spin_the_wheel

Thanks for the info. Be Safe.

I did this exercise in a Methods of Instruction Class here in Nassau, the instructor was an FDNY FLIPS instructor. And as you said it was all about the difference of being prepared to speak on a topic, as opposed to one not being prepared. 1 person in the class knew what the object would be in his envelope before hand, so he had time to think about what he would say to the class. The others had to do it on the fly....speak 2 or 3 minutes about a paperclip!!!!! Talking to the instructor about Officer training, he even said if such a program was developed for Nassau, the hours could be cut down alot because of the specific nature of some of the material..and by breaking up certain topics into other classes.

"From Buddy to Boss" is a great book to read. Getting back to the original topic, here in Nassau the 2 combo Dept.s, the highest rank the career guys can reach is Captain. The Volunteer Chiefs of the Depts. are in charge but the relationships seem to be ok. Both Dept.s have a larger volunteer force and have to rely on each other to get the job done. A Career LT. has authority over a Volunteer Captain though. In one Dept. the current Lt's did not want to move up to Captain for various reasons, so they hired a Captain from outside the ranks of the current career ranks, no one wanted the spot.

What tone? Its a FACT the further you move along the ladder the more BS paperwork you have to deal with. Maybe you have not reached a supervisory level in your career yet, but when you do, you will see...alot more paperwork. I was just trying to point out when people use specific hours to describe a course there may be many hours included in the said course that a Volunteer Officer would not need...so one person may need 200 hours and another may need 125 hours...thats all.

I hate using "hours" when trying to describe a course...is the FDNY FLIPS, job specific to the FDNY? Meaning, is there 16 hours of learning paperwork and forms that an FDNY Officer will need to know, or other Dept. "Office" procedures. 8 hours on what to do when someone calls in sick and how to cover the spot. The excersise where you are given an object in an envelope to describe in front of the class takes up a day. So when you get down to it, not everyone will need this 200 hours of Officers traininig. I learned paperwork on the fly as a 2nd Lt. no need to include any of this in a class. JMO. A combination of classes to reach a rank may be the way to go in a volunteer system. Officers Training, Building Construction, Methods of Instruction, Stratigies and Tactics classes like this may be a good back ground for someone to have to now be an eligible candidate for the "Voting" procedure within the volunteer system. Most of the Officers in my Dept. have many of these before they "officially" want to move up the ranks. Make each rank have a certain number of classes to complete before you can move up the ladder.

5 individual volunteer companies may not work...but 1 unified volunteer system for certain areas with the city coming in on extra alarms to certain fires and workers should work. The problem sounds like the scattered resources of the volunteer companies in the area.

Agreed....what may work 99 times may not work the 100th time. Sounds like this is a common pratice, "lets beat the city in, cancel them before they come into our turf" probably goes on all the time, this time it came back to bite them in the a&&. I dont know what type of apparatus and manpower were on the road, but if you had 3 Engines/tankers and 1 Ladder responding that would be a good first alarm assignment for a chimney fire in most places....BUT if you always had the luxery of having additional units coming in, at no cost to you or your dept., like the city units, to supplement your own first alarm, I would never cancel them. BUT again thats just me. Ihave said this before...the 5 Volunteer companies have to get together and combine forces, and this includes the city response, before someone else comes in and dictates how its going to be. This may be the straw that breaks the Volunteer companies.

One of the rare all volunteer Dept.s running a tiller...way to go guys, stick it to the man!

Just a word to the Departments out there who may not be very far along in this process, you at least need a risk assessment of your district, and a review of current s.o.p's s.o.g's in regards to how you will provide an effective rescue for firefighters from elevations. And at the least you should have a system in mind you will purchase. I don't know if having the first 2 will keep you from getting a fine, but if they see you are moving along in the process it may help. PESH will be checking on Departments and fines will be given out. Department of Labor Rule 800.7 is now in effect. From what I understand this effects your mutual aid companies coming in as well, meaning if you have a Department that always comes in on a working fire or a FAST unit, they have to have a system in place. In short everyone on your fireground will need some sort of bail out system.

The younger gerneration may recall this as a Simpsons episode as well....during the Halloween specials they do every year.....they spoofed the Twilight Zone episode.

Been hearing 60 control 5x5 on 46.20 in Nassau county...is this just skip or are you using this freq?

Should have kept the old Mack Snorkel........

Armonk is a Dept. we hear also. No big deal, just curious is all....Im the only one who knew what I was listening to, thanks to my emtbravo experience! Be safe all.

Izzy we used to hear your Dept. all the time, dont hear it anymore...

Heheheh I love this site, the simplest thread can take an ugly turn. Poor guy just wanted to post about a rig with a different saying he thought was unique is all...and you get a post like this. Oh well. We get it your anti Volunteer, dont try so hard....by the way any logo or saying on your carrer rig...like "No Fear" or some other ridiculos saying. Anyway be safe all.

Katonah, Bedford and Bedford Hills are some of the Depts I hear, It's coming over radios in Firehouses and the County fire communications 46.20 console.

Must be a skip, it has been happening for a few months now off and on, but very clear...we even hear units responding. Did 60 control boost power or upgrade equipment in the past few months?

It's like a lot of unfair taxing, like when you have your own village Police, but get taxed by the County Police for some services as well, or when you pay School taxes and do not have Children in School anymore, or never had. Should be revamped in many areas.

One of my pet peeves is seeing a water can sitting in front of a storm door keeping it open, or when using a fan the storm door sitting against the fan because it cannot stay open on its own. I would say half the storm doors we encounter do not stay open correctly, the door closer or springs do not work right. I carry a bungee cord and have used this to secure the outside storm doors in every case. You can hook it around the door handle and hook the other end to almost anything..the step railings, the mailbox, hook it under siding on the house, even stretch into bushes to keep the door open and doorway clear. Another trick u can use in snow conditions is for the Chiefs who almost always arrive before the rigs to keep a snow shovel in the car with you...spray paint the upper half a florescent color....when the Chiefs pull on to the block and spot a hydrant, and if possible, jump out and put the shovel in the snow where the hydrant is. The incoming Engine can now spot where the hydrant is, especially if its partially buried, and also the hydrant man can use the shovel to dig out the hydrant more if needed. Of course if all our residents made sure the hydrants in front of their homes were shoveled the right way this would be a moot point I guess.

Is there a close station in CT that can come in on an automatic m/a when structure fires are received in this distant part of the Banksville district? Would it help building a 1 bay substation, or simply a garage in the area to house a single tanker?

I see in todays news an article about pulling out the street boxes.

Having crews in station does not even have to be an official Dept. policy for volunteers. Get together with some other guys and pick a few nights or days to have an unofficial standby. Put a notice up that on such and such a night/day between the hours of.......we are going to meet up. Check to see your busiest times during the day/week, in most cases stats don't lie, and have a standby during those hours. Buy an x-box for the firehouse, have wireless for guys/gals to use their laptops in station, come up with a drill schedule for off hours and give guys credits for extra drill time, have lunch or dinner together, in this endless video age their are infinite training videos, buff fire videos and the like to keep the younger buffs occupied in the firehouse. In most volunteer Depts. you get credit for the alarms you make and have to make a % of the years totals. Change it a bit to give credit for standby hours. At least for the younger guys if they are going to get home and sit in their rooms on the computer or play video games make it so they can do it at the firehouse. Plus you will always find that senior guy looking for an excuse to get out of the house

I have thought about this in the past and always bring this up...the real measure here is how fast you can get water on the fire. I am lucky to have a very active large volunteer fire Dept. at a working fire we have far more class A firefighters on scene working then if we would all of a sudden turn career. ASSUMING the paid average scale of F/F's at being 3 on an Engine and 2 on a Ladder. I am not having our ladder arrive with 9 and an Engine with 6. Using this scale what we may lack in arrival time... we may very well pick up on the firefighting side of things. We have more people to do the needed tasks and hopefully get water on the fire faster then some career Depts. with smaller crews, who get out the door faster. NOT ALL but probably some. Every situation is different but at least for the time in my world this is the case.

I do as well, but we look at it as if we did away with our ambulances..the Dept. would still be notified on MVA"s for a response. We also send the Heavy Rescue and an Engine.

If we need to shed the volunteer title so be it...I think the paid on call method is better then LOSAP IF you are going to pick 1 of the 2. I did not know the paid on call method was not legal in NY...wonder why?