Dinosaur

Where have all the interesting and thoughtful discussions gone? It seems that only a fraction of contributing members remain and there's very little content generated here anymore. Not a peep about the big 7 alarm fire in Brooklyn going on for the past two days and those topics that do get started die with little or no response. What's happened to EMTBravo? This is not the site it used to be.

That wasn't really a consolidation. It was a contract for services. I'd like to see a couple of true consolidations to figure out if it works or not.

I haven't been to a lot of train accidents but if you factor in the car being demolished and gas tank rupturing, sparks from the wreck and train braking and electricity from 3rd rail it's no surprise that there was a fireball.

Can you give us the reference you are using for this information? Who "mandated" the function for the use of the METU? It seems to me that Westchester made a calculated choice to opt out of using the vehicle for a variety of assignments the way other UASI partners are. YPD has been using theirs with great success and I'm sure if there was a mandate prohibiting that they wouldn't be able to do it. FDNY can use the vehicles for MCI and other things (see policy attached). It may just be less efficient in the city where ambulances are far more abundant than here in Westchester. To think that a vehicle that can transport two dozen people (or more) sits idly by while ambulances have to be summoned from around the county just doesn't make any sense. With the airport, railroads, high-rises, and other significant hazards in the county to limit the resource to only nursing home evacuations is unwise. Especially when you consider how fragmented and inadequate the EMS system is in the county. It is almost as if the county just wants the toys but not the responsibility of using them. When has a nursing home in Westchester County ever had to be evacuated? How about in the UASI territory? I heard the same thing. FD/PD/EMS operating at a serious MVA on the parkway "witnessed" the train accident.

1000 calls but what's the number of actual structure fires? There are a lot of busy FD's doing way more than 1000 calls per year but the number of actual fires is not that high. Just wondering if SV's are really that disparate?

Better rush out to get your milk and bread then. These are the same folks who predicted 20-30 inches last week.

Did anyone expect a different outcome? There's a lesson to be learned here...

G) A lot fewer chiefs and a lot more Indians. H) Fewer departments based on logic, study, response times, resources, and capabilities. I) Less politics in the process. Now I'm going to go buy my winning PowerBall ticket... LOL

What year was that? NYC*EMS went out of business almost 20 years ago.

I don't know your county and can not speak to your personal experiences but generally speaking your arguments against a regional 911 system are flawed. The State of Rhode Island uses a statewide 911 center and as you get further away from the northeast more and more people approach things at the regional level. Not just dispatch but everything, hmmmm. Wonder if they're on to something. 1. Accountability at the local level is a joke. I have heard incompetent local dispatchers and they worked for decades because there was zero accountability. 2. Protocols get established by the dispatch center and the agency. There isn't a take it or leave it line in the sand. Although some completely unrealistic expectations may not be met. 3. If local dispatchers were moved to a regional 911 center they would still have the local knowledge. It isn't like Yonkers would suddenly be dispatching Albany or vice versa. 4. If the system is built properly this doesn't happen. Westchester's trunked system wasn't built properly. It was never really designed for emergency services and because NYC also uses some of the frequencies, the county had to limit where some frequencies are used and their power or some nonsense like that. Westchester's demographics are ripe for all kinds of consolidation. Nobody has the balls to do it though. But sticking to the communications issue, there are so many radio frequencies in the county that they could probably build a state of the art system using combinations of VHF and UHF with repeaters and all that other geek stuff that would be truly impressive. Of course nobody wants to do that.

Sign of the times... http://ithaca-cortland.twcnews.com/content/news/ithacacortland/796656/slaterville-ambulance-service-may-be-coming-to-an-end/ Will community ambulance corps still be around in 2020?

Trained to the same standard regardless of the patch on their sleeve. Makes the concept of mutual aid pretty easy to implement. Everyone who shows up has the same basic training. Imagine that? FD7807, you're missing our (at least my) point. Want to clear up a lot of the BS that exists in the NY fire service today? Adopt one common standard for FF training. That's a huge step in the right direction. There will always be differences from department to department but if they basic training is the same regardless of patch or pay status, we'd all be better off.

If you're saying that I'm vollie bashing because I don't think advocating lower standards for volunteer FF than career FF is right then I'm guilty. If you're saying that supporting a single FF training standard for the state of NY is vollie bashing then I'm guilty. I am equally tired of coming to this site to hear that people are going out and doing the job with un or under qualified people, inadequate numbers, and a completely blind and or deaf administration that condones it. If you've ever read any of my posts, you know that I'm equally critical of the so-called career or combination departments that respond with 1-2 FF per apparatus. That's just stupid! If lobbying for a single standard isn't being part of the solution, please enlighten me. What is?

You can't win with facts. You need to be emotional and entrenched in traditional responses. Don't open your eyes and tell it like it is.

Were those the initial conditions? Guess that was a suspicious one in a vacant building, huh?

I hope those words don't come back to bite him in the ass. If there's a fire or injury (or worse) I suspect he'll be hearing about it.

The training is out there but only one segment of the target population is required, by statute, to take it. I think it's discrimination and career firefighters should sue for being forced to take the training!

Without the recorded data from your vehicle do you think it would have gone so smoothly or would you have been giving depositions for months while the lawyers jockeyed for a settlement from the city?

Dispatchers are only providing the information received from the calling party. Very often it is not an accurate representation of the patient's condition. As for the name of home or property owner, that may not identify the patient. I'm not sure there would be any expectation of privacy under these circumstances nor can I imagine why it would become an issue.

The irony is that most of the time they're running lights and siren to stand-by in a house but the house is usually empty as is their own. The notion that the stand-by is an emergency is weakened substantially by the fact that there is nobody standing by in the firehouse most of the time.

http://www.dhses.ny.gov/ofpc/documents/standards/part426lawbook.pdf

It isn't inspections plural in their budget. Singular, as in inspection.

Why create a job title for half the job? Why not make everyone meet the same standard?

Nope. Not what I meant. I meant anti-career, blind to standards and change, defensive of old outdated traditions not based at all on anything other than emotion. There are a great many volunteers who defy the majority and train, prepare, and respond as professionally as a career guy but in NY they are a very small minority. They're not resentful of the pay issue because they have other jobs, or are students, and they chose to be firefighters.

10 this weekend according to 880.