tbendick

For night time stuff go with the Manual mode. 1. Set your ISO as hi as you can 400 - 1600. You will see more noise with the hi ISO's. 2 Open you F stop all the way up. This will allow the most light in. 3. Adjust the shutter speed to get the light needed. 4. Tripod!! With a tripod you can get some nice photos. With rig shots you can turn down the ISO to get less noise and not have to worrie about the long shutter speeds. 5. Self timmer or remote. You will get movement when you press the shutter button. So you can either use a remote cord or set the self timmer. This way after the timer counts down the camera is no longer moving and less blur. 6. Flash. Make sure you try with it on and off. Some cameras will only allow you to shot down to 1/60second with the flash on. This may not be long enough to get light in. With the flash off the camera might go down to 1 second.

As for Rigs: Rock as PMP so there are rigs there daily, but not many as far as storage. Paige Av is one of the spots for storage, this was instead of having rigs parked on the streets around 34th street. Which was common back in the day. 34th Street does repairs for all the Engines and Trucks, also has the Buildings units coming out. Tool Room moved out and up the block some place. 58th Street EMS Shopstakes care of all the ambulances, cars, SUV, etc. (small stuff) There is a large yard in the rear which you can find all sorts of rigs and what not. Also across the street is another yard. See Photo Kent Av is all the rigs being auctioned off, no Longer FDNY, by DCAS.

Ok here is another one. http://nycfire.net/ems/tricks/qtips Find one of those small Q-tips travel size and remove the Q-tips and use it to store Albuterol. This is more for BLS crews who don't have a drug bag and keep the albuterol in the O2 bag.

Guys any photos you have please E-mail then to me.. tbendick@nycfire.net

This is a pretty cool idea. Working in a Hi-Rise area, my last tour I worked we had a fire on the 28th floor, thank god for working elevators. It's not uncommon for the guys I work with to have to hike 30 plus floors when the elevators go out. Now if we had it in the city, I am sure we would still follow all our normal SOP's such as 2nd Alarm units bring one bottle each. But this could help save time when the elevators go out and units are walking up. As far as installing smoke, co, sprinklers, etc. They also fail at times, LA's major hi-rise fire the standpipes were drained at the time of the fire. The fire I had the other night, the system was off line due to tourch work on another floor. So one more thing that we might be able to use might not be so bad. If it fails when you try to use it o well. Then it's just back to the old way.

FDNY has released it's Strategic Plan for 2007-2008. You can download a copy from Nycfire.net http://nycfire.net/node/363 Some Key points it talks about. EMT needed to take test for FF. Extra points if a Medic Paramedic Rescue Engines

Well.. These things have been talked about for sometime now.. This is the first time that a lot of this has been placed on paper in this format. It's anyones guess as to what will happen and when.

FDNY has a recent incident very much like this one. Member was sent to force a steel door on the basement, however needed a saw due to it being reinforced. Member carried the saw over his shoulder with the strap and when he started to cut his gear caught fire. Member ran back outside and the FAST team put out the fire and treated him. Worse injury was from being thrown on the floor. Investigation says something along the lines of: Cap on gas tank was either defective or cross threaded allowing gas to leak down the members back without him knowing..

Partyrock.. Here is a photo of the Yonkers ESU truck. They were able to make some storage compartments inside the cab behind the seats.. Photo by Mike Messar

NYC EMS SOD went away with the Merger. FDNY saw most of it as a dup of services, such as the EMS field Comm, etc. They went on to form the "Emergency Response Squad" which ran one support unit each tour. They would go as ERSX X for the tour. This was then shut down and there was nothing but a messed up haztac program for sometime. They then started up the haztac and began to expanded it so they added the haztac Lt's going as Haztac1 and Haztac2. And the most recent change was the addition of the USAR Rescue Medics one in each boro. --------- As far as these units responding on normal calls. This will not change anytime soon.. FDNY still sends Rescues and Squads on normal calls in it's response areas.

From the Mayors report yesterday. Over the past five years, the FDNY has reduced fire deaths in our city to the lowest number during any five-year period in modern history. The members of the FDNY are famous for always working to find better ways to carry out their mission. We share that commitment. And that's why this year, we're going to launch a major expansion of FDNY training. Currently, our newly appointed firefighters receive 13 weeks of training. This year, we'll start to lengthen that to 23 weeks. That will give FDNY recruits one of the most comprehensive training programs offered by any fire department anywhere handling hazardous materials, and fire prevention with extended instruction in terrorism preparedness.

Just an updated. The March class is slated to be 18weeks.. They had the increased funding in the new budget documents.

I have the new unit list some place.. Each boro now has a Haz-Tac Paramedic unit trained in USAR. The units were changed from "Z" to "R" 12R 03R 35R 23R? 47R? I tried getting a photo of the 12R the other day but they were in a bad spot and you couldn't read the lettering. ---------------- As far as a new Spec. Anything is possible. I remember going back sometime there was thought of going to the extended cab like Yonkers ESU. This way they wouldn't have to change the Spec on the Box.

10a-6p Sat and Sunday at the Nassau Coliseum

There is no doubt that it's an FDNY Spec Ambulance... I wonder if it was an old FDNY or form some other Dept who used the same Spec..

mfc2257 just reminded me of something.. For all the people that think you shouldn't bill because tax dollars go to EMS.. Then factor into all the people who don't pay taxes to that town. Someone who works in the town but lives some place else, etc. How many of the calls that some of these VAC's respond to are for non residents.

It's becoming the norm to bill for EMS.. FDNY, and many EMS Depts in Westchester do bill. Some even pulled the EMS out of the FD on paper so that they would bill. For some people they would not mind paying more each year in taxes, to support EMS. However when they do this and the EMS does not bill then who makes out??? The insurance company, so they the Corp Exec sitting on his boat thanks you for paying more taxes and not making his company pay for it. The other way is the taxes pay for part of the EMS and then the billing pays for the other half or something else. Many of the VAC's now use it to pay for Daytime crews etc. Your health insurance doesn't go up if you use it.. There are many ways to look at it..

Well best luck to everyone who took the test.. As you all know there is also a test tonight at 4pm. So when you get out of the test in the AM dont say anything and don't discuss the test!!! Anyone who would like to talk about the test, please wait till tomorrow. Otherwise you could be giving some an advantage over you.

FDNY99, I guess I would have to get a copy of the current (expired) contract and check the wording. Everything we have been hearing is that it's for the lenght of proby school.. The other problem would be that if it does say 13weeks, you could bet the city will try to change it in the new contract. mustang22_2002, The academy runs 5 days a week. If it's a large class they will run two groups one early and one a little later. I would have to ask what the hours are I can't remember.. The also have been doing 1 day a week at Fort Totten for the CFR training. As far as the EMS thing, this is just speculation.. Everyone is wondering how they are going to fill the extra time.

LFDR1... That is the word as of now.. Next proby class will around 16-18 weeks followed by a class in Sept that will be 23 weeks. alsfirefighter... In a way this is not a good thing and is bad for the new people getting on.. What they will be doing is giving alot of the classes, ones which you would normaly go back to proby school for, during the proby school. Breaking this down some.. Proby in school gets 25K a year. Which means they will bring home less the $600 every two weeks. When you get of school you get a small pay jump, don't have the chart with me, but it's better then nothing. So now depending on which company you get assigned, you may have to go back to school for classes such as SOC, Decon, Hazmat, etc. However you are now getting paid more. Even going to chauffer school, you would be getting a higher payrate. So with the new plan, they will teach as much of this stuff to everyone, which would be at a lower payrate and save money.. Some other ways they are saving money.. Depending on the type of unit, Decon, SOC, etc. You need so many trained members working, if you don't meet the number, then you swap. So Lad X has only 2 trained and 3 not. Lad Y has 5 trained. X sends 1 not trained member to Y and Y sends 1 trained to X. This costs the city money to send members from one house to another. Now they will have all the new probies trained and send them saving money. So in the end this all comes down to the city saving money and screwing FF's..

Engine 65 takes a break at Rock Center for a Photo Op.

Here is another photo.. It was picking up from a car fire in a parking Garage near the Westchester.

ja3kfd, Yes those are what we are talking about. The setup you find is not for FD use in most places. In NYC for example they are installed per NFPA spec. So that means that a pressuer reducer is installed on the outlet, and the hose most times is not rated for much. So for us in the City SOP's are to remove the pressuer reducer then hook up a inline guage and our hose. So the debate is, if we are removing all the extra stuff and not using it, then why continue to keep in in the building codes..

Just to make myself clear.. You shoud never use the "House line" for fire attack. Just like everyone has said you can't trust this hose.. FDNY Sop's does allow a Truck or Rescue who is working remote from a Engine Comany, performing searchs to use the "House line" in order to "Save Lives". Now back to what I was saying about why I would like to see them left in the building. This would not be used if you pull at a working fire... This would be something that could be used in the event of a disaster... It should also be limited to Defensive operations... Also as far as the hose being very old.. I have seen some that we were able to cut off the outlet with a small knife without any problems because it was so weak. But a change to the Building Codes could be used to solve some of the problems. Simple statment like "200' of 2 1/2 hose shall be kept on premise, this hose shall be replaced every 5 years."

Ok here is a twist on this issue. I am not for Civilians using them, however I would like to see either a supply of hose in the building or at the outlets. I have been at a few fires in which they did deploy the house line, and it does tend to get in the way. The problems tend to start once the line is shut down and now you have all this limp hose you are trying to work around and it gets caught up in the line very quick. So why would I like to see the hose stay in the building some place. For events like 9/11 and N.O. Looking at N.O. you have fires breaking out in downtown areas with buildings that did have standpipe systems and good chance had gravity tanks. In a situation where you can't get rigs and supplies in or members are limited in equipment, they could come in handy for a "Defensive" operation.