firebuff860

God forbid you ever hear get me a god damn line up here. I would be offended to hear that anywhere. Glad to see FDNY suffers like everyone else once in a while.

So you take one physical fitness test and you are good for 20+ years. Cash in the pocket of your loved ones should you die, Health benefits paid for. You are a perfect example of why the fire service is going down the tubes. Not a mention of training, having a desire to be in the fire service, wanting to learn and teach those younger than you. BTW your last sentence is apparently a bash at volunteers, and I and many of my brothers respond day and night along with weekends! I would rather crawl down a hall with a younger volunteer fresh out of FF 1 and 2 than some of the career guys who have been holding on for 30+ years without doing a sit up.

What Department around here has not been awarded a grant in the past 10 years? AFG, SAFER, County/State pork barrel grants. All of these grants take from others and deliver to individual depts. If your Dept has not received one, it is your fault for not stating your case properly. I would have been shocked if the local Dept's did not ask for $, i just hope they can justify it. I just hope they have a better arguement than the South Nyack Mayor.

Unless you already know who you want to make your next custom deluxe pumper fire truck.

What would be the standard?? Is it National FF1? A new NYS FF Standard? Require all FF's to be EMT certified? NYS has offered so many courses over the years many volunteers probably do not know what their certification is. If you go to 1 standard, would it not make sense to have an annual CPAT as well as physical to ensure the FF is still able to fulfill his duties? Who is going to monitor this, AHJ? If NYS does not change the way municipalities operate, nothing can be enforced. NYS will adopt new standards, and every Dept will say they comply (wink, wink). For now and for the forseeable future, it will be up to the individual Dept to ensure each FF they place on duty is capable of performing all duties competently and safely. How many Dept's today can say that their members meet that today? My guess would be not that many, and that includes both volunteer and fully paid career departments.

A 99 year old explorer! Gotta love the dedication.

Helicopper, While I understand serving the public can be a little frustrating, isnt that part of the job? I was nowhere near the accident, do not know the area that well, but... If roads are closed down, and it is the PD closing those roads or at the point where the road is closed to keep the public out, is it too much to expect them to be at least a little bit courteous or helpful? I doubt everyone who got caught in the traffic knew a back way around it or had GPS to help them. I know you and many othe LEO's feel there is an anti cop bias here (maybe there is), but to dismiss the complaint of the member above as the public are morons and poor drivers is a little disingenuous. You are not shy about jumping in on fire topics, so here is my first jumping in to an LEO topic: If you are at a barricade of a closed road, at least be outside of your car and try to be helpful to the public. If at such time you feel the need to draw your revolver, ask for another car to relieve you.

The Patriot Guard will out number them.

There are characters in the bucket and lights going up the ladder that LOOK like they would at least impair your using the railing as climbing. Unless the characters in the bucket do better work than the firemen, how does this NOT effect utility???

I thought I would start a new thread regarding building construction and what your department does/does not do regarding awareness of different types of construction in your response area. Fire Departments need to be proactive regarding this, since it is obvious current codes do not take our safety as one of their top concerns. With all of the available technology out there, it should be pretty easy for Fire Departments to get their hands on different construction types and input it into your pre plans. A couple of questions regarding what your department does to protect it's members: If you have MTD's, have you linked it through your building department to have access on construction type? If you do not have MTD's, are you aware (thru pre plan) of what type of construction type you are responding to? If you do have a plan, let us know how it works. If you don't have a plan, what are you going to do to put one together.

You need to educate the politicians in order to effect any change about sprinkler laws, and they are as uneducated as the general public to their benefits. As Capt Nechis stated earlier most believe the Hollywood version of sprinklers. The bottom line is the building and construction lobby is a lot stronger than the fire (IAFF and FASNY) lobby is. Maybe these groups could partner with Insurance companies to show true benefits of residential sprinklers.

As people have said, it is perception rather than anything else. Is their a job related reason the chief was on facebook, on duty in his/her car? Very doubtful. When working in a vehicle provided by your municipality stay off of anything that is not a municipal or service related site. No reason to update your status that you are 3rd due to some fire in another municipality.

The first step in this decision should be, what is the level of training of PD, FD, and EMS in the municipality. Most if not all career depts have EMT FF's and EMS, not sure about PD. Volunteer Dept's depends on community, again not sure of PD or EMS. Off of a phone call you have no idea what the actual injury may or may not be. To have an untrained responder regardless of affiliation give inappropriate care could be harmful to that organization. Every organization (PD, FD, EMS) hates to be bothered with "non-essential" callls, but you cant make that determination until the lolfdgb has been evaluated. As Capt Glover stated earlier these are the calls you should take pride in, regardless of your affiliation.

Maybe the fire service can honor the memory of Captain Sullivan and his family and use this horrific tragedy as an example of why residential sprinklers are needed. Politicians would be hard pressed to ignore all of the coverage of this fire, as well as the fire in Stamford over Christmas that killed 5. The Sullivan Family residential sprinkler bill.

Why should I send my truck to a car accident if it does not carry extrication equipment? Standardize response based on manpower,equipment capability, and training. Let's go back to basics. What does your Dept require to be interior qualified (NYS training classes)? Do you require annual physicals? Do you require annual training? Do you require annual attendance? Do you require older members to update their outdated training certs, or do you grandfather them in? I would rather call in a Dept with 3-4 trained FF's that is 10 minutes away than call in a neighbor who will show up with a driver and 2 exterior firefighters in 4 minutes. Before you respond to this, think long and hard about which Dept you belong to.