Dinosaur

This has nothing to do with volunteer vs. career or anything other than someone being an ASS!!!

Locally we've lost a few. Brewster (though it's been reincarnated), Putnam Valley, Cortlandt, Town of Ossining, Village of Haverstraw, to name a few. NJ has been under the gun a lot recently and have done away with some big jobs like Camden. No public service agencies are safe. Everyone is a potential political target.

It does happen on the police side too... http://www.app.com/story/news/local/communitychange/2016/05/11/lake-como-police-shuts-its-doors-tonight/84225366/

None of the airport is in the Village of Port Chester. Part of it may be in Rye Brook but the majority is in Harrison and North Castle.

Problem is they're saying that the eight victims of this "supplemented" the volunteer force. So they're claiming that there's no substantial change in coverage by eliminating the eight career guys.

Nope. They're really not the same thing. They are not the same thing and the comparison is not a valid one. Auxiliary police have substantially less training than police officers.

So bill the facility directly for a service call. Get the town to pass a local law like they do for alarms that keep going off.

We spend oodles of money to make sure every FF has proper structural firefighting gear. Some departments go so far as to provide two sets to allow for cleaning, etc. Why then, do we continue to wear the wrong or no PPE at all when fighting brush fires???? Am I the only one this bothers? Isn't a couple hundred bucks worth the expense to properly protect our people?

Is this purely a financial issue? The village is looking to save 600K?

State laws. There are no federal laws requiring local fire/police/EMS.

Not a policy. Civil service law covers this. Don't know the particulars anymore though.

Can you quantify this "major tax" on your system and explain how it is "causing you not to be able to cover everything in your own towns"? What are the actual numbers? Is this a major burden on the system or an inconvenience because somebody missed a "pin job" while on a fall call?

A new thread talks about a $2500 face mask equipped with built-in TIC and people are lining up to demo it. I'm willing to bet there will be dozens in the Hudson Valley before the end of the year. Meanwhile the OFPC allowed firefighters to go out in jeans and t-shirts to fight the wildfire in the Shawangunk Mountains this past week to work alongside forest rangers and parks crews wearing Nomex and carrying fire shelters. Did the local FD crews have fire shelters? Nope. We have to get our priorities straight! http://www.recordonline.com/photogallery/TH/20160428/PHOTOGALLERY/428009998/PH/1

The problem is NOT money in most departments - at least in this area. The problem is prioritization and management. I could go on and on about shaving 150K from the price of a ladder that's 1.5 feet bigger than the one two houses over (cause you know, ours has to be bigger) but I won't. I could say spend a little bit less on "extra-curricular activities" and buy the PPE your guys need. $50-75K would outfit 100 guys. That's not a significant expense when you consider the fund balances a lot of these departments are sitting on (or were sitting on) and a city could budget for this over 3 years with little impact on an O&M budget. It's just a matter of someone saying "we need to do this". I'd prefer that over someone getting hurt, sick or worse because they're not wearing the right PPE or any PPE at all. You can't wear the same boots and helmet? Just curious.

Is it? What's that include because most of what I've seen comes in at substantially less than that.

Yes. Wearing structural PPE (bunker gear) or not wearing any PPE while fighting large wind swept brush fires.

To the extent that bitching here doesn't solve any problems, I agree with you wholeheartedly. But to say that things are ever "textbook" on the river or that we shouldn't criticize in the hopes of making improvements and developing a more efficient mousetrap, sorry, you're wrong. There hasn't been any agency bashing, there's criticism of the fact that the river is like the wild west and there is virtually no accountability, coordination, or efficiency in responses. THAT is not bashing an agency; that's a statement based on a long career working on and near the river. You can go back to Flight 1549 and there's a thread here saying "thank God he turned left and not right" because the outcome would not have been the same if that was in Westchester/Rockland (or Orange/Dutchess/Putnam). If you can't answer the fundamental question "who's in charge" of a response on the river, despite things like the Westchester River Emergency Advisory Board or whatever Nick Gasparre's attempt at bringing this to a real table was called, then there is a problem. I respect your position and agree that debating tactics isn't always productive, particularly in a forum like this one, but thinking your comment is the final word in this topic is, in a word, nonsense.

Civil service has very specific requirements for advancement or promotion. You can't even sit for a police written exam for chief without having met the minimum requirements which are a lot more than PD1 and ICS-400.

According to your link above, this is the new and improved by-law requirement for chief: FF1 and ICS-400. That's a crackerjack resume.

Wasn't an active shooter. Sadly this may have been a case of mistaken identity because the FF were apparently shot while trying to force entry during a service call to "check on the welfare" of the resident. The "suspect" did not fire on anyone after the initial shooting and is cooperating with authorities now. Sounds a lot like the case a few months ago where a FF was shot by someone on a medical call when the resident "woke up" and found a "stranger" in his home. Very sad. RIP and godspeed!

Is Rescue 1 no longer in service? I haven't heard them in a while...

I don't think the structure of the haz-tacs is strictly to have the paramedic operating in the hot zone. They can work in the warm and cold zones though and if they're not part of a haz-mat assignment, how will they get there? Don't forget the "Tac" side - where they do a whole lot more interventions.

Date: 04-10-16 Time: 1430 Location: 53 Herriott Street District: City of Yonkers Weather: clear Units: Engines 303, 304, 306, 308 Ladders 74, 71 and Battalion 1 on the initial response. Ladder 72 as FAST and Squad 11 added due to numerous calls. 10-29 confirmed on arrival. (working fire). Batt 2 as safety officer Batt 1 reports 3 story frame with possible extension into connected 3 story frame already. Similar exposure with 3 foot separation on other side of building. Engines 309 307 and Ladder 75 on the 2nd Alarm. MSU also requested. Engine directed to stretch into exposure 4. Engines 310 312 Ladder 73 on the 3rd Alarm. FIU and MSU on scene. 3rd alarm companies to stage on Riverdale Avenue. New Rochelle sending 1&1 to Yonkers (engine 22 and ladder 12) Station 12. Car 3 is now the IC. PD requested to close Riverdale Avenue so they can access large water main on Riverdale. Engines 313 314 and Ladder 70 on the 4th Alarm. This accounts for all on-duty companies in the city. Ladder from Eastchester to Station 14. Engine 29 out of service to staff. Car 3 reports partial collapse of original fire building - #53 Herriott. All companies are out of building. YFD personnel recall underway to staff reserve apparatus. Engines 300, 319 and Squad 45 in service (that I've heard). Yonkers OEM on scene. Red Cross requested to assist displaced residents. During this fire: Engine 319 (reserve) responding to medical emergency. New Rochelle 1&1 with Yonkers Batt 3 responding to fire alarm. MVFD Engine 204 and YFD Squad 45 responding to trauma (fall victim). Greenville Squad 15 responding to medical emergency. Writer: Me

They need to stop robbing peter to pay paul and just add more resources to the entire system! Ridiculous! Wait until summertime!

So how's it going? This thread just died off...