mfc2257

Leather forever !

Black Sam Houston with Bourkes. I took the Green reflectors off and put a black 1.75inch piece of Scotch-Lite around the entire base of the helmet (yes the black truely does reflect well) with a half inch white Scotch-Lite laid on top of the center of the black stripe. Gives the helmet a much more classic look, the black & white makes the helmet a little more conservative and over all, you increase the total reflective area by 150%.

The in the pic linked below you can see my old yellow Lieutenant's 1010 helmet that I had black on the bottom with red laid on top of it.

2251 has a white chief's helmet with a gold large stripe and red small stripe.

I've done a few others too.

Millwood Fire Department Open House Pictures

The Link below shows the same helmet with the black section glowing white with the flashbulb of a camera.

Millwood Fire Department M.A. Kings College Pictures

I'm not thrilled about hurricane dodging down here this weekend.... BUT it looks like this bad boy is slowing down and is going to spend more time over the Yucatan Peninsulia than expected earlier. Hopefully it won't make landfall as more than a CAT 2.

Unless things change, we should just have a rainy weekend in Orlando, but then again last year one of the storms was supposed to hit down south but wound up crusing straight through Maitland, FL (8 miles from Orlando) at the very last second.

Good thing I was still in Millwood.

The aforementioned "highway striping" is called a Chevron. Also below are the NFPA guidelines for emergency vehicles.

Emergency Response Vehicles: (Per NFPA 1901)

Reflective striping is required around all four sides of the vehicle. The stripe or combination of stripes must be at least 4 inches high and cover at least 50 % of the cab and body length on each side, 50% of the rear width and 25% of the front width.

A reflective graphic design, such as a door shield or lettering may replace a part of the required length or width.

Vertical Panels:

Apparatus Chevron Striping can be used to warn and direct traffic away for a highway incident. All vehicles that are utilized in this manner shall comply with MUTCD Section 6F.57. (Bill What's this? bb)

The chevron patter shall slant downward on both sides of the vehicle at an angle of 45 degrees, pointing in the direction of the bottom rear corner of the tailboard. The patter should resemble an inverted V with the point at the top center of the apparatus.

The following alternating color patterns may be used:

red and yellow

orange and white

red and white

blue and yellow

blue and white

Vertical panels must:

be 8 to 12 inches wide and at least 24 inches in height

have alternating colors, retro-reflective stripes at least 4 inches in width. If the panel height is greater than 36 inches the stripes must be 6 inches wide

must be sloped down at 45 degrees and have a minimum of 270 square inches of retro-reflective area facing traffic

For those considering repeaters in multiple vehicles, remember that if more than 1 are turned on at the same time, they cancel each other out.... SO when the Chief's in Millwood roll up to a job, the first Chief on the scene is supposed to turn on their repeater, in addition when the mark themselves onlocation to 60 Control, they announce that their repeater is on so other inbound Millwood OR mutual aid chiefs/apparatus that may have them too are aware.

quick question about kentland 33, how is it possible that they run so many structure fires and there whole city hasnt burnt to the ground? Most of there runs seem to be fires and pin jobs. This question has boggled my mind for a while now.

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Either one of the engines (E331 or E332) the rescue engine (E333) or the Truck (Truck 33) is also first or second due into just about everyone elses territory that directly and secondarily surrounds Kentlands district.

One of the differences between a County like Prince Georges vs. Westchester is that apparatus from other companies are listed on the first due box card for mutual aid. Often times, another department is dispatched for a fire, and Kentland has a piece of apparatus on the initial call and is dispatched at the same time. For example, on September 17th, they were dispatched on the initial alarm assignment into Company 5's territory with the rescue engine (E333 which is set up as a "true" rescue) as the rescue company (not FAST, but as a true rescue company like one of the five FDNY companies). Not only were they on the first alarm, but they rolled in right behind engine 51 and went to work right away.

I would advise anyone who doesn't have any experience in both the way Westchester's system works now, compared to the way that the combination systems in Maryland work not to participate in this forum. I see the potential for a lot of bickering here. Not to be a jerk, there is just a lot more to the Maryland systems than simple combination departments. It wouldn't be as simple as each department in Westchester adopting the Mohegan or Peekskill models (not that there is anything wrong with those departments as they operate today in Westchester)

That being said....

I'm fairly familiar with the way that Baltimore, Prince Georges, Anne Arundle, and Montgomery counties in Maryland work as combination departments.

It could work in Westchester, but it would take a lot of money to implement and would cause a lot of ego's to hurt. Maryland also has a large head start on Westchester when it comes to this type of program. Career and volunteer firefighters, officers, and administrators are working successfully in these counties while sharing volunteer and county owned apparatus often in the same station.

The committment to implement would need to be made over the course of a decade or even longer. It would require leadership at the county level that I don't believe is present currently. It would also require some of the local volunteer departments to adhere to certain standards and SOG/SOP's that they currently don't as well as reporting to a central command structure.

It all has to start at the top by hiring an fire/rescue administrator at the county level with a high level of success and experience in running a true combination county.

There cannot be a massive influx of change all at once. Career FF's and apparatus are only introduced into departments / areas where the standard of protection is determined to be below an acceptable level. The beginning will include a standardization of response, apparatus protocall, minimum staffing, response time, equipement purchasing, radio frequencies, and many other things that combination counties implement beyond the simple introduction of county paid career firefighters.

Many departments may never see a piece of career apparatus OR a career firefighter.... Many may recall prior discussions by myself and others on this site about the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department. ( www.kentland33.com )They run the second busiest engine in the USA next to Washington DC Engine 10. They are in Prince Georges County and are surrounded by Career, Combination, and 100% Volunteer Stations. You won't see a peice of career apparatus or a career FF in that station anytime in the next 50 years or more unless they are providing stand-by coverage during one of the hundreds of confirmed structure fires they run each year.

JBE.. I agree with you.

Many (not all... for those waiting to jump) firefighters, emergency medical providors, and police officers are accustom to the style, tone, and actions of specific dispatchers. A sense of comfort and confidence is present for many of us when we speak during chaotic incidents with dispatchers that we've been though tough situations with before.

If you go into the deli in the morning and you've been ordering coffee your way from the same girl for the past 10 months, you probably don't need to be concerned with her messing it up. If you are used to hearing the same voice at the end of the radio for many of your complicated incidents (and it's attached to the same ID number) and you roll up to a hairy situation and transmit that you’re on location, with that trusted dispatcher you're probably going to feel pretty confident that you're getting what you need when you need it, and if something goes wrong, that the guy on the other end of the radio can handle it.

The issue will come when for the first time, someone rolls up to a big job, and they hear that familiar voice answer with a strange #... Now confidence can be shaken because they're not sure if it's really who they think it is talking to them.

Will this create downright confusion in the field, probably not. Does it create an issue with some people’s comfort level based on prior experience, yes. Will everyone be able to adapt and move on… if they can’t then they’re in the wrong business.

Runs or fires?

If the criteria is just runs (the number of times the pager goes off), then the prior posts are probably correct.

I still think Ossining runs the most amount of actual fires both in and out of their box area.

I have a hunch that Ossining runs the most structure related fires in the county as well as the most mutual aid to neighboring structure fires.

Call volume I have to agree that Somers probably runs the most, but if you remove EMS I think it probably goes back to Ossining on volume.

Just a hunch.

Oh yeah... One thing that I forgot... I've seen some folks spray clearcoat that will adhere to aluminum over diamond plate, and it looked great for decades.

I believe that there might be some shared responsibilities for I.P. but if I recall, the facility is technically Verplank's first due... I could be way off, but I think that Entergy donated a significant sum for Verplank to purchase their Bronto Skylift.

Some of boys from the Tri-Village should be able to shed some light on this.

I was in my office in Weehawkin looking across at the city sitting at the trading desk with my business partner next to me talking with our third partner via cell phone about to walk into his first appointment of the morning at 1 WTC. Even after the plane hit, we had to convince him to leave and not wait to see if his appointment would be cancelled. We then had to convince him that his laptop, briefcase and blackberry weren't important and not to go into the WTC parking garage again.... Needless to say, he didn't go to get his stuff, and got on a private boat in the Hudson. He'd of been underground when the South Tower fell.

As soon at the South Tower fell myself and a few other vollies in the building thought it would be best to join our companies. I drove up the western shore of the Hudson trying to find an open bridge crossing (I thought Newburgh was going to be my closest option) but the NYSP Officer at Bear Mountain let me though.

Millwood VFC had a contact at Javits center telling us what they really needed (above and beyond water food etc) and we spent the next week gathering money and equipment from Northern Westchester/Connecticut suppliers and sent several 26 foot truck loads of construction & welding equipment directly to the WTC or the 14th Street Armory with the help of a loaned truck from Barr Brothers Moving.

This is a cut an paste from a post I made about a year ago. Just my two cents.

Find some old carpet (1/2inch) that has a good glue fiber backing. Cut a piece about 6 inches long by 3.5 wide. Take a scrub brush and cut all the bristles off and apoxy carpet upside down to the bottom of the carpet. Apply Mothers or whatever you use liberally to surface and work it with the carpet. Have someone else follow right away with a good towel to get excess. Buff after drying as ususal.

You can subsitute the hassle of epoxying the brush handle by punching two holes into the carpet and adding a handle of some sort made out of a piece of thick rubber bungee or cable that is run through a 1in or smaller piece of PVC.

Sounds like a lot of trouble to go to, but the extra leverage of a handle really helps add to the shine and saves your hands.

The buffing wheel approach works too, but I find that it's a better removal tool... The carpet works to really apply the product and let the abrasive nature of metal polishes do their job. If you have someone follow with a buffing wheel to remove the product and finally someone to buff behind them it'll look brand new......

But never as good as T-15

I would love to air some specifics about PD dispatch & "check & advise" policies that I've personally witnessed which very nearly cost some folks their lives over the years, but I don't think it'll solve any problems to do so here.

Catch me with a few beers in me on a night when I'm home from FL and I'd probably let some pretty scary stories out of the bag.

What is even more frustrating is the fact that when the lightbulb goes on in the PD's head that they don't have a bag of meds or a Hurst tool in the trunk of their RMP and that the FD/EMS really is needed, that they make almost no effort at communicating the sizeup to incoming FD units via 60control.... Not only are you 20 minutes behind the 8 ball, but you're inbound to a hairy scene with absolutely no information about what you're going to find. Be nice to know if you needed to add a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th EMS unit to the box, or another Rescue etc.

Near where I spent my college years you'll find this brush truck. Adams County Pennsylvania (close to the MD border and the National Fire Academy) Company # 7 (Bendersville FD) Brush Truck 7

http://www.bendersvillefireco.com/army2.JPG

If there was ever a definition for the term "grey area", EMS response on the Taconic between Briarcliff and Millwood's first due fits it.

Years back, it was determined that the most effective way to cover the Taconic corridor between Pleasantville Road and Route 100 (due to the large, split elevation center divide) was to send R-36 Southbound and R-37 Northbound with their respective Engine Companies regardless of who's district the MVA is in. This significantly cut down on the time needed for each department to travel to the oppisite end of the corridor, turn around and respond all the way back again for a wreck in the other lane. This has proven to be a wonderful agreement.

One major benefit is that Millwood picks up a Briarcliff FD ambulance and fly car on all these calls. Two agencies cover everything from suppression, traffic, extrication, ems, you name it.

Where the problem lies is that Chappaqua VAC covers a sliver of the territory right before the RT 100 exit. They are dispatched via New Castle PD and do 99% of their communications via NCPD's freq.... 95% of the time the MVA dispatch is made via 60control. By the time NCPD makes it to the scene, transmits the alarm to CVAC and their fly car and the response is made, Millwood and Briarcliff have made significant progress and patients are often packaged and transported via BMFD EMS to the proper facility.

This isn't an argument for or against CVAC, just that with the logistics of the FD agreement on the TSP, BMFD EMS is the logical choice if CVAC hasn't made it to the scene yet.

Few years back Millwood Tanker 15 and at least one other covered the City of New Rochelle for a similar problem.

Incidents like this reinforce the need for down county departments to train (occasionally) on how to run a water shuttle. It's not as simple as bringing in a tanker from the north. If there was a major incident where a full water shuffle needed to be established, I am curious to know how long it would take to get several drop tanks set up and connected with siphon strainers, a fill site up and running (if the entire city is down the haul is going to be long) etc.

I've got a feeling that the point of this might be getting off track, mostly due to a poorly written article.

This being said, I now live in the Orlando metro area (not Broward county but close enough that this program is a priority here as well) after 28 years in NY.

The point of this program isn't for Medics / FF's to get to a scene and ignore traditional EMS protocall by having phone conversations with people who may or may not be of any true help to the situation at hand. (FF's don't ignore traditional SOP's when they roll up to a commercial structure fire at 4am just because there is a after hours contact # on the sign outside the front door... But a officer can call the number and have that contact respond as well as relay critical information about the building)

The point is to add an additional resource that can be utilized.

In Florida where this plan was developed, 99% of departments are career where a Medic Engine as well as a Rescue (actually a commercial chassis ambulance) respond to most medical emergencies. This brings 5-7 FF/EMT/Medics to many EMS emergencies. Often times there are police responses as well. There are many hands to help. The chauffer of the engine, the police officer or even a bystander can be asked by the primary EMS providor to check for an ICE # and gather additional information such as previous medical history, allergies, handicaps, current medications, etc....

None of this is designed to take away from the primary level of care or protocall.

The point was raised that most people have Mom or Dad listed in the phone, but if your parents are 80yrs old and in a retirement community, how much help will they be. If you pick any name out of my phone and get my college drinking buddy in Boston, what good can he do for me in Orlando. My ICE # is my wife. She happens to be a LPN which is a bonus, but she can deliver information to a caller that can be relayed to a medic or ER doctor that can change the way they look at my diagnosis, OR make sure they aren't missing something.

At the end of the day, this isn't a bad idea. It's just another tool that if it's used properly, can improve the level of care delivered. BUT just like any other tool, it won't work if not used correctly.

2 hydrant wrenches (one in the bag, one attached to the steamer connection on the LDH)

2 3in gates

2 spanners

2 LDH spanners

3 or more road flares (safety and torch use)

Rubber mallet

A box light is required equipment for all FF's coming out of the jump seat. In theory they shouldn't need a light in the bag. However on all rigs there is at least one box light charger mounted in or near to the bag's compartment should the FF need it.

Chipolte is great...

I highly recommend the Burrito Bol (sic) with chicken, black beans, rice, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and hot salsa.

I believe there is an A&S in Millwood across from Rocky's and one in Croton.

It would be benificial for there to be a handful of these in a county (as in not every department gets one so that there are ten of them within a few miles of each other like the tower / cascade craze that northern westchester got into) If there were 4 in the whole county I think that would be more than enough.

It looks like it does a lot more than just bust through concrete. It can run as a pumper the majority of the time, and then be used for master stream, rescue, crane, penetrating deluge, foam, etc as necessary.

It would be a great piece to have on automatic mutual aid to all factory / manufacturing / petroleum facilities.

I absolutely agree with the reasons above for wearing waist straps.

There is one reason to wear your waist straps that effects you every single time you've got your pack on, not just when you need to be rescued etc..... Exhaustion. The #1 cause of FF deaths in the US is still heart attacks, yet we all to often don't do the simple things to prevent them.

When you don your pak, don't give into the temptation to jerk down on the shoulder straps.... Tighten them just enough so that they aren't falling off. Then buckle your waist and sinch your pak up so that it rests above your hip bones. Tighten it as tight as you can but so that it is still comfortable. Then return to your shoulder straps and gently snug them again.

The end result is the entire weight of the pack is transferred down to your legs through your hips as opposed to your upper body which will fatigue you rapidly.

You should be able to take your thumb and slide it between your T/O coat and the back of the shoulder straps with little or no resistance.

I tried to update the post, but for some reason I don't have the "edit" button...

This is an excerpt of a message I got from the Rescue 40 Captain:

"Last night on King Street we did extricate- we had one female heavily entrapped... she died on the way to the hospital...  It's 2:20am we just got back.  We also assisted Rye Brook PD and County Police with investigation with our lights."

(Seth or Truck4 if you read this, why can't I edit?  Is there a time limit?)

I've had some trouble editing posts that I've made on different computers. For example, if I reply to you now at the office, but I want to add something at home tonight, I don't think the website recognizes me as the owner of the post when I login from another location. May have something to do with cookies. I'm no computer pro though. Just a hunch on my part.

FAST is easier to understand over the radio than RIT... But I agree when you say each word that the letters stand for, Rapid Intervention Team sounds much better.