Alpinerunner

Who is the manufacturer? I like the drop-down ladders and the brow light.

Huh? I think you misread my post. I'm agreeing with you that getting the heat off the tank was a good idea. My comments about the swingset were a joke.

I see. Removing the dome was a good idea. Did you have a handline ready for the swingset? Did you perform a primary search of the swingset?

Non-fire related, but I've always liked this story of an ammusing radio transmission: http://www.fromtheinside.us/thinking/Groundspeed_Check.htm

Nice!! What was the tactic? Just prevent a wildfire and protect any other exposures and let it burn out?

Chimney fire rips through North Stamford home Jeff Morganteen Stamford Advocate http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/Chimney-fire-rips-through-North-Stamford-home-482294.php

Try running an HME in the city for 10 years, hahaha. It would be in interesting economic study to see the total costs (initial + maint.) for running an HME vs. a Seagrave in the city for 10 years.

There should be a catagory where one judges whether a rig is NFPA 1901 compliant!

I'm going to stop posting on this because it's gotten too far off topic and I don't want to negatively affect relations on the ground. And it's ruining my Friday.

You are correct. Operationally, the patch doesn't make much of a difference. Having experienced, career personell around 24/7 to work with the volunteers is what they want, and what happens in the end, regardeless of the patch. Unfortunately there are many nuances that make it more difficult for the volunteers to work closely with someone with a SFRD patch, mostly related to union regulations. Again, the problems have nothing to do with the individual members, and mostly to do with the union. I hope that is the response you were looking for.

What do you mean by Kingdom? Is that derogatory term for department/district?

Absolutely. 1 man on a rig is not a good idea. I don't think ANYONE in Stamford thinks it's a good idea. But there are a wide range of solutions between that and disbanding the volunteer departments. In their defense, they have been requesting more paid staff for many many years. I believe the volunteer departments are looking for 3 career staff per rig.

I'm sorry this has de-evolved from the original topic. But with the remarks being made, I have to comment and beat the horse. Everyone here needs to note and think about the difference between a combination department and volunteer department. Dragon, of course Stamford has grown too large for a volunteer system. North Stamford hasn't been a volunteer system since 1946 and no one is recommending it go back to that. It is currently a combination system which, in my opinion is undoubtedly the most efficient system to have. When the S hits the fan, like maybe 1 fire downtown and 1 fire in northern Stamford, SFRD can't handle it. Fire uptown and an MVA on the 95? Nope, because the rescue needs to be in two places at once. When this fire happened it took all of Turn of River's career manpower, and a downtown engine, rescue, and ladder. Turn of River filled in with the ONLY other heavy rescue in the city, and another engine. When a huge storm hit, no one could argue that the volunteer departments ran the majority of the calls. Do you really propose to get rid of that? 786XPCover mentioned that a SFRD Asst. Chief proposed the entire city could be covered with the resouces SFRD currently has. Did they mention that that plan involved removing a ladder and engine from downtown? Will the people downtown be happy with that? Probably not. You can't be overstaffed and understaffed at the same time. Combination departments just makes sense. You aren't wasting manpower/$$ for routine business, and you get extra (free) manpower when you need it. Stamford couldn't afford to have the manpower required for 2 fires, a storm, a fire and an MVA, etc waiting around 24/7. But you can have your cake and eat it too with a combination system. How that system is structured is what's up for debate. Whether the vollies should exist is not up for debate. The fact that an officer made a bad judgement call is not justification for disbanding the volunteer system.

That's why I like this forum. I do not like/expect to see replies like Goose's. Plus the officer that turned the resources away was career! haha. If you look beyond the paid vs. volly debate, there are lessons to be learned. If you listen to the radio transmission you hear him say "...we have adequite manpower" which he probably though, being that it was called in as chimney fire, and they happend to be having drill that night. Long Ridge REQUESTED that the city be sent on automatic mutual aid for alarms and above a long time ago and they haven't recalled them before getting on scene to even an alarm before. They thought this was a routine chimney fire and cancelled both volunteer and career mutual aid. The lesson that should be learned is: nothing is routine and you never know what you're going to get.

I'm sure that whatever the mayor does with the task force recommendations will result in much more manpower up north.

I think what's gone on here is pretty cut and dry. I can't say I'm for a hearing/investigation because I don't know what it would yield. It's 100% clear that the officer made the wrong call, it's 100% clear that it's because of hubris and not wanted to work with the city engines if he didn't think he had do. The question is what will be done? Will there be discipline? Will the restructuring of Stamford's fire service take care of the problem? Can it simply be taken as lesson learned? The officer is an Asst. Chief and wouldn't be in this position if he were a repeat offender.

Cool it's nice to have some accurate inside info.

Condolances to the family and to all who knew him.

Sorry to be overly critical, and I realize it doesn't really matterbut I've never seen more poorly packed hose (both crosslays and LDH). http://www.exit109.com/~mikezac/departments/kiryasjoel.html

I don't think departments can/should self dispatch outside their district even if they get the call on their house phone. Self-dispatching is different then jumping calls, which I believe aviator70 is referring to I hadn't heard of KJ before this and did some reading on their Wiki page. Very interesting place! From the wiki page it looks like their department will continue to grow, assuming it parallels their population growth

Very nice package!! How does Ridgefield use this vehicle? Is it a Chief's car? General utility?

Yes, this brings up the issue of having background checks for all of your members. Not so much because of the possibility of them stealing, but to keep the members from looking guilty when they aren't. For instance, if someone in the house had a theft charge on their record, this lady might have never been caught and an innocent person could be charged. She should be charged with a felony.

I thought to be a LODD it has to be while responding to, working at, or returning from, a call. I would imagine maintenance is in the same catagory as training. Can you get a LODD for training? You may, I really don't know. I believe in the military you can.

Rescue is looking great!! I als wanted to clarify, though, that by dysfunctional I meant non-existant. CT doesn't have any county government or county organization like NY. So it would be difficult to have a county Hazmat truck, command vehicle, Technical rescue, etc... as much as it does make sense. Because of this there is a lot of duplication of apparatus in some areas and some areas just end up with very little specialized equipment. There has been talk (on radio talk shows) about resurecting county government as a cost savings in light of the current financial situation. It won't happen.

Not to get too off topic, but do you think it's possible to have an effective sprinkler system in a home with a well? I'm thinking that a bedroom would have to be half consumed before the heat activates a sprinkler. Do you think a well pump could supply enough water to effectively knock down or contain a fire? It very well could, I just don't know enough about well pump flow capacity and sprinkler head flow requirements.