antiquefirelt

I found it interesting that it appeared that someone felt confident enough to have an outside line going in the rear, but no one felt they could safely make stretch inside? I guess the benefit of the doubt says, that an inside line may have been likely to be misdirected and complete a "circuit" with something charged by the service drop... Aluminum siding? Was there no opportunity to perform even a search and then salvage? Clearly don't have all he facts, but I know I'd be disappointed if that was our FD.

I'd think you could make a lot of assumptions with no basis? One could imagine the FD had a very limited crew and had to sequentially gain fire control and then search? This is an all too realistic scenario for many of us who arrive with just enough people to conduct one interior tactic and must await others before any further crews enter. Many of us must employ tactics that some do simultaneously, in a carefully selected chronological order.

I doubt most of us would have a similar take if they wanted to lengthen out the years of service before retirement eligibility? Many had to fight to get 20 or 25 year no age retirement plans to ensure our members could safely do the job up until their last day, how do we make that argument and then fight maximum age limits? This is a younger persons game and we certainly cannot guarantee all personnel will ascend in rank to a safer less physical job. While we lose people of all ages, the stats are fairly clear that firefighters have much higher health risks than most professions and we can be certain that with every passing year those risks multiply. Couple this with the heavy responsibility we have to complete our duties, which in most cases doesn't allow for redundancy, we put ourselves and the public at greater risk when we don't do all we can to strengthen our weakest links. I don't know what FDNY need to get to make full retirement, but I know I need to make my full 25 years and with that 4 1/2 years away I can say for sure that every year that goes by recovering from an injury or even a tough job gets harder and harder. I started at age 26 and now at 46 am thinking that going until age 61 would be pretty near impossible, and I haven't ridden backwards for over a decade. Of course they want the FD to hire older people, they can make the case they're making about minorities and in the long run retirees will be older, resulting in less money expended between retirement and death, if they actually make it to a full pension. What do you bet that's a huge fiscal impact in NYC?

I doubt that case can really be made. Up here other than Portland FD, most firefighters do not have a recruit academy, so there are a large number of volunteers who have the same FF I&II as entry level career staff. Often the VFD's give more opportunities for outside training, as their budgets can support that having little/no payroll. But that would discount the daily training regimen that most career firefighters have. My FD is a combo Fire & EMS department, our career personnel train every day, and the call personnel get the same topics (condenses) every two weeks. While we have some very capable call firefighters, the working knowledge is far different, born directly on the time spent with hands, eyes and discussion about the work. Not a slight, just a reality. Pretty difficult for a part timer of any profession to have the same overall knowledge and skills of a fulltime person of the "same" position.

Clearly this guy has the ability to make his opinion seen, too bad the real story won't. He doesn't understand EMD protocols, just in case his daughter was seriously injured. He'd likely be very unhappy if a BLS bus was sent and she had a more significant injury. He doesn't understand that much of EMS costs are part of providing the necessary training and resources to be immediately available to respond? He just doesn't get that until people are there, no one can be sure the requisite level that's needed and after they arrive and determine the injury is BLS in nature it would be more money to wait for a BLS bus to come and transport her or maybe he should find fault with the school who called 911 for such a trivial injury? I'd hardly call the billing rates dictated to us by Medicare as some sort of evidence of collusion between the ambulance company and the insurance companies. Maybe he'd like for EMS to be municipally run, taxpayer funded and free to the users?

Well, I couldn't agree less. My FD has been using F-series chassis for over 20 years (3 ALS buses on 8-9 year life rotations) and our experience has been terrible. Ford has a habit of make big motor changes every 3-4 years so just when they figure out the bugs in one, another model comes out and you start the beta testing all over. We've had terrible luck keeping the ambulances on the road in years 8 & 9, with numerous issues with cam-shaft sensors, computer issues, fuel problems, and the latest they spent over a year trying to figure out before buying it back from us. We'll be taking delivery of two new Dodge/AEV ambulances in August in hopes that they're more reliable. Of course we know everyone has issues, but at this point Ford has failed us for the last time. Look around, many places are moving away from Ford. Some big Texas city Fire?EMS services are totally moving away from Ford, along with numerous smaller ones. The largest private EMS firm in out State has had similar issues as us with their new Ford F-series and another FD EMS service we're quite familiar with just switched to Chevy in the type III style. New issues to come? All new F-series will be on the new aluminum platform, again an unproven chassis, and as of just a few months ago, you couldn't get an F-series gasoline engine in the ambulance prep package? E series: yes, F series: no. Just our experience, I'm sure others have had more success?

I'm sure I must be missing something, but it appears the Mayor believes he can save $800k a year by cutting these jobs, but didn't account for the $1 million contract he'd violate, causing a net loss of $200k?

Good point. As most of us know there is typically much more to the story. Are the EMS personnel part of Local 2, or do they have a separate charter?

Seems to make sense at some levels? If these are single role paramedics with no firefighting assignments, the gear is heavier, constricting and more expensive than other gear designed to protect EMS folks from pokes and cuts at MVA's and such. It sounds like they plan on issuing the lighter, less expensive gear purpose designed for EMS and not change anything for those firefighter/medics who have firefighting assignments.

Wow, I gotta say, this is a sign of extremely poor leadership/management from my perspective. On my job, that would be days off the first time and likely career ending if repeated. They let people drink and drive too? As the stats show distracted driving overtaking drivers under the influence, I'd think it might be time for some leadership.

You have brought up two decent points. First, the issue for our dispatch center is that they are required by our state to dispatch EMS if the call sounds like EMS, basically the EMD system is utilized and a dispatch code is assigned, even if it's an Omega (non-EMS). Trying to make the dispatch center deny the caller a response is passing the buck to a department less qualified to argue the case when the facilities complain. The second part is the $200 doesn't make it OK, it serves as a monetary factor which is what this whole issue is about. They are using 911 EMS resources for non-EMS calls to save money on their WC, so if they start to pay they'll address the best way to handle these patients and continue with their profit margins.

I think and hope a lot of people are missing the issue. We shouldn't be complaining about doing EMS calls for anyone anywhere. Now comes the BUT. But, facilities that market and charge for care in addition to housing should not use EMS to reduce their WC costs by having "No Lift" policies for their employees. This means every time someone is on the floor, EMS is sent to pick them up. This is a relatively new policy stance that seems to be effecting all areas of the country. In my 'burg these calls result in needless transports more than 75% of the time as the patient has ceded all rights to the facility to make decisions and they will not sign a refusal of care or transport form after hours when the actual medical staff has gone home. This results int eh pt. and family being billed for a transport and ER visit when it was a simple fall or even in some cases, the pt. just sat down or laid on the floor and cannot answer "why". So I can see a growing frustration in EMS for tying up units to respond to calls that rarely have actual injuries, but result in increased health costs for the patients while tying up resources. The answer is a higher level than the providers. Good bosses need to work on this problem so providers can continue to treat every patient with care and compassion regardless. We are starting to see many places up our way bill these facilities. We're looking into how they accomplish this ourselves.

Here's a link to the MSA page, at this glance I'd also be pretty skeptical of its true function, but it's likely either Scott or MSA are making steps in the right direction to ensure this technology is more readily available to all users. http://msafire.com/breathe/?gclid=CjwKEAjwuuy4BRCvs43g9fX9mz4SJACiYydP4UztTl40gWvYrUFQO9b5_2UnRgVqyuPv_QJmgOaOBhoC5GLw_wcB

Supposedly, the new MSA is also available with a TIC that is should gauge mounted with in mask display? Anyone out at FDIC?

While that's not cheap as far as outfitting every pack, it's fairly cheap in the TIC market, half the price of the last 3 we bought.

I'd think the cost of the mask will be a non-issue compared to the rest of the system?

Without the details of the actual actions it's hard to say if this was well handles by the Chief or not. I might note that he did not in fact suspend the two. In fact the "threat" may have been just the notification that they'd violated the policy that could result in suspension. With the evidence out there for all to see, if the Chief wished to suspend them, he probably would have. I'm guessing it another case of the rules shouldn't apply to x, y, and z.

I would think full implementation of any EMD protocols would be a great start. We have state mandated EMD, but they stopped short of mandating each town designate how medics are dispatched when they don't have any available. Our calls are triaged by dispatch (not infallible) and we send the appropriate resource per the dispatch code. Others will hold off calling a medic util they arrive to ensure the medic is needed, saving them money on needless requests, but costing precious time when they are. I wish I could report our EMD protocols were stellar, but we find that we now have a few issues that result in medic being sent too often for BLS type calls.

I would agree up to the point that the firefighter defiantly adds that there will be future FB photos with apparatus and gear, at which point, if there is a policy, then it goes from something easily addressed to insubordination. Often the issue isn't the photo of the gear, but that it establishes the poster as an employee/member and all other posts are now linked/associated with the department. Someone who sees other things undesirable of that member or that members friends, now sees the kind of people the FD hires/allows as members. Those die-hard social media fans often fail to realize that in the public sector: perception is the peoples reality.

As I recall Providence Fire and their Health and Safety group of their Union was on the forefront of ensuring firefighters and fire victims were evaluated and treated for cyanide poisoning due to its presence in most structure fires. Hopes and prayers for the Capt and other Brother's at PFD.

Social Media policies are a big thing and it does not take much online content to make a dept or company look stupid. While it wouldn't seem this was the type of posting that a policy was implemented for, if its a violation of the policy, it must be treated as such. Picking and choosing how and when to apply policy is, well, very bad policy. And I'm not sure as we're not nearly as "Firematic" as a whole up this way, but "traditional Fire Dept. Wedding"? 30 years this month and I have never heard of or seen anything speaking to fire service wedding traditions. I've seen antique fire trucks as limo's but I didn't realize this was a thing.

The senior fire officer of the department responsible for the given area or do they pull out badges and resumes? While I'm not familiar with the Hudson tug incident, I have been part of and witnessed clusters when no one was sure who's jurisdiction was responsible, thus those who disagreed with an order or plan just freelanced. It's hopefully a rarity on land, but where the ocean or large bodies of water are involved this can be an issue. I'd assume the State would have jurisdiction on a major waterway? But alas, like here, there's a good chance local resources are well ahead of the limited Sate resources.

My Monday morning QB instinct says I'd do it but prefer the truck back in, in case it got stuck you could use the aerial without going over the cab. Pretty common to see pics from PG county with truck off the pavement, not seen any that had poor results? It's always tough to argue against a positive outcome, easier to cast stones when it's a negative.

Without a doubt, E-One has the best jacking system on the market in my mind. They can safely operate with a smaller footprint than nearly all others. My issue with rearmount towers is the retracted length being problematic on narrow streets. So no issue if your getting up in the air, but try to place the bucket on the deck 90 degree off the side with a four section 100 ft aerial. Alas, they've been pretty damn successful so I'm sure they know what works for them, just a different view of similar issues.

It's always interested me that CFD utilizes all rearmounts and the snorkels. With city street widths I'm surprised they've not got a few midmount towers? Maybe the snorkel squads have the same water tower capabilities, but it seems like the ability to put a tower bucket on the sidewalk to use the gun would be a big benefit there.