FF1

A traditional fire service squad is a rescue pumper. Typically, a fully functional engine company with a tank, pump and full compliment of supply and attack line. In addition, a squad will be equipped with rescue tools, struts, cribbing, ropes/hardware, etc. Essentially it's an engine that can be detailed as a 2nd rescue if needed.

Anyone wonder, maybe, just maybe its things like this that give the fire service a bad reputation? A guy in a dinosaur suit, people wearing street clothes riding on the hose-bed and millions of dollars worth of equipment miles from their districts sitting in the roadway spraying water from their tanks (effectively taking that rig out of service if they needed to respond back to their district). Not to mention the engine lobbing water through power lines with their deck gun toward the end of this video.

There is no such thing as down the list There are 300 scores of 100 or better They are interviewing candidates in the 100 block, but can hire anyone with a score of 100 Rank means nothing. 100 is 100 they can hire #15 or they can hire #299, so long as they have a score of 100 95 and below have a 0% chance to get a call off of this list, there are far too many 100’s to get through before 95s will be reachable

The situation dictates your actions. If I had a dollar for every time myself or my crew did something outside the box or not taught in a classroom to help operations, on both the fire and ems sides of the job, I'd be sitting on a nice pile of cash. Never criticize someone for getting the job done. We don't know the particulars of this. If that was the only viable option, go for it. Hopefully the NFPA, NIOSH, OSHA and PESH police, who have never been on the line and have never been faced with making a split second, outside the box decision, will not come and arrest the aerial operator.

I think the whole point is that they do not want their current Town of Greenburgh services.

It would actually be nice to see Ralph Stupple get it, considering the fire district decided to eliminate his position and demote him not too long ago. That would be the stand up thing to do, considering the circumstances. He is also extremely qualified, after having served as an assistant chief for many many years and serving as a westchester county fire instructor for many years as well. But hey, what do I know......If you advocate for doing the right thing, you must be the crazy one.

So to summarize, the municipalities choose to hire ot vs staffing increases to save money on benefits and these guys made upwards of 300k working overtime shifts at a rate that the municipality agreed on in a contract that they signed they made money for shifts they worked what's the problem?

Best of luck! Great fireman, fire officer and fire instructor. He is a wealth of knowledge and has taught me a ton up in Valhalla. He's is one of the good guys and they simply do not make em' like Dave Russell anymore.

E170 with a crew of techs and it was a freon leak

I'm aware of the HAZMAT task force. My question is, was this a task force activation or a special call to the HFD? As far as the CAD system goes, I'm not stating that the discretion should be placed in the hands of the individual dispatcher, but that there should be a CAD that recommends the closest and most appropriate piece of apparatus that is needed, while also not stripping an entire area of its resources. I think the task force is a step in the right direction and is a great system that is in place, but it begs the question, why not have 2 task forces 24/7/365..... a north zone and south zone. This would accomplish what the county hazmat team has failed in and also provide an adequately staffed hazmat team for all departments within Westchester county I also am aware of the mutual aid policy and response between HFD, GFD and FFD, but it still doesnt change the fact that that district was left without 1 engine and 4 firefighters for an indefinite amount of time yesterday. I said it before and I'll say it again, the IC made a great call and quickly requested the resources he felt was needed to safely and efficiently mitigate the issue. Kudos to him on that. My concern, In my humble opinion, is that the current system in the county is basically robbing Peter to pay Paul. You take a well trained team and send them to an incident, which led to a safe and efficient mitigation of the problem, but also stripped a district of the same 4 well trained firefighters, along with an engine in the process. As far as the HFD chief goes, he is empowered by the HFD commissioners to make those calls, for better or worse. Chief Rush is a very well respected an knowledgeable chief, someone who I respect and is very well respected throughout the county. My concern and opinion is just that, my personal concern that this website facilitates. Its a forum to respectfully discuss the opinions of members of the emergency service community. In a nutshell, no one did anything malicious or reckless yesterday. The incident was taken care of safely and efficiently, without injuries, which is a win in my book. I just personally believe that the system is broken in this county. Despite the fact that the incident was properly mitigated, there is no harm in constructively criticizing the county system and discussing/debating how it works. At the very least it shows that members of the emergency service community in ouR county truly cares about whats going on. Again, this is all constructive and a discussion. I by no means think my opinion is right or wrong....its just my opinion (I try to issue it in a constructive and respectful manor) and I apologize if I have offended anyone.

The fire advisory board are the ones who foster the current system. I will never see a county fire system in Westchester. Its simply not going to happen. In regards to the monday morning quarterback comment, I really don't see the need for the negativity. This is a message board for the purpose of discussing things like this and voicing personal opinion. I don't agree with yesterdays events, but you may. There is nothing wrong with that....everyone is entitled to voice their opinion, unfortunately there will always be people like you who wait for an opportunity to post a negative and disrespectful comment on here

that's why, with the exception of the cities, a county based fire/ems system would solve all of these issues.

I will agree. They definitely provided the properly trained personnel and resources. no arguments here, but again, those trained firefighters and resources are there to protect the residents and visitors of the Hartsdale Fire District, because fire prevention, fire suppression, technical rescue, emergency medical first response and hazardous materials mitigation are basic facets of any fire department. Yorktown Heights has a duty to their community to be able to provide those essential services when any given incident should occur. If Yorktown Heights or any other fire department (paid, volunteer or career) cannot provide those basic services to their communities, 100% of the time, with properly trained firefighters, then why should they even exist? The way I see it, YHFD responded to this incident, realized that they couldn't handle it and called for a department that could. Does this seem a bit broken to you?

With all due respect, fire, police and ems are civil servants. Criticism comes with the territory and yes, these departments do need to answer to the general public who they are sworn to serve.

1) the county mutual aid system is broken. No depts should have the right to choose their run cards. 60 control should have full discretion based on available resources and their capabilities. All fires in this county are basically a reunion of the boys club 2) . The county HAZMAT team, in its current state is a complete waste of space, time and money, I do agree with you on that. It would make more sense for the Grasslands Brigade members to be trained to the tech level and essentially staff that rig (only during work hours, but its a start) when it is called for a response. 3) In regards to the HFD captain / YHFD assistant chief, I do not know this person personally, but its not very hard to figure out, as the names and ranks are readily available on the internet. Again, this response cannot be justified, unless there is a HAZMAT/special ops task force made and this task force is made available for all county departments to utilize. 4) every fire department, career, volunteer and combination should be able to handle a hazmat incident. We all know that very few can, due to lack of trained firefighters and resources, but if a department cannot handle a room and contents fire or a small scale hazmat incident on their own, without calling mutual aid to the scene to mitigate these incidents, they should not exist as a department. Why even bother existing as a department if you must rely on others to do the basic functions of your job? 5) The events occurring in Valhalla today are just as bad and the same amount of criticism should be given for skipping White Plains and Fairview.