JBE

And according to DCAS, the test is still on, so file anyway.

What he said.

Should take that thing out on 684 and drop the hammer. See how fast you can make it from White Plains to Katonah or Brewster.

I remember that quite well. My house shook as a branch hit the roof and slid down the side. Woke me right out of bed. We had no power for two days. Walked around Lake Carmel and surveyed the mess.

I have just received some bad news. They have suspended the application period, for unknown reasons. Sorry about that folks. It doesn't make any sense to me at all.

If it was Amsterdam Avenue, you'd be in Manhattan. The only houses that border I-95 that you can see are Engine 89/TL-50, which is on Bruckner Blvd off of Tremont Avenue when the highway is in the cut and the house is above you. That's actually where the Bruckner Expressway and the Cross Bronx meet. Then you have E-46/L-27 which is below the highway. They are on the service road. Engine 42 is not too far from the Cross Bronx, however I don't think you can see the house from the highway.

Application HERE!!!! The residency requirement has been lifted, so for those of you who wouldn't take the job because you didn't want to leave the burbs, fret no more!!! Anything I can help with, just PM me. PS, our starting salary is better than a few of the jobs out there.

I saw the rig at the Stormville Flea Market over the weekend. I was not impressed at all. There were plenty of things missing. Quality has gone down the tubes.

That was Warren Fuchs, recently(2003) retired and one of my instructors.

One thing I saw out in LA County was the CFF (Call Firefighter) program. It's a volunteer engine quartered with the paid guys, or it's a stand alone engine. If memory serves me right, they get paid per run. Most of them are in isolated and slow houses, they are trained by the county, however I don't know how much they get per run.

Yeah, as I like to say about Dennis(34 years plus and counting), he's forgotten more about this job than most of us have ever learned. He was like 19 or 20 when that tape was made.

Lew, 72 isn't anywhere near as pimped out as they used to be. The lights had lights. It was quite a sight.

Just a little tidbit about the renegade warriors moniker. That was bestowed on the BC guys by a chief in the 47 Battalion while back. It is a pretty sweet looking rig. I just feel bad for BC because they really need a new home. The present firehouse is presently falling to pieces and the rigs are lined up on Noel Rd, and the side streets.

R-6, if the food comes out of the department budget, I don't necessarily think it's on the arm. Department dues pay for a percentage of it, albeit a small one. L-47, therein lies the rub, you can't implement a gradual shift from vollie to paid without the community you serve getting hosed on taxes. Like R-6 said, there's only so much you can do to sweeten the pot before it gets spoiled.

I'm trying to work something out with MM from FDNY Trucks to get up there soon. There's some places he wanted to hit as well. Just waiting to hear back from him.

I don't know the link off the top of my head, but I think you can get it off the FDNY official site. The boundaries in Manhattan and the Bronx are pretty well defined. Brooklyn and Queens are kind of confusing.

This was also a situation where the fire went PWH not too long after this unit cleared the intersection. I guess I also have a little bit of a personal issue with this unit, as I have had a number of confrontations with them over responses when I was assigned to Queens after I got promoted. I do appreciate the comments and enjoy these kind of discussions.

If it helps recruit/retain members without a department going fully paid and creaming the area taxes, and keeps a decent staffing for the rigs, can't be a bad thing.

The unit was on Yellowstone Boulevard a number of blocks away from Queens Boulevard. I personally think it was the officer of this unit being an irresponisble @$$hole, but hey what do I know, I'm just a dispatcher.

I read bits and pieces of it. Not to mention bits and pieces of a few of the documentaries. I turned off the documentaries once I heard a voice over actor imitating me. I just get bummed out any time this comes up.

One of the other things you saw was the interchange program. Slow companies would go up and cover the night tour at a busy house. 62 Engine would go down to 82 or 295 would go up to 82. 95 to 75. They tried this again in Queens about 5 or 6 years ago with some of the Jamaica companies, like 127 to 135, and 133 to 167. It fizzled out quickly. They also tried it with the 52's going to 62 and 79. Sometimes you had companies just lined up in front of firehouses ready to go, many were acting as second sections of companies, like Engine 60, even with the Squad, 2 sections of 17, and 2 sections of the 14 Battalion(14-2 went on to become the 26). Just a story of evolution, Ladder 17-2 was disbanded, I don't think they were reorganized as anyone. If they were, I think they may have become 55 Truck. Ladder 27-2 became 58 Truck. The TCU Ladder that ran out of 82 Engine became 59 Truck. Engine 88-2 became 72 Engine, and they were the second section of 46 before moving up to 88. And lastly, 85 Engine became 53 Truck. The Squads you had then were pumpers and for manpower. I do have a clip somewhere of Dennis O' Connell, one of my mentors in the Bronx and now the guy I relieve on my day tours, telling Squad 5 "We got no trucks available in the South Bronx, you're going in as a truck to 139 and Cypress".

I understand you need to use an airhorn for obvious reasons when responding to an incident. Here's a situation that really bugged me. I'm coming home from work the other day and heading through Forest Hills Queens. There's a 10-75 in the neighborhood, and since I don't know the area too well, I decide to just kinda meander across Queens Blvd and over to Yellowstone. I pull over just past Austin Street to let the Rescue pass me. As they clear the intersection, a little old lady cruises through the crosswalk on her motorized wheelchair. Another unit (not to name names) stops to let the lady cross, but is LEANING ON THE AIRHORN THE ENTIRE TIME SHE IS GOING THROUGH THE CROSSWALK!!!!!! It's bad enough the old lady can't move quickly, and even worse that she's probably deaf, and that was before these guys blew the horn. Within 30 seconds of these guys passing through, the fire goes probably will hold. Is this really necessary?? I already had a dim view of this unit prior to this incident, but this cemented it. What would you guys do in a situation like this??

Take a look up in Mass. Plenty of em up there.

I am not sure I could have handled working back then, but I would have given it a hell of a shot. I think I would have learned more in the sense that you weren't depending on a computer and you had to really learn that borough. Bell tapping and the voice alarm and status boards, fun stuff. The War Years were a period of time from the late 60's that lasted up till the late 70's/early 80's. It wasn't uncommon to have numerous multiple alarm fires in the same borough, at the same time, and not too far from one another. The story was told to me, you knew how busy it was going to be when the dispatchers drove into work over one of the bridges and they counted the plumes of smoke. There were more companies than we have now, Second sections of companies, extra units staffed during the afternoon/evening hours. Structure fires on the initial assignment would only get an engine and truck if nobody else was available. Another story I was told by one of the oldtimers was they would leave work and try to figure out which job they were going to buff. It wasn't uncommon to hear dispatchers asking to see who was available anywhere. "Any Engine available south of 14th/42nd/59th Street??" Or, "Any Truck available in Bay Ridge??" It was also pretty common to see companies from the Upper East Side going first due from quarters to jobs on the Lower East Side. I can't remember if it was Battalion 8, or 2, or if it was Ladder 8 or 2 going into a box first due in the Bronx over in between 82 and 94 Engines area.

What's freakier is I recognize the voices of not only people who trained me, but voices of guys I worked with or for in my short career.