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All, Just passing the info along. If you havent seen the collection, your missing out. Over 150+ retired rigs all makes and models under one roof. 34th Annual Fire Apparatus Show, Muster and Car Show SUNDAY JUNE 6, 2010 9 AM to 4 PM (Rain or Shine) 2618 Route 302, Middletown, NY 10941 Exit 119 off Route 17 then south on Rt. 302 Fees: Free spectator admission, children under 12 with adult only. $25 per Truck Entry $15 per Competition Team $10.00 per Car for Car Show For pre-registration info contact Bob Reynolds at 845 343-4746 or e-mail Bruce Zarzeski at clpcincpz@aol.com • Fire apparatus judging for trucks 1985 or older • Team Competitions • Raffles • Food and Refreshments • Prizes and Trophies awarded at 3:30 PM • Participation Plaque to first 100 show registered vehicles • Vendor space available (Fire Service related items only) • S.P.A.A.M.F.A.A. Sanctioned Event ~ Thank You for Your Continued Support ~ MORE INFO HERE http://catskillfire-cats.com/community/index.php?PHPSESSID=2ihh98n5h9k5i3akbbb599c2b7&topic=30.0

PCFD, Do you know if there is a list of the trucks that are inside? Im trying to track down any Howe apparatus so I can take some pictures that may help me in my resto of my Howe. I'll take the tour, and be there at 9AM. PM me with any additional info. Thanks!

Some info on the 2% money, offically known as the "Foreign Fire Tax". http://www.ins.state.ny.us/faqs/faqs_ft_fft.htm

As taken from ther NYS website. http://www.osc.state.ny.us/ Am I required to have an audit? It depends. Some local government entities such as school districts, industrial development agencies, fire districts with revenues of $200,000 or more and sponsors of length of Service Award Programs (LOSAP) for volunteer firefighters are required each year by law to have an audit conducted by an external auditor. A local government that expends $500,000 or more in federally awarded funds in its fiscal year is also required to have an audit, conducted by an external auditor, in accordance with the provisions of the federal “single audit act”. Other external audits of one type or another may also be required pursuant to the terms of specific contracts, agreements, or special legislation applicable to your local government. These audits are generally conducted in accordance with nationally recognized auditing standards by external auditors who are independent of the local governments they audit, either members of private certified public accounting firms or organizationally independent government auditors. Sometimes confusion arises over the meaning and / or context in which the term “audit” is used. For example, an often misunderstood duty is the requirement that certain governing boards annually “audit”, or cause to be audited, the records and documents of various officers and employees responsible for receiving and disbursing moneys. For this purpose, the relevant laws do not define the term “audit” and the depth and involvement of such audits can vary. Governing board members or designated officials performing this audit function internally would not generally be expected to comply with professional standards or perform the same type of audit services as an independent public accountant hired for that purpose. For guidance in performing this audit function, we have developed several checklists for reviewing the records of various municipal officers and departments within your government. These are included in our Local Government Management Guide publication entitled Fiscal Oversight Responsibilities [pdf].

I was on the Marlboro engine, E-38-10. Marlboro was called for an engine, initally to stand by at Milton, but then was upgraded enroute to the scene. At Milton's scene after we had been there awhile, we got called to the scene of Highland's fire, as an engine. At no point was Marlboro a FAST team for either Milton or Highland last night. Thats what the IC's called for, and thats what we came with. Also, we were NOT called to Plattekill's fire in any capacity due to Marlboro units operating both in and out of our district. In the past, we have gone to all 3 districts as both engine and FAST team (and not at the same time).

All, I know it's out there, but cant find it.. Im trying to find the math formula for figuring how much of X size (1.75 or 2.5 inch hose) can you fit on a hose reel that you know the dimentions of. (reel length, inner diamater of the spindle, outer diamater of the sides of reel). There has to be an easier way that putting it on there. Would also like to see the formula for booster hose, both 3/4 ID and 1 inch ID... I know all hose is different, but there has to be some rule of thumb formula out there. Thanks!

All, I'm not sure if this is exactly the right section to post this question, but here goes. Is privately owned apparatus (not owned/operated by a fire district or fire company) allowed to be in the "big" county parades or the Hudson Valley (Lake George) parades? Im not talking the town type Memorial Day/4th of July parades, but the big "competition" type parades. Im going to formally ask the respective organization's parade committiees, but does anyone know off hand? I dont want it to be judged or have any impact on parade scoring, just drive the truck and show off a unique piece of apparatus and some hard work in getting it all restored. Of course, wearing a full parade uniform, following all parade rules, etc etc etc. Anyone know? Thanks!

I own a 1954 Jeep/Howe "Fire Jeep" with 2 trailers, one a factory option 200 gallon water tank trailer, the other a supply hose reel/equipment trailer. Everyone in my dept is pretty stoked about it, and some have asked me to put it in the various parades we march in. With the town parade, thats not a problem at all, as it's a "fun" parade, and no parade judges/rules. With the other parades we do, Ulster County and the Hudson Valley Parade in Lake George, those are all judged parades, and I dont know how it would go over. I dont want to have it judged or count in any of the points or anything like that, I just want to show off a unique piece of restored apparatus. I cant find anything in the rules about privately owned apparatus, I guess I'll have to make some phone calls. With regards to the Catskill Fire-Cats (SPAAMFAA), I'd love to join, but with my schedule of the fire department, the fire district, and family stuff, I'm not able to put forth as much time as it involves to feel like I was a contributing memeber. I do go to the muster, and will see if I can bring it there next summer. It's too bad the big muster held at the Kensico Dam doesnt happen anymore, that was a great time.

All, I used to have an old pager that was a lowband in the late 1990's. It wasnt a Minitor. It was another brand, a bit taller than a Minitor II, but only 2/3'rds the width. The charger was a beige color, and had an antenna that had a PL259 connector and a rigid wire with a red "dont poke your eye out" tear drop shaped plastic cover on it. Anyone know what model it was? I cant find pics or info anywhere on it.. Im trying to find some of the antennas that it used for a project. Thanks!

SHOULD 2 sets be standard, yes. Can most volly depts (like mine) pay for it, probably, but I feel the $ for a 2nd set can be better spent on other things we really need. My dept issues a set that stays in the station for your "everyday" set of gear. Should that become contaminated, ripped or whatever, we have a room that has of our extra gear, and you go see an officer, and get issued a 2nd set until your gear is dry/cleaned in our turnout gear washing machine, or fixed.. We send out any gear that needs repairs when it needs to be done.. This is sort of a "second set" in my mind. When your everyday set comes back from being fixed or drys out, you hand in the second set. This works well from both an operational and financial standpoint.

Marlboro in Ulster County runs E38-20, a 1987 Hahn pumper with 2 jumpseats. It is being replaced in early 2010 with a 6 man cab Ferrara.

Source capture works just as good going out the door as it does backing in. All thats required is the people to connect it, which boils down to a "leadership enforcing the rules" issue.

My dept has been using I Am Responding for 6 months now. It's great. My dept's policy is that everyone except Chief Officers go to the station, suit up, and get on an the apparatus. It's great to walk thru the door of the station, look at the screen, and know what sort of crew and how many you have rolling in. I find it the MOST helpful for daytime and the "not so exciting, and you know some guys are gonna roll over on the call at 3AM and not show up" type calls. For the "big one" type calls, you know everyone is gonna show, so no real need for the system. For the mundane calls, it's great for letting you know who's coming. Hypothetically, if a dept gets a car fire during the day when manpower is limited and they get 3 drivers calling in but no FF's, the drivers at the station can let the chief know and he can request a 2nd tone out, where is they didnt have the system, they would of waited longer to see who is going to roll in and then figured they needed more tones for manpower. For depts with special teams (Dive, FAST, rope rescue, etc) the system is especially useful to know what team members are responding, and if more tones are needed without waiting the extra time then only to find out you need more tones. For the system to work, all you need is a computer, screen, and internet connection. You speed dial the 800 #, and your name pops up. You pay the yearly fee, and thats about it. Getting everyone in your dept set up and into the system takes about 5 minutes per person. Getting my members to used to using it wasnt hard at all, and everyone was onboard with it within a few calls. It doesnt "slow down" your personal response time in my opinion. How long does it REALLY take you to dial a preprogrammed #, and then put the phone down. For me, about 3 seconds, and I do it as I'm running out the door to get in my car. At night, I get up, turn on the light, speed dial the phone, and get dressed and go. The system even terminates the call for you, so you dont need to. My dept found it easiest to program in the # as "A fire call" so it's at the top of the list of contacts in your phone. An added side (but HUGE benefit) to the system is the ability to send out text messages to your members. We put out messages via the text about things that you dont REALLY need county to tone out for, but want your members to know. Examples are: monthy meeting reminders, putting chains on trucks in the winter, special drills, times when county has the "big one" going and wont put out announcements, trucks in and out of service, or whatever else you want to let everyone or specific groups in your dept know. It's a great way to keep members more in the know about goings on. No, I dont work for the company, Im just a really satisfied customer of a company whos product fixes a common issue in my dept. They do give you a 2 month totally free test period. Try it out to see if it will work for you.

Im in the middle of researching this for my FD. There is no "state law" or such. There is NFPA 1500, which lays down the "standard". It was recently changed. NFPA USED to say that Source Capture (a hose on the end of the exhuast pipe venting outside the station) was THE ONLY way to go. However, it is the most expensive. Lots of little depts that didnt have the $ for a source captaure system said "what are we gonna do?" NFPA now says that the dept must do the (am I dont remember the exact verbage) "best way possisible" that the dept can do. Meaning that if you are in a dept that has little/no money to spend, the best possible thing you can do is open the bay doors or the like. If you dept has some $, then perhaps a hanging exhuast "sucker/cleaner" is the best you can do. If your dept has $, then in my opinion, the best way is Source Capture. Source Capture for my 5 bay station is approximatly 50K, and we have the $ to spend on it, so thats looking like the way we will go after all the research is done and presented to the BOFC. There is no specific type that is spec'ed out by NFPA. Hope that helps.

I'll get pics of all Marlboro's trucks and post them soon. Yes, the 87 Hahn (E-38-20) is being replaced by a new Ferrara due in April/May time frame and will be for sale then. E-38-30 is also up for sale now.

Excellent posting, Chief!

I am a commissioner and FF in my district. The duties of a Commissioner are many. As long as you do the right thing (dont approve chief officers that have no business being cheif officers, dont steal taxpayer money, dont get stupid with the money, and run legal stuff by your district lawyer) you cant really be held personally accountable for something as far being personally sued. There is a book thats put out by a lawfirm that is a basic "how to run a district". Follow it, and your golden. It costs about $100 or so, but it answers TONS of questions that pop up as to what to do in certain situations, how to exectue your duties, what those duties are, ect. It's a 3 inch think binder thats worth it's weight in gold. As a commissioner, you have a much more direct impact on your dept as far as it's overall running. What equipment to buy, what SOP's to make/change, etc. As a FF, I got tired of "thats how it is, and it will probably stay that way". So I ran for the board, got elected, (voter turnout was over 400 people) and am having a positive impact on my dept with suggesting new equipment, making suggestions, and general management of the district. When you get elected, you have to attend a days worth of training that gives you the basics of what you need to do. Listen and you'll be on the right path. It's a good thing, if you want to do it, make sure you get your letter and/or petition in soon to get put on the ballot.

Thats an old ex Military M967 fuel tanker. The pony pump that the military had on it could move 600 GPM offloading, and could selfload at 300 GPM. On road, they would haul 5000 gallons, offroad 3,800 but that had a HUGE sloshing factor, even with the baffled tank. They made for nice tankers. Somewhere I have all the manuals for that thing.. It's good to see some military surplus in current use.

PASS alarms

I saw and played with the Fire Research Seatbelt System at a trade show. They had one all set up, and you can play with it all you want. There is no way to "fool" the thing. It has several sensors of various types, including a parking brake sensor. It's smart and knows if you click the belt then sit in it, or just sit in it with no belt, or sit in it, click the belt, then unclick the belt, disconnect/cut the wires, it knows and it alarms. After trying for 10 minutes to try and fool the thing at the trade show, I felt very confident in it, and it's the exact system spec'ed out on our new truck. The readout tells you exactly which seat is not belted. Green light is good. Amber is "not buckled correctly/yet, but the parking brake is still on" Pull the parking brake in Amber mode, and it goes to red. Red light is the problem seat and the alarm sounds. And it's not a small little annoying alarm/buzzer.. It's a "holy cow, something is seriously wrong with the truck" type of alarm, and everyone in the 6 man cab can hear it very clearly, even over the engine noise and the Q.... As a driver, I wont move the rig out of the bay if someone is not seatbelted in (as is district policy), I dont care what the call is or how close by or what. You dont put on the seatbelt, I ask you once nicely. You dont comply, I tell the officer that Im not going anywhere until the member puts on the seatbelt and the officer/senior guy takes it from there. You dont want to listen to them, I assure you it's not going to have a positive outcome for the member if the officer picks up the radio and tells the Chief the truck is not responding due to a memeber not wearing their seatbelt. Luckily, I have never had to go past the ask nicely stage.

We used Reliant Fire Hose Testing 67 Lake Rd Salisbury Mills, NY 12577 Phone: (845) 784-6391 and we are a satisfied customer.

We just had pump testing, hose testing, and ground ladder testing done this summer, by 3 different companies. All are experts in their field. Hose testing is just a PITA to do inhouse, No one in our fire house likes to dump, test, and repack over 8000 feet of LDH and who knows how many feet of 1 3/4 and 2 1/2. The company we used tested, marked, and repacked all the hose, gave us complete reports and it was all done in one day. Ladder testing, the same thing.. It was scary to watch the weights being lowered onto the ladders, seeing them bow, and then returning straight. The company found several bad rivets on our ground ladders, fixed them, and documented EVERYTHING. If something goes wrong and someone gets injured/dies from blown hose or bad ladders, bet your bottom dollar that some lawyer is going to want to see documentation of who did the testing, how they were trained, etc, etc, etc... Yes it costs a few bucks to let the experts do it rather than doing it inhouse, but the $ saved by doing it inhouse will be small peanuts compared to some lawsuit payout due to "untrained/inexperienced" members doing it.

So if Im reading this correctly, if your in turnouts on a Federally funded highway you dont NEED the vest? You could argue that with a PIAA, you could be exposed to bodily fluids (hazardous materials) and be OK with turnout gear" "Firefighters or other emergency responders working within the right-of-way of a Federal-aid highway and engaged in emergency operations that directly expose them to flame, fire, heat, and/or hazardous materials may wear retro reflective turn-out gear that is specified and regulated by other organizations, such as the National Fire Protection Association. Firefighters or other emergency responders working within the right-of-way of a Federal-aid highway and engaged in any other types of operations shall wear high-visibility safety apparel.”" Im not saying it not a good idea to have it.. VestinfoOFPC.pdf

Im not trying to "get ot of wearing a vest" Im just trying to figure out what the story is so if my district needs to get vests, they will, but if turnouts are acceptable and satisfy the requirement for reflectivity, then we can spend the $ on other needed equipment. I think the root of the problem is that one Federal agency does something without consulting another, and we the "end user" are left to figure the mess out. The bulletin from OFPC helps though.

Call Tony over at Plymovent, he has lots of pics and specs for that specific application, and is a good guy who will assit you in getting you what you need.