firemoose827

What is the breakdown of the acronym T.I.D.E? Im curious!! Also, great posts here so far guys. Excellent points made about drafting, In an area without too many hydrants I can work with drafting on a weekly basis, and all of the info posted so far is great. Excellent Topic.

I work for the Village Highway, and I am allowed to respond to confirmed fires- Structural, wildland, and automobile. For EMS I can respond for Delta and Echo calls, and have to use common sense with Charlie calls like if they are calling for an EMT or its right near where I am. I too get paid still while at the call as long as I return to work as soon as possible and make up the work.

I had the same problem but only with the emtbravo standard skin. I tried other skins and I found that the irish skin, steel blue, and emtbravo orange skin all do not have that problem. You can change skins on the bottom left hand side of the site, just scroll all the way down and look on the left and you will see the drop down menu.

Ok.....GROUP HUG!!! Come on, give moose some luvin!!! Hey Oneeye, try giving the helpdesk a shot, or talk directly to one of our members associates, they maybe able to help you better than what I sent you in PM! I think I ended up frustrating you even more! Heck....I frustrated myself trying to explain it to you! Everyone return to the topic of "Dive Teams" and their response criteria please. My only experience with Dive Teams was my Junior Firefighting days in Northport. They had a Dive Team that trained monthly in the harbor and in the village pool, but 99.99% of their responses were for recovery purposes. I didnt think they could mobilize and respond fast enough to effect rescues, but than again, like already mentioned, unless you are a dedicated team that is staffed 24/7 and dispatched on the initial alarm your chances at rescues are slim. But, if you have the training and experience, and act as a unit, Im sure that any team can do the job if called for in a timely manner.

Dont give up brother! Ive been in your shoes before with my old squad, I was Lt and Captain over there, attained the ALS certificate and speced and put into service a new rig during my tenure. For that squad, we used 12 hour schedules. Each member was supposed to submit their availability for the month at each monthly meeting. Then the Lt (or Co-Captain as I was called) was supposed to make up a 24 hour duty schedule for the month. This usually worked very well and the schedule was 100% covered most months. These crews could hang out in the station if they wanted, but otherwise they were supposed to stay in the district. If they had to leave than they had to find coverage, but if it was an emergency they called an officer and the officer covered them. Just an idea for you to bring up with your members, and keep your chin up. Keep a level head and keep looking for outside opinions...sometimes a fresh look at stuff is all you need! No problem!! lol I just thought you forgot about me!!! Having been Captain of my old squad, and having done the paperwork, I can shoot you an average response time of 10 minutes from time received to time on scene. My current squad will probably be worse than that because they do something myself and a dozen other members dont aprove of....BUT I wont go there and take this off topic!!

Oh I agree with you completely. I should have clarified my point, sorry!! Yes, all of the treatments you mentioned should be administered relatively quick and than transport. I was mainly refering to the medics that I have seen in my experiences that try and diagnose and cure the ailment on scene as opposed to performing your basic assesment and treatments like you mentioned. If the basic treatments show no change, or the procedures are missed ( i.e IV Access) than the PT should than be packaged and transported while trying for the second attempt enroute. But you make good points and I agree. Stay Safe Moose

I put up numbers, and they are factual enough. I have to disagree with that overall approach that transport is not priority. Too many ALS providers are starting to set up Mobile ER's in patients living rooms. What happened to "Dont delay transport waiting for ALS"? Shouldnt the same thing be said for performing your ALS Skills on scene as apposed to in the ambulance enroute to a higher, appropriate level of care? Just curious, honest questions. I believe in rapid transport to the appropriate facility that can provide the highest possible level of care for the patient and performing whatever ALS procedures you can in the back of a moving ambulance. Thats what I did when I was ALS 9 years ago, there was no stay and play, it was treat and transport. Whats everyones feelings on this? I do agree that the time should be measured when any patient care arrives on scene and initiates treatment. I do not understand why this officer had no idea and no way to look up how many calls took more than 10 minutes to get a crew on the road. You would simply check your times on the PCR or your dept run card/sheet and reference the call received time against the enroute to call time...simple enough. With the "B.I.F.R.S" you can even run a querry for that data and produce a list of the calls you mentioned. I have done this before for both my fire dept and my rescue squad on different questions...just enter the data into the querry, click search, voila!! Being I am not an officer in my current EMS agency I do not have access to the paperwork, but the numbers I posted were based on actuall trials run by myself and other members during a drill night. We drove from the firehouse to the farthest reaching members residence in our district and it was slightly over 5 minutes drive time.

Our rigs both have dual tone sirens. We have the Whelen siren AND a Fed Q and it sounds awesome to someone like me!! But I think that the extra sirens will make drivers more cautious, and by making them think there are two rigs they will end up waiting longer before pulling back into traffic. But on the other hand (theres always another hand! ) This could come back to haunt us. The drivers could get used to one rig making it sound like two, than one day there is actually 2 rigs and they pull out in front of the second one....so, this could go either way.

Speedy Recovery to you brother!! Get well, and get back on the truck soon!!

May you rest in peace brother, your job is done...we will take it from here. My heart goes to his family and friends.

No brother, you are not very far off at all with that post. I will take my area as a prime example for this to help you make your point. My County is terrible with response times because we are mostly rural areas with farms and such. Our Town is the biggest in the County. We have a village which is large and fairly populated and everything is close. We have a small hospital with a 8 Bed ED that staffs one doctor and 3-4 nurses per shift that cant do very much for the patient. But the town is loaded with farms and large properties. SOme of our members have a 5 minute drive to the Station. So if our crew is responding from the Town, they have atleast a 5 minute response time to the station, let alone getting the rig out the door. Than they may have to travel another 5-10 minutes to get to the scene, depending if its in our district or mutual aid. So the patient could very well be looking at 15-20 minutes before an ambulance arrives....Thats horrible! I have tried to mention to my squad that maybe we should look into having crews stand by in station for a few hours every evening, so atleast we have a crew THERE at station and will cut down the response time...But the fire chief doesnt want to turn the Station into a social club, so that got shot down. Now there is a study for our area, and two other districts in our County to check the feasibility of staffing 2 paid Firefighter/EMT's during the weekdays from 6a-6p to run ambulance calls and get engines to fires, but the study just started and may take a while to see any results, let alone any type of action. Finaly, there are times when we cant even get a crew at all, and have to go mutual aid. But with our County, we go three transmitions 3 minutes apart...so you get toned once, wait 3 minutes, get second tones, 3 more minutes, than finaly 3rd tones. If no one answers after three tones they tone out mutual aid. I think that is a bit too much time to wait for an acknowledgement, but I didnt make the rules here!! So yes, response times are a problem for us here, and we try to make them better but keep coming up with problems. Our only shot is to have the study completed as soon as possible and look at combination status.

I think that most of the topics in this forum are great topics, and I learn something new from them every day and enjoy talking to different people from different places. I feel these topics get out of hand by a few cocky individuals who forget that we are all the same people inside, we all have the desire to help people, and they treat others like they are beneath them. That's how I think things get started here. But I'm all for discussing topics without getting into paid vs. vollie issues, as long as people can treat each other with respect, regardless who you are. Just thought I would share that to remind us all who we are. Stay Safe Moose

I like this set up too. I guess the only thing I would have about it is the crosslays. They are right there by the steps up to the platform. If they are stretched out the panel side of the truck the operator will have to step over the hose lines to get up and down, adding to the danger, especially in winter months like antiquefire mentioned. Maybe if they had the steps towords the back of the truck, free from any other obstructions that would be great. But still, I like the set up. Great find and thanks for sharing with us.

First off...why is everyone telling me to calm down? I wasnt in any way offended or upset, Im just trying to explain why we as volunteers need to have second tones most of the time. Am I allowed to add to the discussion? Did I have CAPS everywhere and use unfavorable language? I was even respectfull enough to call him Sir, in case some of you missed that, and I called him sir because A- He is a Captain, and B- He has more knowledge and experience than me so therefore I respect his opinions on this site and listen to members like him whenever they post. Mr JFLYNN...you obviously have an obsession with Q-tips Sir, and as I dont need any maybe you can find someone else that does. I was in no way verbally bashing anyone or loosing my cool, so please stop with the pointless bashes against me. Thanks Chief. In the future, maybe someone can send a PM to me, BEFORE you all jump to conclusions. (notice the SMILEY...) Everyone breathe with me here...In through the nose....Out through the mouth...Feel better? Now, can we continue being the happy yet dysfunctional family we have been? Moose

Now THAT brings a whole new meaning to the term "Road Rage", and I will definately think twice before flipping anyone else the bird while driving... Thats something the Secret Service needed a long time ago...I think the day of the Business suit and tie, and comfy SUV are over...Give em these things, SWAT suits and equipment, and even armored personnel carriers.

Just a quick question for you sir ( please, Im using Sir here in a respectful way because I respect you and your opinions here and learn a lot from them!!! , that and you are an officer which I respect also.) In my old dept in Long Island, we had a houseman, but he was paid as a Village Highway Dept employee. He was expected to clean the firehouse daily, answer the phones and dispatch the dept to calls but received no money from the dept itself. Is this still considered as a dept cost? Im just curious to know, because you brought up great points. Thanks! Moose

Rest In Peace brother. May your family take comfort and support from all of us in their time of need, and may your actions never be forgotten.

Look, its very simple sir, as a volunteer I can not leave work unless its a true emergency. Not my rules but I need my job to feed my family so I listen to the rules. Im not about to run out the door everytime the fire alarm goes off at the local high school, or every time someone mistakes steam for smoke...I would loose my job. Evenings and weekends I go out the door everytime the pager goes off, regardless what we are being sent to. A lot of our chiefs know this and therefore help us out with the "second tones" to advise us, or I should say advise our BOSS , that we are needed. My chief will arrive on scene and call in a report immediately over the air so that those of us trapped at work can hear it and leave. But, on the same token our chiefs call in tons of mutual aid immediately also, to cover the manpower issue in case it is a worker. A few of our departments have automatic mutual aid plans for weekdays from 6a-6p with 1-2 other departments. We are all simultaneously dispatched and respond together to get a truck on scene as fast as we can, with a crew. Our response times are hurting, but we are working as hard as we can to improve them.

Have a safe and happy Easter everyone.

I have an idea...post links for the "Live Scanner Feeds" web sites, so we can tune to them when we hear of something big in the incident alerts. Like this one for FDNY... FDNY Live Feed You could post links for Boston, Chicago, LA, or any big city dept where our forum reaches. Just an idea, not sure if it would work. Moose

Here is a link directly to the page of terminology for fdnewyork.com. Sorry, its the only thing I can ADD to this!!! FDNY Terminology

The 17 minute response time was for their reserve engine...they had 2 engines on scene, and someone already posted that the reserve was not needed at scene, but it was there just in case.

What makes this even worse is that I believe all of these pull stations/buttons have to be labeled "In Case Of Fire, Pull/Activate" Correct me if Im wrong, but I did work on these type of fire systems as well as kitchen hood systems for 8 years. If this lady didnt even see the warning....she must be a few cards short of a full deck!! On top of that, I believe that the Manual Station for these types of systems have to be mounted Inside somewhere near the employee, and they are the only one that can manually activate them for this reason exactly! I wonder what happened to that? That poor guy on the other side though!!!! He must have just took off at a dead run!!!

I would have to agree with Rob on this one, it seems your only hope is to start getting your squad to band together and go after the By-Laws and SOP's, re-write them, propose changes like minimum qualifications for officer, term limits for both officers and board members, and have each position be voted on by the membership. This way no one person or group of people can dominate the squad for as long as they want to. It has to be a fair system, you are the membership, you are the ones who go out and train and do the calls, so therefore you should have more of a say in your squad and how its run. You should be given the chance to vote democraticaly for your officers and not have them be appointed by "Friends" in high places, in fact, last time I checked that kind of control was called a "Dictatorship", right? In our squad we as a membership vote for all of our officers annualy in April, and in order to be eligible for nomination you have to be a member in good standing for five years, and an EMT for 3 years. Our boards only purpose is to audit the books annualy for the organization, so they have no formal power to speak of, which is how it should be. Too much power given to people with little or no experience at all is a bad thing, as you are finding out. I feel for you guys bro. I hope you are able to research this further and start to submit proposals for By-Law Changes, which every organization should have the right to do. Good Luck!

I belong to another forum and they are talking about a push in congress to make 9/11 the "National Firefighters Day" , something similar to Memorial or Veterans day. I think they should call it "Emergency Services Day" though, to honor firefighters, Police, and EMS all at once. The tough thing with me is Im both Irish and Scottish!! But I think that St Pats should just be left as is, its a fun day no matter how you treat it.