FirefighterJr

My favorite part of EmtBravo....A keyboard yahoo from Saskatchewan telling the guys who ride the rigs how it is. The Ferraras suck, end of story

If it's in your response area and they call 911 for an ambulance, there's a reason for paging volunteers.
The distinction you make bothers me - not just you saying it but the prevailing sentiment, so this isn't directed at you. If you're an EMS responder, you go where the calls are regardless of pay status. If you're a volunteer and don't want to respond on calls to the urgent care center when someone walks in feeling ill but is really having an MI, then you need to reevaluate your association and priorities.
We don't pick and choose our calls. The notion that we can/should/do is one of the failures of our current EMS system and why some calls go unanswered.

AMEN! One of my pet peeves when I ran on a vollie ambulance...
"ohhhh we go there too many times....it abusive..."
BS...if you have a collection of old/sick/frail/etc people, you HAVE to expect they will need your servies!

While many "routine" calls might be better handled by a transport unit instead of 911 the issue is (like it or not) residents in nursing homes are still residents of your comunity and you have a moral and ethical obligation to serve them.
Remember that almost everyone will someday either be there or have loved ones there. It is sad that the care there is often poor, its made worst when those sworn to protect them, have so little interest.

A squirt is not a ladder, or else the people that bought them would have called them ladders. There are many good reasons for buying a Squirt. However, there are many more actual reasons some FDs have Squirts:
You have nothing over 2 stories in your district
Your governing body is saving money on manpower
You have so much money you just want all the bells and whistles on your engine
You never go inside to put a fire out
You never vent the roof
Your response time is so long it's through the roof by the time you get there it's thru the roof
You are using PPV on attack and are making everything go thru the roof
You never learned how to raise a ground ladder
Then again, if you have a lot of new developments with truss construction, you might want every rngine to be a Squirt.

There is no such thing as an effective warning light. You could cover every inch of the apparatus with lights and people will still pull out in front of you, still not pull over and still try to drive around you when you're backing into the firehouse. What's effective? Keeping your eyes and ears open and being patient behind the wheel....and NOT RUSHING! As for FDNY changing lights, I assure you they simply buy the cheapest at the time. Next topic.....
I have also hear 2013 for the engines.....too bad the spare fleet AND our front line 2002 engines are already held together with duct tape.

i should have said this in my first post, but losing Chucky is striking me pretty hard. I had the privilege of being Chucky's partner for a few years on Tuesday overnight working Medic 37 prior to my deployment to Afghanistan. He was schedule to be my partner on Tuesday Medic 31 when he came back from his injury, but they were having a tough time nailing down what was actually hurting him. This is a devastating blow to not only Empress but to all of Westchester County emergency services. He was extremely involved in both EMS as well as the volunteer fire dept. I think being Chucky's partner made me a better paramedic and I sorely miss him. He always had our backs and was the best of the best. I can always remember trading story's of his PortChester jobs vs my Pearl River Jobs, nothing was ever too small for him to give his expert opinion, and he always did have the better way to do it. I wish I told him more how much I truly valued his partnership on the ambulance, as well as his friendship. While I was deployed he always made sure to check in on my wife, and include her in the Perry Ave party's he had, or just going out to the bars. I could go on forever, about him, and i could make a list a hundred miles long of things i would give up, or change just to have him back for one more second. Please keep him and his family in your prayers and hearts cause right now he's up there teaching God how to buff the big ones.
we lost one of the good ones today.
RIP my partner, my friend, and most of all my brother. Love you guy

Good Luck Christopher! Never give up!

A classic example of the suicide of our society, for those, mostly over 50, who can still recognize the collective insanity. Let's take a step back and look at the "big picture":


Participant #1: Ms. Sweetie Pie (as described by relatives): Out on bail for "kidnapping, attempted murder and weapons possession" after shooting the alleged robbery victim 5 times in the back. Was currently driving a car stolen in an armed carjacking, evading police in the car chase, exhibiting total disregard for all the innocents she might kill during this chase. Knocks one officer down with a door, and struggles with the other as she places the car into gear to drive away again with the officer partially in the car: OUTRAGE against Ms. Sweetie Pie: Practically non-existant, except for a few old right wing crazies.

Participant #2:

NYPD Officer: As per his sworn duty is pursuing a vehicle stolen in an armed carjacking. Car crashes, partner is knocked to the ground (likely for reasons unknown to him at that instant in time, struggling with the driver as the car is placed back into gear in an attempt to move again. Gun discharges.
OUTRAGE against NYPD Officer:

Near Universal in the Press, Academia and streets, including such superior rocket scientists as EMSer.



Hope for our society: Nil.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in this particular instance, Connecticut wins.

I thought it was just a bunch of Truckies who are afraid of heights.

What sad news this morning. Worcester, Mass. IAFF Local 1009. We all bear witness once again to them getting hit hard. And news of our Brother lost this morning from Mount Vernon. December 8, 2011. Suddenly another infamous date. While we all commiserate here on the site, waiting for news.....a name....mornings like this one always bring you back full circle to other similar mornings.....
Today feels like....The Father's Day Fire.
Black Sunday.
Manlius, New York.
It's hard to make sense out of these days. Why?
It reminds me that the career fire service in America is actually not all that huge; and how we are all entwined together with a culture created and passed down through generations of firemen.
I cannot help but to think of the outpouring of respect that will be shown for these Brothers. I cannot help but to think of the absolute devastation that has occurred to two separate families this December morning. The trying days...months...years now put before families who only last evening had holiday plans in the works. Christmas forever changed for a lot of people in an instant.
In 2002 I traveled to Colorado Springs to pay respects at the IAFF National Memorial, hosted by IAFF Local 5, Colorado Springs Firefighters. The day before the Remembrance, I had a rented Toyota Four Runner, and decided to drive to the top of Pikes Peak. The Service the next day would be right in front of this mountain, where the Memorial is located.
When I reached the top after a couple of hours drive, standing there in the parking lot of the lodge I recognized the President of Local 1009. "Hey Worcester" I called out.
"Hey, how's it going?" the President of 1009 replied. "You want a beer?"
And so we shared a brew at 14,000 feet and spoke quietly amoungst ourselves.
The irony was not lost on me that there were six Brothers from 1009 standing there.
And now two more names will be chiseled into the face of that black wall out in Colorado Springs. In the shadow of Pikes Peak, surrounded by beauty, yet carved from tragedy.
Once again, Worcester Brothers will make the solemn journey, and this time our Brothers from Mount Vernon will accompany them.
So Rest now...jobs well done, the Lord has called you home.

Thanks SFRD18 for giving my my 1,000th Rep point. I am particularly pleased that it occured in:
"New Rochelle Avoids Firefighter Layoffs"
It could not have been in a better catagory
Seth I demand a raise.....At least 25%
Thank you to the others who have also contributed.

Why? Because he was an integral part of the department who was its head at one point. He was their leader and they wanted to honor him for that in death in one of the few truly meaningful ways they could. I guess you wouldn't have wanted to give Reagan or Ford the funeral they got either using your logic.
Does it detract from a real LODD funeral? Thats not for me to decide...but in my opinion anyone who has ever worn their Class As to a LODD funeral verse an untimely death funeral can and will know the difference between the two and what it means.

Check out these links in reference to a CO2 leak at several McDonald's restaurants 1 resulted in a close call for Phoenix firefighters and another one about a month or so later resulted in a civilian fatality. Kudos to the Phoenix FD for being proactive in getting this information out to the rest of us. This was ery eye opening.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eY__H-CMvw0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XZmyjkhs3T4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That meter is only for engine companies.

With due respect to the staff,
Before the topic was locked, there was some measure of displeasure with the post from the site's founder regarding one-liners and inflammatory comments, with a poster saying the site has lost it's balls and the members need thicker skin.
It's not a matter of the site "losing it's balls" or members who need "thicker skin", it's about keeping the site educational, a positive environment, and most of all, PROFESSIONAL. Sometimes we need to remember that "we" (emergency service members) are not the only ones who read the content contained in these forums. I'm sure there are enthusiasts, members of local government, members of the media, and so on who read the content contained in these forums. While it's all good to banter amongst each other as if we were in the firehouse, precinct, quarters, or whatever you would like to call it, we still have to maintain some level of decorum and professionalism just as if we were present in a public place, since this board is easily viewed by members of the general public, and more importantly the media. Case in point;
The NYPD Rant for those who's haven't read it is full of so much garbage since there is little to no moderation, it's not one bit enjoyable to read from an educational standpoint. If anyone outside the NYPD read the material in that forum, the useless bantering of a few sets a bad precedence and honestly depicts the members of the NYPD in a very negative light. The media reported today on a thread contained in the NYPD Rant website about posters who posted personal attacks against an NYPD member. As a civilian reading that article, what kind of opinion do you think the "average Joe" will have of the Rant and the members of the NYPD?
So in order to keep this site from becoming another "rant style" website, there needs to be a level of moderation that suits the wishes of the site's founder, since it is ultimately his call on what is and what is not permitted. If any of us don't like it, we are all free to start up our own site where anything goes and all the members can brag over who has the biggest balls. Personally, I'll stick with the site that's an educational portal as well as promotes and exhibits the professionalism of emergency service providers.

Thank you to all. My wife Helen, who I called "Pumpkin" gave up her battle with lung cancer on Saturday morning Oct 1, 2011. She was such a good wife. Very mellow and low keyed. To this day, she looked the same way she did when I married her on Oct 9, 1976. Even after all those chemo and cancer treatments, she could still pass for a beautiful 25 year old. She just never aged.
Our first date was on Valentines Day, February 14, 1975. We went to see a new movie out about a high rise fire called "Towering Infernio". I told her that I was on the list to get on the fire dept. But I really don't think she was too impressed.
Our second date, I had to stop back home because I had forgotten to take the tickets for the show we were going to see. I invited her in for a few minutes and she talked with my mother. Later when I came home, she said to me "that's the girl you're going to marry". She was right and we would have celebrated our 34th Wedding Anniversary on Oct 9th.
"Pumpkin" was an Angel. She died peacefully at Backus Hospital in Norwich, Ct. Those nurses were the Greatest.

LOL...a thread about these knuckleheads is ripping on elightbars.org...and there are guys defending them!

With the hurricane expecting to reach a Cat 1 or 2 when it makes land fall, coastal communities can expect anywhere from 0-6ft of storm surge along with significant rainfall. Make sure your pumps, saws and any other mechanical equipment you need are gased, oiled, and ready to run.
If your department is going to run flood water evacuations, or other types of water rescues without calling for a water rescue team, be sure to follow the following guidelines (and by no means take this as "Ok, we're good to go for flood water and swift water response").
- NO turnout gear in or around the water - turnout gear, especially pants and boots WILL DROWN YOU. It is impossible to kick and try and stay afloat wearing it.
- Wear your life jacket anytime you are within 6 feet of water.
- Do not wear neoprene rescue suits in flood waters, this includes ice rescue suits. Gas and other petroleum based products that are found floating in the flood waters will break down your suit eventually reaching your skin giving you a nasty burn. They also not water tight, leaving room for water contaminated with sewer waste, oils, and other nasty stuff to get inside the suit and fester up against your skin for the duration of you wearing it.
- Always walk in flood waters with a prod pole that reaches feet in front of you (not directly in front of where you are standing), much like sounding the floor when VESing a room. Manhole covers, sewer drain lids and other items will be forcefully removed by the water, leaving a hole in the road filled with downward flowing water. You will get sucked in, and you will drown; it has happened many times before and a fireman recently drowned in Colorado.
- Swift water constitutes any water moving faster then 1kts.
- Remember the adage of "REACH, THROW, ROW. GO." Any rescue where we can stay warm and dry, is the most successful type. If you are unsure, call for a swift water team, in fact call for the swift water team anyways, it is far better to have them in route, then realizing 20 minutes down the line you need them in rapidly rising waters.. They have the training and knowledge on how to preform this most difficult type of rescue. The GO portion, should only be performed by individuals who reach the Technical or Operational level of swift water. Any member can stand on the shore and throw a rope, or shove a pike pole to the individual. DO NOT tie your entry team off to a rope that is tied to a shore, if they slip, they will be pulled under water by force and drown.
Again, this is by no means a training module or any release to say you are good to go for swift or flood water rescue. Use this as an awareness tool.

Simplicity and efficiency. We all know we run more BS and less fire then the guys of the elder years did way before my time, and a lot of places do no have the training capabilities to consistently train on automatic and combination nozzles. Most departments do not cross train either, so when you have department x, coming to department y, who has never used a combo nozzle before, you're asking for someone to get hurt.
In my opinion, the smooth bore is the perfect nozzle for initial, interior structural attack purpose. There are no rotating bumpers to worry about smacking around and turning to a fog pattern; there are no GPM selectors that can get rotated to flush greatly reducing your GPM's, there are no fingers in a rotating fan that can get jammed up with a pebble the size of a rats n*ts that will ruin your day, there is just a simple bale for open and close, and enough room to expell any crap that makes it through the pump to the nozzle.
Fog nozzles are great for exposure protection, overhaul and Christmas tree fires at the training center. Leave them on the rig until they are needed, and apply them as such.
Again, this is just my opinion. unfortunately, its not the opinion of my department. Depending on the engine in my department, there are a few 1.75" with smooth bores, and all 2.5" lines have smooth bores. Like I've said before, leave the combo/auto nozzle in the chauffeurs compartment for when it is needed, and leave the handlines with a smooth bore preconnected.

Keeps the vehicle safe when it is operating in areas by cemetaries.

#1 - DJ Henry was called a punk, scumbag kid because he ignored a lawful order from a uniformed police officer, chose to flee the police in a motor vehicle, and then attempted to run down another police officer with his vehicle... if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, then guess what.... it's a duck.
#2 - Knowingly getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, then knowingly ignoring a lawful order from a uniformed police officer, then attempting to run over a second uniformed police officer while attempting to flee is not a damn mistake. You make it sound like this kid accidentally rear ended a patrol car in the parking lot cause he was busy sexting some piece of a** he got the night before. This kid is responsible for his own actions. It's his actions that started the chain of events that lead to his death, and one one elses.
#3 - What differed that night is that this kid, while intoxicated, attempted to flee the police and could have killed a police officer with his vehicle had the officer not responded with deadly physical force to stop the threat to his own life. Not exactly a nightly occurrence at any bar, irregardless if there's underage drinking or not.
#6 - Officers on either side of the vehicle? An officer approached the vehicle from the side, just as you wanted, and what did Henry do? He drove off in an attempt to flee the scene. Did you want the officers to run alongside his vehicle? Or how about we just let this intoxicated, irrational, and clearly dangerous individual drive out of the parking lot onto the public roadway, where he can kill some innocent person just driving home from work. Shoot someone to kill? Officer Hess discharged his firearm to stop the threat in compliance with the NYS Criminal Procedure Law. Officer Hess was presented with an individual using his vehicle as a weapon in an attempt to flee police, and in doing so posed an immediate threat of causing PO Hess serious physical injury and/or death, and PO Hess utilized the appropriate level of force to meet what DJ Henry brought to the table. You sit there and say, "I know its not like he had an eternity"... until you enter that fight or flight response, have had to make a split second, life or death decision, where you are reaching down to your most primal instincts to survive, you sir have no right to monday morning quarterback PO Hess's actions that night.
#8 - You think that just because you watch COPS, CSI, Law and Order, and all of these other garbage shows on TV that you are some kind of police tactics expert? You're right, no one had to die that night, DJ Henry made that decision when instead of following the directions of multiple uniformed police officers he chose to get behind the wheel while intoxicated. He chose to drive off and flee a police officer. He chose to drive into, and attempt to run over, another uniformed police officer. You keep calling everyone elses actions that night inappropriate, and you call DJ Henry's actions "a mistake". Give us a damn break, will you. I mean really, how ridiculous does that sound? He precipitated every single thing that happened that night, but he's the good kid who made a mistake and every one else that night was just a bunch of trigger happy pigs. I can tell you one thing for sure; you stated that you don't know if you would have pulled the trigger that night; I can tell you if you were a cop faced with that same situation, I'd have the unpleasant experience of having to go to your funeral then, plain and simple, and police funerals are the one thing that no cop ever wants to go to. You also stated, "keep someone alive by not shooting them." Absolutely, but not if that individual is trying to kill me. If someone is actively trying to kill me, I'm going to shoot them to stop them from killing me, that's just the way it is. I'm going home at the end of the night to my family, period, and at that point I'm only concerned with surviving, not find a nice touchy feely way to end the threat on my life just so the perpetrator can live. Shoot the engine block? Are you aware that handgun ammunition will not pass through an engine block, so good luck with that one Seagal. The military uses .50 caliber rifles to disable engine blocks on vehicles, you think a handgun bullet is going to disable a vehicle? Oh that's right, Steven Seagal and Bruce Willis do it all the time in the movies, so it must be true. Do you know how many police officers are killed or seriously injured every year in vehicle pursuits? Yes, lets engage a highly intoxicated individual in a vehicle pursuit because that doesn't have a high probability of ending in disaster. I can't help but laugh how you have the audacity to sit there behind your little computer screen and talk about police tactics and how the incident should have been handled. I say until you vest up and get out there and do the job, leave the tactics discussions to those of us who are actually out there doing the work, because the fantasy land of how you believe being a cop is based on some junk you watched on TV last night is typical for arm chair experts who mother f**ks the cops any chance they get until the day the wolf comes knocking at your door.

I don't give a s*** if dj henry was a rhodes scholar and he went to harvard, he tried to kill a cop, one of my brothers , and yes in my book that makes him a punk scumbag.
As far as pace goes, I've dealt with some of the worst lawyers in westchester who have graduated from pace, so pace doen't impress me.
No matter what the situation was in the bar that night, it doesn't change the fact that this kid was issued a lawful order by a police officer and instead of stopping, he refused the order and struck the police officer.
As far as the investigation goes, the DOJ monitered the entire thing and found nothing wrong with it, but i guess you know something they don't.
Shoot the engine block ? What are you dirty harry ? This suggestion shows your ignorance on all things law enforcement. You strike me as the type that thinks that because you watch cops and americas most wanted and you take a few pictures of police cars, that makes you knowledgeable... IT DOESN'T.....
You know nothing about traffic stops or who should be where or what the officers are feeling?
How many life or death situations have you been in? It seems like you shy away fom dangerous professions so I will say close to none so you have no clue how fast you have to make a decision and in this case it was a decision to use deadly force. Not only does PO Hess have to live with his decision for the rest of his life, he has to deal with people like you monday morning quarterbacking what he did. It's easy to second guess from the safety of your den or your living room isn't it ?
AS I reread your post to make sure I covered all of the points you tried to make, it seems that you have some type of blinders on to the truth and seem to have out your own twists to the story. You say he was already dead before he struck PO Hess, where did you get that from ? I never once heard that version of the story.
You are just an angry person with an axe to grind against law enforcement. I wonder if dj henry had God forbid struck and killed someone in your family while he was driving highly intoxicated back to the pace campus how much different you would feel.

Going by what your profile says, you are not a cop and in no way affiliated with law enforcement but yet you see fit to come on this site and talk trash about a cop who was almost killed by some punk scumbag intoxicated kid.
When you go to the doctor do you second guess his diagnosis ? When you go to the accountant, do you tell him he is doing your taxes wrong ? The answer is probably no to all of these questions so why do you think it's o.k. to second guess a veteran professional police officer with extensive training and experience ?
You do realize that after a multijurisdictional probe and an extensive one at that and after having all the facts presented to a grand jury, all the officers involved in this case were cleared of any wrong doing correct ?
Cops work 8 hours a day getting s*** from people who don't agree with what we do or how we do our jobs, the last thing I want to do is get out of work, come home and look at EMTbravo and have to see the same nonsense that I get at work