JohnnyOV

I just found this gem: "Westchester County EMS Mutual Aid Plan - Rev. 2003." Aside from already knowing that, god forbid, some massive MCI occurs, it will be mass and utter chaos for 99% of the county, when was the last time this plan was even looked at or reviewed? When was the last time, other then a county airport drill, have EMS department hosted or participated in an MCI drill? Do the leaders of VAC's even know about this plan, and has the plan been disseminated down to the EMTs who will be the first on scene of a major incident? Biggest question is, has this plan ever even been tested? Anywhere? Who will fill the shoes of Medical Command, EMS Operations, EMS Safety etc etc. as listed in the plan? Who in any VAC has this required training? God forbid there is a plane crash on final, shortly after takeoff from KHPN, the home department is in for one heck of a day... Time for shameless plug - A county run EMS program needs to happen MutualAidPlanDec03-v5.pdf

This, hands down, will change everything. Watch the short video, and I'm sure you'll agree. My favorite part would be the visual exit path.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q...V+Pager+details one of my favorite internet trolling websites

Its News 12. They were circling over my job at about 11am this morning at Rt 134 and the TSP, took of to the north east, then cut back west towards Cortlandt.

2009 - Property Tax income: -1.20% from 2008 2009 Budget 2010 - Property Tax Income : -3% from 2009 2010 Budget 2011 - Property Tax income: +/-0% from 2010 2011 Budget 2012 - Property Tax income: +/-0% from 2011 2012 Budget

That and todays huge + $4 Billion WTC rise in costs over the last 4 years

This should be Yorktown/MA FASTeam (Bedford Hills, Croton, Peekskill, Mount Kisco, Ossining, Mohegan) on the intial report of a structure fire.

Put it back and close the barn door there buddy....

Since people are making it personal, I have been. I've been an EMT for almost 6 years, worked as an EMT while I was in school, personally started a campus based EMS response where I used to volunteer as an EMT, and recently I finally had a CPR save of someone who was a resident of our district in a parking lot that I just so happened to be in the area of . Did I feel great about the save? Absolutely. But my personal butterfly feel good feelings is not enough to justify adding another 1300 alarms to my department a year, which would bring our totals to almost 2100 calls a year. For an all volunteer department with no "staffing," it would burn everyone out in a month. Aside from the burnout, you're still taking firemen or two away who could respond to an alarm, which we're typically doing 3 a day of, and having them babysit while they wait, with a cop and a medic, on an ambulance from 2 towns over. In career departments, you're reducing the manpower of a company to have them respond on an ambulance or a utility, or removing an entire company out of service if you're doing first response, with no extra manpower to back fill additional apparatus, unless you're doing call backs for ems runs. Some departments even remove 2 from either the engine or truck and have them staff the ambulance when an EMS run comes in, and leave the remaining crew to operate reduced manpower... now try and explain the good in that to me? The fire department was created with the intent of extinguishing fires, saving lives and protecting property from fire. Some change is good, and being trained in EMS is one of them. But placing EMS as a priority over a proper fire response, which is exactly what is occurring, is not one of them.

Then we should also learn the basics of law enforcement and be cross trained in that as well, because at some point, we'll deal with more then just a fire code violation such as a drunk, a violent person, child abuse, domestic violence, drug addiction... (that's sarcasm for those who can't recognize it) I completely agree that firemen should know first aid/CPR, have their CFR, or maybe even EMT. If your department can handle the work load and have the appropriate backup of sending an entire company out to an EMS run, all the more power to you. Just don't do it in a way that jeopardizes your response for your primary function...

That is not what I am saying at all... That's a complete strawman argument and you know it. Currently we have fire departments building fire engines around EMS transporting jobs. What happens when the first due engine company (and mind you its the only fire company for miles) is tied up transporting a taxi ride, and a structure fire comes in? Volusia County, FL and many others have taken the disgusting option of doing this. Removing FIREFIGHTERS from their primary role of rescuing life, and protecting property, to becoming a cash money machine for the government by transporting patients. They already overtook the contracted county ambulance company, and turned them into a department of the county, why deplete your resources even more. Hell, lets not stop there, lets add a pump panel to a garbage truck, and cross train the sanitation workers to do Fire since they're always out on the road. Pick one job and stick with it. Theres a reason many places try to cross train their cops as firemen, and visa versa, and when it fails, they revert back to the old system. Someone's life or property is going to be lost because the firemen were busy dealing with a passed out drunk somewhere, or the cops were on a V&T stop with 1 in custody and unable to respond to a call that would typically be handled by a fire department. If you want to send firefighters on life or death medical calls based off an EMD dispatch, that's your departments choice and I hope a good risk / benefit analysis was done off it. But to either break up a company like many places do, or place an entire company on every single medical call, unavailable to respond to their primary function, in my eyes, is ludicrous.

FIRE Department, 'nuff said.

Latent Hotair Violations - Comes from talking on the radio for too long and not knowing whether to say Tanker or Tender

Awesome, thanks

This is an opinion piece. Is there a factual article to go along with this? edit: to go along with this part, "The Bloomberg administration has taken the radical — and necessary — step of accusing a federal judge of out-and-out bias in his rulings on alleged racial discrimination in Fire Department hiring." If it's true, and I sure hope it is, that's a huge step... I just want to see some proof because I haven't heard anything about it.

Ahh to be young and naive. I might be young too, but I know that there is a huge difference between what OFPC's recommends on volunteer training (remember NYS is a home rule state, so FF1 is not required), and FDNY's career academy. The volunteers do not go through the FDNY academy, which would make is almost impossible for them to fit seamlessly into the FDNY's operations. The last thing the FDNY is worried about, are these volunteer companies taking away their jobs. They're worried that their standards and training requirements are not kept up as adequately as the FDNY's, which could endanger the lives of the citizens and responders even more. They "pick on them" because the fail to produce training requirements, or certificates of their members to the FDNY to show that they are all adequately trained. Everyone might love cake, but that doesn't mean cake is good for you.

You are correct. A town cannot run any type of fire protection in NYS. They have no power or levy over the operations of the district as they are two separate governing entities. All they are allowed to do, is collect the taxes that the district asks for, and hands the check over to them each tax year. I'll use Yorktown as an example: The Yorktown Heights Fire Department, does not exist. The Yorktown Heights Engine Company Number 1, which is a social organization that supplies the manpower, and the Yorktown Heights Fire District which sets the operating budget and purchases all the equipment and apparatus for the Engine Company members to use exist. They work in operation together to provide fire protection for the town, but in the legal sense, are no way a department of the town, or a department at all. The Chief answers to and works closely with the Board of Fire Commissioners of the district I'm pretty sure I have this right, but Cities and Villages have an actual Fire Department in their government (a department of 'The city of X" = X fire department). The Croton Fire Department, is an actual department that falls under the Village of Croton - on - Hudson and subsequently answers to the Village Board which sets its expenditures at the recommendations of the Chief of the department. As a real mind turner, they also contract out with parts of Cortlandt for Fire protection. There is no "Fire District" line per se. This is why when Tarrytown had their LODD, the Village was slapped with "Serious Violations" from PESH,"The Village of Tarrytown exposed the employees of the FD (Fire Department) by not developing a permit-required confined space entry program, or provided the necessary training." (http://tarrytown.pat...-manhole-deaths) Had this happened in a town with a fire district, the town itself would have 0 liability. edit: if consolidation were to occur, there would have to be one large Fire District. i.e. "The Northern Westchester fire District" which could span across towns and villages (I'm not sure about cities).

Yeah, sorry. The E911 at the PD station. Our FD alarms co's are issued the7 digit number routed to 60-control, much like others. My point was kinda off topic, but just a huge gripe I have with the overall way 911/notification is run in this county, and I was just venting. Sorry for the confusion I know of one or two departments that do this already, which is the way it should be done if communications are going to continue to be run this way.

Them being notified first helps justify keeping the PSAP at the PD station. Why give up a PSAP for the benefit of public safety, when you can score oodles of money from the government for running one.... hence the 50-60ish PSAPs in the county.

Great point. Just because the home is tied into the domestic water system, and using sewers to waste removal, doesn't mean that there isn't an old cesspool or disbanded well hidden under the lawn. Places like Long Island are riddled with them, and jacking a truck on top of them could lead to disastrous results.

should be investing in one of these next...

Depends. Sometimes you just need to worry about the tow later, and get the job immediately done right. I can think of a couple spots where I would rather beach my engine in the rear of a property where there's a hydrant to make a quick attack and worry about getting it towed out later, rather then stretching almost 600 - 1000' of hose line to the fire...

I refer you to.... Beaching The Front Lawn

Hence while my next car is going to be a Ford as soon as this lease is up. That, and they're coming out with some fantastic options and very reliable cars now.

After almost 90 pages of discussion, can someone lay out on here what each plan actually entails? Just purely factual information, no hearsay or speculations. After 90 pages everything almost blends into one big idea.