abaduck

Very fun beastie: http://www.lightningtrigger.com/ Mike

I think there's a misconception here. If BACs are equal, the degree of intoxication is equal. If the degrees of intoxication are equal, the degree of impairment is equal. Now a hardened drinker may be better at superficially *appearing* not be intoxicated/impaired, but that's not the same thing. This whole thing about 90lb girl vs. 200lb man is a myth. Yes of course it may well take less booze to get the girl as drunk as the man, but if they have equal BACs they will in fact be equally impaired. At least that's always been my understanding; if anyone knows better then please explain! Mike

Well the name has been released anyway - or more accurately, he talked to the press: http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID...06/-1/newsfront "Mike Mezansky, a former star Mamaroneck High School baseball player, has been identified as the 18-year-old motorist charged with driving while intoxicated in a crash that left a 9-year-old boy critically injured. Mezansky allegedly steered around a Bee-Line bus and struck a neighborhood boy, William Powers, who was crossing the street at 7:45 a.m. Friday." Oneeyedmic: yes! Mike

What????? That's... barbaric. Immoral. Anytime someone is in danger and they have to make a decision, and one of the factors influencing that decision is what the rescue is going to *cost them* personally.... well someone's moral compass needs swinging! I've heard of cases of people dying in the Alps because they decided they couldn't afford the (paid, charged-for) mountain rescue services and tried to get out of a sticky situation on their own. I've heard of rescuers there turning back if they discovered the victim didn't have insurance and was unlikely to be able to afford their services. I had thought the USA more civilised. What the priority here? Getting paid or saving lives?! (In the UK mountain rescue helicopter service is provided primarily by the Navy & Air Force; their primary mission in wartime is rescuing service personel who are 'down' in hostile territory, and they they regard civilian rescues as good free training...) Mike

Dunno about that, but here's the full explanation from the Gazette: "Police have declined to release the name of the driver because of his age. At the discretion of a judge, 18-year-olds are eligible for youthful offender status in which their records would be closed to the public. According to Police Chief Steve Rubeo, Larchmont has a long-standing policy of not releasing names of individuals eligible for youthful offender status. Arraignments of such individuals are also closed to the public, he said. " Whether a FOI request would do an end-run around the decision of a Judge in the matter, I don't know. Mike (who has zero tolerance for drunk drivers, and even less for those that injure people)

1st is the date I have too. Mike

Not Monday morning quarterbacking, just trying to learn... seeing that video the questions I asked myself were: - assuming the structure was clear, primary search complete, what was the most valuable thing on the scene? - what kind of roof construction was that likely to be, how long had it been exposed to fire, and why exactly were they operating on it? Mike

I can't see any significance to it being used for medicinal purposes; it's not uncommon for pure (although maybe not technically medical grade) O2 to be carried for other purposes - welding, for instance. Not sure how much you would have to carry before you would have to placard it as hazmat. And alsfirefighter is right on the money about properties of O2; it boils at -183 °C so is seriously cryogenic, it won't be liquid when carried in a cylinder as described. Physical properties here: http://www-safety.seas.harvard.edu/services/oxygen.html Mike

On seat belts, I don't understand why it's even an issue... how long have they been compulsory? In the UK, they've been compulsory since the early 1970s, and compliance is... I don't know, but it must be 99%+. Almost nobody back in the UK would ever even think of getting in a car without belting up. On cellphones, I'd sooner solve the enforcement problem by repealing the law... the latest research has shown that hands-free phones make NO difference; it's the distraction of being involved in a conversation that leads to accidents, whether hand-held or hands-free. So really you have to say 'to hell with this - we allow cell phones and take the hit' or you have to ban ALL in-car communications - including hands-free cellphones, CBs, radios, the works. The current ban on hand-held cellphones is pointless, I don't know anyone who respects it, and I don't have a problem with that. Mike

I don't disagree with you on knowing how to perform basic rescue skills, every interior FF should know that, but as for actual formal FAST training and participation in an organised FAS team... well, my FF1 instructor said 'don't think about doing the FAST course until you have at least a couple of years experience and a few fires behind you' or words to that effect. I make a distinction between having the basic rescue skills to save a brother, and being a fully-trained FAST member. Re. survival, I see you're right and I'm wrong; I was under the impression that all future FF1 courses were to be combined FF1/survival courses, as mine was, but looking at the DES website that's clearly not the case (although IMHO it *should* be!). Mike

Can I ask, what's the thinking behind requiring rookie interior FFs to be FAST trained? In our dept. you have to have at least five years service before you can be involved in FAST operations, which makes a lot of sense to me. Remember585 - AFAIK, FF survival *is* now rolled-into the FF1 curriculum; it's an integral part of the course. It certainly was when I did FF1 last summer, although I think we were the first class to follow the integrated curriculum. Mike

Just been pulling a drunk out of a wreck. Ask me again in five minutes and I won't be up; got last day of FF2 tomorrow! (another) Mike

Dammit I hate that... I'm a hacker and proud of it! Repeat the mantra three time... Hackers build, crackers break Hackers build, crackers break Hackers build, crackers break http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is If malice is involved, you're dealing with a cracker, not a hacker. Mike

Yesterday I had the dubious pleasure of flying back from the UK to the USA, this time through Heathrow for the first time in a long time. Virgin, Terminal 3. It was so bizarre I actually made notes; I swear to you this is 100% true. How did we get to this point? Where did we lose it all? When did we surrender? 1. First stop. Check-in machine. Show passport, swipe credit card, get boarding pass. 2. Bag drop, ten yards further on. Show passport and BP, drop bag. Go upstairs to departures. 3. Fast track security, first pre-security checkpoint; show gold elite card for fast track access. 4. Five yards further on, second pre-security checkpoint; show gold elite card, passport, and BP. 5. Security checkpoint - usual deal, empty pockets, scan bags, metal detector. 6. Ten yards further on, first post-security checkpoint: emigration control - show passport. 7. Five yards further on, second post-security checkpoint: shoe scan. Remove shoes for scanning. 8. Proceed to gate. 20 minutes walking. Start by negotiating a bizarre retail maze with NO direct route through if you're in a hurry; following the signs to the gates leads you round a maze of duty-free 'experiences'. 9. Pre-gate inspection: show passport and BP. 10. Five yards further on, pre-gate security secreening: show passport and BP, bags hand-searched, myself and my son (five years old) frisked (1). 11. Ten yards further on - the gate. Show BP, receive BP stub in return. 12. Door to aircraft: show BP stub. There's only one word for this: BS! I could swallow a bunch of procedures and puke up a better system. (1) re. frisking. I had no problem being frisked. When they said they wanted to frisk my five year old son too, I had had enough - they asked for my consent, I declined to give it. I said I had no problem with him being frisked if the law required them to do it, and/or authorised them to do it, but I wouldn't acquiesce to this nonsense or co-operate with it: "do it if you must, but not with my consent". Their ultimate response was 'you must explicitly consent or neither of you are flying anywhere'. I consider 'consent' in the face of a serious threat of that nature to be no consent at all; what's the purpose of going through the pretence of asking for consent?! Mike

Funnily enough, I did fly El Al a couple of times, ten years or so ago - they were the only airline flying direct from London Stansted (just down the road from my house) to New York. Their security was excellent but heavy-handed, and openly and unapologetically racist in a way that simply wouldn't be tolerated today; they basically seperated all the non-Jewish passengers out and kept them to one side, giving them the third degree. 'Are you Jewish? What is your religion? Do you speak Hebrew? Have you ever been to Israel? Why are you trying to fly El Al?' - those kinds of questions. On one occasion in a small back room, where myself and another passenger were detained for over an hour - and that was BEFORE we were even allowed to approach the check-in desk! Mike

Just for s**** and giggles, with no really serious intent on my part, I recently started looking at what it takes to get hired as a career guy these days... and was gob smacked by what I found. Let's play 'let's pretend'. Let's pretend I've been a career guy for... say 15 years. In... let's say Chicago. I've risen the ranks, I'm captain of a rescue company, and everyone who's ever bossed me or worked for me says I'm the best. I'm God's gift to firefighting. So my wife gets the kind of job offer you can't refuse, and I hand in my papers and we move to New York. So obviously I want to get hired as a firefighter again. What do I find? FDNY - sorry, you're too old. Yonkers are testing soon... sorry, too old. OK OK, let's work down... maybe the County test for the towns and villages? No dice, they don't test again until... 2011? What the <beep> is this all about? Whose brilliant idea was this? 2011??? If the candidate is good, test him/her immediately and consider them for any appropriate position that opens up, on merit. I honestly don't understand what this is trying to achieve... in any other profession, people would be falling over themselves to hire an experienced guy with an outstanding track record. Why are we so special? Or have I got it totally wrong? Do these age limits and testing requirements only apply to rookies with no previous fire service experience? And even for rookies, what's the point? Mike

Seth, (this reply, whilst perhaps sounding a little combative, is not intended to be read so; consider it to be spoken with a tongue-in-cheek and a wry grin ) I think it's a really really bad idea to make this change - to make ANY change that would result in peoples stuff getting deleted. If you are going to make that change, then you really need to make this post a 'sticky', or, better, repeat it in big letters on the front page of the site! And how can I put this delicately... there's no way I'll stump up for premium membership of a site that's been up and down more often than a whore's knickers during the last week...! Suggest you let the site get stable for a few weeks then think about this. Mike

1. And you thought some of our apparatus gave us a bumpy ride...! 2. How many astronauts have been killed by Soyuz over the years? How many have been killed by the space shuttle? I think that answers your question! Mike

In the UK, RTC - Road Traffic Collision - is in frequent use. Works for me. I don't think what you call it at the dispatch stage has any special importance, so long as we all know we're going to some kind of wreck. The most useful information is the followup description - 'car vs. pole', 'ped. struck', 'rollover with entrapment', whatever. Leave definitions of 'accident' to the lawyers. The lady who goes into diabetic shock - well, that's an EMS call which happens to be on a highway, unless it caused her to wreck her car, in which case it's an MVA/RTC/whatever, and we'll worry about the precise cause later. As for the drunk... the car's still wrecked, they're still pinned/injured/whatever, the intox. is a matter for LE and EMS to bear in mind when they discover it, that's all. Mike

Glad you liked it - I was born and raised 15 miles from Inverness! Whilst I love America, I'll never stop going back to Scotland. The fire service really is a different scene over there; they don't do EMS calls at all, ever; most of the houses are masonary, not wood frame, so many fires are tackled with glorified high-pressure hosereels, like oversized booster reels, with just the water in the tank. And certainly for the smaller pieces, the Highlands fire service actually build quite a lot of their own apparatus in the workshops in Inverness. Very few volunteers also - only in the tiny, remote, scattered communties. Everywhere else it's full-time career guys in cities and large towns, and 'retained' guys pretty much everywhere else: they have other jobs, but are paid an annual retainer fee to be on-call firefighters, in addition to being paid for calls and training time. They're considered professional firefighters and can & do join the union (although yes, there is occasionally tension between the retained & full-time guys). Mike

I was going to leave it, but I clearly owe you the courtesy of a reply... yes it helps to a degree, I just can't fully get my head round the 'non-transferable' bit. Since I KNOW that it doesn't work that way in other places. As I pointed out in an earlier post, I know for a fact that firefighters in the UK transfer from one end of the country to the other as a matter of routine. Thinking this over, I think traditition plays a part, but also perhaps uniform standards? For example, in the UK, the fire service is organised throughout at the County level, there are no local town/village/city departments the way we have them here. And the rank structure, training, and promotion standards are basically entirely... standardised! So when the 'new guy' from outside comes in, there's a very high level of confidence immediately from his/her new colleagues that this new guy has been trained and assessed to perform to the required standard, so the earning of respect, while it still has to happen, is not such an issue. And there's no resentment at an 'outsider' taking a promotion spot, because everything works both ways... when one of the more junior ranks comes up ready for promotion, they're free to apply for any spot that comes open - in their own town, in the town next door, or anywhere in the country. Whereas here, with the great diversity of departments, the lack of transferability as you put it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our hero from Chicago would come in running to a degree, in terms of basic firefighting skills & experience as a leader of firefighters, but he would have a LOT of catch-up to do in terms of getting up to speed on distinctly New York SOPs, department structure, codes & laws etc. etc. - quite apart from the issue of gaining respect which you mentioned. Am I kinda making sense? Mike

And there I think you hit the nail on the head. And I appreciate the way you put it! I work with career guys in my dept., we encounter career guys from other depts. on mutual aid, I guess for me trying to understand some of these things is part of being a good vollie. I'm trying to understand it, I see where you're coming from, as we've discovered things are obviously different elsewhere in the USA and overseas, so it doesn't seem as ridiculous to me as it does to you, but unless anyone has anything else to say on the matter I'll leave it at that. Good luck with your promotion, I'm sure you've earned it! Mike

Ya know, reading your reply and the reply from LTNRFD, I have to wonder are we talking about the same profession? You see how a guy could get confused! I take your point entirely, JC - you don't seem to have taken mine at all. Our hypothetical rescue captain from Chicago sweated blood and waited on line to get on the job, did his time as a probie, broke his a** studying for promotion, and basically did the whole deal you describe - in Chicago. You seem to feel that should all count for nothing in NY, and I'm still no nearer understanding why. You speak of trust, well sure any new guy coming on any job has to earn trust and respect, that goes without saying. But coming in with a really solid rep. from their previous job should give them a big head start? It seems you don't have a lot of trust for any firefighters outside NY, you don't feel their ability and accomplishment is worth a brass washer when it comes to NY. Then I read LTNRFDs post about the hiring situation he encountered in Florida, and I just can't square that away with the attitude you describe. Aren't we ALL supposed to be brothers? (lad12derff - yes it may be a stupid topic, but sometimes you have to ask apparently stupid questions. Or as I once read, sometimes the only way to get pertinent information is to ask impertinent questions ) Mike

Think I should probably have put on my flameproof pants before starting this one... guys, I hear what you're saying. Of course entry is competitive - it's the same in many parts of the world, FF is seen as a 'good job'. And I kinda see where you're coming from. I just don't understand why it has to be this way. I was recently reading the blog of the chief of a large British 'department' (what we call a department, they call a brigade). He was writing about the selection process he used when hiring a senior officer... the position was advertised, and any firefighter with the requisite rank and experience could apply, from *anywhere in the country*. Final selection was based on interviews and various simulated scenarios. The best man who applied got the job, as it bloody well should be, and he moved his family 400 miles to take it. This is absolutely routine and normal in the UK, I understand; guys transfer from one department to another during their careers - because they want to go for a promotion, or they want to move. Don't you consider it to be showing disrespect to our hypothetical Brother in Chicago to say he's finished if he leaves that job? If FDNY have an opening for a captain rank, why shouldn't his application be considered along with everyone else's? It's not a common scenario, but it can happen - my wife earns ten times what I earned, if I was a career guy I would damn well follow the money and go where her job took her. Families sometimes HAVE to move for any number of reasons, but from your replies there seems to be a strong mindset, intentional or otherwise, against career firefighters being able to transfer from one department to another, and I'm struggling to understand why that should be. What end does it serve?

That doesn't make a lot of sense - if someone drives into a well-lit parked car they're 100% at fault, and 100% on the hook. What if I'd stopped at a red light, and someone ran right into the back of me? No arguments there, I'm obeying the rules of the road, the other party is again 100% at fault. What you're describing is 'knock for knock', where both parties are to some degree at fault, and the insurers apportion liability on the evidence. Yes, of course I'd notify my insurers of the accident - but they don't get a say in deciding what happens, that's between me and the idiot who ran into me. I won't be making any claim on my insurance; no claim, no payout, no loss to insurers, no increase in rates - for *me*. I'll be making my claim to HIM, and he'll pass it on to his insurers to deal with - unless he just wants to settle up out of his own pocket. There's a difference between 'accident' as in, something that wasn't deliberate, intentional, and 'accident' as in the reasonably forseeable consequences of driving like a moron...! Mike