mfc2257

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Posts posted by mfc2257

  1. Posted

    To follow up on REMEMBER585's comments regarding Vollywood, I believe chief's aids on the fireground are just as important to a volly chief as they are to one who is on the job.

    There are plenty of resources available to the volly IC once he/she has arrived at the scene. In Vollywood, most M/A companies arrive with at least one chief if not more. When getting a roll-call from communications about incoming units, it is valuable to ask about incoming M/A chiefs. As the IC is setting up his command, assign the first in volly chief as your IC aide and have him report to your clearly announced/identified command post. Although this individual cannot drive you to the scene, he/she can take over many of the duties that are cumbersome moving forward such as communicating between the water supply division, utilities, assigning other chiefs to divisional roles, carrying out the IC's individual orders, etc. This allows the IC to keep his eyes on the scene.

    Another resource is the Battalian Coordinator in Westchester. When they arrive, use them for more than just incoming M/A communications... Have them act as your Aide. They are usually ex-chiefs with a salty career of working big jobs.

    As a volly IC it is just as important to have help running a job. You can accomplish many of the same goals by using resources available to you shortly after your arrival as a Career BC has through their full time aide. It may not be exactly the same, but assigning a M/A chief or junior officer with years of fireground experience, or the Battalian Coordinator as your Aide on the FG will free up your ability to generate a positive outcome in the shortest amount of time.

  3. Posted · Edited by mfc2257

    I know this post has been on for a month or two now but i wanted to ask if this truck is overweight and does YFD make their members who drive this have a CDL to drive it???

    I would rethink the first part of your question. Both YFD and the manufacturer aren't going to spec/build/operate a rig that is overweight.

    This rig has five axle's providing braking, two of which will be further assisted by an engine (Jake) brake. Similar apparatus on a commercial basis would be permitted to operate with an 85,000 GVWR. On certain roadways in the US and through out Canada similar vehicles are permitted to operate with 105,000-115,000lbs.

    If i had to guess I'd say this rig weighs between 65-75,000 lbs

    No CDL required in NYS to operate emergency apparatus.

  4. Posted · Edited by mfc2257

    Chief Flynn's response doesn't require a dissertation to figure out.

    Working Fire: YFD goes to the scene and stays as long as needed

    Standby in Quarters: YFD goes to the station requested and will stay as long as the requesting agency needs to recall off duty members and staff reserve apparatus. If after 30 minutes the YFD OIC does not believe off duty MOS are being recalled expeditiously, YFD units will stand down and return to quarters.

    Nuff said.

  5. Posted

    i see what your saying. but i am a member of a department who has a ladder tower that was used early this morning. you mean to tell me that my department doesnt know what we are doing??

    and we also have a rescue. and again are you telling me we dont know how to do rescue work??

    I'm not telling you anything other than the fact that Westchester County has too many aerial devices in it and there is a great number of them that don't and won't get used on a regular basis.

    If you equate that with a personal attack on you or your company then I can't help you.

  6. Posted

    So which ones are real truck companies...in your opinion?

    Duh... The ones that win at parades!

    Seriouslly though, it would turn this conversation into a mess if I were to offer that opinion on a company by company basis. Lets face it, if you've turned a wheel on a handful of serious jobs in Northern Westchester, you can pretty much figure out who gets the truck work, and who gets called late in the game for a good soaking from above.

  7. Posted · Edited by mfc2257

    hate to rain on your parade but not many departments are gonna know how many members they are gonna get on a scene. and what is this "real" truck company you talk of??? are we talking about NY city, Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Peekskill, Ossining? where all the personel that are members at that house only do truck company ops? Millwood does have needs for a stick. just like some of the departments on the list in the previous post.

    Good Luck with it Millwood!!!

    Trust be bro you're not raining on anything.

    What I mean by "real truck company" is... Just because you have an aerial device doesn't mean that your FF's have the experience and training to act in the capacity of a truck company. I've seen plenty of botched roof cuts, windows in the wrong part of the building taken at the wrong time putting the interior crews at risk, horrible apparatus placement, lack of proper ground ladder positioning or not throwing them at all, inability to control utilities, poor search techniques, etc....

    Again... There are too many truck companies in Westchester County. It becomes dilutive (watered down) for one or both of the following reasons. 1) There are too many trucks to go around and not enough jobs thus the FF's aren't getting enough on the job training OR 2) The same FF's that are running the truck are also training for suppression, water supply, vehicle rescue, etc... and there is not enough focus on the MANY tasks that a truck crew must perform in the initial moments of a big job.

    Westchester County has loaded itself up with all this equipment (duplicated often times more than once in the same towns) and there just isn't enough demand for it's use. A system of proper apparatus purchase within the County and appropriate management of apparatus on initial alarm assignments (ie you don't have to own a ladder truck if the town next to you has one that will be on your initial alarm assignment) would eliminate the duplication of apparatus and thus make FF's more proficient at their assigned tasks when going to a job.

  8. Posted

    Correct me if I am wrong but this is a list of towns within 10 miles as the crow flies from Millwood with ladder companies:

    Chappaqua TL27

    Pleasentville TL5

    Thornwood TL1

    Hawthorne TL12

    Briarcliff TL40

    Ossining L41, L42

    Croton on Hudson TL44

    Sleepy Hollow TL38

    Valhalla TL49

    Tarrytown TL78, L37

    Yorktown L51

    Montrose TL8

    Bedford Hills TL57

    Katonah (when it arrives)

    Somers TL18

    Mt. Kisco TL14, L43

    And maybe parts of Peekskill, Elmsford, White Plains, Verplank, Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Purchase and Mohegan.

    That is a great many ladders on that side of the county.

    Yes you are correct... To tell you the truth, there are too many ladders in the Northern end of the county. But until all the egos can lobby the state government to allow for a county wide department (or at least county wide authority on apparatus response and placement) then you'll just see more duplication.

    It is really dilutive to tell you the truth. There isn't but a handfull of companies on that list that are "real" truck companies.... That see enough action that their guys are actually pro's at what they do.

    You could cut the number of wannabe truck companies and rescue companies in half and let a handful of companies become proficient at the job. I'd be the first to step in and say that Millwood is one company that could focus on suppresion and rescue and leave truck work to Ossining, Kisco, & Yorktown. The county apparatus fleet could be cut by 40+ percent if folks started focusing on what resources are needed to get the job done rather than to have the biggest baddest fleet.

  9. Posted

    Good luck. Thank GOD you didnt get a bucket on it.

    I was on the apparatus committee for E-248 (2004 Spartan Gladiator / Sutphen Body) and I can tell you that many of the older guys that were putting in their two cents were telling us that we had to buy a bucket for when the Telesquirt was replaced. They didn't take it too kindly when I told them that they didn't know enough about truck company op's to offer that type of opinion and that there were 10 tower ladders within a 10 minute response to the district.

    This rig will serve Millwood well given the height restrictions at Headquarters and some of the oddball driveways that are in the district where the mid-mount design will make for maximum use of the stick. I forsee it serving more as a Engine than a Truck given the excessive number of established truck companies that surround Millwood, but for FF safety, and ISO purposes it seems to be a good fit. If HQ didn't have height restrictions I may have preferred a nice compact 75ft rearmount like Truck 47 or Truck 10, but since the Fire District has dropped the ball bigtime on building a new Headquarters Station, the Sutphen really is the best rig on a single axle.

  11. Posted · Edited by mfc2257

    Got word from an old friend that Millwood took delivery of the new Truck 52 (2008 Sutphen 75ft Quint) replacing E-245 (1982 E-One/Kenworth TeleSquirt formerly known as TS-2).

    Best wishes to my old brothers in Millwood. Given the abundance of 100ft towers and straight jobs surrounding MFC, I'm not sure how often Truck 52 will actually operate in the capacity of a true truck company. My only advice is to train hard.... Just going through the motions of a 2.5 hour drill on Tuesday nights won't a make you a truckie.... Truck work is not for the week hearted and with modern construction it is becoming exceedingly more dangerous.

    -Ed-

  12. Posted

    Any IC who is worth his turnout gear clearly establishes command & location upon arrival.

    Chief: "Car XYZ to communications on location, (insert confirmation of address, type of alarm, and structure here), establishing command at my vehicle infront of the neighbors house at 123 On Fire Street"

    Communications: "10-4... Chief XYZ is on location at 121 On Fire Street, he'll have the command infront of the neighbors house at 123 On Fire Street"

    Once this is done, communications can repeat the location to all arriving apparatus.

    Truck Company: "Truck XYZ" is on location"

    Communications: "10-4 Truck XYZ Car XYZ has command infront of the neighbors house at 123 On Fire Street by his vehicle.

  15. Posted

    The answer would be NO. Once Brookfield gets it, thats it. They will sell nothing. I tried to buy stuff from them before (ex-Pleasantville R-47), only to be given the run around (sold overseas, cut up, not for sale, etc.)

    Leaving the Q on it as well as some of the emergency lighting brackets etc is a huge error. When I was Captain in Millwood I can't tell you how many times I used saved parts off of old apparatus to fix something... sometimes just temporarially until the dealer could schedule us in.

  22. Posted · Edited by mfc2257

    Izzy your close but SUTPHEN did not want MACK to put there badge [name] on there product. My cousin works for HUCK [Rivits] that are all over the tower ladders and is at the SUTPHEN plant all the time.

    It was more than Mack wanted one thing and Sutphen wanted another. That wagon almost wound both of them up in court. The thing sat forever until Jere (Jerry) Lady of Lady & Taylor Body Works & Pennsylvania Fire Apparatus got them sell it on the cheep. Jere painted it Heidlersburg Green to match the CF-Mack and R-Mack Tanker that Heidlersburg Runs. The rig went in service as E25-2 about a year ago.

    On a side note I got Jere to restore Millwood's Brockway Torpedo Antique when I was in college at Gettysburg (2nd due to Heidlersburg). He is currently restoring my '57 B-Mack and should be finished or close-to-finished with Chappaqua's Antique Mack as well.

    He is currently manufacturing the body, pump, and tank for Heidlersburg's new Tanker which is being built on a Mack Granite chassis if I'm not mistaken. He has a history of taking old FDNY rigs and refurbing them for use in PA and MD. For some reason he likes to replace the round headlights on CF Macks and Century Cab LaFrance's with four square ones like what is seen on Heidlersburg's CF-Mack E25-1 that is in the posted picture next to the Sutphen-Mack E25-2. Odd looking, but it's his signature.