COMMANDCHIEF

Take them to a shoe repair place. They can stretch them. Once you get them stretched, get two soda bottles and fill them with water and jam them in the boots. These will act as a "poor mans" shoe tree. If there are any horseback riders out there. This will also work with the high boots. It keeps them from sagging at the bottom.

I think a communications class is a good idea. I think you might be able to incorporate it into the SIZE UP class that they just had on the county level. One problem with that is.. the communications are so mixed here. There is no standarization (yet) and one department is working with high tech stuff, and the other end is working with a can and a string.

Snapshot. You better stop smoking crack my friend. It's distorting your comprehension of reality.

Bobby D has always been a Liberal piece of crap. So this does not come as a shock to me.

I never knew they dindn't

I see several valid points being brought up. But I think in the mix of this discussion we are crossing over one topic and another. If you look at the stats for FF deaths you will find heart attack the leading killer. I think the fact that we can't field enough guys on the fire ground thus forcing our people to multi task and become overly taxed plays more of a roll in that death than the fact that he or she only had 78 hrs of basic training. I agree that NYS is WAY behind the rest in FF training and has been for pretty much ever. Westchester County was very progressive in that it was one of the few places that had a dedicated training facility. It was state of the art and because of budgets and poor management over the years had fallen WELL behind the many counties around us that now far EXCEED Westchester. In the last few years we are lucky enough to have started seeing a change for the good, and the ball is now rolling in the right direction to get us back up to speed. Will it take a long time? Yes, but at least we are moving forward. I think one thing that contributed to our state having lower minimum standards for FF's is the fact that it is hard getting qualified instructors to run classes in the rural areas. Down around the tri state area we are spoiled in that we have several facilities either in counties around us or in municipalities within Westchester itself. If you were to go up north or in the west of the state is it not as easy to set up training etc. I also think that when the basic classes were 39 hrs etc. The electives that were offered were thought to supplement any lack of basic, and eventually add to the amount of training that FF has. Similar to the career academy. The FF I and II are only a portion of the 229 hrs of training they get. The electives that are offered to the Volunteers at night comprise most of the rest of that training. Better recruitment and increased convenience/frequency of the elective classes will improve this situation.

I think the conflict would come in if the FD was in a "village" type set up where the local government actually plays a direct roll with the way the fire department operates. If it is a "district" the town has really nothing to say about the opertaions at all. There is a Board of Commishioners.

I have to agree with Dadbo46 on this one. Obedience to orders is the corner stone of any paramilitary organization. I'm not saying that I agree with the Chief in this particular case, but I'm going to listen to him. If there is a problem, it can be delt with later on. I know there is going to be a flood of "what if's" and "I thinks" on this one. But the bottom line is the professional will learn to take orders and carry them out. Self discipline is one the the hardest traints to maintain and is often the diffrence between the professional and the amature. Be that professional!!!

Are you asking about a rescue squad or a rescue company? A rescue squad is refering more to an ambulance.

I think one key component is get people with more that the bear minimum of time required to run for office. It's gotten to the point where people are still learning their basics while expected to lead others. In part this is because of a shortage of experienced members wishing to take on the added responsability. But this makes for a dangerous situation.

Our department conducts a drill three times a month. In the winter we do have some problems with conducting drills due to the temperatures. But we try to refrain from having a "video" night. Often we will take the hands on training inside pulling the apparatus out or making a space and pulling a demo car in and conducting an extrication drill inside the house. I try to have all of out recertification stuff during the winter. Our First Aid classes, OSHA refresher and Driver Safety classes. This will knock out these classroom dominated things to free you up for more outsied drills in the good weather months.

What accident? Enough said The guy just came off of a motor strapped between two wheels going 80MPH. a 3 foot drop isn't going to put him over the top.

I had posted in another section of the forum. I went by thrie old quarters. Or the location of their old quarters, and it's gone. Everything is gone. The trailers, the apparatus. I asked what their new location was and someone gave me an address in Queens.

But when your only making the trip 8 times a month. Does it really matter?

2042 is correct. I just went by there last night to check on the status being it's been a topic on here. Not only is the building gone, the yard they had the apparatus and the equipment has been built on. Does anyone know of their new location? I know they had another spot to store things cause they had a few engines that were not parked in the yard the last time I had gone by.

I think Izzy is correct. Your better guess is an FD in NJ.

Hey. Avation Hose is still alive. I can't say if they are doing well or not. but they got into a problem a while back, where they are now out of their station. And when I say out I mean their apparatus is sitting in a fenced in lot next to the old quarters. The fire house is a construction trailer. I think the last I went by there, they were planning on putting up a buttler building or something. They got a lot of apparatus donated to them a while back, they were looking to spec out their own engine when I was speaking to them last year. The apparatus they got donated to them(one a brand new Ferrara) is not "meeting their needs". They have an engine down there that was the first due on the Pentagon on 9/11. The company also has a 15 passanger club van and an ambulance. I don't know what they use it for, but it's questionable if they are doing EMS. I know the engine will roll out on EMS assists similar to FDNY Engine companies. The crews for Avation are staffed in quarters and the members ride in shifts. I don't know if all shifts are staffed, but I know the guy I spoke to was from Brooklyn, and he was telling me that only a few members were actually from the area. I will post the directions to this place. If you have the chance swing by. If nothing else ,the place will be entertaining.

I know each company has their own pull box that is a local alarm for Fd. They all have signs that advise the puller to then go and pull the FDNY box and it's location. Avation dosen't have a printer in their "quarters" but I know they monitor the boro radio, and respond on the same boxes as E93 (not sure if that's tor correct company number, but it's the engine located next to the 43 precints that they respond with).

I just heard a report on this for NYC today. The cost is $8,000 per intersection, and $1000 per vehicle. And yea, it has been around for some time.

Friend of mine that just finished the agility portion of this test got called on Friday and they advised him that the letters were being held up because the Department of Justice has to review the test/list. Has anyone else heard about this? and how long is it expected to hold up the process?

I believe Ossining Vac may be hosting a class starting soon.

For years command related classes have been trying to get IC's to request resources "BEFORE" they may actually be needed. Just as the other poster has said, it's easier to turn them back than to get them started too late. I am in full agreement with this policy. It's better to have it on the way and not need it than to realize that it should have been requested 10 minutes after it would have been useful. Another point I would like to make is that additional resouces at scenes in both winter and summer particularly dealing with extream temperatures give the option to rotate out companies so they can rehab for a bit. This may be one of the contributing factors toward the high death rates (due to heart attack). Aside from physical conditioning, the fact we are working our people harder than usual at scenes may come into play. Just a though.

Why were the women thinking about leaving the union? That is something the article mentions. but never goes into.

Hopewell fire apparatus

This was clearly a poorly written article. And what was the purpose? to advise about the Tanker incident or just rail the FD's in the area. The Editor of the paper this crap was printed in should go back to Journalism school.