mfc2257

I've participated or been a member in/with departments in 3 states and 6 counties. We are one of the very few that are doing it backwards. Every unit saying that they are 10-40 is useless... A dispatcher doesn't need to know that a unit is safely back in quarters... All he/she needs to know is whether or not that unit is available to respond or if they have to call the next due unit.... Therefor when an officer says All XYZ units can go 10-8 then they are all available for the next call.... If they aren't he should say so... "All units are 10-8 except Engine XYZ which is out of service until further notice" Renumbering the county would be KISS... What is assinine is to sit back and continue to work on the confusing system that we are using now... Like I've said before... Just in central Westchester you can have Rescue 18 and Ladder 18 at the same call but they are from different departments (Croton & Somers)... Rescue 10 and Tanker 10 (Croton & BHFD)... Different departments, Rescue 14 and TL 14...(Ossining & Mt. Kisco) Different departments... Then you've got Places like Thornwood who have engine numbers all over the place... In the 80's and in the 290's... What could be more confusing than that... Mamaroneck town has E-36, E37 and E-51? The examples go on and on.... BUT what would be most simple and would help with CAD and making streamlined BOX assignments (another rant I won't get into here) it would be much easier if everything for one department including stations, apparatus, box area etc used 1 common number.... Everywhere else has made it work this way... Why are we holding out... The county won't hire someone capable of running the fire service in Westchester County, the old ego's and panty-waist's in the county don't want to leave their comfort zone and move to a new system that might require a few old timers to come up to speed on the new apparatus designations and people are afraid of losing controll over their little slice of Westchester.... The cries for change are a lot louder than the ones that want to "just do it the way we've always done it."

I understand that there are staffing cuts and houses getting shut down... BUT I'd like to know where FDNY has an Engine, Truck, or Rescue responding with only 2 guys on it. I work in the city and often travel to all the boroughs.... When I see a fire truck I look at it.... Yes it's my natural instinct as a fireman to look at other peoples fire trucks... It's sick isn't it..... BUT I've never seen an Engine, Truck, or Rescue without at least 4 on it.... The only FDNY units that I see with 2 are Hammer units, Ambulances, Chief's vehicles, TSU's and other "support" units.

In Millwood we have one of our Ex-Chief's who does it. When the DPW guys come through they do it if it hasn't been hit in a while... Same for our sub station... And also whoever has the State HW route for R134 (none of us know who he is) also will swing up the side ramp around the back and clear and sand the front ramp as he is passing through.

X635 is right... If someone just says 33's responding... They aren't doing the correct job on the radio.... It has been a long proven standard in the busiest and hariest counties in America to have a streamlined numbering system.... the company number is always the primary ID for the unit... It's preceeded by the type of apparatus... It doesn't get any clearer than "Engine Thirty three one is responding", "Chief 33 is responding" "Engine thirty three two is responding", "Truck 33 is responding".... ETC... If everyone is really comfortable you can stop saying "Engine Thirty Three one" and eventually say Engine Three Thirty One.... There is nothing more confusing than listening to a major job in Westchester and hearing R-14 and TL-14 on the air at the same time and have one be from Mt. Kisco and one from Ossining... Tanker 16 From Somers and Rescue 16 from Yorktown... Ladder 18 from Somers and Rescue 18 From Croton... Tanker 10 from Croton and Rescue 10 from Bedford Hills... It's just plain backwards.

This is only an educated guess.... But I would assume they are there to pull a draft out of the Harbour, East, Hudson, Harlem rivers, The Sound or one of the nasty (really nasty) creeks and streams that run through Brooklyn, Queens and the South Bronx.

Headquarters: 60 Millwood Road, Millwood, NY (Near intersection of Route 100 & Shinglehouse Road & Rts 120/133 Station 2: Route 134 (No Number), Ossining, NY (Between Taconic Pkwy & Allapartus Road just beyond Hudson Hills C.C.) Headquarters Phone: 914-941-2222 Station 2 Phone: 914-762-4242 URL: www.millwoodfire.org 3 Chiefs (2251,2252,2253) 1 Captain (2254) 3 Lieutanants (2255, 2256, 2257) Engine 245 (TS-2)-1982 E-One/Kenworth 1500/500. Location: Headquarters. Assignment: First Due Structure Fire / Auto Alarm / CO Alarm. Special Equipment: 50ft ariel w/ twin pre piped waterways and single automatic monitor. Truck Company Equipment. 1000ft 5in hose. Thermal Imaging Camera. Gas Detector. K-12 & Quick Vent Saws. Diesel Generator. Misc other. Engine 247 - 1998 Spartan/3D 1000/750. Location: Headquarters. Assignment: FAST UNIT. First Due (East of Taconic State Parkway) General Alarms, Motor vehicle Fire, Mutual Aid. Special Equipment: CAFS Pump A/B foam. 1200+ft 5in hose. FAST Equip. Thermal Imaging Camera. AED. K-12 and Chain Saw. Diesel generator. Misc other. No less than 40 gallons of each (A/:) foam on board. Engine 248 - 2004 Spartan/Sutphan 1500/750. Location: Station 2. Assignment: First Due (West of Taconic State Parkway) General Alarms, Motor vehicle fire, Mutual Aid. Special Equipment: 1200+ft 5in hose. Class A/B foam (no CAFS) Lukas Combi Tool, Gas Detector, K-12 Saw. Hydraulic Generator. Misc other. No Less than 40 gallons of each (A/B) foam on board. Rescue 36 - 1990 Ford L9000/Saulsbury. Location: Headquarters. Assignment: First Due Motor vehicle Accident, Rescue Assignments, Cascade Mutual Aid. Backup FAST unit. Special Equipment: Full Heavy Extrication Tools by Lucas Gas powered and PTO. Air Chisel. Air Bags. Water Rescue Equip. 8 6000+lb bottle Cascade. Hazmat/Radiation equip. K-12 Saw. 3 Saw-z-all. PTO generatory. Misc other. Mini Attack 10 - 1989 Ford F-350/Saulsbury 750/150. Location: Headquarters. Assignment: First Due Brush fire, wires down, water rescue. Special Call Source pumper, narrow driveway, class B foam. Special Equipment: Zodiac rescue boat, chain saw, winch, class B foam system. 1000+ft 4in hose. Tanker 15 - 1994 Kenworth/3D 1500/3600. Location: Station 2. Assignment: First Due water supply operations (West of Taconic State Parkway) mutual aid tanker/pumper. Special Equipment: 3000gal dump pond. 1200+ft 5in hose. Floating 250gpm pump. Side and rear automatic dump valves. Diesel generator. Utlity 44 - 2002 Chevrolet 2500 Pickup. Location: Headquarters. Assignment: Special call to complement all Fire Department Operations. Available to transport our 80 gallon foam reserve OR 3 portable gas generators, OR 400gpm gas portable pump.

E-245, E-247, E-248 now carry NO LESS than 1450ft of 5inch hose.

FYI... Millwood along with several other 33.96 departments are simulcast via 46.26 when the dispatch comes from the county.

Just renumbering ladders is a good start and would have worked years ago... But like everything else that's ever been done in the county it's just a patch it's not a solution. Fact of the matter is that we are way behind the times. From an county-wide organizational standpoint we are not up to par with other major metropolitan counties that have paid, combination and volunteer departments. I'm not just talking about apparatus numbers here either.... I'm talking about "total emergency services management" I don't quite know how to open the can of worms that we all know needs to be served up... But back to my original point that someone needs to be EMPOWERED to take control of the county. It needs to be a successful DES from a major metropolitan area who already knows how to begin solving our problems because they already did it at their previous post. AND here is a novel idea... Lets use our tax dollars to compensate this individual and their staff what they deserve. Make it financially worth their while to open that can of worms and take the several years worth of heat that some of the old ego's and scardy-kats in the county are going to throw at him/her when they start forcing change. This person will also should be held directly responsible for success or failiure of change in the WC fire service. You mention money, and as a resident of Chappaqua (obvioussly the Millwood Fire District portion of town) I know all too well about tax burdons... BUT at the end of the day waiting to effect change will only cost more in the long run.

No lights no sirens on transfer assignments.... There is no emergency at the location that you are going to... Just another bay, couch and TV. If a job comes in while enroute to your transfer... You are now an emergency vehicle responding to a percieved danger and thus lights and sirens are warrented. HOWEVER... I do encourage my guys to get fully dressed on the way to the transfer b/c many times you are called to the scene of the original incident and never complete the transfer assignment. I also remind eveyone to bring their wallet, shoes and coat incase we're there for a while and need to eat.

I created this post more out of amusement following the size of the enormus tractor/trailer rescue posted before it...you know, a little humor.... Not necessarily to be taken seriouslly as something any department near us should consider. Yes both Q's were functional the last time I saw the rig in person. On a side note... The traffic in the metro DC/Baltimore area is so bad that several of the departments that cover the Capital Beltway as well as the I95-I83 corridor have attempted to increase the power of their audible warning systems not to blast people off the road (although I'm sure some use them to do that) but rather so that the warning will carry further in an attempt to start moving traffic out of the way well before the apparatus encounters it. Also with regards to Q's putting strains on alternators... Usually apparatus with twin Q's or other demanding warning systems have twin alternators. Large air horn systems like that have thier own 3 gallon air tank and do not scavange off the primary air horn/brake system.

Renumbering only occured to streamline the types of apparatus listed with the county... We now only have Engines, Ladders (kinda), Ambulances, Rescues, Mini-Attacks, Tankers, Utilities, and Squads for the most part.... Telesquirts, Quints, Quads, QA's, etc have been eliminated. We don't need a renumbering just to renumber... We need a complete merge of company, apparatus and box numbers so that the first number of EVERYTHING corresponds with the given department.

Sizeup should also include who has command but it should be kept as simple as possbile. E-245 is 10-19. 3 Story single family w/ fire from the #2 Floor Hydrant located at the corner of X&Y Captain 2254 establishing command.

If you are asking in the form of a trivia question about dedicated foam units that are only in service to serve as a foam rig... I don't know. If you are asking to find out who has major foam capability.... To my knowledge... The Airport, Millwood, Fairview via the county trailer... all have major foam capability. I know that Briarcliff has one engine with an on board proportioning system. I believe Chappaqua E-146 does as well... I'm sure there are many more departments that have engines or mini-attacks with foam on them... There is a big difference though compared to being able to set up a major foam operation with 8 or more lines in service for exended periods of time. The airport and us (Millwood) are the only ones that can do this as of right now on a major initial attack basis to my knowledge. I believe the County trailer can do this too.... BUT it takes time to put it into service.

Pyroinvestigator... I TOTALLY agree... BUT nothing will EVER be done in Westchester County until someone is EMPOWERED to take control over how we communicate and acquire resources. Our county is big enough that there are too many departments doing it their way. Everyone is working on their own plan. There hasn't been enough of an effort over the years to bring departments together (not join them) and create a more consistant base. NOW there is an undaunting task of bringing that consistancy to our county from a communication, apparatus, SOP etc standpoint. We are very far behind the times.... Many people don't see it because they don't see how important the big picture from a WC stantpoint is. They only see their department. IT IS OBVIOUS and the easiest example it is to look at areas where there are Tower Ladders piled upon more towerladders. Pleasantville, Hawthorn, Valhalla, Chappaqua, Thornwood, Mt. Kisco and MANY of their neighbors have TL's within spitting distance of each other. Why all the duplication. There is a reason why FDNY still buys straight sticks too.... Because TL's are the answer to everything. Cascades... There are no less than 13 of them in the county. Too many departments just looking at themselves. No one guiding them. Our heavy rescue classification in the county is a joke. Is anyone even looking at the ladder trucks to see if they qualify to be called one from a equipment and total ladder footage standpoint. It is my opinion (and everyone knows that opinions are like.... Everyone's got one) that someone in WC (maybe a former Dir. of Emergency Services for a major jusistiction) needs to be hired to take control and maximize the efforts of all the wonderful volunteer, combination, and career departments that our county has. The taxpayers of our county deserve it. Our lives depend on it.

EMT301 you are absolutely right about having proper ID for departments and apparatus. I've been a member of FD's and paid-on-call in several states. I've found that the absolute best way is to literally keep it as simple as possible. Take your suggestion like Putnam, Dutchess etc do it, but don't have seperate numbers for types of apparatus. Having rigs like 18-2-1 18-2-2 etc takes more time to understand on the air... Short numbers and words are easier. If Ossining for example were numbered properly lets say they were Westchester County Company 24... instead of having E96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, L41, L42, R14, etc they would be E24-1, E24-2, E24-3, E24-4, E24-5, E24-6, L24-1, L42-2, R24.... Chief 24, Assistant Chief 24-1, Assistant Chief 24-2... And so on... The busiest counties in the nation (basically in MD and VA surrounding Washington) use this method and it is super clear on the radio.

I gotta say that Ossining or Bedford are running most often these days. Just a hunch though. Who knows though it could be you guys... You've had a decent amount of jobs this year.

E-247's Equipment list is nearly identical to E-119. 95% of our FAST equipment is located in the long compartment above the drivers side wheel well. All the irons, sledges, hooks etc car wrapped into a reeves stretcher that gets a 4 man carry. From there we simply pile the AED, TIC (x2), Trauma bag, utility rope, rescue rope, spare SCBA, and other equipment on top. A few notable items that we've added 6lb sledge with the handle sawed down to aprox 20inches. This allows for wall breaches in confined spaces. We Carry 2 TNT tools. They are great for the lead man to use when making the team's way through a rescue zone. We carry a Partner brand K-12 saw with multiple blades. The engines on these things make more power than any other saw I've ever used. They'll cut through anything. Unlike E-119 we don't carry a roof saw for fast calls. We will often take our ladder off the engine, but if we respond with R-36 we seek out the OIC and examine the scene. If we determine that more strategic laddering be done we'll request that the OIC allow us to scavenge onscene apparatus OR place an additional truck on the box. On a side note, we were one of the first... if not the first organized and running FAST team in the county nearly ten years ago. Although we don't get the volume of calls that we used to now that many of our larger brother departments have FAST teams, we still train hard on a regular basis. If anyone is interested in holding joint training sessions, we have a dedicated training facility at our sub station that we have shared with departments in the past. We've held joint FAST drills with Briarcliff in years past and Mt. Kisco joined us as they were beginning to put their team together a few years ago. We would be willing to share our training facility with any department that would like to train with us regardless of where they are located OR how much FAST experience they have.

The easiest and quickest way to solve our problems until our politician led garbage system in put into place is for the 60 control or whom ever is in charge of 60 control to put their foot down and do the following.... No if's ands or buts. Find a way to bring our fireground low band channels up to 4-6 real working channels. Buy more channels whatever... Just do it. Then tell everyone in the county that 46.26 is a dispatch ONLY channel. Write an SOP that must be adhered to in order to use county radio channels that states that 46.26/33.96 are dispatch only and that from there when apparatus signs on the air via 46.26 they are immeadiatly moved to another channel... Example... E-247 in 10-17. 10-4 E247 your operations are on channel 4. E-247 switches to channel 4 and never communicates on 46.26 again. As each subsequent apparatus signs on the air they are assigned to that fire ground channel. THEN... When all the other calls in the county come in, they will be assigned to different channels... and the major incident won't have to hear them on the air. 6 fire ground channels should to it. Most departments already use 46.14, 46.42... 46.30 is available among others. Number them 1-6 and you're set. It wouldn't cost much to have everyone's radios programed to have these channels placed in them. Finally whom ever is in charge, should apply for emergency funding to add some repeaters in the county. A low band radio network CAN work in WC. If a consultant is hired we can bolster our existing system with a handful of repeaters and by changing the way we use our existing network until a more modern system is in place. If we don't the consequences might be horrible.

I lived in Hoboken for a year after college right across the street from their 14th Street station... At the time they ran a Seagrave Tiller and Engine out of that station. It's less than 300 yards from the Weehawkin border and about 1/4 mile from a major NHRFR station. I did see that for a while HFD was running a lot of m/a to Weehawkin and Union City.

I drive through Fort Lee every morning on my way to my office, and it appears that they are largely volunteer. HOWEVER I do see a the same Tahoe and one other car parked in one of their Station parking lot on many mornings and I believe there's a union sticker in the window of it... so they may have a few career guys.

Our (Millwood) F.A.S.T. rig is E-247. Usually R-36 is our backup because it is parked directly next to E247 at Station 1 and it only takes one FF to transfer the equipment to place E-247 o/o/s. But E-248 is a near twin to E-247 from an equipment standpoint. It would require very little to place it into service as a backup F.A.S.T rig if it were moved to station 1.

McGyver

John Congrats ! Keep up the good work.

Our policy is that we respond only to our two fire houses however as we all know these are policies and there is always room for interpretation based on scenerio. 99% of the time we keep personal vehicles off the Taconic, however our territory is blessed with large expanses of grass both in the center median and on the right of the roadway on both the north and southbound lanes thus if a major MVA occurs and we've got some additional members on their way in then we usually don't give them a hard time so long as they've parked well off the roadway. Our policy however is to always respond to the fire house unless otherwise warrented. So this would basically mean the only reason that our members would respond to ANY of our scenes would be two scenerios... They got to the firehouse and most apparatus was gone and after waiting a reasonable amount of time no additional drivers arrived, yet there was still enough going on at the incident to warrent additional manpower and they respond to the scene and park way way way way out of the work area OR they have to pass the scene to get to the station and they see most or all of our apparatus on location in which case they also park at least 2 zipcodes out of the way. Typically under both of these scenerios the scene is set and there is PD or FD traffic patterns set up as well as people assigned to traffic control. Responding members would be able to safely pull off the road under these conditions and park out of the way.