SECTMB

My nephew is a firefighter for Henrico County.

With all due respect to anyone trying to attach historical actions, particularly those of the United States, with the current climate pervasive throughout the Middle East and the rise and expansion of radical Islam, please keep in mind that the United States is 232 years old and only engaged in extended international intervention with our involvement in WWI 95 years ago. The players in the Middle East have been at this for thousands of years. There are relationships and rivalries that we can't possibly get our heads around. What do we have for historical reference, the Hatfields and McCoys? Now throw in righteous religiosity and it goes to levels that are incomprehensible. Don't forget, maybe we 'installed' the Shah, ( the same can be said of most of the Middle East countries whose 'leaders'/royal families/potentates were put/helped into place post WWII) but what was the quality of life for the Iranian populace then vs. now and remember, we did not support the Shah either when the revolution took place. We allowed his government to fall, Carter hung him out to dry. I think I shouldn't care about whatever took place to get us to this point. I just care about what we're going to do moving forward and how are we going to prevent those who want our demise from achieving it. And make no mistake, there are many individuals out there with Napoleon complexes that want to see our way of life consigned to the scrap heap of humanity. I think some of these people are counting on a perceived pacifism on our part following two wars to advance their agenda to our detriment.

Oh my God, on that Tier plan they have to work for 22-1/2 years until they're eligible to retire, eligible to collect a half pay taxpayer paid pension for life. It's an abomination.

While we're on the subject of new firehouses, I put in a bid today for work on Norwalk's new headquarters building. What a beauty. Looks like it belongs amongst the buildings at Yale. Lots of brick and stone. Imposing structure.

DITTO, time for this dispatcher to find another career.

I also must say that this is not an out of control thread. What I think is happening in Yorktown is the ages old continuation of a narrow view and short term fixes for long term problems. Most of the comments and suggestions have been forward thinking. Volunteer ranks are diminishing for a number of reasons, most of which have to do with whose got the time when job(s) and family commitments take more time today than in the past and the demands of volunteering take much more time. Paid department ranks are diminishing as well due to budget cut backs. So it should be incumbent upon each fire department/district to give some consideration to how they might work with their neighboring departments to overcome some of the mutual problems we all face. By the way, if anybody needed a new firehouse, it's Millwood. Theirs should have been condemned years ago, and I believe was so full of building code violations they couldn't use it to host other than fire department functions. Theirs couldn't get built fast enough. But for all its size, and it's big, no bunk provisions for the inevitable advent of paid personnel, be it 5, 10 or more years from now. At least not on the plans I saw.

I will be interesting to see the plans. I keep seeing firehouse renovations and new construction, including my own, with no accommodation for bunk rooms. These firehouses are planned for service lives long into the future yet there is not long term planning for part time or permanent staff. Also, what are the numbers of Yorktown members in proximity to the new firehouse siting? Great to have a firehouse to cover a portion of the district, provided there are also members available to respond to it. I wonder if some of the more out of the way areas would be better served by a dual response.

Again, I don't disagree with your added points. However, the results speak for themselves. More $ into the school system does not relate to better student performance. Wasted money whether in CityTime, the others or the BOE is still wasted money. But, that's what politicians do best, waste money. And, the unions spend too much time protecting bad members and antiquated work rules.

I don't disagree that this may in fact be the result of trying to do more with less. It's just the new reality.

Let's blame the lawyers. And remember that most legislators are lawyers. In the 'old' days, pre 911, a person called the local police to report an odor or smoke. They sent a patrol car to check it out. Now with 911 the FD is dispatched to every single call, every single automatic alarm. Why? liability. My house burned down because you 'checked it out' before you sent the firetruck. The patient died because you checked it out first and we lost time in our golden hour. How many 'steam from the shower set of the alarm' calls to you hear? In a week? Also, before we became a nation of milquetoasts you took yourself to the hospital for most anything short of a traumatic amputation. Now you call 911 for a hangnail. I monitor the scanner while working from home and I hear the dispatches. An engine and a rescue responding to a fall down drunk, etc. etc. It used to be the cops would pick him up and take him to get help. No more. And this in districts where, if a fire call were to come in, mutual aid would be required because their on duty manpower and apparatus are tending to a drunk, etc. Volusia County is trying to cope with their issues. They're trying to find a balance between call volumes, staffing and money. What works or doesn't work for them may have no bearing on another district as each district has its own unique characteristics. Don't fault them for trying and I haven't heard a definitive plan as to how they plan to deploy these rigs. The public isn't demanding more and more services, the legislators over the years, to curry favor with the electorate created the nanny state and the public is taking advantage of it. I don't remember the exact date, but personal responsibility disappeared, I think, about 20 years ago or so. Unfortunately the public has no more money to contribute to support the system as it is today. Catch 22.

Also this week it was reported that just with the four uniformed unions, annual pension costs will exceed annual salary costs. Then there was the highly reported case of the rubber room teacher who after ten years out of the classroom continues to collect 100K in salary on his way to an 85K a year pension for life. There are 8 million people in NYC alone and only a couple of hundred thousand city, state workers. As long as the public continues to read stories of ex uniformed services employees collecting pensions twice the average annual income of private sector persons, some on disability pensions while competing in marathons, etc. and stories that 3/4 of all train conductors get disability pensions, and rubber room stories galore, the public will not rally to the defense of the unions issues. The public's attitude is going to be do more with less, just like we have to do. A four man engine crew will just have to do the same work as a five man crew, and so on. etc, etc. The unions have been their own best and worst enemy. Particularly the teachers. We have continued to spend more and more every year on the schools and yet we produce more morons than ever before with lower graduation and test scores. With the schools in particular there is no correlation between more spending and better results. In the case of the City, you can't blame Bloomberg. You need to go back to, at least, Lindsay and everyone, Mayors and Council members since and every head of every union that 'punted', 'kicked the can', etc. and failed to act responsibly. Same on all the other levels of Govt. They didn't act responsibly so we've already reached the tipping point, we're on the downside now and there isn't anybody within these groups that has the knowledge, ability and leadership to change the direction of the slide. There are just too many selfish interests to accommodate and not enough public money left to do it.

Today, so many of the apologists and agitators that fostered such violence against the police are 'respected' members of the community, the city council, local governing boards and the media. Think Rangel, Sharpton, Barron to name a few, think Ayres from Chicago and the countless other 'left leaning radicals' from the 60's and 70's that have found a welcome home in local and national government. 40 years of behind the scenes, under the radar activism from within is why were at the tipping point today.

My 'legal basis' is the recognition that there is an ambulance chasing lawyer for every situation. How hard would it be to connect the dots of delayed response due to multi agency involvement to a tragic outcome? Not very. All you have to do is make the inference that had the call gone directly to fire dispatch rather to the PD and then to the FD and you may have had a better outcome and you're on the way to a pay day. This is still the country of litigation lottery and you can always find a lawyer willing to play on you behalf.

In Briarcliff, in addition to the Village Board members acting also as the Fire Commissioners, we also have a fire council made up of the three Chiefs and 2 representatives from each of the three companies.

In Briarcliff we've never had 'wardens' that I'm aware of. The Village Board members also act the Board of Fire Commissioners.

I don't think you can equate coming upon a hostage or robbery situation with coming upon a fire. I think the immediacy of action is on very different levels. Maybe the well intended actions of passersby good samaritans had unintended consequences, maybe not. Maybe the outcome was already realized before they took action. In the wake of the tragedy I find it comforting to know that there are still people who will intervene at great personal risk to help others. Remember the video not too long ago of the passersby who banded together to lift the burning vehicle off the person. Had they waited for the FD the outcome would not have been the favorable one it turned out to be. Condolences to the family and friends of the victims and kudos to the firefighters and civilians who tried so hard to effect a different outcome.

Your problem will go away as soon as a lawsuit for wrongful death is initiated against the Village for delaying the FD's response. Its just another example of the fiefdom mentality that they can't give up their control to 60 Control.

I have two comments. 1. Ironic that today firehouse.com has an article on firefighter obesity! 2. You guys, and you know who you are, tell me some more about the greater levels of training and competency of paid 'professional' departments. Oh yea!!!

Not a mechanical or structural failure, but a Pompano, FL. died last week after falling from a 100' ladder during a training exercise.

The 'City" of Newburgh staffs two engines and one truck? My wife's family was from Newburgh and my family had business there and in the surrounding areas in the 50's - 70's. At one time it really was a 'City'.

Well, I wasn't there but I monitored 60 Control from the start. What is they say about real estate: Location, Location, Location. In this case it worked against everyone. Narrow, long street access, significant distances for responding departments, poor water supply and a big head start in a large volume structure. The size of the fire and the size of the response without any injuries I'm aware of is rather remarkable.

Ahhhhh, to be a retired Firefighter/EMT remembering how nice it was years ago before it all got ruined by unnecessary regulations and politics both inside and outside the departments and agencies. You know, when you just showed up, did your job, helped the community and went home. I'm surprised the trial lawyers association isn't giving out free camera phones for Christmas. Nothing makes a slip and fall case better than out of context video. With all due respect to those who feel their actions are "ready for my close up Mr. Demille", the wrong angle at the wrong time can make you look awfully foolish or worse, incompetent. It will be interesting to see if there is a spike in settlements for 'nuisance' claims against EMS department as a result of the proliferation of self filming by the patient, family, friend of bystander. Even if you did nothing wrong, there may be questionable action subject to interpretation on film leading to a lot of minimum dollar settlements. Win/Win for the lawyers and patients, big loss for EMS.

This is precisely what is wrong with our politicians. Wasting time on something that will go as far as the Governor's desk to be vetoed. In case you haven't noticed you elected a Cuomo as Governor. If he himself witnessed the execution style murder of someone, the most he would agree to would be life without parole. Until the populace replaces the current crop of worthless politicians with a new majority crop of like minded individuals who actually want to address and fix the real problems there will be no constructive changes. The chances of that happening are zero, the majority of voters remain either clueless or drunk on the kool-aid.

Although we've been lucky the last couple of years, when we had the one after another hurricanes a few years ago I was installing my hurricane panels and as I was fitting the shutter into the top track of the window, 7 feet above the patio deck, I saw what I thought was a gekko tail, so wiggled it to get the little guy to move out of the way. Well at the other end of the window header the head of a snake comes my way. Not a 3" gekko, a 3' snake. I have no idea how he made it vertically up the siding to perch on the window header. Until then I had no idea they could 'climb' walls.