KelliPVAC

Hi, sorry I'm a little late on this post. I am the new Captain of PVAC. We are working on correcting our problem. If you have any questions, please send me a private message.

Hopefully we'll see a class like this around here soon.

Hi, sorry I'm a little late on this post. I am the new Captain of PVAC. We are working on correcting our problem. If you have any questions, please send me a private message.

Hi, sorry I'm a little late on this post. I am the new Captain of PVAC. We are working on correcting our problem. If you have any questions, please send me a private message.

Hi, sorry I'm a little late on this post. I am the new Captain of PVAC. We are working on correcting our problem. If you have any questions, please send me a private message.

Hi, sorry I'm a little late on this post. I am the new Captain of PVAC. We are working on correcting our problem. If you have any questions, please send me a private message.

It was an OVAC vehicle.
I can't believe it took this long to get posted here and nobody replied yet. Disgraceful. An oil pan on a fire engine gets pages or replies but this is ignored. People gotta get their priorities straight.

What an excellent article! From: https://www.facebook.com/EasternPanhandleWorkingFires From: https://www.facebook.com/EasternPanhandleWorkingFires

I have had a few very good mentors both in the Pleasantville and Hawthorne FD and also Pleasantville Ambulance Corps. They know who they are.

Reading some of the comments and posts here makes me smile, I am curious how many have no issues taking rigs to parades as far as Lake George for a weekend, it's parade people, some of these I am sure these rigs are valued over 1 million+ and paid for by the taxpayers of their districts, justified for purchased, yet this is ok? Personally I do not see how any fire district can justify taking any of their apparatus to a parade unless it's to a neighboring department, that just me as we are continually being asked or forced to do more with less.
Above it was posted that this vehicle is not a Chief staff vehicle and a fire district vehicle and perhaps just maybe the operator was in attendance at the Fire District conference that was the same weekend, are we really debating this topic without even having any facts other then this photo?

I would agree he was on his way to the Districts convention in Ellenville and that is a perfectly good use of the vehicle in this case as it is directly on the way up. In the private sector the boss in nearly every corporation is given not only take home privileges, but have drivers. And to say I pay taxes and a corporation is private is not true, I own many corporations through shares of the company and very concerned about how the corporation spends it (my) dollars. My previous employer CEO earned 11 million a year, had a driver and got a 19 million dollar pension...so whats fair??? Some FD's (not mine) allow the use of the car as a reward for doing the job for NO PAY. I can see that as a nearby FD pays several career chiefs over $200k salary, very good benefits, best of pensions, expenses, etc. and they all have a take home vehicle. His counterpart in the very next FD gets no pay, very little or no expenses. So if you look at it can you justify allowing the chief who puts in a LOT of time (both career and volunteer) some perks just like corporations do?? While I fully understand taxes and everything else (perceptions, jealousy, bad hair day, etc), most people outside of the FD pay little or no attention to the chiefs vehicle as they assume he is the CEO of a small/medium//large "corporation" and that is a perk of the job. (My GOD he is the chief!)

Thank you to all FD, PDs and VACs that were there on that night. I know it was not an easy call and to all the neighborhood fire departments that went on standby in Elmsford thank you as well! And thoughts and prayers to the family.

I guess maybe I'm just getting old and cold. You want to shoot up and OD, well that's the chance you take. It may be a cool new toy to play with, but its my ever increasing tax dollars at work. Save 'em so we can save 'em again next weekend. Eventually you just need to let Darwin do his work.

GAW6, excellent post. I wanted to clarify something; I hope my comments did not offend anyone, they were simply made in haste with a lot of anger towords a few of our commissioners who are seemingly trying to turn our department into a business. They get mad when we dont turn a profit....and seem to not care that we have equipment needs. We have an ambulance that Im amazed even starts any more, and engine that failed pump test three times and they still throw money into it and hope it works, an old rescue truck held together with bondo and duct tape, a number of sets of gear about to go over the 10 year mark, a bunch of SCBA bottles that will need to be replaced soon...they just dont want to spend money where it is needed and complain about it. We cant provide the service we need to without this equipment but we cant explain that to some of these members because they have no emergency services experience, and its frustrating.
I am glad to see you work well with your board and that you understand these issues at least, members like you would be a welcome sight, its just some of the people I have to deal with that bothers me. Hope I did not offend anyone.
Stay Safe

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

It was a tough old 3 story building and one FAST was "activated" when a pass alarm malfunctioned on the third floor area (would not shut off until batteries were removed) thankfully the FF was okay..the truck work was unbelievable due to the masonry construction inside and outside of the building...fire was in the walls and ceilings on all three floors and up to 5 layers of plaster, old tough wire lath, masonite sheets and plywood over plaster on walls "renovated" over time..ate saw blades/chains...many doors were difficult to open with irons with heavy inside smoke banked down to lower levels but no visible fire until roof was vented ..making a lot of truckie work...and some reported smelling smoke for hours prior to dispatch...tough job...but good job by all on scene... so multiple FAST teams are "angels on our shoulders" with so much going on..good call if you ask me...

I was not the IC but the first two FASteams were put to work. Bedford Hills was requested for a cascade ( not a FASTeam)because Briarcliffs needed to refill during the incident and the county's filling system was O.O.S

Based on what I have seen over the years vacationing there, you can knock on any firehouse door in that area and see a handful of guys in the station - during the same time this fire occurred.
I agree with others that it wouldn't have mattered because of the wind, construction, and cause of the fire. What stopped that blaze was the enormous trench created by excavators and the fire line created. Could it have been established sooner and closer to the heart of the blaze - who knows. Point is, even if SHFD was out the door with paid or volunteer crews on dispatch, they were behind the eight-ball before the first 911 call even came in.
If anything can be blamed it would be years of salt water, sea air and Sandy.

From what I have heard about this electrical fire, unless someone called it in when the problem first started happening it would not made much of a difference. People forget you had 30 MPH winds driving that fire so once flame broke out the theory of fire doubling every minute went out the window.
I have heard of plenty of large fires were paid departments were completely in charge and they still lost a lot. I have heard paid departments cancel mutual aid just to end up calling them back 10 minutes later as they are loosing the building.
No volunteers are not perfect but no one is. In this current world especially in our situation where we have a large mix of paid and volunteer departments we need to stop fighting one another and work with each other to get the job done.
Believe it or not volunteers will support paid firefighters MORE when they are not A**holes back at them.

The rebuild already has a motto:
Jersey had "Stronger Than The Storm.
The Mayor has proposed "Better Than The Blaze.
Heard it this afternoon.

Yes, It is indeed horrible! Even after sandy and now this again.... Jersey will rebuild.. STRONG TOGETHER... God bless
I do know they were drafting from a bay, but yes sad

Sorry about the abrupt stop to the updates, Fell asleep... Hopefully Seaside can recover and not have another disaster for a very long time... A great job to all FD,EMS And PD Personnel that participated in these massive fire(s)... God bless

This is so sad!!! Our family has a house down there and this is heartbreaking Thank you to all the NJ FDs / EMS / PD for all of your efforts.

This is so sad!!! Our family has a house down there and this is heartbreaking Thank you to all the NJ FDs / EMS / PD for all of your efforts.

This is so sad!!! Our family has a house down there and this is heartbreaking Thank you to all the NJ FDs / EMS / PD for all of your efforts.