50-65

Uhh...... yep.

Just a reminder that today is Veteran's Day. Say "thank you" to a veteran. Thanks, Dad. RIP

We also have had problems with the narrowbanding. Some of our members, depending on where you live, will not get the page. Others the volume is weak or transmission is broken. Sometimes a page for Sparrowbush will come in like they are next door and we won't hear a page for a neighboring department. Radios are not much better. Reception is spotty at best. There have been times when we have resorted to cell phones to communicate. It will only get worse when frequencies are further narrowbanded in the near future.

Around here, the stations that are American owned/operated have barely changed their prices. The Quick-Chek in Middlehope is still at $3.68 while the scum that own the Valero almost next door went from $3.68 to $3.99. The Shell down the road from me has always been high but went from $3.88 to $4.10 (cash price. +.10 for credit/debit). Meanwhile, the American owned/operated Sunoco down the road from him has remained a constant 3.81 (cash/credit).

There really isn't that much of a fuel crisis. The real problem is: 1. people hoarding. 2: transportation issues with road closures. 3: stations closed due to power outages. The stations with gas are having a hard time keeping up with the demand, mostly because of 1 and 2 above. Around here, prices have gone up at some stations as much as $0.40/gal in the past few days. Which sucks for those of us whose lives are still "normal". Fuel is being sent to the terminals here by barge (as normal) but then being trucked back to the metro area and NJ.

Winona Lake sent a truck. For some reason I couldn't edit. Pic here http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/all_news/6092

Well, looks like no raises again this year as the boss will have to spend the money fixing his beach house instead.

Good thing I have a crane on my truck, I can hoist myself out of the water ! I haven't heard anything about tornado threat that usually comes with hurricanes. Anyone saying anything about that?

Got an earlier flight to come in Sunday evening. As far as work goes. I work outside. Should be interesting.

Anyone familar with airport operations? My wife is supposed to be flying from Florida to Westchester on Monday morning. How much rain/wind will they fly in? On another note, how many of you have employers that support you as volunteers? When talking about the storm at work, one of the guys who is a volunteer FF said he might not be in Monday/Tuesday. He was told that if he didn't come in, not to show up the rest of the week either.

"Hypothetical". No. But I do know* that maxillofacial and mandible trauma will (likely) go to WCMC, even if you take the pt to St. Francis first.They do not handle that there as a specialty. I also know* that they (St Francis) don't have neuro in house after hours and on weekends. As a level 2 trauma center, they are not required to. * My "knowledge" is not "hypothetical understanding" but based on personal and professional experiance. Disclaimer: Some of the services offered by various hospitals may have changed since my last involvement with EMS and hospital based patient care.

Mmm.. Fall from standing position. Slipped, tripped, syncope. could be any number of reasons. Add in concrete floors, any number of shelving units, displays, etc to hit your head on, it's not out of the realm of possibility to sustain major head trauma. We don't know the age of the victim or any underlying conditions. As far choice of trauma centers, that is up to the medevac crew. The pt was intubated. I'm going to hazard a guess here and suspect that the pt may be in need of neuro services. Since this occurred on a weekend, St Francis, being a level 2 trauma center, would likely not have a neuro in house. Westchester would. So yeah, I would pick WCMC. The extra 15 minutes or so of flight time to get the pt to a hospital where all the services are there vs. a shorter run where the pt will wait those minutes and more before neuro is even called to evaluate

True, but in reality, that extra for insurance is pocket change when compared to the taxes he pays.

That would be awesome. I think it would have an initial effect of reducing the volunteer numbers, but eventually those numbers would come back up. In the end, you would have better trained and qualified departments. I believe that Florida requires all firefighters to go throught the same training, whether paid or volunteer.

My approval is not necessary. And no, I do not know what is best for your district and haven't claimed to. If what you are doing is working well, keep it. As for others responding through the city to get to us, if I were the IC, and I needed m/a, I would certainly call the city before someone who would have to pass through from the other side.

I don't have a "beef" with anyone. Well, let me clarify that a little. I certainly have no beef with the City of Newburgh. They are a professional group doing a difficult job under very difficult circumstances. With the limited manpower, they have no choice but to call mutual aid. Granted, when calling a staffed department for mutual aid, you know they are getting out the door relatively quickly. As Newburgher pointed out, even though West Point is some 20 minutes away, by the time a closer department gets the call, crews up, and responds, I have no doubt that WP could actually get there faster. My department has responded there when we were on the rotation and have been special called there as well. We are currently on their MAMA's plan as mutual aid. And we also utilize Newburgh and Air Guard at times for our m/a. My main "beef", if that's what you want to call it, actually lies, mostly, with volunteer departments who often call M/A based on personalities rather than appropriateness. And my department is no different. because of certain politics and policies, we don't always call the closest department either. As far as my input into the way things are done or not done, I have none. I am just a worker ant. I can express my opinion to the powers that be, but not being in the controlling entities, it matters little what my opinion is. My main focus for the original post was to faciltate discussion and thinking about what is best for the taxpayers and those we protect and help in our respective districts. Unfortunately, as is often the case with this forum, it has denigrated into a "us" vs. "them" pissing match.

Sitting here in my house listening to mutual aid responding to a second call in City of Newburgh passing through 2 other districts to get there. Aaawwweesome!

Maybe I should have specified that all interior qualified firefighters have the same training. Would you classify a driver only or exterior only as a "firefighter"?

After 3 years of every Friday night in Dutchess County, with all the problems that exist there, OC is so bass ackwards at times it amazes me that anything gets done. I was talking M/A in general, but in eastern OC it was noted that a department put in their MAMA's plan for M/A from a dept with a 20+minute response time before calling for any m/a from nearly a dozen companies or so that may be quicker and are definately closer. But they are "guarenteed" a certain level of training. Maybe not so much from some of the others.

Now that's just crazy talk! Where my brother was upstate, all firefighters have the same training. You are issued a colored ID tag noting if you are interior, exterior, or driver only. They also run 3 staffed volunteer engines during the day to cover various parts of the county as first due. To eliminate the fights over whose insurance would be liable in the event of injury, the county took over the workers comp for all volunteers. Members of various departments can sign up to ride the 1st due engine with the hosting dept. supplying the driver.

Here in Orange County, if I were the IC, whether it be a fire scene or ems, I could call for mutual aid from the moon before any neighboring department. At what point should the decision about where my mutual aid comes from be made by someone who has no personal interest in whether or not you are paid or volunteer or if your company did or did not invite my company to your last BBQ? If you need mutual aid, unless you require a specialized piece of equipment or team, would it not make sense to start with a closer department rather than one 3 districts or 25 minutes away? Just wondering. What are your thoughts?

maybe it was a buffy volly working a second job

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Legs of the bread man? Distant cousin to the gingerbread man.

Imagine, combining companies to provide more effective service at a reduced cost and selling surplus equipment. That's crazy talk ! I don't know what our town would do without 16 engines, 5 rescues, 3 trucks and at least 10 chiefs.