IzzyEng4

Danbury has a lot of apparatus in general between all of the career and paid companies but at the same time they have a very large ares to cover as well, some areas very congested while others are spread out quite far. PLus add in all the hazards that are in that town. I remember someone telling me years back who used to be a volunteer in Danbury that there was something in the city / town charter that the volunteer companies could not be disbanded unless it was by thier own accord. I have no clue if this is true or not though but it might stem back to the days when the downtown area was a separate borough from the town, before the city charter was approve to combine the two entities. I hope they work something out since a lot of those companies are among the oldest in the state.

Rest in peace.

I think its good being pro-active towards getting the city volunteer companies into a new building but having six engines and two air / squad trucks in one building doesn't really seem that great. Padanaram 3, Independent 4, Wooster 5, Phoenix 8 and Beckrle 9 all operate engines with Citizens 6 and Wooster 7 operate air squads. It would move all the companies to one are of the town where now the 6 are pretty much split between either side of the "downtown" area. I think one plan they were looking at was also to build two stations for housing two engine co and one squad. This might be better. Having multiple volunteer companies in one house is kinda a "taboo" thing in CT compared to NY it seems. Hopefully something will be done to help these companies as most of them are in firehouses that are 75, 100 or 125 years old.

The marijuana plants are a very different color green than that of any other crop or woodland plant life. For a trained eye its easy to spot. I watched a program once on the DEA (I forget if it was a 60 minutes thing or on MSNBC) where they had been looking for crop growth in a corn field and the pot plants were a very bright green patch in the midst of the corn plants. There is got to be a Youtube vid or something posted somewhere online showing this. I'm working tonight doing 1st watch in fire alarm so I'll do a search an see if I can find something.

JUST GREAT!!!!! I was gonna make some brownies for all of you but can't now!!!!! Just joking of course!

Not for nothing but how many times have we seen something on YouTube posted of a firetruck blowing through a red light / stop sign protected intersection?? Too many right? Maybe this is in response to that. If there is an intersection with a stop sign or a light showing red, you stop, check the intersection that everyone is stopping while you begin to slowly make the intersection and then proceed through. As for stopping with green light, that is a little too much but then again you must proceed through the intersection with caution at a reasonably lower speed so you can stop in an instant, why??? How many POV drivers do we see make "right turns on red" or roll through turns???? Too many and this is we as emergency apparatus drivers get caught in an accident or close call. Sorry but (for example) a 36,000 lb pumper with 500 gallons of water (at an additional weight of 8.33* lbs per gallon sloshing around) and plus more weight added when loaded down with equipment, doesn't stop on a dime. But I know I'm preaching to the choir of MPO's and chauffeurs.................

Started playing yesterday. It has the same issues the Rockland stated, similar to loading problems with Mafia Wars. You need to refresh the screen a couple of times. Might be there are to many people logged on the Facebook portal at the same time thus causing the slow response to the Java script. Seems like a good concept.

Why do I get a vision of having F + B on the side??? Great find and good luck with it!!!

We have it at work and I am not a fan. It was tried out in our saws and needless to say it burns too rich, especially with them being 2-cycle engines. As for our fans and Hurst / Holmotro pumps, its working good so far. I rather stick with good old gasoline in stead of paying extra a gallon for this stuff. The octanes are too high in tool fuel for most equipment we run in the fire service.

It's just a big "chemical car" for racing. I wouldn't classify this as a fire engine but a rapid respond vehicle like it says on side. Its the same concept utilized on pickups for racing standby's. Impressive though they were able to modify a GT-R to hold the equipment.

Remember when those rigs had East Port Chester on them along with Byram??? (Now I'm dating myself)

Two sets of gear especially in a busy department should be a standard issue. Or even if say a department is financially strapped, there should be enough sets of "spare" gear to be issued to a member in case his / her gear is compromised, needs to be sent out for alterations, needs to be dried out, ect.

Here's is a couple of ways in CT how apparatus is number. In southern Middlesex County and three departments in eastern New Haven County utiize a three digit format: Department Number - Unit Type - Unit number. For example 1-5-1 is Guilford Engine 1, 3-7-1 is Old Saybrook Ladder 1. The unit types are broken down nicely: 1 - Chiefs and line officers 2 - Marine Division 3 - Service Appartus 4 - Ambulance 5 - Engine (500 gallons of water in the tank or more) 6 - Tanker or Engine-Tanker (1000 gallons of water in the tank or more) 7 - Ladder / tower ladder truck 8 - Brush Truck 9 - Rescue Another way in New London County is the "bingo" system where there is a letter for the town then a two digit number. The first number usually designates the station and the second number the apparatus. So where I work Engine 1 is F-11, Squad 2 is F-12, the tower ladder is F-15. The second number descriptor break down is roughly this: 1 through 4 - Used for engine, tanker, engine- tanker, mini-pumper, brush trucks, service trucks 5 - aerial devices (regardless of size) 6 - EMS responder unit, service vehicle, brush unit 7 - rescues & hazmats 8 - 9 misc or staff cars. With the exception for the engines, aerials, tankers and rescues its not strictly followed. Now the majority of eastern CT uses the Apparatus type spoken - unit number - department number With this all apparatus located at Tolland Station 1 would be Engine 140, Engine-Tanker 140, Rescue 140, Brush 140, Ladder 140. Tolland station 1 is also know as Station 140. Tolland has four stations so say there are two engines at Station 1, then you would have say Engine 140 and Engine 540 for example.

Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. I never even though of doing a decent that way!! Will have to remember that one and pass it on during training. Thanks!

Is there any description or line drawing of the building that is going to replace 92's old quarters?

Got that right Chief!!! Firefighters have to remember to be down on you hands and knees and go downt he stairs on you butt with your feet first!! Too many times I have to yell at someone during training evolutions to do this. This should be the first thing everyone should remember when entering a structure like you said, when can't see your feet, you crawl! Great reminder point Chief Flynn!

And I was reminicing when I first got into firefighting and my company still had 2As. We later moved on to the InnerSpiros and now have Scott Fifties. I wish my first department had the old Scott 4.5s they were a really great improvement.

Well if the Chauff moved forward, he would have had some nice new "mudflaps"!!! Unreal.......just unreal but then again not suprising.

A lot of people say that!! See in CT, each trooper is assigned thier own "take home car" where the lightbars are removable and have a storage rack in the truck. I want to say this started around the 60s or 70s (not 100% sure). If they are in the car "off-duty" the lightbar must be taken off and technically they are "ready for a duty call". I don't know the exact politics and operational practices now though since I've been out of dispatching for CSP for 3 years now. When I worked at Troop I, in our garage out back they still had like seven old lightbars like the one in the picture!

The last I had heard, the FD was going to have a new frequency and possibly a repeater system added to the existing frequencies in use. PD was looking at encryption and I had heard the analog / digital / mixed transmission capability rumors. Nothing set in stone. As for the new 911 center I didn't hear that it was moving out of Fire HQ. The FD holds the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) for the city the last I had heard and they were stying put and not moving in with PD. However this is subject to change like everything else in the state.

I'm glad that there are new houses being built in NYC, but why are they going with such radical designs???? I though the idea of a "firehouse" was to fit into the neighborhood? They can do energy efficient buildings that way can't they?? Just a personal observation nothing more and I hope the buildings have a long life span like their predecessors.

......and shove the trunk down your coat if and when you got into "trouble"!!! Glad I got to experience that sort of "old school" training. Made me think more how to control my air.

ope they come out beacuse I really can't stand how and what she is now. She need to get knocked down from "Cloud 9".

Happy Birthday Ol' Man!

Okay here it is roughly in a nut shell. Back in the day the CSP had on their "light bars" two signs "State" on one side of the old gumball machine and "Police" on the other. Even before this, CSP cars had some sort of "State Police" plate to mark and identify their vehicles. Picture from http://www.statetrooperplates.com/ct.htm Well around the late 70's / early 80's the color scheme went from red / white to blue / yellow and continued to use the plate with their "updated light bars" comprised of the plates, a blue main strobe or rotater in the center and two blue (sometimes one was red) flashers / strobes towards the rear. The main "gumball" had a cruise light installed in it. When the Edge light bars came out, the illuminated "State Police" sign was added to the front and rear of the light bar to carry on the tradition of the old lightbar signs, along with the CSP "shield" plate usually mounted on the rear truck lid. Many towns and event Mashantucket's tribal police have adopted the use of signs along with their cruise light.