JBE

Dude, this is NYC, you should know they pay garbage to start. I got 12 years on and didn't start to live somewhat comfortably until I had 5 years on. You would make it up in OT, trust me. Most of us are averging 250 plus hours of OT and it's only September. Secondly, getting a nice little raise next month once we ratify the new contract.

You guys are surprised by this?? DC has been a mess for years. I happen to think uniform purchases are far from questionable, though. Especially since I just got one. I don't necessarily like it, but that's another story for another time. Thank heaven someone is at least blowing the whistle on the problem. Now as for the traffic stop, all that dispatcher had to do was ask the cop to call after the stop was completed. The officer was right, her statement was irrelevant. Or, she could have sent the cop a message via MDT. I guess subtlety isn't one of her strong points. Can't wait to go visit this place on my next little trip.

Collpase 3 and Collapse 5 are being replaced, Silver Lake in OC is getting the TL replacing the Sutphen I shot a few weeks ago. The only other Spartans in FDNY are TL-53 and the Caisson.

It had to happen sometime. Due to the age and condition of the building, tomorrow will be the last day tour at Manhattan Fire Communications in Central Park. Monday night into Tuesday Morning, there will be a cutover to PSAC 1 at 11 Metrotech Center in Brooklyn. I will have the unfortunate honor of being the last tour supervisor to run a day tour in that office. There will be a skeleton crew left over for a few days to ensure continuity in the event of failure. Now here is my rant..Once again the Mayor of the City of New York puts peoples lives in danger. The lives of the FDNY, FDNY EMS, and NYPD dispatchers, by putting three boroughs of Fire in Metrotech, on the same floor as NYPD and EMS. Money over blood. Never mind the fact that there is a fully functional set up for Manhattan in the Bronx CO which has remained VACANT and UNUSED since the Bronx CO renovations ended last year. Never mind the fact that 11 Metrotech is only protected by some corral fences, jersey barriers, and a couple of cops in an RMP. Never mind it is a traffic choked area with two major bridges within spitting distance. IT IS NOT A SAFE BUILDING!!!! The mayor feels that it's cheaper to protect one building than it is 5 or 6. THey have learned NOTHING from Sept. 11th. OEM, anyone?? About the only good thing to come out of this, is I finally get a uniform after 12 years. About time I don't have to put on a buffed out ensemble from the Quartermaster, or just go to work in street clothes. It's official. It's a little embarrassing when you go to other places and they have uniforms. And they get jealous when you tell them what you're wearing is how you go to work.

Oh, it's all meant in kindness. Especially since I broke in at least two guys from your neck of the woods, one of them from Truck 2, or 7ZERO 8. To answer Seths question, there hasn't been boo said by the UFA, or the UFOA. I have no idea why. Although, I did see something put out by the UFA concering the UCT mess.

They go into buildings and throw salvage covers and dewater buildings during and after fires. There were 10 at one time, down to 3. A number of people I work with are former Patrolios.

M.James got SCREWED royally. Our loss is LIDsville's gain. The Brass, meaning the Chief of Communications, and my upper management DON'T CARE!!!! They run the show And they can all retire tomorrow. That leaves the young guys and slightly senior folks holding the bag.

OK, no kitchen, dirty looks from the PD folks, no parking, DOITT breathing down our necks about everything. Unsafe building. It's not too loud in here now, but wait till SI and Bklyn move in. Then, wait till EMD and 911 move in...Holy crap it'll be on and poppin!!!!

I kid thee not. Yet another you can't make this stuff up example.

Foul odor coming from a dumpster on an 85 degree day. Gee, maybe it's garbage?? This is an incredibly dumb system. I sat down with one of my chief dispatchers last week, and looked at the stack of paperwork filed by either the units, or by my people to show how many mistakes have been made. Had one last week, run comes over for a water leak. Truck gets in there, and asks for an Engine and EMS for a lady whose water broke and was in labor. Thanks again, Mayor Mike and Commissioner Kelly. Thank you to my management for totally destroying my job, as well.

WHAT A MESS!!! The biggest pile of steaming poop I have ever seen. I could go on for a while, but I will reserve my anger for the Unified Call Taker thread.

May he rest in peace..Take up, Sonny. You dun good.

Oh yeah, one last thing. To prove I don't just take pictures of fire trucks, here's the business end of the Battleship North Carolina The Coast Guard Cutter Diligence, a 210 Reliance Class medium endurance cutter. 40 plus years old and still chuggin away. The retired Coast Guard Cutter Taney, a 327 foot Secretary(Treasury) Class high endurance cutter. This has been a museum in Baltimore since 1987, the year after she was decommissioned. It is the last ship to survive Pearl Harbor that is still afloat. The old Chesapeake Lightship And Coast Guard 44355, a 44 foot Motor Lifeboat, formerly assigned to the now closed Coast Guard Station, Beach Haven, NJ. It's now on blocks in a park in Brant Beach. It was built in 1964, by the Coast Guard Yards in Curtis Bay, MD. It can hold a crew of 3 or 4, plus up to 20 survivors in a number of watertight compartments. It's powered by twin Detroit Diesels and had a top speed of about 13 knots.(This is all coming from memory!!!!) I was a crewman on 44329 at Manasquan Inlet in Point Pleasant Beach from 1994 to 1995. It can operate in 30 foot seas, 20 foot surf, and take a 15 footer broadside, flip over, re-right itself, self bail, and keep on going with some damage. They ride like corks, but I bet if someone put their mind to it, they could have this thing seaworthy in a month or two, depending on how much they cannibalized when it was decommissioned and replaced by the 47 Foot MLB.

Rye Brook came up to join in the fun, Thanx, Matt!! Engine 14, 2000 Spartan/Saulsbury Ladder 30, 1996 E-One 75 foot Quint And then, West Harrison. Big thanx to Chief Pat for hooking this up. Engine 265 2001 KME Rescue 35, 2005 KME, seems like they got a Philadelphia vibe to these rigs. Tower Ladder 9, 2000 KME 95 foot Aerialcat Utility 25, 2008 Ford/KME And that, my friends concludes the latest trips I have endeavored on in the past month. But before I go, anyone want to buy an old Engine from Somers?? FOR SALE!!!! What about this, is this still active?? I am honestly not sure. Considering I remember when both were brand new. And as always, ENJOY!!! Tidbits and asides from this trip coming soon.

This morning I met up with Mike from PC, and JT from Ossining. The weather didn't really agree with us, but some of my better shots are with crappy sunlight. Now before I start CHECK OUT THIS WEBSITE!!! www.portchesterfd.org Engine 58 and 59, the career/paid/whatever you wanna call them rigs. 1988 Grumman/Duplex and a 1994 Pierce. Engine 60, 1990 Pierce Engine 61, 2003 Seagrave Engine 62, 2008 Pierce Engine 63, 2000 Pierce, I like the gun metal grey. Engine 64, 99 Pierce Rescue 40, 1994 Pierce Non Walk In. Ladder 31, 2007 Spartan/Smeal 100 foot RMA One of my favorites, Tower Ladder 2, 1999 Sutphen 100 Foot TL, and yes, I have the Code 3. The Pride of Poningo Street(Good idea, JT) Utility 65, Ex-Purchase R-30 1996 Ford/EVI Then the neighbors stopped by....

I wanted to run over to Port Jervis and shoot this new KME they got, with some more Blue and Yellow. That didn't work out. There was a discussion here about Westchester Airport and the ARFF. Here's where it is good to have friends, especially ones who are ex-chiefs and longtime family friends. SCORE!!!!! Airport 7 2007 Oshkosh Striker with a 50 foot Snozzle Airport 11 2003 Oshkosh Striker 1500 water/200 foam 500 lbs Halotron. Big thanx to the Chief from Mechanicstown, and Ex-Chief Stiller, LCFD, and I will be coming to Port Jervis again reeeeal soon. Next up, three departments, one day.

I was heading over to Mechanicstown to shoot them, but happened upon Silver Lake first. Here's my first shot, Rescue 162. 1996 Sutphen/Saulsbury Tower 160 a 1990 Sutphen 100 footer, soon to be replaced by a Ferrara M-161 a 2007 Ford/Weis Engine 156, 2004 ALF There was also Engine 157, a 93 Pierce, but I couldn't get a decent enough angle. You guys deserve better than that. So here's the Chief I really should have reached out to someone in Mechanicstown for this. My own stupidity left me sitting there for over an hour till someone came by to help me out. Also helped that they had a run. M-124 08 GMC/KME Fire Police rig Engine 125 97 Spartan Rescue 119 1994 Spartan/Saulsbury Engine 118 1990 KME and one of the more unique rigs I have seen in my travels. Tower 121 2002 KME 100 foot Quint Squad 123 2005 Ford/KME Exchanged some info with the chief, I will be back to shoot Station 2 soon. ARFF sound good??

67-13 met me at Union Vale Station 2. Here we go. 67-14 2005 Sutphen. This is the one you see with the compartments open at the parades. 67-12 1990 Sutphen 67-51 2004 Ford/95 Sutphen Body 67-62 2005 Ford Went to Station 1 67-81 1992 Ford with a Union Vale built 1977 body. 67-13 1995 Sutphen 67-61 1989 Ford 67-11 1985 Sutphen I thanked the gang from Union Vale, and it was over to Orange County. For a little more yellow, but a stop in silver first.

Markmets415 and I had been chatting since I mentioned my need of help on a Dutchess Out and About. Took a ride up there Wednesday, and the Blue Crew did not disappoint!!! This was the beginning of a mini Death March. Wassaic went to the present blue in the late 80's after seeing a rig from Egypt, NY. They voted on the color and the new guys beat out the old guard. Here's 69-11 (EX Wassaic E-227 from before Dutchess went to Putnam Style numbering) This is an 89 Pierce Dash. 69-31 2007 International/Smeal 3000 Gallon Tanker Blue BEAST!!! 69-12 1997 Freightliner Pierce 69-51 2004 Ford/Rescue 1 The soon to be replaced 69-61(Ex- 69-51) 1979 Chevy/Pierce After thanking the Wassaic guys, I drove down to Dover, where Car 36-2 and Frank hooked me up big time. It's always nice to see people go that extra mile, like already having the rigs pulled out and ready to go. 36-11 1990 Ford/E-One 36-13 2000 E-One 36-45 2006 E-One 75 foot Quint. I originally thought this was a refurb, since the cab seems like an older make. Chief Dingee assured me it was kosher. 36-61 2001 Ford with a 1986 E-One body. Down to Station 2 36-12 1989 Ford/E-One 36-14 2002 E-One/Saulsbury Thanked them profusely, and then I came down with a case of Yellow Fever

These are NOT my best shots, but, I had to play the hand I was dealt. Truck 51, acting as a spare for Truck 1. This is a 1994, 95?? Seagrave with the 85 foot Snorkel. Squad 11, 2005 Pierce. After we took a feed at the job, it was dinner at Denny's and the slightly lovely Laura took care of us while we chatted her up. I joked a bit with her about the thank you on the receipt which should have had her phone number on it, and strangely enough she obliged me. I giggled, walked out, and chucked it in the trash. Not my type. Anyway it was back to Engine 13/Truck 16/Medic 4 JEEZE do those medics run. With the rolling closures in Baltimore, Truck 16 was closed during the day, and opened Saturday night. Engine 13 had been closed Friday night, and got relocated to cover Engine 50 Sunday morning. Here's Truck 16, a 2006 Pierce 100 foot tiller. So we rode with them for the night. Got up the next morning and headed on home. I said my farewells to Ken and headed back to the Chateau. A few days later, it was My Blue Heaven, Stay Tuned..

In the meantime, Ken and I did our obligatory stop at Engine 13/Truck 16, Baltimore City, where we would ride later. Here's 13, a 2003 Pierce Enforcer. And the next obligatory stop was Steadman Station. Truck 2 was disbanded, but everyone else was in. Here's Haz Mat 1 as they were heading out the door to a rally at City Hall. Not bad for a rig in motion. We ran over to the rally and took pix of just about everything in sight. I'm going to keep this simple and brief, as so not to suck away bandwidth. Mobile Command, Airplex 2, Engine 2, 23, FDNY Tribute Engine 343, Truck 15 and 42 making the flag display. In between we also got Truck 5 and EMS 3 We had been looking for Truck 51(The Snorkel), it had disappeared while we weren't looking. We found it soon enough, following the smoke in the sky. You guys have seen my scene shots from the 3rd Alarm on Bel Air, I am keeping the next few pix quick for the same reasons. Suffice to say, 100 firefighters and 200 BUFFS on scene and operating!!!

Here's that Coxsackie rig I mentioned before. I had been talking to my special lady friends son about some of the rigs I was going to shoot down in Maryland. One I mentioned was a rescue truck with a crane on it. Out of all the rigs I mentioned, he wanted to see that one the most. So after an 0630 wakeup call from Ken, it's in the Rock Box and down 84 to 17, to the Pailisades, to 95, pick him up, and further down we go up 695 to Lutherville. These guys have some unique looking rigs. I'm generally a mild purist when it comes to rig colors. Red, Red/White, Red/Black, White/Red, you get the point. These guys, I'll make an exception. Here's the new Squad 303, this replaced a Mack. It's an 08 Pierce Velocity with a nifty little crane. Who am I to let down a 7 year old?? Engine 302, 1993?? Sutphen. Fly Car 304, on their way to an EMS run while we were there. We headed over to Baltimore County Station 1, with the intent of shooting Engine 1, but they were OOS. I got Truck 1 instead. This is an 02?? E-One Tiller Ran over to Cockeysville, and got this nice little ALF Engine 392 USAR, Engine, Brush, and Tower 17 Baltimore County

After checking out the Battleship North Carolina Museum, and the Coast Guard Cutter Diligence, we went back to where we were staying and called it a drunken night. The next morning after we planned our day, I grabbed my hostess son and it was off to check out Ocean Isle Beach. My first shot was Ladder 1462, Here's one I remember without needing notes. Go Me!! It's a 1996 E-One 75 foot Quint that is one of six made. It was built for Disney with the idea of having the two buckets on the side, so two FF's could guide people off a stuck amusement/monorail. Next up Engine 1471, and Utility 1483 Headed over towards Shallote and spied this one. It's a 1987 FMC with a 55 foot TeleSqurt, but it's marked as both an engine and a truck. Identity Crisis, I suppose. After another trip to the beach, some tense after dinner moments and a flat tire. It was time to go home. I want to thank the guy from Sunset Beach(Formerly of Mohegan FD and Mahopac Falls FD), and the guy from Ocean Isle Beach(Ex-Somers FD) for hooking me up. I got back to New York, and met up with Ken FF Martin. Well known on the model fire trucks boards and Code 3 Collectibles site. We headed up to Boston, but unfortunately, that was a washout. Maryland, anyone??

Calabash Station 2. Engines 1271, Tanker 1265, Truck 1261 I apologize I don't have years or makes/models, I lost my notes. They did have a 78 WLF from Coxsackie, NY, but I wasn't about to ask them to pull it out for fear it would fall apart on them. White and Blue, anyone??

Next Stop, Calabash, NC. They got a nice little creamery in town, and sculptures of cows outside. If you have that fever, the prescription is right on the door. Engines 1270,1272, Ladder 1260, Rescue 1295. Station 2 coming up!!