spin_the_wheel

The city of Central Falls RI has claimed bankruptcy. They are selling off their Gamewell boxes on Ebay...really.

But in most Volunteer Depts with "Boxes" street or on the firehouse, when it is pulled it sets off the sirens and/or horn code to the box location. Box 1-2-3 Main street and Fulton street. There are some Depts with this system still in place New Hyde Park, Bellerose Terrace and Bellerose village in Nassau County. Nyack and Haverstraw in Rockland come to mind. Boy times have changed, and many communities as well, I remember a time wayyy back, when some Depts gave out the box code locations, on calendars, little booklets or 11x14 cards BECAUSE the residents WANTED to count the horn blasts and read the box/fire location.

Here's a neat sign from a fire we had a week or so ago. A F/F on scene said this was a perfect slide at a sizeup class. Agreed. Something this simple can tell you alot about who could be in this home. Upon arrival it could not be confirmed that everyone was out of the house. This simple set of signs on the lamp post in the front yard gives you a good start. Looks like you have at least 3 kids in this home. You now know thier first names as well, the IC can relay their names to the search crews, who now can call out the kids names now. maybe they react different to hearing their individual names if they are hidding somewhere. You have their pictures, scan the crowds or neighbors homes, you may find them with help from the pictures in front of you. Of course the signs may be a few years old, but you could tell by the conditon of the signs, plus Im sure they would probably be in the same ballpark of age as shown on the photos. You never know what simple signs are right in front of your eyes while doing a sizeup. Slow down and take a moment to look at everything you see. The Mother and 3 kids were at a neighbors home.

Good point about the stickers not being taken down. This also goers for Depts that want invalid information in the cads. It is very important you have a person or committee dedicated to keeping up on the situations going on inside the homes. You can get dispatched to a House fire with possible entrapment with an invalid in a second story rear 2/3 corner bedroom, bust your a** or get injured or worse, only to find out that the family moved or the person in question died 2 years ago. This sort of info is very important update on a regular basis.

All good points. Be safe all.

Yes this particular Engine company does this most of the time, as well as a fire to hydrant stretch if they are first due. We have pretty good hydrant spacing in our district. They will use the preconnects off the sides from time to time dependig on the crew, but this is not the norm.

Here is the working end of one of our new Ferrara Engines from the other day. The committee stressed a short wheel base and low hose bed. Eliminating the booster reel helped keep a low bed.

Loopy31 and Joetnymedic great posts! I dont see how anyone can argue this response. You guys did what was asked of yourselves and your respective Departments. The average Joe back step firefighter had nothing to do with creating the responses for the airport, you just show up when the radio goes off and do your thing, and for you guys to have to see this Monday morning quarterbacking is sad. The same people will be there to knock you when you send to little out the doors. Good job guys.

Someone had to agree to this plan at some point. The IC was not calling this stuff on the "fly". I've never been an IC for a aircraft down so I cant speak from experience on this, but I would say more is better, untill you know 100% for sure whats going on, especially with an almost all volunteer response from the fire end of things. If its overkill let the powers to be change things. If the only thing people can complain about is the fact the IC did not return units in service sooner, I think He did a good job. As for the once in a career line...maybe over dramatic, but when you consider the "service time" the average volunteer firefighter now gives a Dept. it may just be a once in a career run for them. Be safe all.

Oh I understand what he was trying to get at, the extremes of responses between the same call type. But again this was not the "low end" of an aircraft emergency, was this a 747 down, no, but it also wasnt an aircraft in trouble going down in a field or parking lot with some bumps and bruises for the occupants. I always go with the when in doubt send more attitude. Even with this rather large response Im sure many of the units just staged and did not get off the rigs. Maybe Im wrong I was not there. Considering this was an almost all volunteer response from the FD side, maybe its a bit more inflated. But Im sure these plans have been gone over and everyone agreed to them at some point. Maybe they have to be modified. JMO be safe all.

Hhmm well we will agree to disagree. First no matter how good the "drill" is ,it is never the same as the real thing. This wasnt a plane in trouble that landed in a walmart parking lot with a happy ending. Second I dont understand how you can compare an odor of gas call to a confirmed aircraft down with fire in a wooded area which will be manpower intensive getting equipment both fire and medical in and out of the area. Also a possible hazmat situation with runoff that could contaminate drinking water to parts of NYC and Westchester. Not to mention 4 DOA. I think the response was a bit more then practice for the folks who responded, and were first due. This type of thing doesnt happen every month, this may be a once in a career call for most of these people involved.

Whats wrong with filling out the "box" on this call type. What better way to learn then to respond, stage and operate at the real thing? As Aviator70 stated above the reason the Crash rigs went back in service sooner then later may have to do with $$$$.

Response times where never an issue, as far as getting men to the stations, and it still is not. The problem was having manpower scattered about the distrcit. Now they roll 1 or 2 Engines and 1 Ladder with nice size crews..4-8 on each rig. Not perfect but it seems to be working for them. I really dont know how they work the gear issue.

As for Suffolk maybe one day they will merge I think the Depts involved run with 1 station each. It is not an overkill on apparatus, nor is it a far distance between them, plus having members in house cuts down on response time. In Nassau the 2 Companies that have "sub stations" do not have bars or lounges. They are very small buildings that house the rigs, it's a large district. They have I think bathrooms and a little kitchen area. No one hangs out there. They serve the membership at night that live in the residential areas where the stations are. Their "Main houses" have their "hang out and meeting room area" At least a problem was addressed and worked out, may not be perfect but it's working and a solution to a problem.

In Suffolk County LI, I know of a few Departments that have automatic mutual aid agreements in place during the day. They have in house standby crews. One agreement is with 2 departments the other has 3 departments doing it. In Nassau there is one Dept. with 3 companies, 2 Engine companies and 1 Ladder company, 5 stations between the 3 companies. Each company has 2 rigs. Each compnay has relocated 1 rig to the biggest house that can fit them all. So during the week from 6-6pm ALL the daytime manpower responds to 1 house and gets the rigs out, without having scattered manpower at various stations. There are some creative options out there, but it has to start with the Chief of the said Dept. to do something about it.

Our Ferrara salesman has been telling us about their "tiller in development" for about 4 years now...have yet to see anything.

M Ave will agree with this I think....even though you may be able to sleep at work on some jobs, its NOT the same deep sleep you will get in your own bed in your own home. That said, I think the heart rate jump M describes is even worse with volunteer firefighters doing a home response in the middle of the night. I have been knocked out of a deep sleep with my heart pounding on routine alarms, not to mention those house fires with the key words we all love to hear "vicinity of", "next to" and so on. Talk about going from 0 to 90 in nothing flat. This alarm came in about 5am. Something to think about. As for physicals we give an OSHA physical every year for members 40 and over. Once every 2 years for ages 30-39, and every 3 years for ages 18-29.

Nassau County has a detailed written mutual aid plan in place to cover Queens and Brooklyn. Units actually do a relocation drill 1 or 2 times a year. The selected Nassau units go in and drill with the companies they would relocate with. They drill and have lunch with them, its worked out pretty well. BUT like was stated it would take a horrible event on the scale like 9-11 to see this happen real time. I hope I nver see it.

Amen to that Brother.

Who else but Seagrave bid? Ferrara does not have tiller yet.

RIP Mike.

I also heard 36 Fire Alarm Dispatchers were to be laid off as well. Any truth to this?

I'm planning on going, maybe I'll meet some of my Westcheter and beyond Brothers!

Firehouse magazine had a short article on Ossining and Sing Sing years back. I remember in the article they spoke of the manpowere count on the rigs coming in. They also said something like "...and you better have the same count going out as you did coming into the site!"

All fair points, but I would be upset if I were in that company and in round 1 the difference of 8 miles was a sticking point to the village or whomever was overseeing this process, and then in the end they went with a shop 55 MILES away. ok guys be safe I'm off.