ny10570

Excellent point

Why is it such a sin to point out mistakes made by others. Thats how we learn. If you can make a mistake and not get burned by it...thats what makes a great job. I don't know any FF's (that I respect for their experiance and knowledge) who have ever had a job be perfect. They all preach learning from the mistakes made by us and by others. We should point out in a photo of guys not wearing proper PPE. Great, so when the sh!t really hits the fan and the propane tank in some guys trunk, or the pocket of gasoline vapor that formed in sewers, or whatever other freaky thing that can happen at this type of incident happens what are you gonna do with these guys and their hose line. Those without gloves now have had their hands scorched and can't hold onto anything; and the guy whose pack was hanging loose...well his pack was knocked off and he took a nice deep breth of super heated air. Yeah, this may never happen, who the hell wants to be stuck dealing with it. Lets respectfully discuss our mistakes and successes and learn from it. Then maybe we can send one less guy to the hospital next time.

You are absolutely right. ICS was THE problem. There was no easily identifiable command area. It was very hard to idnetify anyone incharge. And those who were suppose to be in charge we often getting involved in the hands on work. I think this is just a result of the inexperiance EMS has with working within a multi agency emergency. Any significant alarm and the FD's are pulling in outside help. How often are there multiple EMS agencies opperating at an incident for an extended period of time? There's alot of focus on the FD's adapting and using NIMS. I believe EMS is in much more urgent need of help. You mentioned this earlier but didn't elaborate. how was this a fire drill and not EMS. Other than the first FD's hitting hydrants and the Airport FD fighting the fire, everyone was directed towards EMS. There was no real EMS IC structure but the majority of the observers and time was spent on EMS.

Excellent point. We in EMS take so many things we do for granted...like operating a stretcher. I saw a few FF's trying to extend the legs on a stretcher with no luck until someone cam ealong to help. It's not their fault, they've just never been shown how to do it. But its things liek that that can quickly become big problems.

The tags were used. As for people being triaged repeatedly, I don't know what that was about. There was an occasion or two where I went over to a person and had just begun my assesment when I realized they had all ready been tagged, and then quickly moved on. I personally never saw anyone repeating triage. In the real world there would have been many more EMT's. 50+ pts and only about 10 abulances. More importantly, the EMT's weren't properly utilized. After triage, they should have all been congregated around the treatment area and put to work. Send the FF's out to retrieve people from the field.

Actually, the larger focus was on EMS. Other than the airport FF's fighting the fireand the local FD's hitting the hydrant all FF's were assigned to assist EMS. There just wasn't eny direction. Instead of all of the EMT's and Medics going from triage to treatment, many had to start transporting to the treatment areas. Most of the FF's have never experianced this type of operation(5 guys to carry one patient) so EMS was heavily involved there instead of in the treatment and final transport areas. The lack of easily identified command officers was just one of several mistakes uncovered in the drill. They were there, they just weren't easily identifiable or where they were suppose to be necisarilly. And yes, the shirt had two ff's on it. So what?! Its a free crappy shirt that will most likely end up exactly where it should be...covered in grease or paint in the bottom of a closet.

Sadly, nuclear stress testing is too time consuming and too expensive to be a practical requirement for all FF's. Standard stress testing however is more feasable. The only problem is the rates of false positives in people who would not normaly qualify for stress testing mitigate the effectiveness and practicallity of the test.

Huh?? How is it not functional. The incresed hight of the cab allows for easier egress and entrance as well as making it easier to work when in the cab. If you have the clearence, I woul say you're making a mistake by not going with the raised cab.

We've just started with the K extinguishers. Haven't seen one used yet, but if its alf as effective as the systems installed in commercial kitchens it will be a very useful tool.

We've got them on both our new rigs. The only problem is there are precious few chances to use them. You need the material to be exposed and accessible. Extinguishment is achieved only after the burning material is completely and thouroughly covered with agent (Heat from a fire causes the dry powder agent to cake and form a crust excluding air and dissipating the heat from the burning metal). if you've all ready applied water forget about using the stuff. Besides, when in doubt just dump water on it...a whole lot of water.

Yeah, federal law supercedes state or local law, but there is no federal law that states a mail truck has right of way. By this reasonig state police should have right of way over County, who then blows by the local PD who is still sitting there waiting for the mail man to finish his route. local PD?? This whole thing is riddiculous.

They sold a few of them to Istanbul. I believe thats the first order to have been placed.

I've only used them in demo's, but I prefer the Mercury Quick Attack from Akron brass. Simpler and smaller.

Opticon's have been available for a while. They even have filters that limit the visibly light of the strobe, and only allow the infrared. However they do diminish the effective range.

While the typical Westchester grass fire that gets knocked down with a couple of hand lines a fast team may be overkill. However, at larger operations; especially where members become scattered and you begin to get into extended operations a fast team probably should be considered. Maybe set them up on one those hot little DES ATV's so they can zip around the scene.

F-ing medics...they gotta forget so fast how bad it is in the trenches. EMT's start at 10.50 an hour. Sadly, my paycheck confirms it.

I take back what i said earlier. there are now two in upstate NY (along I-90) with plans for more. GM is aparently becomming heavily involved throwing their lobbying power behind it. Look for other states to follow kansas and start throwing tax breaks in on E85. There are also provisions in the works for E85 fueled vehicles to help offset the automakers lower fleet wide average GPM requirements.

AS of now there are no flex fuel station in the NY or even the tri-state area. Last I looked into it, there no plans for any stations in NY. I believe that when you figure out the cost per mile the flex fuel is comprable or even a little more than gas. The big attraction comes from being cleaner burning and helping to limit our dpendance on oil. The upside is that the estimates are that as E85 exapnds and consumption inncreases the cost should fall to where it will be cheaper than gas.

roeems87, you make an several excellent points. There certainly trade offs associated with the various types of service you are willing to pay for. Ideally we would all have an ambulance waiting for us, but that isn't cost effective. In my opinion, times have changed and quick access to pre hospital and hospital care can now do more than ever before to save lives. Combine that with a decrease in volunteerism and we need to do more and provide a better service with less. Sadly, that is not reasonable to expect adn usually not possible. Once we can no longer provide the best care available for a reasonable price, it is time to start looking at other options.

I am referring more to traditional roles and definition of duties. An FD's EMS response is still an EMS matter and would be better served by an ambulance than a fire truck. If you're having a medical emergency, anyone would rather have an ambulance over a fire truck, its just that in many cases the FD can get there faster. Make it a day a month a year or ever. You many pull hundreds of people out of fires and extricate another 1000 from crashes and collapses, but EMS is responding to more life threatening emergencies in that same time period. And yes everytime was an overstatement but the vast majority of the time you are responding to what someone has percieved as an emergency. Yeah, a bloody nose may not be an emergency, but more often than not the majority of those that call believe they are in a crisis. EMS and ifre are essential. I am just addressing the reasons why I believe EMS seems suffer more scruitny for their response times.

The FD's absolutely have their own problems but there are a few major differences. First, when FD's say they are comming up short, most are still getting that first rig or two on the road. They can still begin an effective initial attack while mutual aid is activated. If your average VAC comes up short one member on an alarm you may not be able to respond at all. Second, on a daily basis FD's do not have as much of a direct impact on a people's lives as EMS does. How many actual emergencies does the average FD respond to that require their intervention to mitigate threats to life? How many people were pulled from a fire, rescued from a collapse ,or extricated from a collision? The vast majority of the time the FD is responsible for property, not lives. In EMS every time you are called it is becase there is a percieved or actual threat to someone's life. That is why there is a greater emphasis on time.

Forget johhny jihad...How many buildings in NYC in the last 20 yrs have been rendered unusable by some other accident or emergency?? Sh!t happens. A central back-up (capable of housing all three services in an emergency) makes sense, but give each their own updated and linked dispatch center.

In every batallion there are instances of multiple Battalions comming on the 2nd alarm for some department. No matter how you draw it up you end up some dept's drawing from multiple battalions.

Maybe the officers of said dept don't want to be bothered with dipsatching, but those that make the decisions will fight tooth and nail to hold onto that control.

Its not our job to judge our patients and the circumstances that resulted in their current conditon. The fact that someone is supressing some horrible childhood memory with fat and sugar is of on concern to us. We are there to treat our patients to the best of out ability. The vast majority of the things that kill people is a result of their stupidiy. Are you not going to put out their fire becuase it was started by their stpuid use of one outlet for a half dozen heaters?? And why should only a large urban area have a bariatric bus?? If there are morbidly obese pt's that need transport you need a larger ambulance. No company is going to install a bariatric unit unless it is cost effective. Besides, madicaid and medicare pay extra for bariatric rigs and lift assists. Obesity is good money for the healthcare industry...so long as those treated are well insured. Hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, congestive heart failure, joint replacement, gastric bypass the list goes on and on. There is huge money to be made. Add to that the money all ready pushed into the food industry, and I say bring 'em on. I LOVE FAT PEOPLE!! On side note, add the elderly to this (the baby boomer generation is in their 60's and 70's) and you have a rapidly growing healthcare industry that will see huge growth in the comming years.