spin_the_wheel

Chief Barry Furey who was interviewed for the story has a chapter on this accident in his book "Volunteer- Twenty Five Years of Smoke and Sirens". It's a easy read, 134 pages and has lots of Rockland county stories in it.

If this is a county wide Captains test, then the two involved with sharing answers may have been from 2 different departments, thus really not competing against each other. Problems with smaller Depts. is the "pool" gets real small as the rank gets higher. Its not like a large city where the list could be 40 people. May only be 2 to pick from. In this situation sometimes the person is already "picked" for the job and has to be reachable on the list. Sometimes it may only be one person from a specific Dept up for the promotion and all they have to do is pass the test. Some may take the defense that its its no big deal...the guy is a great fireman but bad test taker, feed him some answers so he passes and gets the promotion. Not saying this is right just stating some of the scenarios that could take place.

I'll second that.

Good eye, thats was a flood light unit. I didnt count that as part of first due rigs, it was manned only for working fires or special calls by the IC.

My Dept. would have still been all Mack without a doubt. Here is a pic from 1989. All first due units were Mack CF cabs except for 1 1975 Maxim!

If you've been in a few years you will most likely see good officers and bad. Pick one of the better ones to learn from. The good officers will have no problem sharing their wisdom with you. Reading is not high on alot of peoples lists of things to do but 2 great books to read, 1 old, 1 new....."Effective Company Command" by James O Page, out of print but you can find a copy on ebay im sure. The other newer book "From Buddy To Boss" by Chase Sargent. These 2 books cover just about everything you should know. Subscribe to the various fire service magazines. Fire Chief magazine is a good mag for administrative topics. Check out classes in FDIC or Firehouse expo...there are usually some good admin classes given. But no matter how many classes you take or books you read nothing will fully prepare you for some of the stuff that will come your way. I have learned that the last few years.

Anyone have pics of the 5 current stations? I've never seen any of their stations. Only saw the infamous video a few years back when they tried to move and old firehouse and it fell apart...very sad it was a very old station if I remember right.

Good job by those Depts. If your a Dept thats on the bubble about consolidation its better to do something on your terms rather then having it done for you.

Elmont Nassau County Total- 1538 Fire (includes mva's)- 1187 Ambulance calls- 351 Workers- 14 Mutual aid fire calls- 33 Alarms dispatched as House or Buidling- 134 Auto alarms- 359 Carbon monoxide- 154 MVA's- 132....54 on the Southern State Parkway.

2 words...TERM LIMITS!!!! No one person should be there for 25 plus years.

Most places you will see signs for the candidates who are running with the times and date. Really dont need a newspaper posting.

Or disgruntled ex firefighters who could never make the grade, and rather then look in the mirror and say maybe its me, blames the FD for their failures.

RIP

How many runs a year?

So thats why they are going with a straight stick. If I recall they have some very tight old narrow roads, there was a reason they had a tiller for over 150 years.

Here's a few of our older alarm repair trucks. Our current one looks like the Hartsdale truck. I like the old panel truck! 52 Mack L model, and a 1929 American LaFrance city service truck are also pictured.

We never knew what happned to them either.....it was only years later I found out who bought 100 of them, and He happened to have 234, which I manged to buy from him. I still have a list of #'s I want to buy off him some day! Central Falls RI, the city is going through bankruptcy and is selling their street boxes on ebay. There are always many on ebay at any given time, prices range from $75 for a shell to $500 plus for older model boxes. 3 Dept.s in Nassau County still use a Gamewell box system. Bellerose Village box #25 Remnants of my Departments box system still remain if you know what you are looking at.

Pretty cool, I own the Gamewell box that was 2 houses away from my house growing up. The Gamewell boxes were taken out of service in 1986. Replaced with King-Fisher slime green boxes that just went out of service last year.

Thanks for the info...any Port Chester apparatus historians have pics of the career rigs for 58 and 59 through the years?

Interesting little rig, including the color....did 59 have something like this as well?

I guess it's up to the individual...I am a collector of lots of "stuff"...not a horder, mind you...just a lot of "stuff". I would like to know that the Fire Dept that covers my area gives me the best possible chance to save alot of that "stuff". Sure most of it can be replaced, some can't, but thats not the point. In the long run it's about "Peace Of Mind". Most folks dont think about that anymore in the world we live in today. My Gramps told me years ago, you can't put a price on "Peace of Mind". I'ts a shame in todays world most people would sell that away to save a few bucks. How much is peace of mind worth to you when you leave your family at home for the day? Sure sometimes things just dont work out on the fireground,it's part of the buisness, but wouldnt you want the very best chance available to you and your family of saving a life, your Home, or your "stuff" before the bell goes off?

Things like this never happened when Mayor Tommy Shanks was running things in Melonville!

Whats the break down between Fire calls (include mva's as fire calls) and ambulance runs?

I know LI "housemen" who are members of the IAFF. Most active all volunteer Depts are blue collar towns with its day crews made up of shift workers. I know a few LI Depts who have "day crews" in house Mon-Fri...made up of shift workers.