Porsha911gt3

It's not really New York State, it's more of the local civil service department that is the problem. A few years ago I cross-filed for the firefighter test in 5 places, which means that I took one test and it counted for 5 municipalities lists. I received my results from the City of Ithaca in 2 weeks. It took Dutchess County almost 4 months to send out the results of the same exact test. Something similar happened with the last Westchester firefighter test. For some reason, the people at civil service enjoy holding information back. It took Westchester almost 9 months to publish the results of the last firefighter test. The disgusting part is they knew the entire time that they were not going to release the results until the old list expired and instead of informing the candidates of this, they just bullshitted us every time we called to ask when the results would be published. I would suggest waiting about a month after any exam and then filing a FOIL request of the exam results. This will put the municipality on the spot and give them a set time period in which they must provide a valid response.

Go look at all the lists you are on, if you are reachable on the list and meet the requirements it would not be a bad idea to send a cover letter to the chief detailing why you want the position, what you are looking for in the position, what you have done to earn the position, and what you will offer the department. Also include a resume and a list of your classes (no certificates), do not list anything about them being 229 unless you have actually attended an academy. The chief will know what is and what isn't pertinent to their department. Do not just blindly send a resume or a list of classes. Always send a cover letter and make it personal. As I said unless you have scored well and have a chance of being canvassed soon don't bother. By the time they get around to you, if you have a low score your resume will likely be forgotten about or in the garbage. Never fax a resume or cover letter unless it is specifically requested, always drop off in person or mail it in a full size envelope.

Due to all of the rumors regarding the test I decided to submit a FOIL request to get the facts. Here is the response I received from HR.

Your best bet is to ask the departments that you are interested in whether or not they accept the Montour Falls academy. I know several people that have put themselves through the academy including myself. It has turned out very well for some of us, but others that I know are still trying to get hired. I know there are some departments that run their own academy or only accept a certain academy. Regardless of whether or not a specific department will honor your academy training it will show that you have gone above and beyond, and your are capable of completing the academy. As some others have stated though it all depends on what you get on the test and who you know. My advice to you is take every firefighter test you can find whether or not it is near where you live or want to work... you will learn with every test, if you can consistently score well then that will increase your odds that much more if you have the academy but, I know of several situations where someone had a 100 on the list with the academy and have been passed over for someone else because the someone else knew the right people. You need to realize that nothing is ever guaranteed no matter how hard you try. Civil service is a giant game, some departments will hire the top candidates off the list regardless of anything else, other departments try to hire truly qualified candidates off of the list based on what skills they can bring to the table not just a good test score. Then there are other departments that you will never be able to figure out their reasons for hiring who they do. Trying to get a civil service job is a lot like gambling, yes there are things you can do to increase your odds, but in the end the odds are still against you so do not bank on it. Do all that you can to try to get what you want but do not get tunnel vision. You need to have something to fall back on. As far as the academy goes it costs about $3000 and is 11 weeks long. If you want to put yourself through you need to have a department sponsor you and you need to put your name on a waiting list very early, since fewer departments are hiring due to the economy the class sizes have been smaller and the waiting list has been shorter.

Good luck at Vital Signs in Syracuse. It will be pretty quiet if you show up...... Its in Rochester this year

Sorry, I should have said a majority of the classes. Maybe not every single one, but for the most part the instructor standing in front of you had something to do with the development of the classes that are covered in the recruit program. I was just trying to help out the person that was asking about the academy, nothing more.

The Recruit class is an option for a volunteer. You do need to have a fire department to sponsor you. The cost is about $3000 when everything is paid for, but it is a very small amount for what you get out of it. The instructors that are teaching you are literally the ones that wrote the books, and developed the classes. You need to contact the academy and put your name on a waiting list for the next class which begins in July. Career departments have preference for the spots, but any additional spots can be filled by volunteers. If you are serious about it, I would contact the academy as soon as possible to get on the waiting list.

You can get free email accounts through google. It is available to all nonprofit agencies including fire departments. The email addresses will end in the name of the department website (example@xyzdepartment.com), not gmail.com. So it will be seemless. The amount of storage is almost unlimited, considering how long it would take to fill the space with emails. It is not worth paying some company for email space and addresses. Use google and have them design the site if need be. The google email also allows full administration control to add and delete usernames. http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/npo/index.html

The reason that Pierce uses the mirrors is safety. With traditional mirrors that are mounted on the door or next to the lower part of the windshield they can easily be blocked by the passenger or by an item on the dash. These mirrors actually meet school bus standards for visibility. They even have mirrors that look down at the ground in front to make sure no one is there. Another advantage to having them out front is the driver does not need to take their eyes so far off the road to check their mirrors. Judging by peoples reaction on this site alone, I doubt Pierce uses them for looks. Unfortunately these mirrors are a victim of tradition and looks versus function and safety http://www.emtbravo.net/index.php?showtopi...pierce+velocity Here is an excerpt from the Pierce website http://www.piercemfg.com/ModelDetails.html...1b81dd43#safety

I took the class through NY state OFPC, he is a state instructor. As far as the classes that are offered through his company "ART," I do not know his schedule but he did mention that he is booked well through March. Try contacting him.

When donning the mask I donned it like I had with any AV-2000 mask, was this wrong maybe, but I still haven't been instructed otherwise. The fact is that the attachment between the head harness and the AV-2000 mask has a much higher tensile strength since it is a rigid connection. The head harness connection on the AV-3000 mask has a much lower strength since it is connected into an elastomer. A product that firefighters use needs to have a high safety factor, in the heat of the moment the mask may not be donned exactly to the directions even if they have all of the proper training and know the proper techniques. Scott either didn't care (which I don't think is the case) or the failed to properly test their product and make the appropriate modifications to the design. Even if the mask is not donned properly, Scott can and should have accounted for this, with proper testing this problem should have come up. The reason why I say they are trying to save money is that it is much cheaper to mold one piece that can do multiple functions instead of having to add more parts into the assembly of the mask. With the head harness being attached to the rubber face seal, Scott no longer has to worry about the rivets, the holes for the rivets or any other part of that subassembly. I have nothing against Scott and I think that they are a great company, but every once in a while something slips through the cracks. No person or thing is perfect.

This happened to me the first time I put on an AV-3000 mask, one of the head hardness straps broke off from the rubber attachment tab. The attachment for the head harness on the AV-3000 masks is horrible and poorly designed. There was nothing wrong with the attachment on the AV-2000 mask, but for some reason (cost) they decided to change a good design into a poor design. The AV-2000 attachment is connected directly into the strong plastic of the face piece where as the AV-3000 attachment is connected to the much weaker rubber. It is sad that Scott is willing to sacrifice function and safety just to save a few bucks.

Date: 02/10/2008 Time: Approx 12:30pm Location: Southbound Rt. 390 N/O Scottsville Rd Units Operating: Gates FD, City of Rochester FD, Rochester Airport CFR, Rural Metro Ambulance, Chili Ambulance, Gates Ambulance, NYSP, MCSO, Numerous other PD, FD, EMS Description Of Incident: 30+ Vehicle MVA, Numerous people trapped, One confirmed fatality. Incident caused by whiteout conditions from blowing snow off of the runway of the Greater Rochester International Airport. Audio of Incident Photos http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story.asp...6c-0b17bd480ee6 Writer: Porsha911GT3

I just took the NY State Ice/Cold water rescue class with Mike McCarthy last weekend and I would definitely recommend him. His knowledge and training were excellent. I really learned a lot from him.

It all depends on the situation, every call is unique and creates a different set of challenges.