Boss159

My take on the video, the traffic light turned green for traffic going the opposing direction from the ambulance a split second after the crash, my guess is the driver of the car was trying to beat the light, that being said, the crew should have exercised more caution entering the intersection. a good reminder on how intersections should be approached, with tons of caution....

Somewhat related to this topic, I have noticed a more than usual 'lack of knowledge' in new and newish EMT's, I am not really sure if it is due to the lack of understanding due to the cultural changes in society, or the 'dumbing down' of these programs to the basic minimum to pass the tests, I know the saying goes class is just the beginning the real training happens on the street, but it seems that it's worse than it's ever been.

I am for conslodation for man power issues not like the "in debt to its ears" department pushing merging in my area with the departments whos budgets are balanced and in the black. However this is where I see the VFD's in NY in the next ten years in my area at least, is paid staff, either contracted aka Wackenhut ect or paid staff of a county list, the type of people in my area 'expects' to have FD as soon as they dial 911 and can't understand the concept of volunteering, the demagraphics have changed big time over the last 10-15 years, and the ones who do volunteer don't have the same sense of pride or work ethic that I have or others had in the past, It's slowly dying.

From my limited knowledge of the town is that it is very large, as for each individual district i do not know, However if you take the 8.8 million and divide by 12 then you get $733,333 average per department, that to me is a lot of money, in my small department that's a new engine, rescue and brush truck all at the same time with money left for a new chiefs car. Two years with that much money its land and a new firehouse, then a ladder the following year and so on, granted that does not include utilities, fuel and such, but i am sure they can cut some of their budgets and do a few more boot drops and events to raise money like we do.

Wish all involved a speedy recovery! Now my two cents: According to the news report in the video, they crashed in the driveway of the house they were going to for a deck fire, Although there was not a good angle of the trucks involved the one that you could see had some serious damage to the officers side of the cab. So my question is why the hell were they going fast enough to cause that much damage pulling into a driveway? No doubt 'tunnel vision' was in play in this incident, even if the one truck didn't see the house and was cruising past the other driver should have been aware that the truck was not turning into the driveway, This is easily preventable! Driver training, Requalification what have you, or just taking the second to think and look. On a lighter note, this is why the Chief should drive nothing bigger than a Tahoe!!

What I didn't read is, are they District run or membership owned house? either way shouldn't they be getting tax or contract money from the village, town, county, state? If so where the respective auditors? Is the Chief the end all be all of the company, is there board of directors, commissioners, membership? There are grants and fundraisers, I am a fourth generation member of a small FD and to the best of my knowledge they never had to get a bank loan for equipment, it was always covered by fundraisers, grants, tax or contract monies. Maybe we have been just lucky, or better money management.... lots of questions, not enough answers in that article... or maybe i missed it.

Well, I was sent the announcement of assistant fire coordinator, Hopefully someone gets it that has a clue and gets some things done, good luck to whoever gets it cause they will be one busy S.O.B. LOL BTW the announcement is here if anyone wants to apply https://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CivilServiceInformationSystem/ApplicantWeb/Public/frmAnnouncementList.aspx deadline of 2/18

In my opinion totally wrong person for the job, and i do believe one of the requirements was to be a Dutchess resident. Yup it is here is the line pulled directly from the announcement "Residency requirement in Dutchess County is mandatory." I did save the Email from the county.

I guess my two cents is, prevention, the only way to stop valves, pumps and hose from freezing is educate the community. Easier said then done in the broke economy, homeowners and occupants using whatever means to keep warm, but every little bit helps. Stay safe and warm out there fellow brothers and sisters.

Rhinecliff (Dutchess)2010-194 2009-210 Fire and EMS

I totally agree, isn't that what taxes are for? This will lead to more hit and run accidents in my opinion, why stick around and be forced to pay because a engine rolled, whats next bill Ala cart, well $490 for minor injury, $2000 for cutting you out, oh and by the way we need to check your credit before we start. If you wreck and get transported by EMS the auto insurance picks up the tab. This is just another sign of total mismanaged and misguided politicians, trying to put a band-aid on nuclear warhead timed to explode. As far as EMS charging for service and Fire not, if its a municipal system in my opinion it should be fully covered by taxes, with a per capita 'pay in' from health insurance companies that operate. I will explain lets just say for discussion there are 10 health insurance providers in city xyz those carriers pay in to a pool to off set EMS costs, thus supporting the tax base, and not having to pay out to ambulance services. If privates are involved a signed contract for the service area should entitle them to the same benefits. that's a short version to my 'solution' should keep everyone funded and costs down for insurance. that is my two cents... It will get much worse

I am pretty sure you are correct on that,from what i have heard, doesn't health quest still retain the CON's from Alamo and Sloper as they were the parent company?

In northern Dutchess county it is rare that reporters even leave the office for incidents in the area, rather call the Firehouse 20,000 times while everyone is still on scene requesting information from the answering machine. I have had on a few occasions updated the local papers with incident detail only to read the article the next day and have it completely wrong, and very obvious that the reporter was not even listening or taking notes. So in my opinion it is a waste of time to give out any info, I will never again, if they want a story drive to the call or firehouse and interview in person. With that being said I do understand the power of the media, positive or negative.

I have been there as well, also we have our 'regulars' (in nice terms) where as 911 dispatches a priority 1 response for a seizure because the CAD says so, even though it's the 40th time they have called 911 in a month because they sold/taken all their narcotics, 7 day supply lasting only one day! I digress, the dispatchers are well aware of the BS nature of this caller but have to follow protocol and dispatch it P1. I and most of the crews know of this person, very well and do not respond 'code 3'. However now that there is priority dispatching, what liability are crews taking by reducing their response to calls like my above mentioned patient when the one time out of 700 it's a true life threat, the EMD from the CAD gets it wrong, call taker gets it wrong or patient embellishes their symptoms to get a faster response? This happens day in and day out, all of us who have been doing this for years have been there, what we all need to do is the seasoned veterans need to educate the newbies, as with most emergency services problems education is the key, pass your knowledge on to the next generation, be it patient education, driving, BLS/ALS skills and techniques and believe it or not, common sense can be passed on. (to a slight degree)

Couldn't have been said better.