JohnnyOV

Aside from gloves and a hood... Safety Glasses and Cutters.

Completely agree... however, no EMT class, original or refresher I've been a part of, has ever dove into the disease itself. I had to research on my own, and through working with medics the actual pathology of how and why signs and symptoms present themselves. Call me old fashioned, but I would much rather get to the root cause and understand why something is occurring, rather then just provide O2, throw them in the semi-fowlers position, and scoot them off to the hospital. Pt care upon transition from BLS to higher level could be much better served if EMT's actual understood what was causing the symptoms and why the signs were presenting themselves as such, and relay that information to the higher level. Now, instead of being just an "ambulance drive,r" you've become a valuable asset to helping this patient.

...finally

Date: 3/20/11 Time: 1903 Location: 2957 Mead St Frequency: 46.26, Fire 17, Fireground 7 Units Operating: Engine 273, Engine 271, Ladder 51, Rescue 16, Car 2531 (IC), 2532, 2533, Bedford Hills FAST TL57, Peekskill FAST, Mohegan Ladder 10 (stand-by), Somers Engine 188 (stand-by) Weather Conditions: cool, clear Description Of Incident: Fire on the 2nd story of a 40x20, wood frame, SFD. Primary search found and removed 1 victim from the 2nd floor. Fire contained to room of origin. During this incident, Somers and Mohegan took in a 2nd possible structure fire on Hitching Post Ln, while Engine 270 and Car 2532 took in an automatic alarm on Broad St. http://yorktown.patch.com/articles/elderly-woman-dies-in-yorktown-house-fire http://www.yorktownf...cfm?News_ID=298

http://chappaqua.patch.com/announcements/grand-prix-new-york-to-host-fundraiser-benefiting-mount-kisco-fire-departments-911-memorial

I mean, we are just volunteers! No one can hold us accountable. We're only trying to do out best. To quote the great Sean Connery "Your best? Losers always complain about trying your best. Winners go home and "have a nice dinner" with the prom queen"

From Westchester County's 2003 Mutual aid Plan - which by the way I found very interesting. edit: A) this is just for EMS Mutual Aid how often, and when was the last time, any agency even took a look at this plan, reviewed it, made a change, let alone audit the process? I cant go more then a quarter at work without auditing ladders before our insurance co want to drop us, so I am hoping that the 2003 revision is not the last time it was updated. It is however, the only version available from the county website. http://docs.google.c...Xxb2p3X0VDMvxuQ

What is 60's protocol if any unit gets on scene, realizes they have an MCI, and need an additional 10+ ambulances. For VAC's that have 3 buses, do all 3 get stripped, or do they call 10 different VAC's with 1 unit to respond? Either way, I'll stick to my guns of a county run paid EMS department is the way to go. edit: even if its not a VAC, but say an empress unit out of Yonkers, how many get stripped from each municipality?

For us new guys.... I'm guessing a Quad is like a quint, just without the aerial?

We can't even get departments to stretch a line through the front door, not open a ladder pipe while guys are still operating inside, or operate on the same frequency.... and you want to talk about handling a tsunami? Oh man , thank you haha.

I was amazed at an accident scene the other day, 1 out of every 5 cars had a cell phone out the window taking either pictures or video with no one paying attention to the road. Some guy was hanging out his window, both hands off the wheel stabilizing a camera, and almost took the tow truck out. People are gonna take pictures regardless of whether there is a law or not... It's like talking on your phone while driving. Everyone is still going to do it.

Not that I agree with anything that is going on with the way of stripping unions of their rights, or laying off of teachers, cops and firemen first, because I absolutely do not agree. But what are you supposed to do when there is zero money left to be spent anywhere, regardless of who's fault it is. Someone, whether its a teacher, city HR rep, secretary, janitor, garbage man, or firefighter, is going to get a pay reduction, lose their job, pay more into their benefits, change the way their pension/401K works or any combination of that. If the money is not there, it is not there. And I'm not blaming the unions at all, because I feel for the working class, as I'm in it as well, but how do you expect to get raise after raise, when the debt keeps growing in the community, state and federal budget? I haven't received a raise because my company cannot afford it. My dad lost almost all of his pension from IBM when they hit the crapper and changed to a 401K. His retirement was set back years, if not a decade or two. Was that fair to him? Absolutely not, but it was done so he could still have a job and provide for his family. He was one of the lucky ones who still maintained his job, when IBM was laying off hundreds and thousands of employees. I know it is the politicians fault, but we also have to remember we, the people, elected them into office, even if we didn't vote for them. We are ultimately responsible for how our tax money is spent, and the debt that we put ourselves in. I'll take full responsibility for voting republican (not off party line, but for personal beliefs) in our last election. Do I agree with the WI law getting passed? Absolutely not, and I am actually ashamed at how it went through. But sometimes sacrifices have to be made in order to get a budget stabilized. I dont want to see anyone lose their job, especially in public service, but times are really tough guys. We're gonna have to make some sacrifices whether we like it or not, and trust me, no one likes it. Things will get better over time.

After the last storm over the weekend, and with the impending storm coming over the next few days I got to wondering, how does your department train for water rescues in our area? I heard numerous departments go out for rescues over sunday night and monday morning and never call for a water rescue team. If you've trained to NFPA 1006 and 1670 and are proficient in technical rescues, then obviously this does not apply to you. Water rescues are an extremely high hazard, with a very low probability of occurrence. They are one of the most dangerous aspects of our job, and one that most of the fire service, unless properly trained in, have very little knowledge and experience in. I know off the top of my head that Elmsford and Yorktown have water rescue teams who are established and train for these types of scenarios on a regular basis. These are highly technical scenes, and just like a high angle rescue, entering a structure fire, or other technical scenarios, should only be preformed by trained personnel. As an example, yesterday a department was dispatched to a water rescue. The medics, who arrived on scene moments before the water rescue team did, wanted to drive their Fly Car out to the victim, who was on the hood of his car which was submerged in water, pick him up, and reverse back to dry land. Yes, this idea actually occured, however the IC put a stop to it and sent the water rescue team in to retrieve the victim. Ideas like this are bound to get an emergency service worker injured or killed at an incident like this. NIOSH, just released a report about a volunteer who was wearing the wrong PPE at a water rescue and subsequently was swept away in frigged water, drowned, and was found 4 days later down stream. ( http://www.firefight...y/newsid/130974) There are numerous resources around the county which can assist you at your incident and do so without endangering the lives of untrained firefighters. Your best best is to call them out on dispatch, and turn them around if you really do not need them.

Pretty sure my parents pay that much in school taxes a year... or at least it sure feels like it to them.

Date: 3/10/2011 Time:0623hrs Location: TSP NB, just south of the 202 overpass Frequency: Dispatch 46.26, Ops Fire 17 Units Operating: Engine 270, Rescue 16, Car 2538 (on duty LT), 34-Medic, YVAC, MVAC Weather Conditions: Raining, cold Description Of Incident: Single vehicle rollover involving a chruch van. 1 patient ejected in critical condition, 1 serious patient, 2 stable patients 0623 - 60 - control dispatching YFD, YVAC, 34-Medics to the Taconic for the rollover involving a van 0626 - Engine 270, Rescue company 16 enroute 0627 - 60-Control advising TMC reporting confirmed rollover with ejection. 0633 - Rescue 16 on location, single car MVA occupying all 3 lanes, confirming rollover, ejection and negative entrapment. 0634 - Engine 270 on location 0636 - Car 2538 requesting an additional ambulance, 4 patients total, 2 critical, 2 stable 0642 - 60 - control advising YPD unable to raise 2nd YVAC crew, contacting MVAC for mutual aid 0652 - MVAC on location 0655 - MVAC txp 2 to WMC 0734 - All Yorktown units clearing the Taconic http://www.yorktownfire.org/apps/public/news/newsView.cfm?News_ID=296 Reporters: JohnnyOV

Hopefully this vote will one day make its way to Westchester. County PSAP and centralized dispatch is the way to go, and it works with multiple departments daily operations.

In regards to cutting $100M from the federal budget.... America has borrowed, and is still borrowing more money from other Countries then we can afford. China pretty much owns us right now in their reserves. Cut useless spending on projects that do not work, force people to actually work to make money by removing welfare, remove pork barreling from bills, require companies to bring work back home and not overseas to curb their own spending. Bringing work home will allow consumers to put money back into the system, thus generating more jobs and improving our countries overall wealth.

well since you HAD to do all 105 if you cross filed, I think you're in the clear.....

I'm not talking about workman's comp, I'm talking about health covereage such as Blue Cross Blue Shield which the department would pay into on a monthly basis. By Law, since you are en employee without pay by the district, they must supply you with workman's comp coverage. No where does it say that they have to supply health benefits. And the "other tax break" is the $200 from NYS just for being a volunteer.

I think that 4 turned into 8 tonight and about 20-25 total calls. All of our rigs were handling calls will full manpower, and our base was staffed too. We stopped getting toned out and 60 was transferring the calls via radio to our base over Fire 17. edit: Over the 1.5 day period we handled approximately 50 storm related calls, 2 call outs for water rescues in which our water rescue team responded, 1 fire in a basement which was extinguished quickly, and numerous pump outs and vehicle accidents due to the weather.

I'm sure the only penalty is they'll look at the exam and say, "this guy cannot follow this simple direction.... next"

one guy who happened to be sitting behind me in my room was persistent about finishing the entire test. We kept trying to tell him before it started that he only needed to do the 60. On my way out, he was about 80 questions into the exam, with half the answers missing before it. If I remember correctly, the proctors were not allowed to help with filling out the paper work, but one kept aiding an individual.....

First let me say I am sorry for your situation, and hope all will end up well with you. As a volunteer, I must disagree with you on this. I am a volunteer. Not a semi-paid guy who wants health, dental, a pension or other benefits for volunteering my time. Once you begin to receive benefits, you no longer are a volunteer, you are a compensated employee. You volunteer your time for the love of the service, not to get the benefits on the side. The tax break, and all other "breaks" we receive, to me, diminish the whole notion of what it means to actually volunteer.

I would also have to agree. As a safety professional in a buisness/construction/property management setting, I create, implement and review different safety practices throughout our company, and have a good grasp on the "Risk vs. Benefit" of accomplishing tasks. My company has an extremely strong safety culture, one who's motto is "There is no job so important, that we cannot take the time to do it safely." Now this motto can be applied to the fire service as well, and before I get lashed out on for being "overly cautious," hear me out. Safety culture, training, pre-task safety analysis's, job hazard analysis, permits, and numerous safety controls from engineering the hazard out (first line of defense) to PPE (your last line of defense) are all items that I use, and make sure my employees are going to follow, before a job is ever started. All of this takes time, a lot of effort, and cannot be done in a safe manor if in 2 minutes a job pops up and work begins. All of this needs to be in place before the job ever starts, so everyone is on the same page. This can be directly related to the fire service too. The culture of the department will immediatly dictate how aggressive, or defensive your attack on a fire will be, and will be very hard to change throughout your career in that particular department. You can have a culture that is hell bent on training in all aspects day in and day out, keeping up with the "Jones'" when it comes to new techniques and being a very aggressive interior department, who will not stop to protect the lives property of others until you're reaching the breaking point of unsafe; or you can have a culture of well we're not going to do anything that will put our lives in jeopardy when we arrive, so we'll train by watching video after video with bare minimum hands on training. Either of the attitudes will set in motion how the outcome of the fire will play out. Once you arrive on scene, your holes are already aligned, and you pretty much know whether you will be saving the foundation, or stopping the fire at a room and contents job. By training prior to the alarm ever coming in, practicing what jobs you will be completing as the 1st/2nd/3rd due in and understanding the different dynamics of an always changing scene, you've already begun to lower your risk by a considerable amount. We have a very important job in the fire service, to protect lives and property. To me, that is the most important and job you could ever think of being employed to do. If you practice before you arrive on scene, and train as an aggressive department, you have already taken the time to do your job safely. Your OIC should have total faith that the guys he is sending to the structure are going to get the job done and know when it is time to say "Hey Chief, it's really bad in there, we need to get out." If there is any doubt in his mind, then we haven't taken the time before the job came in to explain how the job needs to be operated. Any fireman should be able to roll up to a scene, look at the situation presented to him and immediately say either "We're gonna get a good stop on this, or we've lost the house already." That comes with training and experience, not being over cautious. Even in the fire service "There is no job so important, that we cannot take the time to do it safely." Train every day brothers, even if its just driving down the street and thinking about apparatus placement. I hope my ramble makes any sense at all.

entry made, fire got bigger, exit made