ajsbear

From the NY POST FRANKIE EDOZIEN Courtesy of New York Post May 25, 2005 -- The NYPD kept firefighters away from a potentially dangerous chemical spill in a garbage truck while cops and sanitation workers handled the situation on a busy Manhattan street. The Post obtained a video of the April 27 incident near NYU in which sanitation workers in wet suits and police officers poured chemicals on a gallon container in the truck's hopper that was spewing acrid smoke. Members of the FDNY's Hazmat unit, who responded only after the FDNY was called by a passer-by, were kept behind yellow police tape. The incident began when a sanitation worker inhaled fumes from the smoky container and called his supervisors. They notified city and sanitation cops. A spokesman for the Sanitation Department, Vito Turso, said the material turned out to be muriatic acid, an industrial-strength cleaning agent. "They [the NYPD] theoretically are in charge at that point in time," Turso said. "We must notify the Police Department, which we did. They were the agency in charge." Last month, Mayor Bloomberg signed an executive order that puts the police in charge of any situation that involves hazardous material and is suspected to be a terrorist attack or a crime. It's unclear if the NYPD officers who responded believed it was actually a terrorist attack or a crime. But they never notified the FDNY, which is supposed to be allowed to help, even if the cops are in charge. "It's a concrete example in which the Police Department is preventing the Fire Department from participating. There is no reason to believe this is an isolated event," said a peeved City Council Speaker Gifford Miller. "The mayor needs to sort this out." FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon said, "We obtained a copy of the video and we sent it to the Office of Emergency Management for review." NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said cops and sanit workers "created a frozen zone, donned protective gear, and neutralized the acid using soda ash compounds." He said that when the FDNY arrived, the situation was already under control.

Where do you find this stuff??????

For officers who do not have the proper training giving orders ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,)

For hospitality down there go to any of the Palm County fire stations. A few years ago I was flying down every weekend when my mother was ill. Those guys put me up a few times, made sure I had food even at the nursing home they stopped by to check up on me. Got well taken care of by Palm Fire Rescue. That shows you brotherhood.

I have to agree with Doug. When you pull up before any of the rigs you spend more time keeping the general public from doing more harm to the victims. Smoke at the accident scene as we know can be steam or even from the air bags. Also as we all know breaking a car window is not all that easy without a window punch. You probably stopped the rocket scientist that was about to atempt breaking the window from hurting himself. Now flames are another story.

I think it's a great idea! Where to get that 3 AM burger? What to cook when all you have to work with are the leftovers from the last meeting. How to feed the crew when working a 6 hour fire?

Can you say "Lift Assist"?

Correct on all points. You could not build abuilding like the ESB the size of the WTC towers. They had to use methords that did not exist. Even the equiptment used. The cranes used were of a new design that raized themselves with each floor build, were dismantled at the end and lowered each other to the ground. The last was dismantled and brought down through the elevator shafts. Design changes were made on a daily basis as they ran into problems. First problem they ran into was that in the foundation the rebars were so tightly packed they could not get the concrete between them. They had to change the design of the foundation. The building was designed to use the most space so they designed the outside of the building to hold the weight. This allowed the open floor space with no columns and they doubled the rentable space. It supassed the building codes of the day. Pipe chases only ran 2 or 3 floors and were sealed. Multiple elevators in the same shaft. Also remember the blast in "93. It survived with minimal damage. The size of the blast would have taken many building down but this one stood. Many engineers say if there was just the impact and little fire it would have withstood the impact. The heat played a major factor. That kind of fire would destroy the ESB, the doct work, pipe chases etc. run constant through out the building.

While there were many design flaws found, when they were built they were considered a design and construction marvel. The designers never took into account a plane as large as the one that hit because none existed that large in the 60's when it was designed. Yes there are many ways they can now improve upon and they indeed can build a similar type structue utilizing the new designs of today. I knew several of the engineers and designers that were involved and they used methods that were "state of the art" from the time. Don't forget these buildings were built in the 60's and completed in '73. Designs and safety regulations were different then.

x635, I agree with a lot of what you say. As for career being there 24x7, yes but the knowledge and professionalism changes with shift. I've seen several Career FF's whose attitude changes after a few years and then it's just a job. Also as far as becoming more career than Vol. I'm originally from Mt Vernon. FDMV went from a comb dept. to all career. The difference? Same number for carrer members today as in 1975. Just did away with the Vol's. There are several departments with both in the county. Will they go the same route?

As for x635's comments, ego's aside, since Westchester is so large, regional TR teams, with both career and vol. members. The thing about career, they work their shift anf go home. the vol's ar enot available 24x7. There are many dept's that have members young and old with huge egos. It won't be in your lifetime that this county goes even to 50% career. The money is just not there. We need to all get along you're right about that. There is nothing wrong with regional TR teams with egos aside run by a chief in each area.

I agree with bmfd231. Unless the Vol. service in Westchester bands together and approches the County Legislature as one voice they won't listen to us. As a block we make up a greater number fo voters than Pagano has. Many of our members are members of the Teamsters, craft unions etc. Put it all together and its a much greater block of voters. Thats how the elected officials need to see it.

Doug; That was last week. This week we are back to the same old status. Allan

I thnk on eof the main points, it should not be a popularity contest to be voted as an officer. All too many times it is. Once elected or appointed to a Lt. position that officer should get the required training if he/she wants to continue as an officer. In addition communication skills which is something the FTC does not do should be a big consideration. I've seen officers who many would consider socially retarded because they cannot hold a conversation and have no clue how to get people to follow. In addition officers should have at least 5 years in the department before becoming an officer.

Add to that FD's who use junior officers to d training who don't even have the proper training themselves. ](*,)

Heard he was carrying about a foot of det cord that he needed for demonstrations of some equiptment he was selling.

And the Continental Village Fire Depatment "IRON MEN"

Does the TRT still meet the last Tuesday of every month? Is it still open to all?