antiquefirelt

Well they'll certainly have a leg up on their golf game this winter! Soon there will be dust collecting on those rings and pennants. Each year is a new year.

Exactly. No difference in how they work, basically just what the dept. prefers. Some members cannot get used to the push buttons so they offer the lever, but it's the same electronics shifting the gears.

I hope they do keep Torre, even as a Sox fan I think he's a real class act! But damn, how about letting the team have some personality. It's like watching 9 all star individuals on the field. Funny seeing them so rattled by the flying ants in Cleveland!

Bittersweet to see the Yankees lose. Generally I'd say watching them lose is almost as much fun as seeing the Sox win, but better than wining the World Series would be to see the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the playoffs again. I guess we might have lost too which could be the start of a long winter except for the Patriots! If the Yankees had a few more Sox palyers (Damon) they might have been able to pull it off! Bring on the Tribe!

While I agree and generally would rather see a deserving humna die in place of most dogs,, can we find more info on the dogs? While this may seem fairly barbaric as a lesson, if these are dogs being euthanized for other medical reasons, than I find that whatever can be gleaned may have value. If the dogs are bought, brought or raised for this purpose than I find it repulsive. I have a long list of humans I could recommend to take the place of the canines.

Are you certain of this? To my knowledge ISO will never hold the FD to a fire flow of greater than 3500 gpm. Generally, if the structure or complex has a higher fire flow than 3500 gpm it has it's own insurance rating and ISO is not applied when determining the fire insurance rates. ISO says that if your fire flow exceeds 3500 gpm , than you'll need 3 engine companies and the total pump capacity must be at least 3500 gpm between them, plus if the 3500 gpm flow is exceeded in 5 or more occupancies you'll full 100 ft. ladder on the response. But you are right on that your quint's pump can be counted as a reserve pumper. Even though you already exceeded the needed flow with just two engines, the requirement for flows over 2500 gpm is three engines. A quint can be counted as a ladder and also a reserve engine, in most cases. Oddly enough raters vary greatly in what's allowed state to state or region to region. Another flaw of the ISO system.

Being this happened a little north of us I can tell you that there was never any talk of the truck being "stolen". It seems that per the troopers findings the unit may not have been requested and the FF may have taken it in the manner described, which certainly could be viewed as stealing it. Nonetheless, it was treated by the dept. as a LODD and not as a stolen firetruck. That being said, I started a thread there in firehouse.com about changing the rules on homemande or modified tankers. Aside from his apparent lack of driver trraining and experience, the tanker was a converted oil truck, which only contain three baffles as opposed to the requisite 16 when esigned to haul water. Plus the water weighs much more than oil, so it was top heavy and probably overloaded for the braking system. As I said on FH.com, I've been fortunate enough to call Mike Wilbur a friend for a few years and having spent many hours in listening to him and picking his brain, it's hard not to share his passion for firefighter safety. We've implemented many of his ideas into our driving/response program to be safer on the road and now maybe it's time to help him work on his mission. My proposal for my great state is to take away the "authorized emergency vehicle" status from any fire apparatus that requires the firefighter exemption be used to waive the need for a commerical vehicle drivers license. We all drive trucks on standard issues licenses that normally would require commercial vehicle licenses, with drug testing and special drivers ed. Without "authorized emergency vehicle" status the apparatus would not be allowed to run lights or sirens while moving down the road. This will slow the response down somewhat and take away the siren driven adrenaline. Not a silver bullet, but a start to recognizing these things kill people. This would apply to engines and tankers, maybe an aerial if some dept. was stupid enough to modify one. but it would not apply to vehicles that do not require CDL's. like chiefs buggies or utility trucks or ambulances. While it may seem like a small step, drastic ones such as outlawing "shade tree" apparatus is most likely to fail. Mandated driver training would be great, but again the volunteer depts. often complain about mandates as their number drop. So how about there in NY?

I have EMTBravo on my tabs along with four others. I check the front page daily and look at the recent discussions to decide if I want to go in to the forums. Then when I;m not pressed for time, I check the forums to see what else hasn't been on the front page when I was looking.

I can't help it, but a neighboring town used to wear the Gallet helmets and whenever they arrived on scene we'd call them the "Space Balls Crew". Most everyone would give them a "Nanoo Nanoo" or the Spock Vulcan hand sign. Their new chief bought all new traditional style helmets and their morale and turnout is up. Who knows maybe they didn't like be the odd men out?

We operate a 93 MM tower no pump or tank...All Truck! We decided to stay with the straight truck concept based on how often we see quints misused. Used to just supply their own water towers makes sense, as it eliminates the need for another engine to boost the water pressure, but sticking attack hose on a truck messes up its capability. For example: The quint is first due to a store front fire and on arrive has to stretch a line. Where ever that truck came to rest it's now anchored there. What if now a firefighter appears in distress on the side 4? Can't move the aerial as you've got attack lines inside. Another downside in career depts. is the "jack of all trades, masters of none". We're quickly eroding away basic firefighting skills by doing more and more EMS, Confined Space, haz-mat, sexual harrassment and other training. It's hard to beat drilling on task specific tactics. Why are Boston firefighters so good at ladder ops. Becuase they do the same stuff every day, and like in a similar thread here, they throw the stick on almost every call real or false. Now take a St.Louis FD Quint company and see if they are as good at truck work? Not, likely, they're truly damn fine firefighters but they can't be as good at one thing becuase they're doing two. And if you use your quint only like a ladder co. at least your crew will be better truckies!IMHO anyway. But look at the Houston debacle. Maybe Detriot too? First due quint operated as a truck co. and the first due engine was delayed resulting in no water on the fire and victims dying as the crew couldn't get to them. Big legal issue a few years back. I don't know that it's even resolved now, maybe an out of court settlement. Was on 60 Minutes or 20/20. Lastly, a pump and tank takes a lot of space on a truck, requires a larger motor and upsized tranny. The latter two aren't a big deal if you are a dept. that over specs all this stuff a la Tim the Tool Man Taylor. Argh, Argh! Argh! If it wasn't for the money and space we would have put a pump on our tower just for the water tower operation, but in the end, engines are plentiful in our area so it wasn't worth it.

Daisuke is just our way of proving that the Yankees aren't the only ones who can throw money down the toilet. Much as I love the Sox, the team had a real different feel when they were the "happy idiots" that won the pennant! As a true diehard fan of the Sox, I expect them to let me down so I'll leave this fall out of any commentary.

Do they make them for real nozzles?

OK I just set my dept up yesterday on the two month free trail. The pricing as of that time: 1 year=$800 3 years= $725/yr. 5 years= $650/yr. better pricing for multiple depts/comm centers? Plus a one time $50 activation/set-up fee Plus $.028 per call ($28/1000 calls) class are to a toll free number and don't cost individuals anything. So far we really like the potential of the system. Some scheduling things are not as easy as we'd like, but this is still pretty damn cheap for what it is.

Thank You ALS. I was reading each post wondering who the hell sells these things and does the training on them? See through buildings? Hah! That's funny. Sure the maybe you'll see a vent from someone's grow op in the basement or closet, but I'd think it would only be enough to confirm your suspicions requiring more investigative work to secure a warrant. As for TIC use in LE. Sure it has many applications when used to scan the night looking for hidden suspects, missing kids or people still floating (until the body reaches the water temp). But to know what you're looking at in a TIC you need to use it alot or you'll get a lot of false positives. (Ex:Rocks heated in the sun all day stand out at night). Most FD's don't use them enough to realize their full potential, nevermind a PD who breaks one out once in a awhile.

While it sounds like FF Wilson never should have been there in the first place, it is hard to beleive any dept. with any instructor capability would allow so many things to go wrong throughout their academy. While I agree that acquired structures are necessary to develop firefighters skills, NFPA 1403 must be followed very closely. This fire wasn't even in the same book! The Chief standing behind some of his instructors and their practices is proof that he should also be held responsible. FF Wilson died as the result of a failed system. The system failed to protect her by allowing her to participate when she wasn't fit to pass the test, failed to provide her with adequate PPE, failed to wash her out or ensure she could operate a nozzle before being put on the knob in a fire situation and failed to protect her from dangerous practices employed to train FFer's in live fire attack.

My deepest condolences. Brother Beddia is forever in our hearts.

Our dept. has the responsibility of enforcing the Life Safety Code. In this it basically requires all residential units to meet many safety requirements. If we find a building through responses, code officer's, sales, complaint or routine inspection, that has violations we force the owner to correct the issues. We also pass the information about specific hazards and numbers of occupants on to each shift. The Code Office has a "property maintenance code" that also assists in this so the owner loses his/her C of O. This code has numbers of people in relation to numbers of bedroom and bathrooms. The hardest part comes with getting court orders or taking the property when the owner walks away. Also to add to the problem is the number of "occupants" rights that cause evicitons to take ridiuclously long. Adopt NFPA 1 and 101. that will give you the tools to inspect and enforce the minimum safety requirements. I doubt seriously though that we have the problem on nearly the proportion you do. For a small community there is a ton of time involved, it would seem like a huge undertaking in a City as large as yours.

I have to admit we've tried the shaving cream in training with decent success but have yet to use it in the field as we also tend to do a forward flap. I'm interested in the spray adhesive though, I would think the flying particles would need the mas of the shaving cream type substance to catch the majority. In training the particles on the outside are nearly zero, but what minimal particles are not caught all seem to be on the inside. This means you still must cover the patient and protect personnel operating inside the vehicle. Generally the victim would by on NRB anyway reducing the chance of them inhaling the dust. Dust masks for other rescuers? Like ALS said, it works great in the parking lot. We keep the Barbosol with the Glassmaster and Sawzall along with some other materials to make edges and cut ends safe.

We found the Glassmaster also puts out plenty of small particles. One idea that we've heard and tried is using a line of shaving cream to cut through with the Sawzall. The cream holds most of the dust. But in the end, a firefighter who has used the Glassmaster just a few times can be nearly as fast. As for the tools: We put Hurst, Holamtro and Amkus to the test before deciding what to replace our 70's vintage stuff. Holmatro (with CORE hose) came out on top overall.

I guess I'll be a decenting opinion, but I rarely wear my chin strap unless I'm masked up. If I'm masked up I always wear the chin strap! My helmet fit perfect with the ear flaps up and no mask and with a mask and the flaps down. So no mask: no strap, no flap. SCBA Mask on: flap and chinstrap down. We do have a memo stating if the Chief sees your helmet hit the ground you'll wear an orange helmet for a month, after a firefighter lost his helmet from the turntable while looking up and placing the stick. But the strap doesn't stop the helmet from falling off forward when looking down. BTW: In 2000 We went to the buckle style required on all chinstraps as the Milwaukee style never seemed to really work well as when we mask up all you did was cross the straps and get a 1/2" square of velcro holding the helmet on. We learned this when we hosted the guys from Providence Special Hazards, who taught RIT and Fireground Survival.

We got rid of all our booster reels years ago, for just these reasons. I'm sorry to hear Charleston FD even remotely thinks, thought or otherwise allowed a booster reel to go in over any threshold in any occupiable structure. Fire is different than it was 30 years or greater ago! Hell I can't ebelive some depts. still use 1.5" hose! As Partyrock says, there are many better alternatives to the booster reels. In the space a reel takes up you could carry 500 ft. of 1" lightweight hose for grass fires, debris, mop up, wash down, etc. It seems that sadly some are willing to fight that easier is better. As is too often proventhe right way to do something is rarely the easisest way. While we mourn our brothers in Charleston, we can only hope the upper management has an epiphany and sees the err of thier ways. I thinks its deplorable and cowardly for the Chief to say he'd not change anything and defends bucking national trends that imporve or otherwise ensure firefighter safety. I truly believe that anytime you have a LODD you must review all policies to learn from the tragedy. For the Chief to say a day after a multiple LODD fire that you'd not change anything is sickening.

95% of our work is in 1 or 2 story single family houses. It's rare for the whole 100 ft. to be inside. We weighed the options and now have the 100 foot line on the primary attack line and the rest are standard. If we burst a length, we have to add two, but its another rare occaison. If its the primary line, it's backed out and the back-up line is stretched in. Couplings hanging up in some of our finer homes: much more frequent. (not frequent enough though, good work is hard to come by nowadays) We're more likley to get the sheet from a stretcher caught in the door!

We use a 100' length closest to the nozzle to reduce coupling hang-ups. It works fairly well in our opinion. It seems we need to do anything we can to facilitate a faster more effective stretch due to lack of proper staffing!

Totally up to the dept. and what the particular operation is. If its defensive and you're spelling guys aloft, then many Ladder-towers have full climbing ladders making a change out without moving the bucket. True tower-ladders such as the Aerialscope or Sutphen generally have "escape ladders". I know as of Dec. of 2007 FDNY's SOPs still showed that the escape ladder was to be used in a last resort when rappelling was not possible!!! Partyrock? I guess thats a good reason for a City such as Mt. Vernon to save a few bucks and eliminate the "escape ladder" altogether. We actually had that same clause in our tower spec for a Scope. In fact on Monday we're running an agility test for new hires and we decided that for the aerial climb that entering then exiting the bucket might be a little much to ask of some. While we'd like to weed these people out the potential for an accidental fall is to great with untrained persons. Plus when I look out the back of the bucket down the ladder at 93' up and 75 degrees, I know I'd rather wait til the fires over to go down by elevator!

I couldn't agree more. Our new ALF midmount is great, but we wanted a Scope. Alas, the Scope came in well over $100K more without all the requisite equipment (generator, lighting, etc.) As from what I've seen and played with on the Metz, I don't think it's much of a tower. The bucket is tiny and there is no lip to work from. As I said, it will meet the needs of many rural places where weight and overall size is the first concern.