Alpinerunner

I did. I made sure it was clear I was talking about architecture. Is that not clear?

That would really be terrible if the cuts caused an entire station to close. And beyond the obvious perils to jobs and public safety of closing any station, it's too bad that it may be 11 because architectually, that one is very impressive. I've always liked that Yonkers has lots of very differently designed stations, and 11 is one of the coolest. 8 wouldn't be as much of a loss!

Can someone explain why this is such a big deal now? This is how the volunteer districts have operated forever. They hired their own employees, many of whom were volunteers, which makes sense because they have a huge head start on someone who is fresh. These employees also volunteer on their off time so you aren't just hiring a 40 hour employee. But that's besides the point. I don't get what is WRONG with the new plan in terms of fire protection. Why wasn't this an issue before the union forced it's way up north? How come everyone is freaking out only now, when they are being send back to the city? Goose, they burned down a lot. What does that have to do with the new plan? Houses didn't burn down because they didn't care. They didn't burn down because they don't know how to fight a fire or from faulty equipment. They burned because of a lack of manpower, which this plan solves. JAD622, I will ask the same question to you. You rail against this plan, governments, politicians, and the ignorant public... but ironically you don't actually criticize anything about the plan. Is that because you don't know what the plan is? Or is there actually no concrete problem besides lack of expansion for the union? No one is decimating the Stamford Fire Department, nor do they want to. Things are simply going back to what worked efficiently for 50 years, with some needed consolidation, standardization, and increased manpower.

To answer your question: I don't know yet. I have a good paying, stable job that I am happy with now. I will have to see what the compensation details are. But I am leaning towards a fire career somewhere. However, that is not my priority. My proirity is keeping a system where volunteers are respected, needed, and used. However, these are the kinds of replies I don't understand. Please come up with a specific criticism to back up "not remotely workable", because the way things were before Malloy stepped in was pretty workable with a few exceptions that needed tweaking, not throwing out. The volunteer districts took care of their districts with the help of their paid staff. I think the evidence for this is how rarely they needed to call downtown. One of the big problems were not enough manpower per shift in Long Ridge, and not enough staff in ToR to keep overtime down when vacations, etc came up. Belltown may have had the same problem. The volunteers were happy becaue they were needed and relied on, and the career staff provided a reliable base of experience and knowledge. That sytem has worked since the 1940's when the volunteer houses got career staff. As the trend of less volunteers happened, more career manpower was needed. Again no need to throw the system out. So I ask, what makes that system not remotely workable? Yes, being able to cross staff for ToR is very important because they are the only stick, and their rescue covers the Merritt. It would be nice to staff Belltown's rescue and Tower, too. Cross-staffing does bring the RIGHT allotment of apparatus to a scene, and with multiple stations responding with their career members, and the volunteers, you have your manpower. Also, they are not all drivers. Only 1 man on a 3 man crew drives.

The latter. I believe the mayor's plan will produce 1 unified southern district and 1 unified northern district. As long as the districts are mostly self sufficient with regards to manpower, and operate under one chain of command, then that should be considered a unified service. The key is being self-sufficent. If the two departments respond together and provide provide mutual aid to eachother on a regular basis, as they do now, then I wouldn't consider it a unified service. I also agree that there is a mutual respect between the various groups, but I still think that having the two groups work together is not conducive to having volunteers have a significant role on fire scenes. I think too many of the union members (not all, and maybe they are just a loud minority) don't trust volunteers and simply see every functional volunteer as a stolen paid position. In fact I see this sentiment on this site a lot. They won't trust them on the knob, and won't get tool time. I don't think they will be allowed (or will be huge hurdles) to ride out on an engine first due, which is critical for being "useful". I think everyone can agree that running to the firehouse and waiting for a driver and crew to staff a volunteer engine when a call comes in doesn't work.

I get all that. In my first paragraph I was talking about Chief Brown's plan. Wasn't that the plan submitted by SFRD to the task force? Aren't they one in the same? Everyone seems so against the plan proposed by the mayor, and are trying to say that it won't solve the problems. I'm trying to point out that it DOES fix the manpower issue in Long Ridge, it DOES fix the issue of chain of command, and it DOES provide a tanker, ladder, and rescue for the proposed district. Not only that, but Chief Brown's plan doesn't do this. If would be one thing if it were equal in services provided and command structure, and simply used SFRD personnel, but from what I can tell it isn't even equal.

That's not what I heard from the city in the task force open meetings. If the plan was revised I did not hear about it then I apologise. The proposal I heard was to decommission truck 3 (maybe truck 2, but I think it was 3), and move those members to an engine at Long Ridge ST1. TOR E8 and E9 would stay the same, and no staffing for Belltown. 2 Chains of command would stay in place. I would only assume that future expansion plans would include getting back T3, and adding a crew at Belltown and Long Ridge ST2. If the departments/districts are fully separated, yes, you have 2 departments in the city, but operationally you still have 1 chain of command. That is one big fix. The other is that the employees would be able to cross-staff the apparatus, taking whichever was more important for the call, like they used to. As far as I've heard, the current and proposed system from the SFRD has no tanker, rescue, or ladder staffed in any of the volunteer districts. If it hasn't been posted here before, here is the mayor's take on his plan http://www.cityofstamford.org/controls/eventview.aspx?MODE=SINGLE&ID=488

This proposed plan is fixing the problem. It is replacing the 2 paid guys in at Long Ridge with 6. The alternate proposal from the city would only staff one of the LRFC houses with an engine.

I don't have the time to keep up with this thread... I could spend hours clearing up the spin and misinformation here, as FFPCogs has been, but this is too blatent. Comments like this really make me sick. The union members of the volunteer districts almost lost their job BECAUSE of the union and the city. They wanted to REPLACE those guys with SFRD personnel, and the volunteer companies had to GO TO COURT on their own dime and get an injunction that stopped that from happening. The injunction said that the paid firefighters of the volunteer houses could not be laid off. Those very same employees called their union reps for help when the city was going to lay them off and they essentially said, since you aren't real union members we can't help you. As for the testing and hiring procedure, a fire district/company is allowed to use whatever hiring procedure they want. The volunteer districts have their own testing procedure which includes a pysical agility that has been used since the 1950's. Most guys on the job could not pass the CPAT after 5-10 years on the job, however, those are the more experiened and knowledgable guys. I could point out many SFRD personnel that could not pass the CPAT now, that still make excellent firefighters and would be a great addition to a new fire company. Please get your facts straight before you post because you can really mislead the people who don't know what's going on and come here to gather info.

Minimal impact, yes. That's the point I was trying to make. As for all your othe points, you're talking about a labor (union) contract which was already stated would override this legislation. It probably isn't needed, but it also doesn't hurt anyone because like I said before, coming in late for work because of a call should and will be delt with on a personal level with your employer.

This bill will NOT have an economic impact and will NOT cause a stir whatsoever so everyone can calm down. This has been on the books in CT for a while. It doesn't make a difference. It all comes down to your personal repoir with your employer. If you explain to them that you are a volunteer and that occasionally you may be late to work, and call them ASAP when it happens, and it happens rarely, there won't be a problem. If you abuse the system and are late a lot you will be fired and you won't have the money to defend yourself in court. How often does a morning fire happen in a Vol district? It really shouldn't have a huge impact on anyone.

Comments like this are very disrespectful and ignorant, and not what I would expect from the professional amtmosphere of this site. I have to assume this comment is based on indignation and not thoughful analysis of what is going on now and what is proposed in the new system. Furthermore, this sentiment reimforces the reason why a full merger of departments and "personalities" might not be so seamless or make things operate that smoothly. Do you think the mayor would want dispatch to pull from a total of 11 career firefights from the first due are + volunteers from a separate chain of command, or from a possible total of 19 career firefighters + volunteers from the same chain of command?

I'll be making the big jump to smart phone technology when the iPhone 4 comes out, coming from a zoolander phone. I'm going with iPhone mainly because Verizon doesn't come in where I live and I have no land line. I have been happy with Verizon's coverage everywhere else, but I need a phone at home. Plus ATTs 3G coverage is much better than Verizon's even though their cell network isn't as good. I hear once you get the addiction, you will want the better 3G coverage. Lastly, while Steve Job's problems with the iPhone is a great talking point/joke for the haters, it was created by the building's wireless network being overloaded with reporters on their laptops, not by a problem with ATT netowork or the phone.

There is a good bit of coverage in Fire I and II about treating a fire as a crime scene, and identifying possible evidence, protecting the evidence and the scene... about how the FD controls the scene until the last member leaves and that something must be done with the evidence before that release happens. What else did you have in mind that FFs should know about PD work?

This can't be generalized. All departments are different. For instance, I *believe* cops in Ridgefield, CT are first responders, not the FD.

In terms of cops going inside a structure, I would have to say it should be left to their judgement. They make instant risk-benefit decisions all the time just like FFs. By "duty to act" I think Seth meant duty to report and stay at the scene, not go in. Ironically, I think the fact that they DON'T have PPE would ensure that they won't get themselves in trouble because they simply won't be able to go into a part of the house that's very hot or smokey. Similar to the argument that all the technology in our new gear can allow us to go too deep and get INTO trouble.

Interesting topic. I think as much as you hear about cops being the first to report a fire, I think it has to still be less than 1% of all fires. You probably hear about it because it's a good story, and most of the regular means of discovering a fire aren't reported. The probability (number of cops vs. civilians and alarm systems) just isn't on their side. However, I would be interested to hear what cops are taught about fires. The first thing that comes to mind that they could/should be able to do is do a 360, talk to neighbors and find out if the building is occupied. They should be able to relay to the first due engine where the fire is in the structure and if there are occupants. Beyond that, I don't know what else they could do. That FIT-5 Pro is very cool... but at $1000, it's doubtful that it could be supplied in enough quantity to be effective (ie. be in a majority of cruisers)

This is going to be a great discussion that I will stay out of after this. I must say though that it is probably the best solution given the complex issues presented like the City charter, the union/city CBA, tax districts, etc. Downtown gets to properly staff their district and not always be on minimum manpower, and the northern part gets enough career manpower to be safe. I do believe this was the only solution. Mstrang1, it's called Combination.

Wow that is sick!! That's the largest bumper I have ever seen on a rig. I would be concerned with blinding oncoming traffic with those brow floods flashing though.

Amazing. Sounds like it was a real S-show. Thank God it wasn't worse. It looks like the broken back was caused by landing on his bottle. The new Lo-pro, flexible airpacks should mititage these types of injuries.

Where I volunteer there are all volunteer, combination, and fully paid departments. Only the combination and fully paid departments are called for automatic mutual aid. The volunteer departments will alert dispatch if they are staffed and can provide apparatus and manpower. It works pretty well.

The only good thing about Rumors was the album

If it's 600 a year I'll take it. If it's 600 a year I'll split it with someone

Almost always, regardless of how the company is structured, is seems like volunteer officers control volunteer firefighters and career officers control volunteer officers and firefighters. The important thing is to stay curteous on scene. As a volunteer Lieu, would gladly accept a command from a career firefighter on scene if it made sense. When I'm working with a career Lieu or above, I always consult with him about the direction to take. In combination departments, the career FFs and officer would naturally work together because they ride together and arrive together. When the vollies get to the scene they meet up with their officer and do what needs to be done. This only becomes a big issue if someone on either side is a hot head. I find it very important to get a second opinion whenever possible because someone else may see/know something you didn't.

For sure let it burn. It's pretty basic stuff, but for the newer guys: When it's burning you know where the gas is and you know that it is being "destroyed". If you put it out you have a gas that's heavier than air (propane) spreading around and could be ignited by anything.