firemoose827

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of....the CHIEF should be investigated for stupidity, and making the entire dept look bad. Why didnt they just ask him to pay for the damn shirt??.......instead of calling charleston and requesting they send it back? I suddenly dont like other people so much any more.

RIP Brother...my best to his family and friends. Hope they catch the person and they get what they deserve.

Well, I have read most of the responses, and I hope you are listening to some of them. I use 35' of 3/8" static kern with a large "D" ring biner that I clip to the side of my bunkers on the adjustment strap....fold up the rope as you would feed it into a rope bag and place it in my left bunker cargo pocket. If I need to bail I use the biner to anchor to either tools or studs and use the body belay. Its effective, cheap, and doesnt require too many steps....time is of the essence when having to bail out. KISS. You need to train hard also, learn all about construction types and fire behavior so you can avoid getting into the tight spot to begin with. Tubular webbing? I would have to agree with those who have posted on the fact that wet gloves would definately cause a problem with descent on webbing. They would slip too much. Webbing should be used for anchors and harness set-ups. I have taken survival, cave rescue, rescue ops, and they all state to use webbing for anchors and harnesses, and not as rope. I guess different depts have their own way of doing things and you should realy ask around your station as to what their preferences are, and what you will train with every day. Good luck, and I hope you never have to use it! Moose

I understand your opinion, but I believe they are both the same...in either one you need to look out for loaded bumpers, shocks and struts firing off, pneumatic pistons for hatchbacks, hi pressure hydraulic hose, flammable liquids, flammable metals, alternative fuel cells, not to mention whatever illegal products they may be carrying in the trunk/storage area...the simple point Im trying to make here brother for our younger brothers and sisters is you never know what you will encounter, be prepared for anything. No one, I dont give a rats a$$ how long youve been a firefighter or what agency you belong too, no one can predict what will happen at every fire all the time. Take this guy in the above post, 11 years experience and he had no idea what it was that hit him, or where it came from. " A garage FULL of vehicles"? Shouldnt that give us all a clue? Complacency damn near killed him, and I am merely expressing my concern for my brothers and sisters out there. Hey, also, were you at the steam incident last night in the city? I fully expected someone to post about it this morning but there was nothing. Just curious to see what happened. Also, what company do you work in partyrock? Stay safe Moose

Yes we did, and a lot of guys still think its ok to not wear all of it, amazing isnt it? "Always Wear Full PPE" should be the new heading for EMTBravo!!!!!! STAY SAFE Moose

One of the things that I noticed a lot of during my tenure as the dept. Safety Officer was the fact that no one used their chin strap on their helmets. They always have them strapped around the rear brim of the helmet. This blows my mind, and I cant for the life of me figure out WHY someone refuses to use it, and some of the reasons given me when asked blows my mind even more; ( "It hurts my neck", "Its a pain in the a#@ to put on with gloves over the mask", "Its what FDNY does and its COOL???) I apologise in advance for ranting about this but in my 20 years in the service I have seen far too many shortcuts being made involving safety gear in substitution for COMFORT. I was so tired of constantly repeating myself to everyone, especially officers, that the strap is part of the Protective Envelope, ( Or atleast it should be taught that way, Instructors? ) I would simply say that if caught in a situation where there is either a full or partial collapse of a wall or ceiling, the first piece of debris will knock the helmet off, the second will turn you into a vegetable or even worse. But hey, you looked cool! How many of you notice the same thing in your dept.? Does anyone do the quick drills on a slow drill night, where you practice donning the face mask through the chin strap? Just curious to see how many others have the same problem. Thanks for letting me vent!! Moose

Wow...Im afraid I might stir up a hornets nest here but this is the place for our opinions so..... Yes, I believe it was dispatched as a garbage fire on the docks. But none of us were there, we didnt see the conditions upon arrival, we didnt get the privelage of doing a sizeup. So how can we TRULY tell what happened. For all we know the guys did pull them frantically when the collapse happened to try and reach their brothers....I would have grabbed the first thing available, and being that the handlines were probably already dployed at this point, and again we are only speculating, the boosters were probably the most conveniant thing to use in a time like that with all of the confusion and helpless feelings. Boosters in general, I feel still have a place in the fire service, for certain tactics which SHOULD be employed by the officers!!! And that is what it all boils down too, the first arriving officer, or in our dept the Line Officer. They should be knowledgeable enough to size-up the fire and issue orders to the initial attack crew. I dont understand why there are still "Freelancers" out there who would be un-educated enough to pull a booster, without being told, and enter a structure fire with it. I personally have seen room-and-contents fires adequately controlled with a "can" and even sometimes extinguished, untill the first line is stretched. In certain depts where manpower issues are still a concern the booster can easily be stretched by one man and the fire contained untill a 1 1/2" or larger can be stretched. That was how it worked in my old dept anyway, down in Northport LI. But they had High Pressure booster lines, which generated good steam and absorbed a lot of BTU's. They have since done away with them I believe. But the booster line is still good for car fires, trash/nuisance fires, brush fires, dumpster fires, etc. Would I take it in to a structure? No. I believe its about training, and how experienced and knowledgeable your officers are. Excuse the pun, but its not the size of the hose....its how you use it. JUST JOKING!!!!! Calm down everyone. Thats just my open rant on the matter. Stay safe Moose

well....there goes acquired housing for training purposes. People everywhere are going to now not donate their property for training for fear of causing the same problem. Oh well, thank god for lifelike training towers and similators. Still, how the HELL did they screw up that address? Wonder who goofed on this one. Moose

Cobleskill still has a firehouse pet.....me, " The Moose"....they dont like feeding me though, dont know why. OOOH its lunch time gotta go!!!! "Do not feed the Moose"

Good job guys! Excellent save.

Thats a question of mine too. I saw this "Police Videos" show last weekend, and I saw them actually telling the occupants to exit the vehicle with their PA system, and put their hands on the roof and spread their legs, than they approached them. Shouldnt every police force use this technique? Or is it not allowed in some places? The village PD always calls out their location here in cobleskill, I hear it all the time and think its a good idea, youll hear; "945 schoharie, traffic stop East Main and washington, plate # %^$%$#$, Ill be out of the car." And the dispatch will call a status check if they dont camoe back on air within like 5 minutes. I also roll my window down and put the dome light on and place my hands on the wheel. This actually scared a trooper one night, I was coming back from an EMS call at 2am and he stopped me, so I did all of what I mentioned, and he actually creeped up beside my truck with his hand on his gun. When he got there he asked why and I explained and he just chuckled and said " Damn, not used to that!!" He thought it was so I can see him easier to shoot him!!! He pulled me over to tell me I had a headlight out!! Stay safe out their all my PD Brothers/sisters. Moose

RIP Brother, my best to his family, both at home and in the station. Depressing Summer.

Hey all. Radio Strap bad.....It gets caught and snagged on everything and constantly gets in the way. Harness Good.....it goes under your coat and keeps the radio close to you, so it A) protects the radio and keeps it from snagging. We cant afford to have radios for every member so if I am not privilaged to have one on the scene I find the nearest window and let her rip!! Stay safe all. Moose

I KNOW, I KNOW, Its already been discussed. I read the post from back in 2004 because I was curious to see how each dept handled their response to these incidents. I noticed while reading the post that there are a lot of members not active in the forums any more, and wanted to hear from the newer members about the subject. Ive noticed around here that the Auto Alarm gets mixed responses from different people. I myself always treat them like a structure fire untill someone gets on scene and confirms it. Usually you see the "rolling eyes" whenever we are dispatched to one, and the overall attitude is a poor one. Usually you see people not even respond at all to the firehouse, thinking "Oh man, were just going to be cancelled anyway, so why go." Its a scary thing to see, and I'm cringing at the fact that one day it will be the "Boy who cried wolf". I can see it now; the chief, interupted at dinner, responds code 2 to an auto alarm at an apartment house mumbling the whole way to himself, "Got to go to these stupid alarms, interupt my meal, and it ends up some stupid mistake, ' I thought it was a light switch', got to wait for the responsible...." and as he goes he tells dispatch to "Hold all equipment." As he pulls up, still thinking its a false alarm, he is suddenly confronted with smoke showing from the first floor windows, and people hanging out the second floor windows threatening to jump, and his station only has 2 guys because everyone stayed home and shut their pagers off. Sound like something that can happen to you? I just wanted to spark some more conversation about this topic, and hopefully drive home the point that we should still consider these calls as "hot" untill further investigation reveals the facts. How does everyone feel about this topic? Officers out there, do you instruct your FF's to "stand by" or respond? Just Curious, hope everyone is staying cool in this heat!! Moose.

I have a small blue light on my dash....hardly ever use it. More accidents happen when careless wahoos disobey every traffic law there is just to "Get on the truck". My personal thing is, Im here to help people, when the tones go off I head to the firehouse, If I make the truck great, if not there are people on the truck who will help them. Usually we have 6-8 guys hanging out at the firehouse most of the day. (They dont have wives!!!!!!!!!) Moose

OK, some discussion evolves...GOOD. Replies to some of your opinions; Firebuff08, although I respect the hell out of your experience and wisdom, and your opinion was read, examined, and understood to the best of my limited brain capacity, you totaly misunderstood my original question....the overall Attitude of FF's when the AFA comes over the air. Not whether or not a full or partial assignment should respond. Sorry if I didnt clarify that. And one thing you all are misconstruing here is the whole paid Vs. Volly thing again...[b]NOT my intentions. Some of you discuss the full structure assignment? Not all of us have engine co.'s and ladder co.'s or rescue co.'s for that matter. Some of us just respond in the first piece of equipment we can adequately staff, usually our engine. The whole point of the thread was to see about the overall attitude towards receiving the Automatic Fire Alarm over the pagers. Sadly enough, in our county the first chief officer on the air will usually respond to the scene to check it out and they ALWAYS hold the equipment at station. I think we should always respond at least one engine untill the determination is made. I like maisela's idea, respond the first truck hot, and all additional units respond "Incident Under Control", that way if you pull up on scene with the fire blowin out a couple of windows and all hell is breaking loose you get the engine on scene with the first attack line, and the additional units are not far behind. But overall, my question was misunderstood. What is you depts Attitude towards receiving the Automatic Fire Alarm. Goes with the whole Complacency topic we started. Thanks for the replies, talk about this with your home dept, youll be surprised about what they say. Stay safe Moose

Good. Im glad to see everyone feels the same way I do about this. Im curious about the ones who arent answering the post though? We had an alarm one night at a real estate building that ended up being a working structure with someone in the second floor. The owner of the business was up there doing some work, it was 3 am, he fell asleep, and the wood stove downstairs caught some papers and wood on fire getting the whole place ripping. Our chief was first on scene and helped him get out right before the whole place got going. We were there for 10 hours. Stay Safe Everyone. Moose

The GE Plant in Schenectady has a brigade, and I believe they dont respond out of the plant into the city. I dont think they are even part of the mutual aid plan, just an industrial fire brigade to protect the plant and employees.

I have already put in the request with my dept, they are checking the available funds and if sending me for training pertaining to a county team would benefit the dept. They have to justify sending any of us to the academy and whether or not it benefits us. Sucks, I know. Being that we dont have any other Techs in the dept, I dont see it happening. Im trying though. Moose

I was going to add that comment... I bet being right down the road from the trauma center they STILL called the bird!! In our district we would roll an ambulance and the rescue for traffic controll. The engine would only be special called by a chief for fire controll or wet down.

Hey everyone. I had a quick question that I was going to throw into the "Whats on your helmet" thread but it was closed so, sorry for the repetition. I saw the add for "Buddy Lights" on the home page for this site and was curious to see if anyone out there has one of these, or had one, that could tell me if they are good or bad. I usually use the garrity's myself but find them difficult to operate with gloves. The helmet mounted flashlights usually just cause a bulky snag-hazard, and my hands are usually full of tools instead of a light-box or some other hand-held light so I was curious about these little gadgets and how well they worked. Any info would be greatly appreciated as I am looking into buying one. Thanks all in advance. Moose.

Works very well in smoke. The LED lights cut through it well, not as well as some other products but for the hands-free application I desired, it works well. Easily turns on and off, with or without gloves. Works well at night MVA's also, you have light where you need it as you use the tool to extricate. Sorry...havnt gotten down to the firehouse to take those pictures yet, will try to do it today! Moose

Welcome Joe. I think we are starting a herd of Moose here! Enjoy the forum. Moose

I kind of think its funny were are even still having this discussion...SAFETY should be the top priority. Look people, we have started to settle in to some very bad habits and it is killing our brothers and sisters, just in case you havnt noticed. Complacency was just talked about in other threads and a lot of you were agreeing with the fact that we are ALL suffering from it in one way or the other. The lazy mind sets of " Dont need it", "Well this is how its always done", or "were not in danger, we dont need EVERYTHING." needs to stop. Does everyone remember the guy who was severely burnt in a live burn training evolution? The guy who only had on an SCBA going into the building to adjust the burning barrell they were using and it ended up flashing on him as he was exiting? He got burned when the plastic tarp they used as a door melted to his skin? I dont remeber where exactly it was but it was a while ago. The picture posted by NJMedic says it all...Sh#@ happens, we MUST be prepared for everything, people count on us to do so, and when we arent people see it in the news and we are judged and ridiculed. I for one am tired of being ridiculed for other firefighters laziness. I went to a dumpster fire last week and when I got off the engine I was the only one in full PPE, including mask. Our Lt was in jeans and a T-shirt looking me over asking, "Your wearing a pack, why?." I simply asked him if he knew the exact contents of the dumpster and if he could verify that a Haz-mat was not present. He looked at me for a second, and wandered back to the truck. If you think its "OK" to not wear your full PPE for ANY reason, maybe you should seriously re-think being in a fire dept. I am tired of attending your funerals. PLEASE stay safe. Moose

Congrats!!! Hope you guys have all of the best.!! Best wishes to you for a long and happy life.