fdce54

To add to my above post, as per teaching firefighters to shut off gas in the street. Did you just walk up to the firehouse one day and say I want to be a firefighter, then was invited in, given gear, told you were the OV and then told to get on the rig, we've got a run? No, of course not. Whether paid or volley, their is mandated training that you must pass. Then their is requalifying, maintaining of the equipment etc, etc. Not to mention the experience factor. Can't teach that. Well the same thing exists in Con Ed. Contrary to popular opinion, we're not just pilot light lighters or as a Mt Vernon PD Sgt once said to me, "you're nothing but a bunch of ditch diggers." There is required training, requalifying and certain equipment to use and maintain. Every Con Ed gas truck has a CGI on it that costs $3500.00. It has to be calibrated monthly and every time the batteries are replaced. If you want to play Con Ed, you have to play by the rules and have to have the same equipment that Con Ed has. Who is going to pay for those CGIs you'll have to have. Who is going to calibrate them when required. The calibrating device is rather expensive too. Who is going to arrange and pay for the training and requalifying? Con Ed gas comes under Federal DOT guidelines. As I stated in my above post about the FD that shut off a bunch of gas main valves trying to secure a leak and in error (and it was the FDNY, not a volley company). If a Con Ed mechanic operates a valve in error whether it be a main valve or curb valve as per DOT guidelines, he is immediately taken off duty, taken for drug and alcohol testing and remains off duty until completion of the investigation even if he was directed or ordered to do so. It's a serious business, not a game.

First of all, I spent 42 years working for Con Ed in the Bronx and Westchester with the last 14 in Westchester as a supervisor in gas emergency until I retired last year. I responded to countless gas leak complaints both as a mechanic and as a supervisor. I am also a volunteer firefighter in Orange county. For me personally, the last thing I wanted to see is the fire dept on location when I arrived. They don't have the required equipment or training mandated by the PSC or the experience to investigate a leak. If it's on fire, I don't want anybody else than the fire dept but unfortunately the majority of firefighters lose interest quickly if it's not on fire. Then the paid depts. want to put the companies back in service asap and the volley companies in the day time Mon-Fri had what we call the paid firefighters responding, ie, the DPW members and their boss wants them back to work. So I would just prefer Con Ed to respond and if I need the services of the fire dept, I would request the FD. At a damage that I responded to one time with the fire dept on location and blowing gas, the chief in charge told me they had shut off numerous valves to no good. I asked him how many valves and where they were. I got the deer in the headlights look back. I then went over and turned off the curb valve on the damaged service and secured the leak. They had turned off gas to numerouse homes and business, over 50. Restoration of gas is not simply turning the valves back on and is time consuming and costly. A little info on responding. The New York State PSC mandates that all gas leak complaints must be responded to within 60 minutes. Con Ed has told the PSC that they will respond to 75% of the leak complaints within 30 minutes. That works well in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens but can be difficult in Westchester. Con Ed will request the fire dept to respond if certain criterias of the leak complaint require it but the understanding is that it is to make safe by evacuating people in the area of the leak not to mitigate it. The finest example of that was the damage in Scarsdale about 10 years ago where the contractor pulled the 1" high pressure service out of the regulator in the bsmt with ensuing high pressure gas filling up the house. The contractor called 911 and reported it but he did not evacuate his workers from the bldg. When the Scarsdale FD arrived, they evacuated the house where the damage was and the surrounding houses also. They opened windows in the house where the damage was to ventilate but being a cold day, the temperature dropped in the house and the thermostat called for heat and the house exploded but there were no injuries. Job well done. What would the outcome have been if they decided to look for valves? The curb valve was buried under construction material, main valves were further away in the intersections at the end of the street and can be and usually are difficult to open. In many older areas main valves can be much further apart than just in the immediate intersections and many are paved over. I was working the night of a gas main fire in Mamaroneck the night of a severe thunderstorm that took down a primary electric cable which grounded out on the ground burning a hole through a 4" steel medium pressure main that was four feet deep in the ground and igniting the gas. Such is the power of primary electric. Looking at our maps, I saw the location of the main valve but could not locate it, only a water valve. I had my construction crew start excavating in the area of where the main was (it was a one way feed down a dead end street) and had my two leak responders start searching for surrounding main valves to secure this leak and fire, a total of five more valves. While we were trying to locate theses valves, the water company responded to mark out the water main and services. After about 45 minutes, he came over to me and stated they did not have a water main any where near where the water valve box was. I had my crew open up that box to see if it was our gas main valve but it was filled with asphalt. I had my crew excavate that box down to the valve and it was our gas valve which we then shut to secure the leak and extinguish the fire. That took 2 1/2-3 hours to do from our time of arrival. Definitely unacceptable in my book and I spent the next hour apoligizing to the chief who was a genuine nice guy. It turned out the road had been repaved about 2 years prior. The contractor had damaged the gas valve box, did not report it and replaced it with a water valve box he had. You never know what you will find. Now back to the Scarsdale incident. If I recall correctly, the FD said from the time of their arrival to the explosion was about 5 minutes. The first Con Ed responder, a supervisor, was able to locate and t/off the curb valve stemming the gas that was feeding the fire. As I stated earlier, the PCS does not want code 3 response and I personally did not want code 3 response having driven fire dept rigs code 3 and knowing the dangers. So my opinion and the way I understood the policy, the fire dept is to evacuate and make safe.

That's an electric operations vehicle.

The red wagons are emergency electric splicers and respond to electric burnouts. If you see a red wagon in Westchester, it came up from Van Nest in the Bronx. As per the emergency stickers on the vehicles, they were put on certain vehicles such as the red wagons and the gas leak response vehicles to indicate to the police depts. that the vehicle has parkway permits Though they now have emergency response groups in gas (2 vehicles) and electric that have sirens and red wig wags on the vehicles, must be a special permit. They respond to incidents and set up a Con Ed command post for communications. They are not there to mitigate the incident. I should add that Con Ed is a private company and has no legal right to lights and sirens or to break into homes or other buildings. That is where the Fire depts and Police depts. come in.

Sorry to hear of this. Knew Gene since grammar school in the Bronx, E. 198 St and Valentine Ave and went to HS with him. Always known as "Spud". RIP Spud.

The occupants of the house left the car running in the garage all night. Six occupants were hospitalized, one initially reported to be critical. At the earlier CO call in RYE, the occupants left the oven on all night. Three were transported to the hospital for evaluation. With all that can go wrong to cause CO, these two incidents were caused by carelessness.

Can anyone confirm if there was a jumper on the Rockland bound Tappan Zee bridge Saturday 2/25/12 at approximately 10:30pm and if indeed he did jump?