RWC130

Bad blow for Sleepy Hollow FD, Not good! I know a bunch of SHFD members and they are good guys. Unfortunately every agency experiences some bad apples from time to time... Fire, EMS, and Police all included. It's important we DO NOT judge an agency by one of it's members. Enough said! 8-[

Information provied by: Chief Thomas J. Wutz NYS Office of Fire Prevention and Control On Sunday, November 21, 2004, the Windsor Locks, CT Fire Department responded to a reported car fire. Upon arrival the fire was confined to the engine compartment. During gaining access to the engine compartment, one of my firefighters had just released the hood safety latch when the hood shock strut exploded and fired into my firefighter, striking him in his upper thigh and piercing completely through his leg and bunker pants with the approximate 18 inch long strut. He is home recuperating and we will not know how extensive his injury is for a while yet. I wish to make other departments mindful that these struts are gas filled and are common on General Motor products, in particular Buicks that I am aware of. In my 30 plus years on the fire department this is the first time I had ever heard of one these gas filled struts exploding like this. The fire and accident remain under investigation. Please pass this along to other firefighters to be aware of the potential for these shocks to fail when exposed to fire. I am just grateful that this accident did not have a worse outcome. Picture of the car in question is on our Department's website at www.wlfd.com. Thomas J. Wutz Chief Fire Services Bureau NYS Office of Fire Prevention and Control 41 State St. Albany, NY 12231-0001 Telephone: 518-474-6746 FAX : 518-474-3240 e-mail: twutz@dos.state.ny.us

I think WCDES636 and WAS967 will agree with me here... Remember585, "Peekskill Answering Service" is the way to go. Too bad they are gone! LOL =D> 1805 RIP!

Peekskill Fire Department PANCAKE BREAKFAST Sunday, December 12th 8 AM to 11 AM To Be Held At: Centennial Hose Firehouse 701 Washington Street Peekskill, NY 10566 $5.00 Per Person $3.50 Under 10 Coffee, Tea, and Orange Juice All Included

Pyro, Good points! On 9/11 our world as we knew it was changed forever. If it was that easy to wipe out some major parts of Westchester County 911 system and phone lines I can't help but wonder was this a test? Is our 911 system an easy target? Obviously...It's scary! Maybe it was kept "low key" for security reasons? I can't answer that one but it's not the first or last time we have had a cover up or downplay something such as this. In Peekskill our 911 worked but the PD could not transfer calls to anyone such as 60-Control for Fire and EMS or to other police agencies. PPD used radios to call 60 for jobs. I can only hope some good comes out of this. They made arrests...How about better Security? Back Up? All this new technology of phone lines tied into computer systems, well when the system goes down then what? As I stated before with all the chaos I think DES did a damn good job. Whoops, X635 can I say damn? lol

10-13 BENEFIT FOR PO DONATO "DANNY" TRADITI JR. On September 26, 2004 Town of Ossining PO Donato "Danny" Traditi Jr. died suddenly of a heart attack, he was 44. Danny was a 17 year veteran of the Town of Ossining Police Department, PBA Vice President, DARE Officer, and School Resource Officer. In addition to being a Police Officer Danny was also a Volunteer Firefighter. He was Ex-Captain and President of Monitor Hose Co. 4 Ossining at the time of his death. His dedication and professionalism was invaluable to his family and the community. Danny's death effected many people, but none more than his wife and their three young sons. Due to a lack of pension benefits a fund raiser will be held to assist Danny's family with future expenses including higher education. It is requested that ALL members of service please attend to assist a fallen brother's family in need. If you cannot attend please send donations to: The Donato V. Traditi Jr. Children's Education Trust c/o Town of Ossining Police Department 85 Old Route 100 Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510 SUNDAY DECEMBER 5, 2004 5PM - UNTIL! THE THIRSTY TURTLE 201 E. POST ROAD WHITE PLAINS, NY 10601 DONATION $25.00 PER PERSON (Snow Date: Sunday December 12, 2004) http://www.thethirstyturtle.net/promo/10-1...benefit_500.jpg Any questions you may contact the Town of Ossining PD (914) 762-6007

DOC, How could I have forgotten Hill Street Blues? :roll: "HEY, LET'S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE"

FUNDRAISER IS THIS COMING SUNDAY 12/5! Anyone from EMTBravo.com coming out to help support the family of a Brother Firefighter / Police Officer?

Back Up? #-o Thankfully no major incidents happened during the outage. I believe the back up were Nextel's of DES dispatchers?? I must give kudos, they did an awesome job under the circumstance. What was that number 490-????

"USER NOT REACHABLE A5" I get that a lot when trying to DC or I am told by friends they try to call me and my phone is off. It's not off just horrible service! I call Nextel and get the run around... One day last week I could not make or receive any calls for a good 4 hours. I would dial a number and it would say "redialing" and NOTHING! PS Dialing 911 also didn't work NICE!

I hear he is doing his ride time with FDNY, OLM, and a few others.

I am not sure about "CENTRAL WESTCHESTER" but I know for a fact at one time maybe late 60's or 70's the Peekskill Answering Service did some Dispatching for Montrose and Buchanan FD's. I know this because I was once in the building and saw old red buttons "Montrose FD Siren" and "Buchanan FD Siren" they were taped over and not working. Yes, I pushed the button. I just had too! LOL Not sure exactly what role they played in Dispatching at the time Primary or Back-Up. Anyone able to shed some light?

I was in Windham, NY (Catskills) this weekend. I had my scanner on and I heard Putnam 40-Control on 46.38 crystal clear dispatching Brewster FD. Pretty cool!

LOL!! =D>

Arlington FD opts for a Paid Fire Chief Volunteers disappointed By Nik Bonopartis Poughkeepsie Journal Arlington FD new Fire Chief will be a full-time, Paid Firefighter. The decision was made Wednesday night when the Arlington Fire District's board of fire commissioners voted 3-1 in favor of changing the leadership position from one of a volunteer, elected chief to an appointed, career chief. The decision came after fierce opposition from the district's volunteer firefighters, a shrinking force that fears being phased out after losing power within the district. Arlington follows a nationwide trend of a decline in volunteer firefighters as commutes, longer work hours and two-income families make people less likely to spend their free time volunteering. Betty Bomba, chairwoman of the board of commissioners, said the district needs ''a special person'' to manage the resources, personnel and equipment. Arlington is a combination department of 67 career -- or paid -- staff and roughly twice as many volunteers. ''From the research that I've done, the successful combination departments or districts all had career chiefs,'' Bomba said. ''In order for us to be successful, this was something we had to do.'' Search for candidates The district will form a search committee to look for a new chief. The deputy chief's position, which is a paid post, will be eliminated, and the current volunteer chief will move into the role of first deputy chief as the district's second-in-command. The new chief's position would command a salary of more than $90,000, Bomba said. She did not have exact figures, though she estimated with benefits the position would be worth more than $100,000. Chief John Richardson said he thinks Wednesday night's decision signals a move ''toward building a bigger paid department. ''With the advent of a paid chief there will be a move toward the driving out of volunteers, which will result in enormous increases of fire taxes for residents of the district,'' he said. Bob Raisch, executive director of the Arlington Business Improvement District, said the position helps the department run more economically and improves response times, he said. Arlington's budget for next year is more than $9.1 million, reflecting the hiring of more paid firefighters, a growing town population and the nearly 4,500 calls the district responded to last year. Deputy Chief Jeff Pells, who could face either a promotion to chief or a step down to lieutenant, said the switch to a career chief is long overdue. ''It's big business, and I think we have to look at it that way,'' he said. ''The fire department needs to operate as a big business, and we need people who are going to be here on a regular basis.'' Journal writer Erikah Haavie contributed to this report. Nik Bonopartis can be reached at nbonopar@pough keepsiejournal.com

Remember585, As a Firefighter for Peekskill FD I must say 60-Control does a great job! They are the way to go. I monitor various radio frequencies and agencies that DES dispatches. The days of PD dispatching FIRE/EMS have to come to an end. Obviously you know 1st hand why. Previous comment "CHECK AND ADVISE" exactly! That can mean the difference between life and death. In FIRE/EMS even 5 minutes is a long time as we all know. How quickly can a CHF patient go downhill or how quickly can a fire spread in 5 minutes? QUICK! The only problem I have is that dispatcher "642" He has no clue what he is doing. LOL! Just kidding JM, You da man! Enough said.... 60 Control for Croton Fire / EMS!

We can't move mountains, harried 911 officials claim By Nathan Hegedus Times Herald-Record nhegedus@th-record.com Chester – Five years after Orange County opened a high-tech E-911 center, its radio signals remain unreliable, causing delays in emergency responses to medical scenes. Last week, the Chester Volunteer Ambulance Corps missed call after call - five in just a couple of days - as paid EMS workers responded from stations outside of town. The county did little to address the problem, according to Douglas DiBlasi, a lieutenant in Chester. One official told DiBlasi that Chester could return to private dispatching if it didn't like county service, he said. In Chester, home to the county's E-911 center, and Blooming Grove, where dead spots are a long-standing problem, both ambulance corps have started using Nextel equipment, hybrids of cell phones and walkie-talkies, to circumvent county pagers. "We fax incident reports to the 911 center. I have no idea what they do with them," said Wayne Schutz, chairman of the board of directors of the Blooming Grove Ambulance Corps. The initial transition to a countywide system was filled with radio dead spots and turf battles. The county commissioned a study, applied for more radio frequencies and is working to upgrade its radio towers. So the complaints frustrate Virginia Panzarella, commissioner of emergency communications. She called the Chester complaints "just politics." Radio simply cannot cover the entire county, she said. "If we get 95 percent coverage, 95 percent of the time, that's excellent," she said, referring to a national professional standard. But that still leaves a lot of room for error, she said. The volunteers need to understand the county can't fix everything. "We go up and we go down," she said of Orange County's hilly terrain. "Radio does not get through a mountain. But we never want anyone to get hurt. We take it very seriously." In the past decade, Ulster and Sullivan counties also made the switch to some sort of county-wide 911 system. Both counties have plenty of hills. In Ulster County, as a person heads west on Route 28 into the Catskills, radio communication is "near impossible," said Bruce Kirkpatrick, Ulster County's deputy director of emergency communications. So Ulster has dispatchers in Sullivan County, and even Delaware County, cover some areas. Kirkpatrick said that though he can't move mountains out of the way, he tries to solve problems quickly. "That's my job," he said. Sullivan went to the county-wide system in 2000. There are some dead spots, but only in the least-inhabited parts of the county, not in the population centers, said David Kimmel, Sullivan's 911 coordinator. In Chester, Orange County switched the ambulance corps to another radio tower. Panzarella said there will simply be different dead spots now. DiBlasi said his coverage has improved, but he's still not happy. "If they take [dispatching] over, they should go into it full force and not go into it half-assed, like they did," he said. NOTE: Doug DiBlasi is a former Empress EMT now Captain of Chester VAC. GO DOUG! =D>

Interesting.... They are really dumb! We all have had a lil fun, practical jokes, etc.. but calling 911 is not funny. Very poor judgement boys! [-X

Signs You Might Be A Redneck... None of your shirts cover your stomach. You consider a six-pack and a bug-zapper high-quality entertainment. You judge drive time solely by the number of beers you need to take. You think loading the dishwasher means getting your wife drunk. You believe dual air bags refer to your wife and mother-in-law. Your wife's hairdo was once ruined by a ceiling fan. You lit a match in the bathroom and your house exploded right off it's wheels. You go to your family reunion looking for a date. You own a homemade fur coat. The bluebook value of your truck goes up and down, depending on how much gas it has in it. You think the stock market has a fence around it. You carried a fishing pole into Sea World. You have the local taxidermist's number on speed dial. You take a load to the dump and bring back more than you took. You've been married three times and still have the same in-laws. You wonder how service stations keep their rest rooms so clean. Your toilet paper has page numbers on it. Your Junior/Senior Prom had a Daycare. You think genitalia is an Italian airline. You can change the oil in your truck without ducking your head. You think taking a bubble bath starts with eating beans for dinner. Your stereo speakers used to belong to the Moonlight Drive-in Theater. You have to go outside to get something out of the fridge. The Salvation Army declines your mattress. Your father executes the "pull my finger" trick during Christmas dinner. The Halloween pumpkin on your front porch has more teeth than your wife

TOP 25 SIGNS YOU'RE A BUFF! 1. You can tell what type of fire it is by the smell of smoke 10 miles away. 2. You lay out your clothes from that day so if there is a call at night you can find them quickly. 3. You have ever been airborne without an aircraft and water was your thrust. 4. You carry a ton of specially modified tools in your pocket that would rival a Swiss army set. 5. You've ever clung to the air horn chord for dear life because the driver is insane. 6. You have ever played jingle bells at Xmas time on the air horns to clear traffic. 7. You have ever called a person found after a fire a "crispy critter". 8. You have ever stomped out a fire with your boots because you couldn't wait for water. 9. You have ever walked 3 miles into the woods in 100 degree heat in full turnout gear and a water can strapped on your back just to put out a fire. 10. Your kids are afraid to get into water fights with you. 11. Your work gear makes you sound like Darth Vader. 12. You roll around in anything that just burned to make your new gear look old. 13. You carry enough in your car to extinguish a minor blaze. 14. Your own vehicle has more lights than a Christmas tree. 15. All the shirts you own say you are a firefighter. 16. If you have more pagers than money in your wallet. 17. If assembling a mile and a half of hose running up a hill to catch a fire is a good day. 18. The microwave goes off and you run out of the house thinking it was your pager. 19. If you have ever woken up thinking your pager went off and as you look at it, it does. 20. When you really think that rusty old hydrant will look good in the garden. 21. If you had to extricate someone by cutting the car doors off on one side and realized there was nothing wrong with the doors on the other side. 22. If you have more toy fire trucks than your kids do. 23. You wash the fire truck more than your own car. 24. You own your own scott air pack. 25. You spend hours on EMTBravo.com (I just had too!) =D>

# 34 (I think) You have your own Water Can, CO2, and Dry Chem!

"Special Hose Lay" ?? Whoops!! [-X

X635 and Pudge3311 you brought up some good points but... What does the apparatus have to do with the manpower issue? Most of us in Westchester are fortunate to have very pretty washed & waxed, $200,000 to $800,000 apparatus but some do not and you can't judge a department cause of that. Now with that being said.... 635, I think the concept is a great idea. I have to give credit to volunteer departments like Buchanan, Montrose, and Verplanck who recognized they had a manpower problem and found a solution that seems to be working great. The "Tri-Village Response." I think the problem that you would run into would be the administration of the departments. It's not easy to admit you have a manpower or for that matter an equipment problem. In doing such does that make you as the Chief or Mayor a failure? NO! I think they need to pull heads out of some a.... and admit they have a problem and try to fix it. If hiring more firefighters is not an option then you better try other avenues of approach. Depleting mutual aid departments of apparatus and manpower everytime you have something more than a car fire is not the way to go. Should the City of Mount Vernon have been so quick to disband the Volunteers? Hmmmm We ALL have the same goal as firefighters paid or volunteer. Well, most of us do. Let's put our heads together and stop the BS. Great idea X635!

Date: 11-05-04 Time: 0228 Hrs Location: 7 Hilltop Circle Units: Millwood FD, Chappaqua FD, Ossining FD (FAST) Chappaqua VAC, Briarcliff FD (Stand-By) Description: Working Fire - Private House Frequency: 46.26 Writer: RWC130 0231 Hrs 60-Control reports PD is receiving numerous calls flames visible. 0234 Hrs Car 2252 10-19 Transmits 10-75 Working Fire

HURRY!!! RESCUE 6 T-SHIRTS http://www.nyfirestore.com/popups/R6T.html