SECTMB

The ultimate responsibility belongs to the owner/operator of the vessel. There needs to be a properly sized PFD for each and every occupant of the vessel. 27 persons on a 34 foot vessel is too many. As it sank where were the adults who should have been looking out for these children? Could not each child have gone into the water with one or more adults tasked with making every effort to care for that child? This is just another inevitability that came to pass. Oh, how soon before the lawyers come in to sue the vessels' manufacturer for a perceived defect?

The cost of a residential sprinkler system in a home of this size and value is negligible. Aside from local building and FD not pushing for them, I don't understand why the insurance companies aren't advancing the notion. By the way, that's pretty funny (ironically) that the lawn sprinklers activated during the alarm.

So, as despicable as the 'youths' are and as deserving of as much condemnation as possible, how about a shoutout to their parents? Nice job raising some future participants in our legal system. If this is how they interact with a 68 y.o. woman while in Middle School, wait a few years, I'm sure we'll hear from them again.

Had not previously heard that Croton Falls was getting a ladder. Anyone know what station it will respond from? I spent a couple years there, worked out of the North Salem station, good bunch of people.

Don't get so excited, relax, have a glass of Kool-Aid.

While it is easy to appreciate the 'lessor of two evils' and 'none of the above' not voting may get you the greater of two evils and I'd rather have the lessor of the two evils than the greater. I could rant for thousands of words but, bottom line, I intend to vote for Romney. He has held high public office but he has not spent his life as a career politician feeding from the public trough. I find him to be more decent, honest, genuine and competent than our current President and if he is elected along with another large turnover of older politcians in both houses of Congress, we may be able to get some solutions and actions to correct some of what has gone awry in our country. Regardless of party, the entrenched occupants of Congress fail year after year to address and fix anything. They just keep rolling along, rolling over the populace.

How is this apparatus manned?

36 years of service. Just shows how tenuous life is when you answer the call, and your always at risk for your entire career. Yesterday a 26 year Sheriffs Lt. and a canine were shot in Palm Beach County. The Lt and the the canine will both survive. The perp had just killed his girlfriend. He did not get the chance to end it himself, additional deputies caught up with him and he was killed.

Regardless, love the fire station, at least from its architectural appearance.

It should go without saying that it is a primary concern to keep the companies open. And, I suppose having some sort of advertisement from a Hospital or health care provider could be done tastefully. But if it works, how long before we have condom, tampon or hemorrhoid ads on apparatus, chief's cars and police cars. How about ads for a funeral home or cemetery on the ambulances? Bottom line, it takes away from the professional image that so many work so hard and risk their lives to further and sustain. Really, isn't there so much fraud, abuse and waste in any municipal budget that they can't find the money or have enough principles to stand up for the priority services the City needs?

I would not be surprised to find more to the story forthcoming. These were not large homes, in the sense that the loss of three would leave 50 homeless. They look rather close together so a heavy fire load, if it started in the middle house, could easily spread to the adjacent structures. Even though Perth Amboy was able to provide a career response, given the early morning time, if it had a good start, or a helping hand, they were probably confronted with a heavy volume of fire at the outset and the initial priority to establish the whereabouts of the residents.

So, you didn't get hired ten years ago when you failed the written test. So you are now entitled to back pay for those 10 years? If so do they reduce the amount of back pay by what you have been making at another job vs what you would have made as a firefighter? And if your African American, you are also entitled to compensatory damages for not being able to enjoy being a firefighter? Bnechis can you sort this out please, it's a little mind boggling.

California is broke, can't afford the gas for SUV's. They should all be driving Prius vehicles to save the gas money and bow to the demands of the California elites that want to avert climate change. Good luck with that. Besides, you don't need that much room anyway. In NY when was the last time you saw a 225#, 6'2" State Trooper? Only if its a guy with 25 or 30 years in and about to retire because 30 years ago that's all they hired.

Sounds like this will be fodder for a Criminal Minds episode in the future. The first ten minutes of the local nightly news are usually "breaking news" stories of some crime or another and many are rather horrific. Whatever you may think about the Zimmerman/Martin case, if you watched the news down here you would be pre-disposed to gun ownership.

How about just calling it Beacon Engine 933. Isn't that really plain enough? That's why I do like Westchester's apparatus id over Rockland, Putnam etc. It's much more in line with plain speak.

It would seem to make simple sense to identify an apparatus by its primary function even though it may provide additional specialty functions such as extrication or cascade capabilities for example. We seem to be specifying apparatus to do more functions so maybe it is time to define the term Squad and identify the apparatus that falls into that category accordingly. And, I'll never get the hang of identifying Putnam County apparatus. That numbering system escapes me.

Over the years, the populace has become dumbed down and complacent. Look at any of those man in the street interviews and you can't but agree that we have become a country with an enormous amount of morons, no thanks to our educational system, but that's a rant for another time. The old saying is that 'you can fool some of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time'. Today's problem is that the 'some of the people' you can fool some, and all of the time, is now a majority. Most of our elected officials serve without the proper foundation and knowledge for the job which they been elected to do. When that lack of knowledge is recognized, there is no accountability, just re-election over and over again. Do you know how many members of Congress thought the Electoral College was where you went to learn how to be elected and serve as a member of Congress? Pathetic. This is why I have always been in favor of term limits. Those opposed to term limits say the voters can enact term limits each election day by voting in another candidate. Well, fine for a local or statewide election, but what about the politicians from other states who's actions impact our lives and for which we have no recourse but to stand by as their local constituents send them back to office year after year. Then when term limits are enacted, like in NYC, the first order of business for the new session is how to overturn them. Money has corrupted the process. I thought it was one person, one vote. So I'm in favor of absolutely no corporate money, no PAC money in elections. If a company or organization has an issue it wants to support or oppose, impress that upon it's employees or members and they can take that to the ballot box with them. Only individual, limited personal contributions we make it a level playing field. Elected officials were meant to represent the people, not corporations or organizations. Outside of overt illegality such as corruption, elected officials are immune from accountability for the consequences of their decisions and actions. Our system of governance and justice may be the best in the world, but it could sure use a good cleaning right about now. The buck doesn't stop anywhere anymore, it just keeps bouncing off everyone and its not going to change until the populace wises up and rises up to force our representatives and our news medias to do their jobs, tell the truth and remember that this country started with "We The People".

As members of the FD or EMS we are sometimes privy to incidents in our Villages that sometimes do not receive much public notice. I think the general public would be very surprised about some of the things that occur in their neighborhoods. With regard to crimes, you and your neighbors need to be alert and aware of out of the ordinary activities and make the appropriate notifications to the authorities. Complacency and indifference are a big help to the bad guys. Watching out for each other is still a great deterrent to crime.

And while you're at it, bring back Jon and Ponch, maybe move station 51 to the beach, house it with a lifeguard station and satellite CHP station. That's a show.

If you think its disconcerting now, wait until Bloomberg is gone. God help you all, providers and taxpayers alike.

It says the additional suspects were arraigned on felony robbery and burglary charges. Will these charged be upgraded? I thought participants in a crime resulting in a death were charged with murder regardless that it was a Trooper that caused the death in the performance of his duties. Also interesting that the news article states there was frequent traffic at the location late at night and early in the morning. Might be a few more twists to this story. Glad the Trooper got the drop on the bad guy before he figured out the rifle could be used as other than a club.

In the mid 70's I traveled around the country visiting major university and corporate research facilities. I spent my down time at the local firehouses. Report from Engine 82 was out and buffing was big. I would drop in at a station, identify myself as an officer of my engine company in Westchester County, the immediate County north of New York City, and you were a most welcome guest. At most stations I was allowed to ride along. Cleveland, Columbus, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Salt Lake, San Francisco, LA, Houston, San Antonio, Miami, Denver and many more. I did this for a couple of years so I got to visit the same stations repeatedly. That was a long time ago though and the fire service was much different than today. I doubt the flexibility afforded to me then would be available in todays more strictly regulated departments. I will still stop into a station I come across from time to time and I have always found the firefighters to be friendly and anxious to show off their stations and equipment. Once though they actually made a photocopy of my DL and FD ID, post 9-11 before letting me tour the station. Wherever I went, everyone was friendly and you could pick up a lot of knowledge listening to their stories and observing their methods.

What is the State (the politicians) going to do to reduce these mandates? They're not going to do anything, they never do! But why should they? They keep getting re-elected over and over and over again regardless of their lack of accomplishments or their complicity in overt or alleged criminal self serving activities. We've talked a lot on these forums about the effect of public employee pensions on the system, but that's just a piece of the entire framework of the public budgetary system that needs to be addressed to fit into the new economic reality. How can any municipality function and provide service when 75% of their budget is out of bounds and subject to continued change for which they have no input? I don't have any answers, I just don't think you can find enough intelligent, selfless politicians on the local, regional or national level to initiate the reforms and changes necessary to bring about the stability that is needed. There is too much devisivness and animosity amongst our 'leaders'. The one thing you could say about Ronald Reagan, whether you agreed with him or not politically, was that he cared more about the country than he cared about himself. Who can you say that about today? Very few and not enough to make a difference. You know, sometimes you can't stop the train wreck. You just have to watch it and then help out as best you can when it's over. That's my analogy for our budget woes, they're a train wreck, and we'll just have to deal with the aftermath, as ugly as it will be. It's harder for the people on this forum to deal with these problems. We can't say "sorry your house burned down, but there's only so much we can do since the budget cuts, too bad" The people here take what they do much more to heart than most people take their jobs. On a not totally unrelated issue talked about on these forums with regard to municipal budgets, down here the Palm Beach County Sheriffs office will be making a pitch next week to take over (absorb) the 160 officer Boynton Beach Police. Some council members are in favor, some not, but it's a growing trend down here and the County has absorbed many municipal fire and police departments in the last several years as a way to save their budget dollars.

I think you're missing some of my points or I'm just not offering enough clarity. Paid or not, there must be personal accountability. The public is witness to screw ups by paid and volunteer, remember the ESU guy that dropped the car back onto the motorcyclist some months ago? I know that some people in our village, those that moved out from the City, had no clue the FD was volunteer, staffed by their neighbor. I personally tend to be more aware of my actions when I wear an FD shirt just because I wouldn't want to do anything that reflected poorly on the department or the service as a whole. Same with driving, your blue light identifies you as an FD member and if the person grants you the right of way, fine, if you blow their doors off or otherwise act like an a**, it reflects poorly on everyone else in the FD. But there are lots of improprieties that have involved the paid departments and that knife cuts both ways. I have acknowledged elsewhere that the paid departments are under budget attack as are the volunteer departments fund raising efforts. These are hard times for everyone. Its great to want everyone to have the same standardized training, but I think the volunteer departments have reached the tipping point. Our formerly up and coming young members are leaving as their outside careers get underway because they can't afford to live in our village. Those that can afford to move in are not the volunteer firefighter type so memberships are declining and you have the corresponding effect on manpower and response. Other, established members continue to try to juggle jobs, family and volunteering. Jobs and family come first. So, as I said previously, its all changing, like it or not, and I see an expansion for career departments coming, just out of necessity. Municipalities are just going to have to bite the bullet and make the choices between adequate emergency services and non emergency services.

Its been an interesting forum topic. But, in the end, with regard to the driving, does it really matter whether an accident occurs with a volunteer driving a POV or a volunteer or career member driving a dept. apparatus or command vehicle? Not to the person who gets injured. Everyone is subject to the rules of the road and if you drive like a jerk, well paid or not, you're still a jerk and you shouldn't be allowed the responsibility. With all the other stuff, no one, not even myself, is ever going to successfully argue that someone whose full time career affords them the time and opportunity to achieve experience and skills that others can only attempt on a part time basis will not perform the job to a potentially higher level, standard if you like. I also have no problem accepting that eventually, due to lots of factors, most Westchester villages will have to transition to career departments. I was a member of three different village volunteer departments and I am well aware of all the pros and cons that have ever been posted on these forums. I now live in a village with a career department and I take some reassurance in knowing that two miles to my North, Station 20 is staffed with three firefighters and two paramedics, as is Station 27 two miles to my East. I will again state, however, that I believe our career brethren do not truly appreciate how difficult it is to be a volunteer these days. Despite the 'different' standards, the training requirements, per OSHA, have increased over the years, and changes in technology with regard to fire load and extrication practices, have changed and keeping up with all this takes much more time than it did previously. Call volume, particularly EMS and AFA responses have increased exponentially over the years. And EMS calls take longer due to the amount of paperwork required. We don't have the 'luxury' of setting aside time for a specific shift. 24/7 we have to drop whatever else we were doing and respond. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, bathing the kids, mowing the lawn, washing the car, work, study, sleeping, whatever. And, that brush fire, car fire, structure fire, MVA or whatever isn't going to be any different just because we're volunteers. One of the big issues on the forums these days is response, or lack of. I believe the principal reason behind the lack of response, in many instances, is precisely because the demands of your professional and private lives does not allow enough time to adequately volunteer your time to the FD. This is why I feel that there will continue to be a decline in volunteerism and a move toward career staffing, starting, as it has with EMS, by having minimum paid staffing during the weekdays. This is the basis for my rub with all the volunteer firehouses being built or renovated and not making accommodations for crew quarters. When my nephews joined up, I told them I thought that they would be the last generation (five in our family) to be volunteers in our area. I still think that will be the case. The changes will come, over time, in some places sooner than later, in some easily in others kicking and screaming. But they will come.