fire2141

Here is the new NYCDEP Upstate Hazmat Truck being built by Lifestar. Expecting deleivery sometime in December.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family for a speedy recovery. Ex Chief GBFD Mike Cassar

For all you Mack afectionados like myself. Cool Mack fire apparatus page

I put the year between 64-66. I know the last of the CF engines had the boxier style cabs. I think they were produced from 67-90.

From what I remember it was a Beam pumper equiped with a high pressure pump powered by a v12 gas engine. It was I believe designated an engine, either E147, 148 or 149.

X635 thank for coming to my defense. Perhaps my first post was a little off the mark. Bill I would like to say that the Vista Fire Department is mighty fine organization. I spent over thirty years in your neighboring department and I personally harbor no ill will towards the department. This is an isolated incident. If the kid wasn't in your department he would have done it somewhere else.

Hudson144 before you all dogpile me, I'm not condoning what happened. I think it's teribble, wrong bad. But lets face it these kind of things happen everywhere. What can you do after the fact. Not a damn thing but talk about it. I stepped back and thought carefully about what i said. I was merely making a point. I wasn't trying to downplay what happened. What we can do is everything in our power to prevent people with questionable histories from being in the emergency services. Did I make any reference to condoning what happened. Apparently not. So you are alarmed, what are you going to do about it? If you have a viable solution, i would like to hear it.

Please understand that I'm not condoning any of this. The point I'm trying to make is that this is not a perfect world and we all do what we can to keep those with questionable histories out of the first responder business. It's inexcusable but to quote Forrest Gump "it happens".

With 816,600 volunteer firefighters in this country its hardly a need for alarm. These kind of things actually happen in the paid fire service as well, although not as widely publisized and just in case you haven't heard cops occasionally shoot civilians in the heat of passion or while commiting a crime as well. Read the paper or watch the nightly news and you'll see what I'm talking about.

What I meant by "don't plan on this government helping" was the current congress, White House yada, yada, yada. can't seem to tackle even the simplelist of problems. I wasn't referering to the government giving Hershy a handout. Lets take the immigration problem for instance. Is that not a national problem with epic proportions? When an uninsured American citizen can be wiped out financially due to a catostrophic illness and an illegal gets off without paying one dime in the emergency room, I would see we have an disfunctional government. Trust me I'm not unpatriotic either. I did my time in the military. Lets' face it we are falling at a fast pace. Sorry for the rant.

Don't plan on this government helping. Just imagine how many of our elected officials are stockholders in outsourced US corperations. If they are there is certainly no interest in getting these products produced in the US. Just think about our immigration problems and all that they are doing to recitfy them. Its all about the cash and the votes. Whats the matter with a little lead in your childrens toys?

An interesting article from The Sierra Times. Illegal Aliens do not Have Legal 'Citizens RightsGordon Bishop My mother’s mother came to America in the 1890s, arriving at the Ellis Island Immigration Center which still stands today next to the Statue of Liberty on the Jersey City waterfront. My maternal grandmother followed the rules for legal immigration. She had to be healthy, or she would be rejected and sent back to where she came, a port city in northern Germany. My grandmother also had to have relatives in this country and a job waiting for her. My grandmother worked at a diner in lower Manhattan, first scrubbing floors and toilets and grateful for the privilege of being an American. When my grandmother learned English within a year, she was promoted to waitress. She then moved to Franklin, New Jersey, with her new husband and had nine children, my mother being the last born of the Romyns family. My wife’s mother, Ann Turkovsky, was born in Slovakia and followed the same process as my grandmother to enter America through Ellis Island. My wife and I came from families who were legal immigrants. Why are millions of illegal aliens demonstrating and protesting in the streets of Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, New Jersey and elsewhere, while waving Mexican flags instead of American flags? They’re getting away with it because we live today in a lawless society. After a century of liberalism and political correctness, we have replaced "rule of law" with "mob rule." America’s culture is headed for an implosion, or a civil war between the "legals" and "illegals." Black Americans are on the side of "law and order." They are saying "No" to amnesty for illegals. Most law-abiding citizens of America are for the legalization of the illegals. That is, they must first obey the law before they can become legalized immigrants. But the politics of power and money are willing to disrupt or even destroy our culture for the sake of cheap labor, right or wrong. The Far Left is exploiting the showdown between the legals and illegals to garner votes for the liberal Democrat Party. Corporate America is exploiting the Legal Vs. the Illegal argument so they can hire cheap labor in order to compete with China, India and other Eastern societies that pay their workers $1 or $2 a day with no medical or pension benefits. America’s labor unions also don’t like the use of cheap labor that’s undermining their foundation in organizing workers that cost more than the illegals competing for these jobs. So there you have it. We now have a corrupt government, a corrupt corporate operation and a corrupt organized labor movement, all taking America down the road to ruin. You must know about the ruination of the Roman Empire, which lasted some 500 years. America is only 230 years old, its founding launched by the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 – Independence Day. The beginning of freedom, liberty and opportunity. Americans (the colonial settlers) won their first war sparked by a Tax Revolt against Great Britain, a monarchy that believed it could crush the isolated settlers with their mighty military, then the world’s superpower. Well, the big guys lost and little guys won. It was won under a Constitution based on the "rule of law." That Constitution has since been perverted and polluted by a century of corrupt politicians and Supreme Courts that are yielding to "mob rule." The protests by millions of illegals represent "mob rule" organized by those who are anti-war, anti-America, anti-capitalism (the free enterprise system), and, especially, anti-Bush, the leader of the free world. And who are behind these illegal mobs? Socialist and Communist organizations such as the Workers World Party and ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), and the United Peace Movement, another Communist front that exploits words like "United" and "Peace" to brainwash Americans into thinking they really represent United and Peace ideals. The liberal mainstream media promote the agenda of these Socialist-Communist organizations, including the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), a gang of liberal lawyers that really represent the American Criminal Liberties Union. If Americans don’t reclaim their federal and State Constitutions soon, we will all be under the power and control of the lawless mob. A wise Greek philosopher named Plato predicted some 2,000 years ago that "mob rule" will prevail unless the people protect and respect a Republic’s Constitution based on "rule of law." We once were the proud and great Republic of the United States of America. So much for a Republic, and so much for a Constitution. The mob is taking over America. "Published originally at www.EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact." Gordon Bishop is a national award-winning author, historian and syndicated columnist," is the recipient of 12 National and 15 State Journalism Awards, including New Jersey’s first "Journalist-of-the-Year" – 1986/New Jersey Press Association. Gordon Bishop can be reached at: GJBishop@aol.com

Not to incite a riot here, but from what I've seen, this Westchester County couldn't arrange a two car funeral. It's inept due to politics and nepotism. Would you really want Westchester County running your local fire department. It works in other states because that is the only way they've known how to do it and have been doing it for years that way. As and example, the county has been dispatching most of the departments in the county and the radio frequency issue is still an issue and where it has been fixed took several years to do so. I'll will however say that Westchester County has some of the best dispatchers I've ever seen and they got much of their experience multi-tasking an antiquated radio system. I mean no diservice to any of the other county workers, its the buracracy and politics I'm eluding to here.

I believe Rudy helped clean up the city and that is commendable. I think he was rotten to the core when dealing, or should i say not dealing with the labor unions. I think his inability to deal with the unions caused the radio problems along with a multitude of other issues that contributed to many of the first responder deaths and injuries. You have no idea how the buracracy bogs the city down. The first mayor that is able to cut through all of it will be a heroe in my eyes. In my 16 years of employment with the city, I have not seen any mayor able to topple the buracracy. Look at the current Fire Commisioner Nicolas Scoppetta former Commisioner of the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). I'm thinking his former post doesn't give him a ringing endorcement for his current position. It's all politics and it all stinks to high hell. Perhaps a better pick would have been a former bat chief or some other high ranking fire official.

WOW, cutting 10 ff will save them a whopping $4.53 a year per person based on recent census data. Perhaps eliminating 5 bean counters would save them roughly the same amount. Something to think about.

Sopranos

I couldn't agree more with that statement . I've been taking NIMS, CIMS and ICS classes for several years now, at first for my fire dept. and now for my NYC job. You are 100 percent correct in your accertion that it is an over thought mess. Each progressive class is just redundancie from a prior class with just a little more elaboration. It is micromanagement in its best description. If any of you took the old Hazardous Materials Incident Command class, in my estimation, it taught you all that you need to know about Incident Management. As for the different roles and types/classes ect... I really think that when things escalalte to that level the command structure then evolves to a state then federal level. Those officials are the ones that need to now the micromanagement. Us grunts in the field, operations or command structure are best at orchestrating the task at hand, having intimate knowledge of ones own department and area resources. If FEMA really wanted to help us they would have recognized and corrected the biggest problem emergency services face today and that is lack radio communications and interoperability. They know the problem and are reluctant to fix it due to the dollars it would cost to fix it. I beleive that if another Katrina like incident happens with NIMS/ICS educated responders will yield the same results, which were confusion and lack of communications. This by no means reflects negatively upon the responders, only the system. Just my two cents.

From what I gather the committee is looking to get a similar truck this time with a crew cab and of course up to date firematically meeting the newest requirements. Some fire district board members however are giving them a hard time after realizing that this vehicle is $160,000 +. They are trying to steer the committee towards a skid mount unit, due to lower cost. A skid mount will not meet the needs of the department. Wait till the have to replace the Mack. Class A's are approaching 400K these days.

There is a truck committee in place to replace the mini attack ENG. 139. The 68 Mack ENG. 138 will be replaced after the mini.

It's all about pride. Don't go comparing paid versus volunteer equipment. Obviously volunteers do not get paid. Our pay is the equipment in which we pride ourselves. I'm sure most towns and villages which maintain paid departments would rather pay the fire tax bill of a volly department inspite of the over the top equipment they own. That is the tradeoff. There is not much pride in ownership in owning a stripped down P.O.S. Also keep in mind that most departments keep there apperatus 15 years on average. Is a 300- 350,000 a lot of money when spread out to almost 20 years? I work as a paid hazmat tech for NYC. I can tell you that what they purchase for us is not what we want. Thank god for Homeland Security grants. I'm sure if a paid department was able to get what they wanted you might see them housing some outlandish equipment as well. With school taxes in the stratosphere and fire taxes so paultry I think this is a moot point.

I understand the whole department district concept having been a past chief. What I was infering to was a matter of respect in putting the departments name on the trucks such as Golden's Bridge Fire Department versus Golden's Bridge Fire District. It's like you are paying homage to the district when your trucks are marked with the districts name. I know it's something petty, but it bothers me. Like I stated previously the department fights the fires, the district pays the bills. As you stated the district can do whatever they want, but is that politically correct? Imagine the public perception should a district decide to abolish a departments charter.

Do you feel that fire apperatus should be emblazoned with Fire Department or Fire District? I think it should be Fire Department. The district officials aren't the ones risking their a$$e$ on calls. Putting the Departments name on the trucks honors the men and women past and present as well as the department who have dedicated their time and effort.

Even though i consider myself a die hard republican, I feel that the current Whitehouse administration is pathetic. It's not just coincidental that the oil prices went up with along with this administrations personal interest in oil. You haven't heard to much from them in regards to some kind of price controls. As for the individual states. They get more tax money as the price of fuel goes up, so do the taxes expotentially. Just my two cents.