ny10570

The city is not forced to reduce staffing at 7.5%. Members however are forced to stay home with any suspected MRSA or H1N1 infection. Members also must go and see dept doctors for all sick leave and LODI claims. So if FDNY's own doctors are confirming that firefighters are actually sick or injured how are they abusing the system?

COD Cassano is appointed by the Commissioner. If he has the balls to speak up, he would be quickly cut down and removed. The S/L trigger is not automatic. Its at that point the city has the option to reduce staffing.

DoITT announced the completion of the network in a bulletin a while back. I'm just learning now that apparently, its not for dispatch communications. It is to replace the 800mHz radios used for administrative communications and to replace the med channels used to contact telemetry.

FDNY will be going trunked in the near future.

Yeah Lieu, its pretty Fugazzied. Their doctors approve the S/L. Between MRSA and H1N1 they are incredibly liberal with sick leave with any potential infection. This isn't ff's abusing the system, which is what the 7.5% trigger is suppose to address. The screwed us on the EMS side too. 12 hour tour pilot program was scrapped based on S/L rates compared to last year. No comparison to other boroughs as a control.

If you need a second form of alerting members, invest in an autodialer. For a few hundred you can buy your own or sign up for an online service.

To play devils advocate, what if the news helicopter was flying what is traditionally far enough away but PD was being more aggressive than usual due to the sensitive nature of this case. TFRs are simple enough to obtain and the news copters were within their right to be there.

Civil service laws dictate that time in title get priority. Rookie Capt with 20 years otj becomes an Lt before the 5 year Capt with 10 years otj.

RAz, my point was, thats why people will not vote for the union. They don't see or more likely don't care about the long term implications. WAS, who exactly was eligible to vote? I was under the impression it was all full and part time medics and EMTs working 911. Shouldn't that be closer to 800+ eligible voters?

WCPD may let you sit in there all day. FDNY EMS engineered their scenarios to be short, while still addressing key points to limit the the risk of motion sickness. This ensures all members can participate.

But thats the problem. Transcare isn't some monster brutalizing its work force. The pay is good enough, there are benefits, and few see this as a career. Why am I going to give up 10, 20, 70, or whatever dollars a check when I'm outta here as soon as x or y job comes through. Why would anyone vote to unionize transcare? Did any of Mt Vernon's unions say anything when union jobs were handed to a non-union employer? If there's no pressure or incentive to hire union then there will always be some non-union company waiting in the wings to undercut the next contract. While being union doesn't necessarily make you uncompetitive it does make it harder and takes longer to react to changes in the market place.

The big problem is the eye body disconnect. Its great for decision making but due to the risk for motion sickness members are limited to I believe 20 second scenarios. It in now way replaces actual wheel time, but is a great experience.

This guy has clearly demonstrated an intent to harm police officers and a lack or regard for human life. He also can be assumed to be armed after the initial shooting. The officers were absolutely within their right to use deadly physical force. These were law enforcement professionals and had this animal complied with their requests I am sure he would have lived to face trial. His demise is absolutely the consequence of his actions, and not the result of some shoot on sight order.

What's really disturbing is that only 226 voted.

The union can't stop communities choosing money over quality. There are hard facts that demonstrate cardiac arrest survival is better with FDNY on scene than an all voluntary arrest yet they are still looking to cut more ambulance tours and turn them over to the voluntaries. The union's job is to get get the best deal it can from its employees. If the company cannot be competitive it can take that to the unions during contract negotiation. Unions also have little control over the quality of the employees they represent. The company hires and then the union represents. You can't blame a union for Empress not being able to maintain the Mt. Vernon contract without being party to the actual bid. Was it purely a dollars issue or was there a performance standard that empress couldn't meet? Either way, there will be no substantial changes in EMS in this area until transcare gets unionized. Pay and benefits are almost universally better in union shops, so why are people against the union? Transcare is the single largest employer of EMS in the area. They set the standard, and it hasn't substantially changed in years. I haven't seen the transcare anti union website and can't find it, but I have yet to hear a convincing argument against unionizing.

Its not about finding excuses. Its about not wasting time wishing and hoping for something that can't happen. The municipalities contract the private companies so it is up the municipality to establish the standards. Compare it to dispatching throughout Westchester. If the county could provide a superior service for less than it may be able to convince communities to join, but the county has absolutely no ability to force anyone to utilize their service. Yeah, WREMSCO is a state entity, but its the closest thing to county level management as I could think of.

In that respect the county does regulate EMS with WREMSCO. As for the actual regulation of provision of prehospital care it falls to the communities and the county has very little say over how that is accomplished. Taxis are not a community based service. They are a commercial enterprise and thus subject to county regulation.

You can be an expert in anything you've observed and treatments you've provided. In one case I had to describe the symptoms of hypoglycemia and our protocol for treatment. Then I had to explain why my patient didn't meet that protocol and wasn't treated for the AMS he was claiming.

In New York the individual municipalities have to agree to follow the county. The county can withhold certain services they provide, but short of leveraging the communities the county has no hand.

Bingo. As per one chief they were going with an extended cab due to an increasing loss of leg room and desire to keep ppe within reach. There are also plans to add more toys to the back starting with refrigerators for saline.

bvfdjc, look up Col David Hackworth. Phenomenal soldier and legendary leader. Proved himself many times over in WW2 and Korea as a soldier and then in Vietnam as an officer. On several occasions he discussed his thoughts on conscripts and generally felt they helped keep the military honest and brought additional tools otherwise not available. If you look at other countries with mandatory military service there are alternatives to the military, however they take some effort to get into. Another thing, you give your draftable brethren far too much credit. Its rough out there truly on your own and few have the stones to take that stand. Sage there is no organization better equipped or more capable of turning a useless lump of human flesh into a productive, reliable, leader than the US military. If its as bleak a picture as you paint it, then mandatory military is the way to go.

I'm gonna bet shoddy journalism. My guess is the judge was trying to decide wether she was acting in her capacity as firefighter when she was operating the ambulance. I'm assuming she wasn't actually a medic, but assigned to work with the medic or emt on the ambulance.

Other than haztac/rescue crews crammed into a regular bus, there's plenty of room for all the ALS equipment, personal bags, and PPE. My partners and I each bring a bag full of other crap (laptops, food, map, magazines, etc) and still comfortably fit everything because we don't pack the compartments with crap. You pack a makeshift pharmacy and MASH unit into the truck and you quickly run out of room. The 4 door chasis wouldn't be any longer than the current haztac/rescue trucks and I haven't heard anything about them being involved in more accidents since their introduction.

When it became clear that Pleasantville would need a new truck, a stick was fairly quickly eliminated. They never cease to surprise, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Date: 11/22/09 Time: 2124hrs Location: 1306 Findlay Av Units Operating: FDNY, EMS, NYPD Weather Conditions: clear Description Of Incident: Fire in a 2-story row frame 100X30. Reporters: Truck4 Writer: ny10570 2124hrs- 10-75 for fire in a row frame. 2129hrs- 2nd Alarm On Arrival of B/C. 2132hrs- 3rd Alarm transmitted. 2201hrs- Div. 6 rpts fire in a 2-story frame row. Extension into Exposure 2, 2A and 4. Exterior operations with handlines and (1) Tower Ladder in operation. 2208hrs- Div. 6 transmitting 4th Alarm. Overhaul still ongoing 1 civilian yellow tag (45 code 3) removed by fire 12 firefighter green tag transported to various hospitals