Morningjoe

Just another reason why the department I volunteer for dispatches a FASTeam with the initial dispatch of any reported structural type fire.

It's amazing that some firemen can even move at all...

I'm on my phone right now, but I'll keep this short and sweet. We both assumed more then we should have. I'm both career and volunteer. I started as a volly and got hired, and continue to volunteer with the same all volunteer department to this day. I work on two man engines and single man trucks. Glad to know you had a job in the fire service. I'll hit more when I get back to a computer

What really irks me, more then the article itself, is that we have a fellow emergency provider, someone who is supposed to be on the same team as all of us, trying to defend the abysmal staffing of what occurs in almost 99.9% of career departments (volunteer staffing is a different problem altogether, and I'm a volunteer). It's not safe for anyone, and anyone who sits there and tries to defend it is absolutely clueless about firefighting, the safety issues that we face (and manage to miraculously dodge fire after fire without more LODDs), and the politicians that we currently fight with day in and day out to provide a safe environment for the communities we've sworn to protect. All of the fire engines in the world mean absolutely nothing, if the correct staffing levels are not there to safely, correctly and efficiently do the job. I am not a paramedic, and will never sit there and attempt to tell you your protocols need to change when it comes to dosage rates of atropine during a heart attack, because I don't have a damn clue about what I'm talking about. I am not a electrician, nor a painter, or a ditch digger, or a cable repair man, so I will never sit there and tell them how to do their job, or the correct and safe way to do it. So until you strap on a pair of bunkers, make a hallway, pull a victim out, all while having a vertical vent simultaneously cut, with multiple handlines being stretched, don't tell me the safe way to do my job, because I've also done it the poor staffing way, and can tell you the horrible differences between the two. This is a public forum now, and every reply that is posted can be read by the public, press, politicians, and those who vote. And for someone who is supposed to be on the same team, as stated in your affiliations under your user name, to sit there and say 2 guys on a rig is perfectly good, does absolutely nothing but hurt us, and all the years of work that unions have fought for. /rant.

I cannot imagine that GFD responds, on the first alarm within 8 minutes, this: Anything less, and you're endangering life, of both your citizens, as well as the firefighters there.

I almost feel that changing Type V construction to read "legacy wood" and adding a Type 6 for "light weight wood truss" would benefit classification, and building identity.

You must be a ton of fun at parties

Responsibility depends on the jurisdiction. Some places the responsibility to keep it clear rests solely on the property owner. Right now, where I volunteer, any structural related incident in the hydrant portion of our district will be a "tanker response," and any 10-75 will be our normal complement of an additional mutual aid engine for water supply and 3 tankers. 90% of our 1000+ hydrants remain completely covered in snow, and the residents come up with every excuse in the book on why they shouldn't dig them out. The town, and our volunteers do not have the time or man power to accomplish this massive task, in addition to it being town law for the property owner to clear the hydrant.

Is this one of the items from your old volley department that you stole, and tried to sell on Ebay?

“It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so f****** what." - Stephen Fry

Scenario: Aircraft crash lands into a residential neighborhood in NYS. The neighborhood is covered by a Town Police Department, Volunteer Fire District which does not provide EMS, and Volunteer BLS EMS agency, paid Medics. Is the scene a crime scene,or is it an accident scene? At what point, if it does change from an accident to crime, does that happen? Are the Police in charge from the get go, or is the Fire Department? If the Police on location claim its a crime scene before the fire department arrives, does that mean it's a crime scene?

Chief, I think you mean Polychlorinated Biphenyls In all seriousness though, spot on Chief, spot on.

If you need an answer that badly, call the civil service office. Don't go by hearsay on here.

Yorktown has a water rescue truck with quite the compliment of Dive/swift water and ice rescue capabilities. Last year, along with Somers FD and the NYSP helicopter, they rescued 3 civilians trapped/fallen through the ice off Rt 100 in Somers. As far as I know, most departments have the equipment, and the trained personnel, just not designated water rescue apparatus. Equipment may be stored on engines, ladders or rescues, just depends on the department

Permenantly grounded due to strong storm fronts....

When the full transition occurs, will somers be dispatched on 46.26 and use fire 13, or will they remain on their own channel?

I'll throw battalion 17 into the mix... Continental Village: Engine 231 - 1998 Rescue 39 - 1994 Millwood: Engine 247 - 1998 Rescue 36 - 1990 Tanker 15 - 1994 Lake Mohegan: Engine 253 '94 Freightliner Allegheny Engine 254 '94 Freightliner Allegheny Engine 255 '92 Pemfab Allegheny (replacement committee is active) Ladder 10 '96 Spartan Smeal Yorktown: Engine 271 - 1996 KME Tanker 14 - 1994 Semo Rescue 55 (Water rescue) - 1990/2009 interior upgrade Chevy / union (old snap on tool truck)

Because in places like Yorktown, the main firehouse is actually a private building, and it, including the land in the back property is owned by the Engine Company, not the tax district. The board of directors is responsible for the upkeep of it. Buildings and grounds, recruitment, ect, that are not run by the district and must be taken care of some how. The fundraising money that our Company uses goes directly towards electricity, oil, gas, and other such expendatures that the taxes do not pay. Our firefighters actually pay $12 a year in membership dues to be firemen to help offset the cost. We have been trying as much as possible in the recent years to inform the public of our two seperate and distinct organizations, and how the operate, but our efforts can only go so far because the general public just doesnt care. When we fundraise, it bears the name of the Engine Company, not the fire district for this reason.

http://www.yorktownfire.org/content/recruit/file/prospective%20membership%20guide.pdf Scroll down to page 5 for the way our department is structured

But there are a few hundred can crush experiments out there. Here's one: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vcsxB5dKJMg&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DvcsxB5dKJMg

Seriously though, lets allow EMT's to drop combi-tubes or king airways before we start talking about pushing meds to wake junkies.

Also, who will own the radios? Will the county or individual departments? Westchester vs. Putnam comes to mind.... Will 60- Control hear fireground communications, aka mayday transmissions from the firefighters? Will all current portables have to be switched over or will the county fire grounds still be in use? Edit: will the IC still have to carry two sometimes 3 (depending on the municipality) radios around? I'm all in favor of a new system if it designed right and will work with all departments, all the time across the board. If this system will allow fire/ems possibly police dispatch, along with fireground channels, individual department frequencies, all programmed into a single radio where I can select between Somers fire ground, county fire ground 3, elmsford fire, Yonkers dispatch, UCALL/UTAC, all without having to pick up additional radios, or worry about what channel has each frequency depending on each department, then I'm all for it. If individual departments want to operate on a home channel, that's perfectly fine, but if I'm called mutual aid to you, I better be able to talk to you with what ever radio I am bringing with me.

We going to be able to get MDTs in the rig, and maybe a "rip and run" system?