Dinosaur

"Everyone"? So if the call is for a sick person at Wal-Mart do you have to solicit a refusal from everyone in the store?

Maybe it's just me but why are firehouses becoming so costly? The majority of the square footage is apparatus bays so when you consider the cost per square foot of the "living space" it is really exorbitant.

http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/2015/03/goldfeder-first-due.html A good example of the staffing problem.

Is that the old Croton aqueduct or is this still in service? I don't recall which is which anymore.

Don't they have to follow OSHA and/or NFPA? How can there be no standard for FF?

Most of the people on this site don't want facts. They want to argue emotionally because that's the way we've been doing it for the past 90 years. The reality is that the facts bear out that there is no "system" for fire or EMS in Westchester and we could do much better.

Might it be that they try to retain that for firefighting and let the FDNY use theirs for spills?

The Westchester METU's sole purpose is nursing home evacuations. That's one of the criticisms. Chief Benz, did the Yonkers METU come to your nursing home fire?

Could it be that once the plane was evacuated and the response changed from "ARFF" to "Haz-Mat" they used the preferred foam for the City? I'm just spit-balling here. And doesn't AC 150/5210-6D say you can use the FDNY type of foam as well?

So the state would stop subsidizing the training and the entire cost would have to be borne by the recipient (local agency)? Kind of a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario, isn't it? I mean either the state continues to subsidize and everyone pays or they don't and the individual towns have to bear the expense. Either way, the taxpayers are paying.

I asked some of the same question and was told that Yonkers PD ESU responds with the METU and they're EMT's. Empress would already be at a job in the city so they would have additional EMS personnel on scene that could also be used.

Great question, Chief! Sadly I don't think it will get much of a response. When you consider how poorly our elected officials communicate their performance to the taxpayer, I doubt very highly this would get any traction in the community regardless of how real the problem may be.

If "I'm a little shaken up" is a complaint, then we should also be at every movie theater showing a horror flick and Great Flags at the end of their crazy roller coasters. People claim to be "shaken up" by lots of things but that doesn't make them a "patient". There is (or was) an EMS policy on calls involving no patient, cancellation, etc. Maybe people should refer to that.

Did Mt Vernon call and ask for it? Did the county refuse to send it? And just to be fair, the second alarm in the vern sends less than half a first alarm response from some other places so the comment about alarms really isn't a good one. Number of times someone tries to make a point but completely misses the mark because nobody knew what he was talking about. Hmm...

I wasn't looking for answers when I posted about consolidation. It's just every time dozens of departments are needed for a single family dwelling on fire it highlights the need for it. I'm not criticizing those involved in this fire nor am I being petty and unhappy. Sooner or later enough people will learn the truth about consolidation possibilities to make it happen. Won't be in my lifetime but still... NOTE TO MODERATORS: Since the consolidation discussion has offended some, can you split it to another thread?

The problem I see is too many people use the FAST as their reserve company and don't have more people waiting in staging to go to work. People gotta stop calling just enough to barely get it done and call enough to get it done safely and efficiently.

That's the problem, you assume there would be a reduction in tankers. Frankly there would probably be an increase in tankers and a reduction in engines since the county already has more of them than all of NYC. Properly analyzed and using real information not emotion or reliance on tradition, a regional, consolidated department would probably be far better equipped than we are today.

You know the consolidation of volunteer departments without the addition of any paid personnel could be a significant improvement over the completely arcane system we have now. Everyone immediately assumes that consolidation implies paid but it doesn't! How about merging 4-5 districts that serve the same town? Or the countless villages that rely heavily on each other and are smaller than a postage stamp. Imagine a River Towns or Sound Shore or North County Fire District with several former departments under one hierarchy. Economies of scale in purchasing, reduction of apparatus numbers (and the ability to have "spares", something virtually non-existent outside the big cities), higher personnel counts, standard training, administration and operations, to name a few. A member department with strengths in one area can help one weak in that area and so on. Officers can be vetted from a larger pool of candidates improving the quality, competition, and ultimately performance. Chiefs will oversee a bigger department giving them more experience. Budgets can be consolidated perhaps reducing the overall cost to the taxpayer. There's a lot to be said for consolidating and it doesn't mean adding ONE paid guy.

I will grant you the weather. Weather is unpredictable and often unforgiving. However geography isn't changing so I have to ask what about geography made this a tough fire? Aren't most of the homes in that part of the county on one lane sometimes dirt roads with narrow driveways? That's nothing new and should be an insignificant issue. Time of day? That the time of day is an issue for the effective response of any fire department is a travesty. More reason to regionalize and consolidate departments and maximize the limited resources we have. If it took 13 departments because it was a weekday and it would have taken only 6 on a weekend day, we have a major problem with the "system"!

Thieving bastids! Gotta love politicians!

Just asking because I don't understand the situation. Shouldn't the city and the PD be paying for this?

I don't believe that any fire departments have "extra" units. They may have "more" units but the politicians make sure nobody has extra anything!

I believe that I heard it was in the neighborhood of 400K but don't hold me to that. It is NOT first-hand info.

I would tend to agree with you but I was told before I retired that our commercial EMS agency would write up everyone as a patient and have them RMA. I later found out that they billed for this. THAT changed my opinion on the subject

The NYC mergers were hardly that. They all fell under the City of New York unlike trying to consolidate the Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle Police or Fire Departments. The MTA merger may be a better example. Has anyone got an example of FIRE departments merging?