wmetech

 
Complete list of vehicles up for auction and more info now available on their website.
 
4/20: Brooklyn auction
5/4: Mount Vernon auction
5/6: Poughkeepsie auction
5/11: Monroeville, PA auction
5/12: Baltimore, MD acution

 
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to "abandon" UHF fireground. In fact, that is one of the few things the surrounding counties got right so far...Westchester, Rockland, Orange fire depts all operate on UHF fireground, making interops easy.
 
44-Control monitors all UHF fireground in Rockland by way of receivers at all 12 trunked system sites. They "vote" the strongest signal so that the clearest transmission is always heard on the consoles in the radio room. There is no reason that Westchester couldn't do the same, assuming they ever get this new trunked system built out.
 
If you're advocating for some sort of fireground system that goes through repeaters or a trunked system, vs analog simplex line-of-sight...then I'm afraid you're going down the wrong path. K.I.S.S. when it comes to fireground comms, do not unnecessarily complicate things or depend on equipment at fixed remote sites. Nothing is safer and more reliable than two radios communicating directly line-of-sight, period.
 
 
 
You're never going to have "one system" for multiple counties like that. The best we can hope for is that Westchester and Orange both get their acts together and finally build out their 700 MHz systems. Obviously Rockland is already ahead of the pack, having operated on the 700 MHz system for three years already. Time for the others to get on board so that the systems can be interconnected via ISSI. That will solve quite a few of these "interoperability" issues.

 
 
A little blast from the past here, 14 years ago. Former Forum Admin Truck 4 produced this awesome feature and there are no words I can say of how appreciative of him for this. 2004 was a busy and tragic year in Westchester.  Links in the Incident Alert dicussion thread do not work but I will update those soon. Click on the links to view the Incident Alert. I'm proud that we have a searchable database of 14 years worth of topics that you can research.
 
If you want to see more EMTBravo.com Blasts From The Past from our archives, please hit "Like" on this post.
 
Incidents were selected by a panel of EMTBravo.com moderators and select members by vote and also ranked based on, with no factor holding any more weight than another, size and scope of incident, response to incident, loss of life, effect on response, training and operating policy. EMTBravo Network Incident Alert Moderator Truck4 Created And Developed The Idea For This List, As Well As Compiled, Ranked, And Wrote All The Information. Special Thanks To Truck4 For His Work On This Project, And To All Who Participated And Supported This Project.
 
 

I've made this same point several times discussing this in my area. The public is often conditioned to think that when there's a fire in their community, the house will be a loss and anything short of burning the entire block is a "good job" and will praise their FD for their efforts. The public also doesn't always recognize the football fornicating monkey show when they see it.
To some extent, this holds true for some of the departments involved. The amount of back slapping I see on social media these days on the heals of a fire in many of these communities is crazy. Everyone always did "a good job" and everyone going home safe is often used as the yard stick to measure the effort. They may have given 100% and done the best that they could, but that doesn't always mean that they actually did "a good job", did it in a reasonably safe fashion or that their efforts made the situation better.

The reality is that most citizens and local politicians don't care what it says on the side of the fire apparatus at the fire scene as long as the fire is put out. Given the choice between properly funding the local FD to ensure they're capable of handling a first or second alarm fire on their own, or utilizing "free" mutual aid, they'll always choose the cheaper option. Unless a bunch of communities in a region are seeing growing expenses due to providing the mutual aid, chances of any one wanting to be more self-sufficient is unlikely.
The problem is the public doesn't know a good job from, mediocre or worse. If you arrive in any reasonable amount of time (longer for VFD's), don't look like the proverbial Monkey/Football, the fire goes out without getting worse after arrival, they'll be happy. In fact often they'll hail the FD for being hometown heroes, while having no clue they just got mediocrity. So trying to tell the public too spend more for a problem they fail to see or understand is a real uphill battle.
The fact is we're our own worst enemy far too often. We (as a whole) take what they give us (less and less), accept increasing risks to our personnel, and still get the job done to a level that is satisfactory to the masses. Until we start pointing out slower response times, equipment failures, lack of training or skill development and relate these to the loss of funds and personnel, the public will continue to push for lower taxes, as at the end of the day, unless they've experienced a fire, they have no real skin in the game. To the public we're one very expensive insurance policy, that appears to work when needed. Only when they use us themselves do they truly judge how well the money they've paid over the years was spent.

Yes we do, but more so we owe it to ourselves to be honest with ourselves. What I mean by this is that we are the greatest obstacle to solving the problem of inadequate responses and until we can admit that truth there is little hope of progressing. Like an alcoholic the first step in fixing the problem is admitting we have one and having the willingness to do what it takes to fix it. Most can readily admit to the first part, that there's a problem, but very few can honestly say they are truly willing to do what it takes to fix it. Oh sure, many will loudly jump on the consolidation bandwagon and proclaim that this is "the answer", until that answer involves them making concessions to serve the greater good. "We must consolidate, but my agenda is more important that yours", "we must consolidate, but don't change my contract", "we must consolidate, but don't touch my apparatus", "we must consolidate but don't take my rank" and so on and so on. Sadly, egos, agendas and a warped sense of self importance makes it virtually impossible to progress out of the tradition of putting ourselves first. And make no mistake we have always put ourselves first, otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion. The public will only get what they deserve when we put their needs above our wants....and that my friends is a tall order indeed.

All dependent on the service your town expects from its fire department. You get some of these tiny towns out west in the middle of nowhere, where you get 2 guys in traffic vests and hard hats because the community contracts its "fire service" out to a couple of yokels in a wagon from 1950 that barely runs.
Are most of our politicians/residents ignorant to the level of service their fire departments actually provide in comparison to what they're paying for it? Absolutely. But I'll bet the same happens for the police, DPW, and education services as well.
All that being said, you're absolutely right. Its not a career/volunteer issue if you have a 100% union career department that only has 5 guys split between an Engine, Truck and Ambulance? Guess what, you can't handle a fire without mutual aid. If you have a volunteer department with 3 stations, 4 engines, 2 rescues, 2 ladder trucks, and 9 Chief cars, but you can only get 6 guys for a fire at noon on a Tuesday, 5 of which are old enough to collect social security? Same deal.
I'm not sure if its reasonable for a town of 10,000 people to pay for enough staffing for a full NFPA-compliant response of 12-14 Firefighters for a residential structure fire. (Source) All the more reason to consolidate to one combination department. Less equipment, standardized training and SOPs, and you ensure that everyone in the area gets the same level of service for their dollar.

Do we owe the public the truth about their fire depts. ability to handle a structure fire? What I mean by that is we ask the taxpayers for money to run the dept, yet in truth, on any given day at any given time, it takes more than THAT dept to control the situation. Forget career / volunteer bs, this is across the board. This is not about the big one or needing a tanker/tender shuttle operation, this is the room and contents, fire that your patch on your sleeve proudly says WE CAN HANDLE.
Mutual aid to cover the empty fire houses, no problem.
Why is it the neighboring taxpayers responsibility to send its tax dollar funded dept to assist with your BASIC fire.
something is wrong here, and the longer we put our heads in the sand......................

In the past its been referred to as thinning the herd.
Darwin refers to this as strengthening the gene pool and survival of the fittest

In the EMS field we refer to this as "job security"

Bedford Hills (Westchester)
Seagrave 2000 GPM Marauder II Pumper to replace current E198 (1997 Pierce)
Delivery expected fall 2014