BMeehan282

Mike Kehoe is a great guy, and he's working through a lot of things with this incident.
However, here's the thing - All "those ambulances" were requested through the police dispatchers, not from any EMS or Fire unit on the scene. Both Troop A and Newtown Dispatch called Northwest and South Central CMED's and said "send every ambulance you can", which is why you saw all these ambulances from the Lower Naugatuck Valley and elsewhere, and not ones like Stony Hill or Bethel from next door.
He is correct that it would be a good idea to manage all those ambulances, or for that matter the 300 cops that were there, the fire service is really the only discipline that is ready to manage large scale incidents. Just from a common sense standpoint, cops and EMS people are just not accustomed to pulling up to a scene and looking to the guy with the white hat for direction. From a global response standpoint EMS and LE need to get better at entering and operating within an Incident Management System, because those two disciplines rarely are involved with ICS on a tactical basis.
bernie

Mike Kehoe is a great guy, and he's working through a lot of things with this incident.
However, here's the thing - All "those ambulances" were requested through the police dispatchers, not from any EMS or Fire unit on the scene. Both Troop A and Newtown Dispatch called Northwest and South Central CMED's and said "send every ambulance you can", which is why you saw all these ambulances from the Lower Naugatuck Valley and elsewhere, and not ones like Stony Hill or Bethel from next door.
He is correct that it would be a good idea to manage all those ambulances, or for that matter the 300 cops that were there, the fire service is really the only discipline that is ready to manage large scale incidents. Just from a common sense standpoint, cops and EMS people are just not accustomed to pulling up to a scene and looking to the guy with the white hat for direction. From a global response standpoint EMS and LE need to get better at entering and operating within an Incident Management System, because those two disciplines rarely are involved with ICS on a tactical basis.
bernie

Mike Kehoe is a great guy, and he's working through a lot of things with this incident.
However, here's the thing - All "those ambulances" were requested through the police dispatchers, not from any EMS or Fire unit on the scene. Both Troop A and Newtown Dispatch called Northwest and South Central CMED's and said "send every ambulance you can", which is why you saw all these ambulances from the Lower Naugatuck Valley and elsewhere, and not ones like Stony Hill or Bethel from next door.
He is correct that it would be a good idea to manage all those ambulances, or for that matter the 300 cops that were there, the fire service is really the only discipline that is ready to manage large scale incidents. Just from a common sense standpoint, cops and EMS people are just not accustomed to pulling up to a scene and looking to the guy with the white hat for direction. From a global response standpoint EMS and LE need to get better at entering and operating within an Incident Management System, because those two disciplines rarely are involved with ICS on a tactical basis.
bernie

Mike Kehoe is a great guy, and he's working through a lot of things with this incident.
However, here's the thing - All "those ambulances" were requested through the police dispatchers, not from any EMS or Fire unit on the scene. Both Troop A and Newtown Dispatch called Northwest and South Central CMED's and said "send every ambulance you can", which is why you saw all these ambulances from the Lower Naugatuck Valley and elsewhere, and not ones like Stony Hill or Bethel from next door.
He is correct that it would be a good idea to manage all those ambulances, or for that matter the 300 cops that were there, the fire service is really the only discipline that is ready to manage large scale incidents. Just from a common sense standpoint, cops and EMS people are just not accustomed to pulling up to a scene and looking to the guy with the white hat for direction. From a global response standpoint EMS and LE need to get better at entering and operating within an Incident Management System, because those two disciplines rarely are involved with ICS on a tactical basis.
bernie

Mike Kehoe is a great guy, and he's working through a lot of things with this incident.
However, here's the thing - All "those ambulances" were requested through the police dispatchers, not from any EMS or Fire unit on the scene. Both Troop A and Newtown Dispatch called Northwest and South Central CMED's and said "send every ambulance you can", which is why you saw all these ambulances from the Lower Naugatuck Valley and elsewhere, and not ones like Stony Hill or Bethel from next door.
He is correct that it would be a good idea to manage all those ambulances, or for that matter the 300 cops that were there, the fire service is really the only discipline that is ready to manage large scale incidents. Just from a common sense standpoint, cops and EMS people are just not accustomed to pulling up to a scene and looking to the guy with the white hat for direction. From a global response standpoint EMS and LE need to get better at entering and operating within an Incident Management System, because those two disciplines rarely are involved with ICS on a tactical basis.
bernie

Funny you should say that.... I received an Inquiry call here in danbury tonight from the Yonkers FD asking if we had portable tanks available to send there should they need them..
Bernie Meehan
Asst Fire Chief
Danbury CT

Funny you should say that.... I received an Inquiry call here in danbury tonight from the Yonkers FD asking if we had portable tanks available to send there should they need them..
Bernie Meehan
Asst Fire Chief
Danbury CT

I've had a VHF-Hi Swissphone pager for over a year now and I'll give you my opinion on it.
On the positive side:
Small size
Can be programmed with up to 50 channels.
Excellent for use as a small scanner to monitor multiple channels
great audio
multiple options, vibe, silent, etc.
recorder
On the negative side
Menu driven controls with only two buttons - far too complicated for most casual users
Falsely alerts very often. (not sure why it does this, the alert tone just sounds for no apparent reason)
No where near as durable as Motorola stuff. Belt clip is fragile, breaks off easily, you can replace it in seconds with a new one, best bet is to keep pager in a belt case.
Overall it's a pretty cool little device, especially handy to the user who has some experience/skill with radio equipment. It is not suitable for volunteers who arent technically savvy, or working where the thing will take any kind of a beating..
bernie