NWFDMedic

If they lowered the age for EMT to 16, that would mean that they would have had to achieved their 16th birthday before the test date, not before enrolling in the class. Theoretically today, you can take an EMT test on your 18th birthday.

The only concern I have is the emotional state of a 16 year old. With so many services settling for a warm body with an EMT card, I'd be very concerned about allowing them to be "in-charge" at the scene of a serious call. At least in the fire service, you respond with several other members and officers who can help to shield those younger members from the potentially traumatic scenes. On a good note though, I think that recruiting the 16 year olds is important, not only to our volunteer departments but to the future of the professions. If I hadn't had the hook baited, so to speak, at age 16, I don't think I would've ever considered fire or EMS after returning from college.

While this is obviously true, nobody should take what isn't theirs, the crew put a lot of people in danger by leaving the vehicle unsecured. I'd also venture to be that they violated DOH policy.

The Region does not have enforcement authority here and the state really doesn't either. This all boils down to the individual municipality (just as the lawsuits did). The municipality is primarily responsible for the safety of its citizens. If the municipality doesn't believe that the emergency services are providing proper coverage, then it's their responsibility to either help them or change them. There have been at least 2 VACs here in the Hudson Valley that have been shut down by the powers-that-be in their municipality (not arguing that it was the right thing to do, just that it happened). While the DOH sets the standard for level of care, I think response times and level of response should be handled on the local level. The local politicians, as representatives of their citizens, have to make a determination of what level of care is appropriate and sufficient. In some rural communities, the population may be happy with "whenever those fine young volunteers get there. They do such a great job for us." However, another municipalities citizens may demand that the ambulance be there "before I hang up the damn phone, duh." It is the job of locally elected officials to balance the cost versus risk and benefit to appropriately match their community.

Exactly. The crew is just as much at fault for not having their vehicle secured.

Newburgh could double their nighttime coverage and still be busy. I just don't know what the answer is. When you don't have any money coming in, you can't really pay for services. Still paying for "urban renewal" after all these years.

Even if it did cost a little more than the $1.9M, you would think the City would not look a gift horse in the mouth. If they're hiring 9 entry level positions, that's about $105,000 per firefighter per year to cover salary and benefits. I would think that would be more than sufficient for entry level. Even if it isn't, the City should realize that it will also be saving some OT costs with more firefighters and that savings could be calculated fairly easily. Beyond that, there is at least the potential to save money due to less injury time as many hands make lighter work. I hope the City reconsiders. Giving back free and needed money is never a good decision.

My parents are both recipients in the NYS Pension fund now and I have no problem with them borrowing against it IF it is structured as a loan. In that case, it's not unlike any other investment the fund makes, it's just like a government bond (which is typically low interest due to the government's credit rating and almost guaranteed return). However, those with a vested interest have to keep a close eye on this story. The federal government essentially raided social security several times and still to this day has not paid back all that was due and you can't let the state do the same to the pension fund. It does seem ironic that Cuomo instituted the 2% cap but is trying "creative" funding methods to keep his investments under the 2% cap. If he wanted to make some money for this investment, he should turn the Bridge Authority over to the Thruway Authority, eliminating the dual bureaucracies maintained by these 2 organizations. Then, he could turn I-84 back over to the NYSTA and install tolls on the road at both state lines. The way the highway is structured, it doesn't make sense install individual exit tolls (only a 70 mile span in NYS and exits close together) but if they got tolls from the large amount of interstate traffic (especially the truck traffic), they'd have plenty of revenue to work with to build a bridge.

This truck is doing a disservice to both Fire and EMS. They can keep it in Florida.

I didn't off an opinion about your staffing. I know nothing about the City of NR except for its call volume. I do know that its FF on shift per call is higher than just about every city in this area (excluding FDNY). However, that's a simple calculation that doesn't account for timing of the calls, type of calls, time on task per call, resources needed per call, etc. The number of "employed" firefighters also doesn't account for those who are "employed" but out on some type of injury. Also, I might make a suggestion that you proofread your posts. Your last sentence is not only a run-on sentence, it's a fragment that makes little to no sense.

As the number of people without family support systems in this area increases, this problem will just continue to grow. Shelters must be predefined and available and a plan must be in place on how to request and activate the shelter. Hospitals are not the best option for these patients as they are generally at high census during these storms anyway. Many hospitals only have generators to sustain minimum functions and when you add in the potential greater workload of patients that undergo regular outpatient procedures (i.e. dialysis) that may need to come to the hospital instead of an outside center, the infrastructure of the hospital is a major concern in addition to space and staffing. Schools would be a good choice except I don't know of one school in my area that has a backup generator.

Volunteer fire departments are needed in many areas because they cannot afford a sufficient career system. However, if the answer to recruit/retain volunteers is to continue to give them more money, why not actually hire firefighters?

It just seems like a lot compared to the cities up this way.

You have 142 firefighters for the City of New Rochelle alone? Wow!

They should arrest every one of the protesters that allowed this unsafe situation to happen. They can then start a new occupy movement at Rikers Island. Speedy recovery to the MOS injured.

The Mayor's position is non-vital? Seriously?

I think that legislators target public safety for cuts many times because they know that the public outcry to keep the positions will give them a reason to raise spending (and taxes) above the level that the public would tolerate. Of course people hate taxes but the legislators can say "yup, we're making you pay a few more dollars that we wanted to but we saved your cops/FF/EMS workers". Nobody would stand up to save the job of the third assistant to the chief paper pusher in town hall. Public safety should not be exempt from cuts in difficult times. If there is waste in any department, it should be cut. Unfortunately, it seems that many government agencies seem to view public safety as the first place to cut.

No, not at all. NFD communicates primarily through their dispatch for incidents in their city. The coordinator is usually standing right next to the incident commander and provides coordination between the IC and the volunteer departments coming into the city. Communication during city incidents can sometimes be a nightmare. The county is primarily VHF Low Band, NFD is VHF high band, and most of the volunteer departments are on UHF (and one is on 800 still, I believe). My guess (and this is only a guess, as I was in Philadelphia when the fire occurred) is that county requested an update based on their timer notifications, 36-13 probably reported that for the purpose of requesting additional mutual aid, they had the scene under control with the resources present. As we all know, this is different than declaring a fire "under control". The county coordinators play an invaluable role in coordinating resources and communicating with incoming mutual aid and Orange 911. If you listen to the county side of incidents in the City of Newburgh, you may get the impression that they are running the incident, mainly because they are the primary source of contact for Orange 911 at the scene. As confusing as it may seem, it actually works well as it allows NFD command to do what they are supposed to do, manage the incident. I've operated beside NFD at many an incident over the past 20 years as a firefighter, EMS responder, and fire officer. I have never experienced any type of adversarial relationship with their command on the scene of an incident. They have only one goal and that is to manage the incident and they do it well with much less manpower than some other career departments.

County cars have no such authority. However, specifically when dealing with NFD, they never communicate with county at all. It has become common practice for the county cars to give their interpretations of updates from the scene to county.

I think a lot of the concern is that Joe Firefighter may not know exactly what is sensitive information and what isn't. In this day and age where everyone has a lawyer on retainer, a simple comment may put a FD at risk. While FD's should be at risk if they're doing things wrong, they don't need the legal hassle of a nonsense lawsuit caused by someone's comment on Facebook. Also, some fire scenes are also crime scenes and an innocent comment may hinder prosecution of those responsible for the incident. Even response tactics should probably be kept "in the industry" today due to the threat of terrorism and not discussed on an open forum. General training issues brought forth as hypothetical situations can be a great benefit to the fire service and our continuing education but the discussion of a particular incident in a public forum can be very dangerous.

The NYSP and every other department is prohibited from making routine traffic stops in unmarked vehicles. However, a simple read of the executive order will reveal the exception... "NOTHING CONTAINED IN THIS SECTION SHALL BE DEEMED TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF SUCH VEHICLES TO STOP OR APPREHEND OPERATORS OF MOTOR VEHICLES FOR SUCH OFFENSES, BUT ONLY UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH ARE EXCEPTIONAL, NECESSARY, AND WHICH PRESENT A SUBSTANTIAL THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY." The argument can be made that any moving violation is a substantial threat to public safety.

What part of turnout gear allows you to operate in the warm zone of a hazmat incident?

Potsdam is truly a rescue squad though, not just an ambulance service. They provide other services such as extrication (or at least they did when I was a member). It's not as simple to change your agency name as you might think. You could do a DBA and change the name that you publicize to the community, but some services still like to have the word volunteer because it is appealing to the community. Personally, I don't mind the organization keeping its name. They are not going around calling themselves "Town of Mayberry ALL VAC" and the VAC name recognizes the efforts put in by the volunteers. Once upon a time, GEICO was the government employees' insurance company, but they didn't change their name when they expanded. If you want to talk about the real crime in false advertising, how about the services that have "paramedic" on their ambulance with BLS staffing.

I just went through the KKK standard and it specifically said that the OEM will supply a diesel. It is, however, just a guideline, so I guess it's not illegal. If I recall correctly, and those a bit more "experienced" than me can probably fill in the blanks, the concern about gasoline engines was the high idle temperatures. I think a couple of them burnt up in the ER parking lots.

The last time I checked, only diesel ambulances can be used in the U.S.