Alpinerunner

So if there are 2 qualified volunteers at the station, they don't get to fill out the 3-4 man career rig? What if the call is right down the street from a volunteer's house? Do they have to drive past the incident to go to the station? Wait for a volunteer rig at the scene? Or can they grab an airpack and tools off the career rig and go to work? This is something that will have to be ironed out, and will be a point of contention. Many times I've heard a career officer tell a volunteer "Don't touch my [hose] [irons] [can]." They may be right to say that, but it's not how it worked when the volunteers worked with the old career FFs in the volunteer stations. In any future merger/solution, I don't think separating the volunteers and career firefighters to the degree that they have to ride in separate rigs is a good one.

Awesome job Frank. What's the large control panel with the keypad on the right, above the main fire radio?

I agree that the funding source will have to be established. For the NYC High Line, the article says it's 70% private and (I assume) 30% parks and rec. It's entirely possible that Westchester couldn't come up with the "Community Spirit" to fund the upkeep, but it's a thought.

I like the idea. I know there are lots of details to work out, but it would save on demo costs, and I doubt there are any plans to salvage the materials for the new bridge, since it's being built first.... I would also suggest that foot traffic would cause much less wear and tear than tractor-trailer traffic, and that the current structural stability would be acceptable to support foot traffic without major repairs. Interesting tangent on a story I heard about the TZ bridge on NPR: There was a push recently to find out why it was built where it was, at the widest part of the Hudson, with the softest river bottom for the supports. Apparently, in the 50s, NYS Governor Dewey wanted to build the bridge to complete his NYS Thruway project. In spite of the higher cost compared to building it at a narrower location further south, in order to collect the toll fees to fund the Thruway (I-87) project, he had to build it outside of the NYC Port Authority's jurisdiction of a 25 mile radius from the Statue of Liberty.

How realistic are you looking to get? I mean we just use wooden pallets over sections of plywood. Good depth, plentiful, and replaceable.

Bad day for fuel tankers.

I offer my condolances. I can't imagine how terrible that must be.

"It was not clear who injured the woman, police said." HUH?

I was hoping to see something about testing professional racing pace cars on the highways

Well at least this rescue operation went better than the one recently posted with the spreaders!

Yes it is a great thing to see. It's also in stark contast to an incident in Hartford a couple years ago where an old man was hit by a car and bystanders just walked up to him to take cell phone pictures while he was laying in the street

This is true. But the woman and the larger group should have taken out their frustrations with the event organizer, not Playland and the PD.

I understand where your coming from about the volunteers not making every AFA. These could be serious incidents. But under the current AND new plan there will be 2 engines in the district that will get there quickly, and volunteers can respond directly to the scene quickly also and not have to go back to the firehouse. Currently SFRD sends 1 engine and 1 quint to alarms, so it's really not that different from the proposed plan. That being said, most of those 85% are AFAs that the volunteers respond to. About the manpower, the plan is for 3 during the day and 2 and night, when volunteers are readily available. And as history shows, you regulary get more than the 2 volunteers minimum on those 85% of calls, so you can't say they won't be there. About the cost. I really don't know. Without knowing the numbers well, it's only logical that to add career manpower, it will add cost. The proposed staff levels from both plans are similar. You can't add SFRD engines to Long Ridge without adding SFRD personell, or stripping them from downtown, it's just math. The bottom line is that there is only 1 way to provide proper coverage to North Stamford, and that is staffed 2 engines in TOR, and 2 staffed engines in Long Ridge. Neither plan is "unsafe" or puts the public at risk. The argument isn't about public safety, it's about where those career guys come from.

Correct under the current situation, SFRD provides a 3 man engine. Under the new proposal the SVFD will provide a 3 man engine (or 2 at night when volunteers are more available). The whole point is that this 15% of calls that "get no response" are single-engine calls (and sometimes AFAs), actually do get a response now and WILL get a response in the futute. To imply that you might not get an engine for your medical call or CO alarm is FALSE. Again, that 15% are calls that don't require and 2-3 apparatus. They are wires down, medicals, etc, and they ARE getting a response currently and will get a response with the new system. That is the whole point I'm trying to make. To provide more than an engine to these calls is a waste.

I agree. This 5.5 seems like a small improvement. I'm waiting for the flexible, lo-pro airpacks. Those look revolutionary.

I know it doesn't need to be said here, because we know the full story, and this piece was written to sway the ignorant public, but I'll say it anyway. This opinion article pretends that the new merged FD will have no career firefighters, which isn't true. The new fire department WILL respond to 100% of the calls and residents don't have to worry about being in that 15% that doesn't get a volunteer response. The volunteers will and have been there for the major incidents (fires, MVAs, Storms) that require the additional manpower. Furthermore, the currently 85% of the calls being supplemented with a volunteer response is pretty good when probably 15% of all calls NEED additional manpower beyond the career engines. It looks really ignorant/desparate when articles like this are written that completely skew and ignore the facts. If the article was written about how the whole city needs to have one Chief, or that union firefighters are better than non-union firefighters, at least you would have something to argue about...

Felt it up in East Hartford. Some Pratt employees evacuated, some didn't.

I saw this on the way to work. I have no information about it other than it has a winch on the front bumper, and 2 siren speakers and a rotator on the roof.

I-91 SB towards Hartford.

RIP Loo. The article says the city tried to shut the complex down multiple times due to numerous safety and code violations. Hopefully the ownwers/management will be held responsible for this death.

Pretty sure 'POLICE' on the old one was created in MS Word Art

I've read some interesting articles about this from Mike Geary. I've read a lot of his articles and they all seem sound to me. I'll link them below, but for those who won't read them, I'll summarize. 1) Vitamin D is very important in disease fighting and cancer fighting. 2) Most people are vitamin D deficient for two reasons a) The animals from which we get meat nowadays (cows and chickens) are kept indoors and do not get vitamin D producing sun B ) People have been told that sun is evil and will give you cancer 3) Nationality (skin pigmentation) and current location have a lot to do with how much sun you need and vitamin D you have. Generally, someone from a lower lattitude will have darker skin (Italy, Africa) to protect and compensate for higher sun exposure. Someone from a higher lattitude (Germany, Ireland) will have lighter skin to help absorb more sun/D due to being farther from the equator. If you move to an area other than your ancestry is from, you should note whether you might be over or under exposed to the sun. Sun and food: http://www.truthaboutabs.com/vitamin-d-deficiency-food-supply.html Sun and health: http://www.truthaboutabs.com/sun-exposure-and-health.html Sun and skin pigmentation and lattitude: http://www.truthaboutabs.com/latitude-vitamin-d-deficiency.html Enjoy!

We have an old Holmatro electric combi. Works OK but the spreaders are small. We tried to sell it and were told it has 0 value. I guess the electric tools have come a long way.

Maybe we can put these two hypotheses together?

I like FDNY's policy of requiring a degree for officers. When you are tasked with critical thinking to find solutions to literally any problem that arrises, and being responsible for the lives of your crew, I think it's reasonable to have a degree that shows you can manage time, problem solve, learn, and memorize. For an entry level firefighter who is being told what to do for the most part, I don't think it should be a requirement.