paulie3jobs

In the township that I work in, if a hydrant is contiguous to your property, it is your responsibility to clear it. This is outlined in a township ordinance. That being said, my guys go out and shovel hydrants, they are not happy about it (our town has 700+), but I remind them it could be them waiting for water once the tank has been expended. We use to have devices similar to what RES24CUE has pictured. The local miscreants kept destroying them, so the vast majority of them were removed. The few that are still in place are in districts that are indifferent to them, so they're fine.

I was gonna say, because I live right on the NY NJ border, and most of the towns right across the border in NJ come into our local hospital, and I don't think I've ever seen an ALS fly car, it's always been an ALS ambulance (I want to say it's Chilton Hospital medics, but I'm not 100% sure). Not Chilton, maybe St. Clare's (I'm guessing St. Anthony's in Warwick?), Chilton only uses fly car presently. That may change now that they belong to the Atlantic Health System. St. Clare's was primarily ambulance based medics, but they are slowly switching to fly cars. Also, one of my usual partners was a Jersey EMT for a long time and was also a line officer in her corps in Jersey, and she always tells me that Jersey medics can't transport. That might have been true in the past, but no longer. Englewood Hospital medics have been transporting for several years now, again, only if another ambulance does not respond. I can see the state loosening up on this requirement as the ranks of the volunteers continue to diminish.

"First, I've never understood why paramedics in NJ have to work out of a hospital and why they can't transport, especially when some of them are riding around in full ambulances" I believe this was a bone thrown to the volunteers when the medics first started in the late 70's, early 80's. The vollies were afraid that having medics in ambulances were going to "take away their jobs." To get them to buy in to the program, it was determined that ALS would not transport, except in the larger cities (Newark, Jersey City). Some hospital based services are beginning to use ambulances for their medic trucks. If an ambulance based medic unit arrives, and there is no vollie BLS, that medic unit will transport (and also receive a higher reimbursement) because they transported.

Makes total sense, why design two different vehicles to do the same job. I would assume some of the only differences might be: left vs. right hand side steering, and emissions. I never understood why Ford and Chevy (too a much lesser extent Dodge), made the same vehicle two to three times with different badges on them, just competing against themselves. I guess that's one of the reasons why they almost went bankrupt

You do what is happening now, at least in north jersey (MICCOM service area). You call MICCOM and ask for an ambulance and they will send the closest (proprietary or hospital based) ambulance that is available. The patient will be billed, but at least they won't be waiting forever for an ambulance. No contracts involved, just ask (and for the most part) receive.

If I had to wager a guess, I'd say MONOC is lurking about.

Interesting looking light-bar. Any details?

They missed the FDNY on the mudflaps.

Frazer is making some in-roads in Northern NJ. Hackensack Vollies, HackensackUMC, and The Valley Hospital, Ridgewood are all using them at this point.

I was thinking along the lines of NYCTA or NJT. Seen those Mega's, wouldn't want to sit up top though.

Great catch. A little too progressive for the states, though.

I'd be curious as to how much you have to reach in and or down to get the equipment out. My back isn't what it use to be.

Of course we'll put the fire out. But how spent were those guys after the rescue. Don't put your men at risk to do it. If the building has to burn down, so be it. Maybe then, the citizenry and the powers that be will realize that firefighting is labor intensive. You can have all the latest and greatest equipment, but if you don't have the manpower to utilize that equipment, it's useless. I'm not going to put my people at risk to try and save something the insurance company will probably write off and knock down within a week.

and there in lies the problem. What do you need more guys for? You're doing fine with what you got. Life before property, ALWAYS. But after the life is saved, well, we did what we could with what we have.