IzzyEng4

The Strong Fire Co. of PA has this game called blocker. Its addictive. Here's the link: http://strongfireco.com/59505.html

We too have a maximum age for driving trucks at 65 years of age you have to stop. It falls in line with the CDL laws in CT. (If I'm wrong on the age fellow CT-ers, correct me please). I have noticed though that a majority of the older members that have pass in the fire service lately are either responders from the fire-police units or those who are drivers. Very rarely do you see members over 60 fighting fires. Members in this capacity of fire department activities are vital to operations. Most of the members had "done their time on the line" and moved away from fighting the fires to supporting them. I think that yes everyone should be in good physical shape and get checked out every year. But to set a to age can cut a volunteer department's force too. At the same token, how many people do we know that are over 60 and still active in career departments? I know several. Do we start forcing retirements on all members over a certain age?? It can be a nightmare but it might have to be done. It is sad that some hurt feelings may come about but will it save a life? Personally I don't believe so. Why? Most firefighter deaths are related to heart attacks. Yes we can say that keeping physically fit, eating right, ect can help prevent them, but in actuality it can strike anyone at anytime. Unfortunately for firefighters it happens when the heart rate is up with the adrenaline flowing. For example of its randomness, I know of two women, non firefighters that are friends of my family. One woman has had heart trouble for several years. The other was in complete phsyical shape, not heath problems. Both were of the same age. The physically fit woman died of a massive heart attack a year ago. Goes to show that it can happen to anyone. It is something to think about and might have to be brought up down the line. Yes the LODD's may go down if these members are prevented from responding, but at the same token, if the factors are there for a heart attack to occur, its going to happen anyway. And firecapt, I'm not knocking you on you comment at all when I say this, but I rather see this happen on a fire scene than a grandfather diying in front of his grandchildren. I understand what you are trying to say in your point but no matter what way it happens its still not a good thing.

Which line to use should be the "WHO WHAT WHERE and WHEN" at a scene. Obviously a commercial structure should be a 2 1/2" and a residential should be determined by how much fire there is. But the really big problem in my mind is the type on nozzle. How many departments here say we need big water and stretch a 2 1/2" line with a fog tip??? I have seen several. If you need "big water" on a hand line you better be using a smooth bore. Fire is put out by volume of water if there is a lot of it and you don’t want to steam out everyone. This also goes to say if you do not have / use smooth bores, you better be set on a straight stream on that adjustable nozzle. Each fire is different and which line and nozzle type should be considered upon arrival to get the best knock down. In my company we use 1 1/2", 1 3/4" and 2 1/2" attack lines depending on the fire. There is really not much difference between the 1 1/2" and 1 3/4" attack lines for a residential house fire. As for the 2 1/2", its a big line to get into a small structure, bit should be brough in as a back up or attack for a O.M.R.D. Also, if you are using a 2 1/2" in any fire I think single jacket lines are better and easier to move around.

Remember585, excellent book first off, one of my favorites! Back to the topic at hand. No matter what technological advances the future may have, example building codes, robots, and sprinklers, ect. You will still need firefighters. Why, first off, humans are, at least for now, the only ones that can change their way of thinking in a matter of thousandths of seconds. There will be no A.I. (artificial intelligence) that can do that for far quite sometime, plus the fact of do we want to rely on a computer all of the time. I believe we would as firefighters also hesitant with any new technology until we can fully use and manipulate it and it is proven reliable. This is not saying that we are closed-minded. Just look in the last hundred years, hand pumpers, to steam to gas / diesel motorized were the big debate. What about running dual 3-inch lines compare to a single 4 or 5-inch hose line from the hydrant. I think we will find safer technologies but sill firefighters will still be around for a long time no matter what tools we use.

"Why are we doing this?" "For the money, for the fun..... mainly the money!" That is gonna be one Hell of a party!!!

Great actor. Had to be really smart to play the "dumb guy" parts buit he did it so well. Take Care Mr. Furley! So long Barney!

Date: Feb 25th, 2006 Time: 08:50 Location: Route 34 @ the Derby / Orange town line Frequency: DERBY - 453.0500 / ORANGE - 452.2250 Units Operating: DFD - E-13. E-14, E-16, T-15, R-18, HM-19, FD-1, FD-4, 4 KILO10 OFD - E-35, E-34, C-1, (several others will be updated) Description Of Incident: Roll over of a oil delivery tanker on the Eastbound side of Route 34. Truck is overturned into a small brook. Orange C-1 is Incident command at the McDonalds on the Westbound side of Route 34. Derby FD HazMat Team taking control of spill and trying to stop it. OFD Members dyking and diverting. Residents in the area of Fernbrook to Garden Roads are being evacuated. Several buisinesses are closed. Traffic being diverted from area. DOT notified for sand trucks to scene on a rush. Approximately 1000 gallons are out. DEP notifed to respond to location. UPDATE: *Product in small river / brook flowing south west. DFD units trying to get to Derby-Milford Road end of brook to stop product. 09:08 OFD units operating on channel 2 (unknown frequency) *FD-1 Derby asking Firecomm on status of sand trucks and also giving info to contact carrier to get another truck to scene to off load rest of product. 09:10 UPDATE - 09:25 DFD FD-3 reporting that product has not reached Derby-Milford Road end of waterway. 09:28 CT DEP on scene 9:30 - Leak Stopped from truck 09:33 - Ansonia FD Squad 9 & HazMat 2 being dispatched for extra hazmat supplies. Ansonia Rescue Decon unit also reponding to Rte. 34 IFO Wendy's FINAL UPDATE - 13:12 The accident involved a tractor trailer tanker that overturned on Route 34 in front of McDonalds. Product did make its way down to the Derby Milford Road end of the waterway where it was being contained by additional crews. Ansonia Squad 9 was released and Derby and Orange units continued to operate with DEP. Units should still be there for several more hours. Writer: IzzyEng4

The same way a volunteer goes through disciplinary procedures before being removed from the organization.

Had something similar a few years back but it as a fatal accident. The difference was the engine compartment was on the street that ran parallel with the highway. The cab and body of the car stayed on the highway. The driver was ejected and killed as well as the right side front and rear passengers. The rear diverside passenger survived but had to have part of his leg amputated and other problems that I can't remember off hand. Was not a good scene, since the majority of the respondes new who the victims were. I was in stress debreifing for almost a week.

My favorite is our current engine, scheduled to be retired in a few months with the delivery with our new Smeal / Spartan rescue pumper. 1981 American LaFrance Century series 1250 / 500 pumper. 25 years a faithful service. Hate to see her go. In the back you can see the front of our '62 ALF 900 series pumper (parade piece).

Just on saftey question here since I do work with the CSP, didn't they search the car since there was an arrest prior to them removing the truck??? This is tragic. Shouldn't have happened. I feel very bad for the family of the Trooper. Rest in peace.

For me, I have always favored walk in units. But it also depends on what a department needs, just like everyone has said here. For instance, if you don't have to worry about a cascade system, want ample compartment space, space for the crew, need a place for changing in to dive or HazMat gear, then I would go with a walk in with a short cab like Berwyn Heights in PGFD or FDNY's. However, if you don't need all that and you just primarily do rescue, extrication, need a cascade unit, whant the light tower on top of the "box" and compartments that are transverse, then the walk around is better with an LFD or XLFD cab. I've seen some really good rescues up this way and some monsters. I think though the walk thorough rescues(able to walk from the box to the back of the cab, are only good for tactical or special hazards units, not full rescue companies. Just my opinion.

My department, the operator stays with the truck unless there is someone there to take it over or watch it. Very, Very rarley does the apparatus driver leave the vehicle unattended.

For that price you can tell it might be just a stick, rear mount. I'm only guessing by price.

They are but some features are the same or extremely different from Bearcats. Depends what you want in a scanner. Make sure you do your research first. I never had a problem with the GREs except for my back light burning out after 6 years of constant use in my car.

I hope dad doesn't realize what I did cause I hate to lose really good seat!

There is no address or phone number. I would be wary about this.

Legal talk. When they post it out to bid it has to be precise on the legal notification of what they are doing. Just went though it with our corporation council with our new truck that was built.

SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck with thenew rig. When is the wetdown?

Being a firefighter and EMT I have suggested this several times. An ambulance should be at least two blocks away at a fire call initially, especially if the incomming units have not arrived or completely set up yet. If it is a crew of two on the rig (thinking small), the EMT riding shotgun should hop in the back and get the equipment ready. One the fire units are in place, the operator of the rig should park the unit as close to the scene as possible, making it easy to get out and not impeding any multi alarm units that may come in afterwards, or getting themselves blocked in. The crew from the first rig sould report to where the command center is and await for a staging location. Obviously, a second ambulance should be ordered and parked outside of the fire lines or near the first rig in and wait to see if they are needed also at the firescene or stay with the ambulance ready to go in if needed. The ambulances in my mind should be parked at the side of the scene that would be the most direct route to the hospital incase of any injuries. The one concern that I have is a toss up if there are reports of people trapped in a building. I think they should get as close as possible but also far enough away not to get blocked in. I have seen many problems with this and it only becasue we need to get the trapped occupants out and to the hospital if they are injured. We think too fast. Also too, this is also depending on if this is a company like AMR or volunteer for manpower. If it is a private service, you may have multiple rigs there to facilitate the needed manpower. With vollies, many may come in there own cars. Needless to say, no mater what type of ambulance service, if several EMT's / Medic's show up at a scene, they have to be staged just like firefighters do. Don want too many peas in the pod, (I like to think of staging like I have done in several mass casulty drills) Just my thoughs and they can be worked on and imporved by all here if you like.

Up here is just like what Cas said, we have an operator with the truck. Very rarely do we leave ther truck unless it is right up at the scene and there are other members around to watch it if all the crew has to go into a building. Like I said this is very very rare. We are very fortunate to have a very good fire-police unit securing the scene and the police department also responds with at least one or two officers when it is a working call.

Firehouse.com has an update posted. Here's the link. http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/a...nId=46&id=47617

Here's the new video from PG County area. Just a regular report http://www.wusatv9.com/video/player.aspx?aid=28639&bw=

RS's scanners are made by GRE now, not Uniden. Uniden however did make scanners in the past for RS a while back. I don;t know when they stopped. Its GRE exclusively now. Check out Scanner USA, Popular Communications and Monitoring Times, they usually have a lot of Bearcat Vs. RS reviews all the time. Both are great scanners but both have several different options too.

Ferrara's ladders and towers units (not the chassis or body) are all made Smeal. Also Pierce and Smeal ladders were the same thing up untill the mid 90's until they split. that is whey they both look very similar. Both were verified by Firematic and Smeal.