dwcfireman

I heard White Plains might be getting a fourth ambulance now that Transcare is no longer in New Rochelle.

Call me ignorant, but what is the difference between Pelham and Palham Manor? I'm truly not familiar with them. And what is the paid staffing like with either department?

I gave you a like, Jim, because it's definitely something that's gone to the wayside. A lot of members won't reply to posts, and then they get to the point where they read and just move on. It's like looking at Facebook all day....eventually you just see a few posts and move on. But sometimes there's a great topic and some awesome information that comes across the threads, and no one acknowledges that they were there, that they read anything! I'm just as guilty of this, as sometimes I'm just catching up on things or just reading a few threads before I have to run out the door. But, you're right. We should be acknowledging each other a little more with that tiny blue button in the lower left corner.

Yes, he Should. umm....Sentence fragments? Just because the largest and most professional FD in the world does or doesn't do something doesn't mean that we all should follow suit. It's always dangerous on the fire scene, especially with all of the plastics and other crap that is burning. Remember the picture of FDNY putting out a garbage truck fire with no SCBA on? There's crap in there I don't want to smell when it's NOT on fire! If there's smoke, put on your SCBA!! If there's any chance at CO poisoning, put on your SCBA!! If there's any chance that you're going to inhale something you shouldn't, put on your SCBA!!

I heard it grazed his eye....Then most likely an over-reaction to the situation.

The "buddy Breathing" device is great for FAST teams so they can connect a fresh bottle to you when the arrive, all without disturbing your air flow. The fact that you can dip into someone else's air supply should be made illegal! I'd rather drag you out with almost no air than have you take half of mine....and that's not me being selfish. I don't want to see a LODD, And never do I want to see 2 at once. "Buddy breathing" can be extremely dangerous if you are not ready for it.

My department mixed F500 in all of our water cans. The stuff works wonders! As far as this fire, it looks like a fuel line burnt off. A CO2 extinguisher can also be used effectively in this situation, especially if you take a foam extinguisher or F500 and get some into the gas tank itself.

Is it just me or do Long Island fire departments not know how to us SCBA?

Let's face it....the MUTUAL AID system is broken in many areas around the country, for fire, EMS, and police. The only option we're truly stuck with is making the best of it, and trying to fulfill our obligations to our neighbors. With the way things are going today, that is "more with less," we are never going to be able to fulfill our duties to our neighbors without some sort of sacrifice. I personally think that billing our neighbors is wrong, and it's only going to produce more problems down the road. What we should be doing is getting on the bandwagon, recruiting more personnel, petitioning politicians for better funding, and getting our butts out there and doing what we do best: OUR JOBS! I'm not saying that the volunteers should drop everything else in life to go on more calls, and I'm not saying that the career guys need to cover all of the other calls. Let's step up and do what we need to do to service our communities!

A lot of gas calls are more than just internal problems. There is an aging infrastructure, and there are still the annoyance calls because appliances aren't installed correctly. Combined, they are taking a toll on the emergency services system. There is no immediate fix. We're going to be going on these calls a lot, for a long time.

They said they received mutual aid 5 times. How many times did they request it versus how many times they received it? If there's a huge difference in those numbers then a problem exists somewhere in the system.

Wow! Definitely makes you want to sharpen your skills and be on your toes!

Does the article go on to mention how many times Metro called for mutual aid into their area?

Ummm...Where is the hoseline?

Unfortunately, consolidation or reorganization is a tough thing to talk about (as this has been discussed in several circles over and over again on this site). So, my suggestion is to start small. What if you start with more dual responses for certain types of calls? I have a good example of how we can start small: In the town of Livonia (Livingston County), there are 3 departments; Livonia, Lakeville, and Hemlock. Livonia has a lot of members and money, Lakeville has few members and a lot of money, and Hemlock has few members and little money. Consolidation was briefly discussed, but ultimately shut down. The solution, however, was a dual response plan for structure fires and MVA's with reported entrapment. The dual response is 24/7, and immediately places 3 engines, 2 tankers, and a ladder on a structure assignment; a MVA with entrapment gets 2 engines with a third on standby (either Lakeville or Hemlock, depending on which side of the town it's on). So, a structure assignment, assuming 3 or 4 firefighters per rig (not counting the tankers) gives you 9-12 firefighters on the initial assignment. This is enough to get a strong attack started upon arrival. Moral of the story: Consolidation/reorganization doesn't have to be an immediate thing. You can start small and work together with your neighbors to start filling the holes.

I heard that the fire house next door has some nice decorations on the window, too.

I saw one up in Rochester last week. They were definitely training with it since there's a lack of the white stuff right now. Michigan DOT has been using these for a few years now, and they seem to be working great for them.

The best way to use your bailout device is to never be in that situation in the first place. The free flowing fire like this one is not the point where you should use a bailout device, rather, like STAT213 said, a ladder could have placed more efficiently regardless of whether a line was being stretched up or the firefighter was coming down. Thankfully our PPE protects us for a short while so we can gain our bearings, make the urgent radio call, and make a safe egress. Now....Why did this firefighter take off his gloves while he was INSIDE a burning structure?

As an officer I just use the apparatus designation, such as, "Ladder 1 Responding." If we beat a chief officer, or there is no chief responding, I simply say, "Ladder 1 is on location, *initial scene size up*, establishing Main Street Command." I do this for two reasons: The first is that it really doesn't matter whether I call my officer designation with the rig or not. I know that I am capable of dealing with most calls, and the chiefs will recognize my voice on the radio. Secondly, sometimes the dispatcher gets a little confused, and inputs in the computer that TWO units are responding rather than just ONE. I've noticed this while doing the BFIRS that an extra chief car gets added when in fact that officer was on the first due apparatus (I'm calling you out, Captain!). Plus, there's always the chance that there isn't an officer in the front seat. It may be a senior firefighter with no official designation. That firefighter is also capable of dealing with most calls, and smaller departments tend to rely on these senior firefighters when officers aren't around. But, it's really up to your departments SOG/SOP or your personal preference. I understand some departments like or require it because it "officially" places a qualified individual on the scene, but at the same time it's not a necessary piece of information.

As far as I know this happens between the bridge and Old Orchard St.

You and I both know very well that we've been up and down that road with their admin...lol. Nothing will change. From the FD side, we at one point started fining them every time we responded for avoidable automatic alarms and malicious pulls. As far as EMS, I seriously doubt they would ever contract a private service (and I'm sure Transcare/Empress/whoever won't want a contract there). NWP is covered by Valhalla VAC for EMS calls. NWPFD only responds to ALS calls (essentially when the 37 Medic is also dispatched), and there are a handfull of members that are EMT's. Protocol is that an EMT must be present for E74 to respond to an EMS call.

My statement about the Verizon tower is kind of a sideways joke about how advanced technology isn't ALWAYS 100% reliable. Where I live in relation to my fire house (which is not Armonk, btw) I cannot hear the siren most days, so I'm indifferent as to whether my department continues to operate the siren. There are, however, members in my department that reside in dead spots where the pager will beep, but no audible voices, just static. These few people thus rely on the siren to indicate that this is not a test or announcement. Then again, if it's at 2AM it's probably not a test or an announcement. We can banter back and forth all day of whether the siren should stay or not, but my honest opinion is that we cannot solely rely on a single technology to notify volunteers of an alarm. There needs to be some redundancy in getting the word out to everyone. I'm not saying that the siren has to be one of them, but we do need more than one way of alerting volunteers of an emergency. I know we have pagers, tex messaging, responder software, etc, but some departments may still require the siren as their secondary means of notification.

Definitely an interesting concept.

I remember when I was an officer in HFD that no one would show up for these calls. We could get L56 up there with a crew of 3 on average, and it was always awful. The kids never respected us, and we started to refuse a response until PD was on scene. We even worked with the staff to do fire prevention programs, mostly to prevent kids from pulling the alarms, but that had little effect. And the EMS calls are 99% of the time either EDP or assaults. No wonder volunteers stopped showing up for the calls....total BS....but a few of us kept responding because someone had to. Now I'm seeing the effect with 1606 Old Orchard Street. No one wants to waste their time for another BS commercial alarm, and the County doesn't seem to care enough to fix that alarm. The frequent flyer calls are a waste of taxpayer money and a waste of time for the volunteers that respond. And there is no way you're going to entice responders to respond if they know it's going to be the same old story. On one side you have this annoyance that you don't want to deal with, and the other there is still a duty to respond to make sure that the building is still not on fire. It's the very definition of crying wolf, and it's going to hurt someone someday.

I know some areas in North Castle are definitely dead spots. And I can actually stand on the Verizon tower at the airport with my phone in hand and have NO service!