunt work" than the "senior man" gets, he definitely has to pay his dues...but he shouldn't be getting ALL of it. I've seen it on some jobs where the senior guys don't want to do ANY of the grunt work, only the exciting/glory work. Isn't the senior man is still on the clock, earning a taxpayer subsided salary & benefits? He should be EARNING that money and vacation time day in/day out just like the junior guy does. This has nothing to do with tradition, just with doing the right thing by each other & by the taxpayers who support the department. And from the junior guy's perspective, he's going to be much more motivated to do a good job & work hard if he is lead by the example of hard working senior guys. The senior guys will earn the RESPECT of the junior guys by also working hard, not by basically saying "I'm too good to do this, you do it", and pushing all of the crap work off to somebody else.

Good luck waiting for the results...if the county handles the pd exam results anything like how they handle the fd exam results, you'll be waiting a VERY LONG TIME.

I totally agree with ALS...if a medic is responding code 3 to the scene already, how much faster are they actually supposed to go? As a dispatcher, I hate having to relay "expedite" or "step it up" requests to responding units. Unfortunately, as a dispatcher you often end up being the "middle-man" in these situations, and have to relay these requests from PD or BLS already on the scene...

2372, With all due respect to you, and with no offense intended, I'm refering to the Non-FD taxpayers. The FD-taxpayers that you describe as comfortably leaving their families/homes in order to go to the parades are the ones that might possibly, depending upon the state of their particular department, be the ones that need to check their priorities, with reasons having been stated in previous post.

To re-state a point made a couple of times previously...I don't think the issue is whether or not all of the chiefs go to the parade ( I agree, with 585, Lieutenants & Captains should be capable of making some on-scene decisions for themselves). My concern is how some departments strip their districts of the majority of their manpower and a significant percentage of their TAXPAYER FUNDED apparatus....leaving a skeleton crew & perhaps some members/a single engine from another department to cover their entire district. If one of the TAXPAYER's houses catches on fire, is the response going to be what it should be? Quite possibly it won't be, and does the parade excuse really give that TAXPAYER a good reason why the response to his/her fire wasn't adequate? We need to get our priorities straight. Parades are great, but fire protection should not be significantly diminished in a particular region because of our participation in them!!!

PC422.... I understand your point, and to a certain extent I agree.... The problem lies in the fact that many departments state that they have 100, or 125, or even 150 active members....but only 20, or 30, or 40 are truly active. If 10 or 20 of those members go to the parade, manpower truly is being depleted. And in many, if not most departments these days, manpower is a real issue. I'm all for parades, but we need to rethink how many members we allow to go out of service on a parade.

Truck4.... I agree with you totally...moderation is the key. Fine to send a rig or two & some manpower....the problem arises when the majority of a departments rigs & manpower are going to a particular function and are taken out of service, basically taking the department itself out of service. Some departments have a mutual aid engine relocate into quarters as coverage, but is that 1 engine really adequate coverage when the call for a working fire comes in? Bottom line is that we have a responsibility to cover our own districts...that's what the residents expect of us.

In my department, only limited apparatus and manpower are sent to any given parade, unless its in our own district. Our tower ladder usually goes, along with 1 engine....leaving multiple engines, tankers, utilities, a squad, and a heavy rescue in service. In terms of aerials, our neighboring departments keep at least one of theirs in service, and available for coverage if needed. Our priority first and foremost is the safety of our taxpayers, and we never strip our district for the sake of showing our pride at parade, or enjoying ourselves at an installation dinner. Aside from relying on a neighbor's aerial at times, we don't like to rely on mutual aid to cover us during social events...that's not why we're here, and it isn't the level of service that people in our town are paying for.

Quote by Alfons: "You guys just point and look, like hery, I can write about this tomorrow on EmTBRavo, and see how many people are going to agree with me because I work at 60 control." What does 60-control have to do with any of this discussion? Nothing. The reference seems a bit negative and unnecessary.

At least its better than Scarsdale.....starting out at an impressive $20,000 per year...a real insult to it's career firefighters considering the village is one of the wealthiest in the nation....

Doug e.... No offense taken !!! Thanks for the clarification.

Doug e..... Not to argue with anything you're saying, as I agree with many of your posts...but regarding 60-control, in the 13 months I've been dispatching there I have never recommended, nor have I witnessed any of my co-workers recommending a cancellation of a response due to information from the premise or alarm company. I'm real curious to know exactly when this has occured and who made the recommendation, as it's definately not our policy. We merely pass along pertinant information to the responding units...it's up to the fire department's discretion as to how this update information is actually put to use.

Date: 2/7/05 Time: Approx 0750 hrs Location: Winnekee Ave/Thompson St. City/County: City of Poughkeepsie/Dutchess Agencies: City of Poughkeepsie Car 1, Car 10, E1, E3 (spare), E4, L1, TL2, R1, Roosevelt Ladder 63-45, Fairview Engine 41-12 (as FASTeam), Alamo Ambulance, City of Poughkeepsie PD. Arlington Engine 32-15, Roosevelt Engine 63-12 and Highland Engine 32-10 to cover stations 4, 2, and 1 respectively. Frequency: 493.6500 Writer: EMT301 Description: Fire in a 2 story dwelling. Fire on 2'nd flr and in attic areas...Car 10 advises extended operations.

But seriously, again, what problems have there been? One "problem" I have noticed is some of the PCFD rigs still calling out 10-8 or in service when they're actually NOT 10-8 or NOT in service since they're actually 10-17 or responding to a call. This is NOT a 60-control problem...its a radio discipline problem with a VERY FEW of the PCFD members (most are doing quite well with the switch). I also believe there may initially have been a couple of problems with the 60-control CAD system recognizing the proper assignment for a handfull of locations, but I understand that these were quickly addressed & fixed. Overall, given PCFD's call volume, any of these problems seem to be the usual growing pains (in other words, small problems that are quickly solved). I'd be very interested in hearing any of any large scale complaints or problems noted in previous posts. At this point I'd have to agree with WAS967's assessment of the situation until proven otherwise.

LCFD.... It's been my experience that East Fishkill waits until a 2'nd alarm is declared before getting a FASTeam...but like I said, unless it's a residential room & contents fire that "should" be a quick knockdown, the 2'nd alarm is declared very quickly upon arrival with automatic dispatching of FAST, additional tankers, back-filling of stations, etc. In fact, if Dutchess 911 advises the initial responding units that they're receiving multiple calls on a particular fire, many times a responding chief will upgrade to a 2'nd alarm before even getting on scene, thereby getting the ball rolling on additional resources. In general, our chiefs do a very good job watching our backs with the FASTeams.

With regards to East Fishkill (which was mentioned by LCFD968)...East Fishkill automatically has a FASTeam dispatched upon transmission of a 2'nd alarm. Usually the FASTeam is from Village of Fishkill. By the way, just about anytime there's a working fire in East Fishkill, a 2'nd alarm is transmitted, ensuring the response of the FASTeam and all of East Fishkill's tankers/mutual aid tankers.

Very well stated 2254.....

Airport 7, Airport 11, and Airport 17 all have major foam producing capabilities...and the airport has a large stockpile of foam. Too bad they're always overlooked during tanker incidents, etc.