firemoose827

I agree 100% with that. Thats all you see by me, mostly a bunch of white coats that respond to the scene (even though their department is standing in for the hosting agency only and not actually on scene) and stand around the CP (if there is one designated) and usually dont know whats going on. But every department is always trying to keep up with new technology and trying to get grants for it. Meanwhile their air packs are falling apart, their turnout gear is approaching 15 years old and needs replaced...when does it end? They need to think basics first. Too many rely on technology without a good solid back-up plan.

Coat Pockets: Shove knife, 5-in one tool, additional folding spanner, prussik loop, 2 flashlights. Pant Pockets: 35' self rescue rope on large "D" ring (attached to sinch strap on waistline of pants), spanner belt, hood, hand warmer pouches (winter). Attached to front of coat: Survivor light (right), mini halligan (left). Helmet: Strobe, chocks, bourques.

"A Firefighter without a tool is an informed citizen" A firefighter without a flashlight is a blind informed citizen... Never get off the truck without tools and a light. I always have the survivor on my chest, atleast two smaller flashlights in my pockets, a strobe on my helmet, and the lightbox on a strap around my shoulder with the rear facing LED's. That search sleeve is a cool looking design, but does anyone have any experience using one? Does it get caught on things when you try and work with your hands, like forcing doors? Is it easy to donn and doff? Looks interesting and I would like any more info on these thats available.

The average member doesnt have to make all of the critical decisions in the first 5 minutes of the incident, and call the apropriate MA that needs to respond from great distances, and coordinate multi-agency responses on two or three different radio frequencies... The chief runs the show and has great responsibility, why not equip them with what they need and allow them the perq of driving it all the time? Especialy when the small town volunteer chief working a job with a tiny salary supporting a family has to pay for the expensive gas? Just my opinion though, I see your points but it all boils down to needing someone to run the show, and making sure they have what they need to do the job right. Stay Safe brother.

Fire chiefs in my area do a lot of driving to get to scenes, and work out of their vehicles as the CP some times too. Why not be allowed the perq of taking the car shopping, or to work, or on a drive? What happened if there was a call and they were 4 minutes away from the scene but didnt have their chiefs car and no radios or ID to allow them passed the police car thats already on scene? The points that Grumpy makes are spot on I feel. Great points.

I see a lot of issues with our radio procedures as well. Lots of people use the "Be advised" line all the time here, I guess it just sounds cool to them or official. I also hear too many people say their department name before their identifier, but the identifier is designed to give all of the info the dispatcher needs. Take our engine for example, its designation is "2021". "20" is our dept designation, and "21" is the designation for engine, yet you hear it all the time "911 this is carlisle 2021 enroute." waste of air time if you ask me. Be advised though, I see too many issues with radio procedures but not enough effort to alleviate these issues at this time. (hehehe)

Well said Izzy. Its only gone because we let it get this far, no one else is to blame but the current membership. Im all for getting it back and I will do what it takes. Is everyone else?

I have seen both sides of this argument. I thought at one time that the brotherhood was gone also. I had a son about 10 years ago now who had a rare disease and lived in the hospital, never came home. I was working 2 jobs and spending all free time at the hospital at his bed side...did any of my so called brothers do anything for me and my family? No. Than, when my son passed away 2 days before his second birthday I had no support from any of them. On his funeral only 2 brothers showed up. After all of that though I still believe the brotherhood is still out there, its just not being properly explained to our younger generations. Its almost as if its expected to just be absorbed when you join, when instead it should be passed on by those of us who can explain it and live it. Dont ever let the brotherhood be erased or misunderstood, keep up the discussion and pass it on. Great topic and one I respect wholeheartedly. Stay Safe everyone and protect the brotherhood.

Angelo, did "Da Da's" get any damage? Thats where we got coffee that morning right? Looks like they did a great job keeping it from spreading. Lots of exposure problems there and they did great job keeping it from the whole block.

My condolences to all involved, the families of the children, and the firefighters who tried to rescue them. You did your best, and we are all here to back you. My thoughts and prayers to you all. Stay Safe.

Not for nothing, but it kind of bothers me to see so many of you more concerned with the response to the incident rather than how bad the injuries are and if they are going to be all right. Only a few of you said anything to that effect. Hopefully they are all ok and will recover 100%. How did they get hurt? Sorry, had troubles with the links provided and couldnt access them for some reason. Thanks.

A mix of NFPA guidelines, OSHA laws, and the departments SOG's. Does every dept follow their SOG's? No...Should they? Yes. Why else do you have the SOG's in the first place; I say to save lives and and make it so we all go home. The dept will say to keep OSHA happy if they get inspected...We need something in place to MAKE the training for vollies mandatory, it needs to happen. But how?

Do you have any pics of the truck itself? Great picture.

I like the side bar option everyone is talking about. Make the IA notification like you have the current staff online box, and the donation box. Make an Incident alert box on the right side of the main page in the .net forums.

As a new Captain my long term goal for this year is to increase the training standards of our department and maybe even get the word out to our fire coordinators and instructors to make the training requirements mandatory. Im tired of hearing fellow volunteers using the same excuse over and over..."Im only a volunteer with a family and FT Job responsibilities." Well than you need to evaluate your situation and make changes; either leave the department or find the time to train because fire kills us just as fast and the people we serve deserve all the same levels of protection that our career brothers and sisters provide. They deserve more than a truck full of untrained well intentioned people with big hearts...they need the same people but with the right training. I have a wife and young daughter, four years old, and they both support me. They know that if I dont have the training I could get hurt or even worse...makes sense, doesnt it?? They want me to come home than I have to know what Im doing. I work, and go to school FT yet still make it to drills and classes. My only question, to all of you with experience in this matter, is how do I get the point across without being too aggressive and making them all burry their heads in the sand? Any good advice for an unseasoned officer to carry out my goal? Any advice would be appreciated and thanks for the information on the training requirements, good stuff. Stay Safe everyone.

I believe every firefighter should have to be certified like an EMT as stated be firecapt32. It shouldnt be allowed to continue the way it is now (with vollie training standards) where you can take basic firefighter and be qualified as an interior firefighter and not be mandated to take any other training. For me this sends up warning flares and makes me shiver. Why havent they made this a requirement yet? EMT's need to recert but a firefighter can just go on forever without any recert training? This is where the trouble is. Just to clarify, I used the word "Qualified" very very lightly, and in no way think that a basic firefighter should be considered as "Qualified" for interio ops. Firefighter I with hands on training from senior members and officers at calls should be the only way to be thought of as "Qualified". In my department you need to be trained to whatever level you have applied for (Fire police, Scene Support Ops, or Firefighter I) and make 25% of each calls, drills and meetings to make it to full member. You need Firefighter I to be interior, as of now no Haz-Mat training is required. You need Accident Victim Extrication Training to use the jaws. You are required to attend the 8 hour OSHA refresher training and pass the firefighter physical annually to remain interior. Personally...It should be more. Its just not enough and we need to improve this.

A lot of reading here, took me a while, being there were no pictures but I finaly finished. Wanted to reply to a lot of the posts but it would take a lot of room to add the quotes so here are a few general thoughts and reflections. I have read a lot of you say that there is animosity from vollies towards career guys; Sorry, but it sounds like just a simple case of jealousy that you got the job that they all dreamed about since childhood, nothing more than that. Not to mention an isolated event at your department and not like it was a group of vollies protesting on the front lawn of the white house. Me personally, I have worked with career guys at a fire before and had no issues with them and unless they just kept quiet, they had no issues with me. We worked together and got the job done. Training...I am totally on your side when you say that training should be the same across the board, whether you volunteer or get paid. I would love to see the volunteers have to get the same training, this would make us better at what we do and be able to help people more. It would also cut back the LODD rate for volunteers, so what isnt there to like about that? But too many of us sadly will spend more energy on arguing the fact that we shouldnt have the training than they would actually taking it...sad I know but true unfortunately for us. Question for anyone; If I wanted to take the career fire academy training just to better myself would I be allowed? And how would I go about doing it? I am now a level II firefighter but think that there is still more than what I have. Just curious. What is everyones thoughts on the County Fire District that is more prevalent down south? I only know little about it having talkied briefly to a member of one when I helped move my uncle to virginia, but it seems to work well and the coverage is better. It seems to be one large county wide combination department correct? Would this work up here? Again, just my curiosity. Excellent posts by all, very informative and respectful. Stay Safe.

Why is it that people think we are not professional? Some of us are not, granted, there are the bad apples and glory seekers that do not portray the real volunteer spirit and dedication to community that the rest of us show daily, but there are more of us that take this as a profession even though we do not get paid. I do agree though, the response times are horrible, and the manpower is more than pitiful to say the least, but my community just can not afford to support a career staff of firefighter/EMT's. I wish they could dont get me wrong!! Than my career issues would be non-existant but what can we do? Excellent discussion so far, I am learning a lot. Thanks to all of you contributing good info. Stay Safe

In my old department we had a SUNY college in our district, and a lot of the students there that lived in the dorms were also volunteer firefighters for their home departments. They got permission from their home chiefs to help us out while at school on a "Mutual Aid Agreement" between our chief and theirs. It worked out well, and gave us more manpower for those weekday calls when most of our volunteers were at work. I dont know if this could work out the same for career firefighters serving their local volunteer departments while off duty or not but it would help.

Interesting that you brought the topic of working with the other agencies that respond such as police and tow agencies. Our department just had a great lecture generously provided for us by one of our local sherrif's officers. He usually helps with the Fire Police course and was asked by our chief to come and address the issue of working together and what the Law Enforcement providers expect of us and vice versa. GREAT lecture. He discussed crime scenes, and accident re-creation teams and how we should handle the scenes, park our trucks, and help with traffic. He was professional and than allowed us to offer our own information. But he is also a volunteer firefighter, former captain and I was his Lieutenant so he knew that end of it anyway. But still, its good to know what the other agencies need to do for their jobs. I am thinking af inviting a tow agency representitive to our next mva drill so he/she can offer any input from a tow drivers perspective as well. Might be beneficial to us all. Good topic. I believe it should only be removed if there will be an extended extrication and it will cause trouble or danger. And it should be removed properly with a wrench or socket. Takes the same amount of time and is less of a shock hazzard to an adrenaline charged firefighter that may cross the poles and get a lot more energy than they need... Stay Safe.

Just a few points for the original poster. First off very good post, good questions and you seem to be interested in being informed, thats a good thing! As far as using the harness for rescue purposes, this can now be done using the DRD (Drag Rescue Device) that are now being used in Turnout coats more frequently. Each department should also be trying to outfit their members with harnesses as well, but it is costly. Even still, using simple rope rescue techniques and knots will do the trick as well. Know your knots and ropes, know your tools and their many uses and think outside of the box. As firefighters we should never be reliant on any one skill, tool, or technique but instead become familiar with multiple ways to do any one thing. Being flexible and knowing many different techniques is always a good thing. These packs are still in the testing phase and as far as I know are still a long way from being ready for service so the more input these manufacturers have the better the product will become. Hopefully some of them are reading these posts?????

How much are they predicting, and is this primarily targeting the downstate area again or will upstate get it as well? I wonder if any highway department has ever requested mutual aid in the past???

Congratulations and best of luck to you both. The site is growing in leaps and bounds and needs dedicated people like these guys. Good Luck!

Just wanted to put the word out to some of the bigger departments that might be able to help us out a bit. I just recently joined a small town department that has next to nothing for a budget, gear thats old and worn, trucks that are old as I am, and a growing membership of interior firefighters. If anyone has any turnouts or other equipment laying around the station that you would like to donate to us please send me a PM and I will give you my email. We are in need of hose, any size, Scott Air Masks (we have received a grant a few years ago and purchased new Scott NxGn Packs but have limited masks. Six packs in rescue, only 3 have mask...), Personal rescue ropes and harnesses, turnout coats pants boots and helmets. If anyone can help, please let me know. Our commisioners only allow us to purchase 2 sets of gear annualy, and we just got 5 new interior members that we could only outfit 3 with gear. ANy help would be appreciated, and warmly accepted with praise and parades. Thanks all.

Just wanted to send out a HUGE thank you and express our sincere appreciation to the brothers from Rye FD for their donation of much needed equipment. Without you guys making donations like you did smaller departments like mine would be in trouble. It takes a certain extra something for guys/gals like you who go out of your way to help out those of us less fortunate and people like me appreciate you more than I can express. My chief will be sending a more formal thank you to the department and all of its members as soon as we can come down and pick the equipment up. Will the brother that contacted me initially and got the ball rolling please call me again? I can not find your phone number and need to set up a day (When its not SNOWING!!! LOL) to come down and get the stuff. We have 2 pickups and 5 people coming down to get it. Please call. THANK YOU AGAIN!!!!