firemoose827

Im not sure how well that would work but I will try it this evening...be back shortly.

Its a tragic story, and exactly why every possible pre-plan for your district should be reviewed routinely and practiced with all mutual aid companies involved atleast annually. This just proves that nothing is routine, and truly anything can happen. I feel for the victims family and the Mamaroneck FD, keep your chins up everyone, you cant control nature. Moose

I just wanted to brush on a subject that bothers me a lot, it was brought up in another post about training and I wanted to start a thread dedicated to this subject to see how much input we can get. You are starting to see it everywhere, including drills now...Complacency. Why does it happen with us? Why do officers let it get this bad, to the point where we bury yet another one of our bretheren? For what? To stay cooler at a drill? To not have to clean all of your gear after the call? It amazes me today, to see so much haphazard accidents and stupid mistakes even AFTER reading about all of the death and injuries on the job. Ironically enough it happens to all of us too; how many times do any of you read about, or watch a video about a stupid accident somewhere, on this site, and start picking them apart and throwing your jabs, but than you go on your own call and dont follow all safety procedures? Come on, dont be shy. It happens TOO much, and I am tired of seeing our brothers and sisters get burried because they took a shortcut, or didnt want to wear everything for this "routine call". Here is a routine call I found online somewhere; Is he in a hurry to get back to dinner? It takes 1 minute to don your gear, ALL of your gear, ( well, for most of us it may take a little longer ) What could happen with this "routine call"? We need to send a better message to everyone about safety and not becoming complacent. I am constantly made fun of because I wear all of my gear responding to, during, and returning from all calls, and it doesnt bother me one bit. If, knock on wood, we ever get into an accident returning to quarters, I will have my gear on and seatbelt, what will happen to my brothers? Please, everyone, stay SAFE, and pass it on to everyone. If you see someone without a helmet on smack 'em in the head. If you see someone without a hood, yank on their ears. Do what you can to promote safety, not complacency, on the fireground and hopefully the LODD toll will drop. What do you say?

Well, I got the light and its on my helmet. Its pretty bright!! Here is a photo of it, not too bulky and it works well. Easy to install also for all of you worried about that. The light is off in the picture, it was too bright for the camera to get a visible picture!!

Well, I grew up in Northport, Long Island, where I was a member of the Juniors for four years. I wanted to join them, being thats where my father volunteered for 35+ years and was a Captain when we moved. We moved up-state NY to Richmondville where I joined and volunteered for 11 years. I made it to Lt., but there were so many problems with lack of training and respect. I met my wife who was a FF/EMT with Cobleskill and I heard of the rigorous requirements for training, and officer, so I transferred here where I have been serving for 4 years now. We serve a POP of 5,000+ out of one station with 3 engines, 1 reserve eng, 1 tanker, 95' Tower Ladder, heavy rescue, 1 brush truck, 1 6-wheeler, 1 Gator for EMS, and 2 ambulances. We do about 400 fire and 700 ems calls annually. We dont have dedicated companies such as eng, ladder, rescue. Just one big happy disfunctional family!! Stay Safe Moose

Exactly what I was looking for brother...I was getting tired of all the posts from people saying insignificant things like "My words exactly" but than they dont add something else or elaborate a bit more. They basically lay in wait for someone to say it for them, see how people react to it, than finally chime in allowing those of us who do post to take the brunt of the criticism. I agree, posts should contain substance, info, knowledge, advice...ANYTHING we can learn from. Thank You.

Ive heard them called "Thumpers", and there are a few squads in our county who have them. They say it helps them out a lot especially with a crew of 2-3 and a transport time to the ER of at least 15 minutes. Counting your on-scene time and trasport time you could feasibly be doing compressions on someone for up to 45 minutes around here. These thumpers do adequate compressions consistantly, without fatigue setting in, and you can use your crew for other important things. I have never experienced them first hand but what I have heard is decent. Hope this helps some. Moose

Hey all, I am willing to give the points system a chance, who knows it might turn out to be a decent thing. Question for seth or any moderator; what constitutes a "Quality" post? I have seen anything from people taking their experiences and knowledge and posting it for everyone to learn from to the guys who simply look for articles elsewhere and paste them here. I have also seen people express their opinions about topics and get jumped on from other "frequent" posters from the site, even though their opinions are not far from the truth. I was just wondering what the administrators felt were quality posts so that we had some guidelines to go by. I feel a quality post would be anything that sparks questions, raises "mature" debates, and leaves even just one person feeling like they have learned something new. Maybe a post that shows a new product or piece of apparattus with new features such as the post about the "super bumper pumper" or whatever it was called, that was an interesting topic I feel a lot of people learned from. Just a curious question, thanks for all the work you all do on the site, I appreciate it more than you know. Hope you all had a great 4th!!

Kirks Fire Investigation, 5th edition. John D. Dehaan Published by Brady Books www.bradybooks.com Excellent book, in depth discussions and excellent tables/diagrams.

Hey XFirefighter, nice light. Does the light housing itself take the heat? Have you ever experienced melt or malfunction due to heat? Decent light for 15 bucks, Ill have to go to Wallyworld tonight and check on them. Thanks.

I agree with this. A county-wide system would eliminate the duplication of resources and deploy the ones we have better. Too many depts are trying to build egos when it comes to purchasing new equipment instead of filling a need in their district. The bigger the better..."put big expensive equipment we will probably never use on the new truck? HELL yes, than we look better to the other depts." "Well, XYZ dept got a new Quint, why cant we? But even bigger and better!" We need to join together and WORK together to provide a better service to the people we protect, after all, isnt that why we are here? Good post.

DOH!!! I just put in the order for one yesterday afternoon and didnt know about how it will support the site. I would have told them if I knew, sorry brother. Maybe I can call them up and say that I found out about it here and that it is a good product, they love that stuff! Thanks for the input everyone. I will let everyone know how well they work when I get mine and test it out. Bibbles, I took your advise and brought the specs for the survivor I found online to our Lt in charge of purchasing and he is looking into buying them for our interior FF's. Thanks brother. Have a great day.

Hey bibbles, just talked to a rep from "Buddy Light" and they say that the white light is a flashlight. The colored ones are more for marking and accountability. But they are made as "Marker/Flashlights". Thanks for the input! Survivors have their own charger bases, right? And they clip to the bunkers? Are they still pricey? Do they stand up to the heat and abuse? I appreciate the info. Moose.

Wednesday, July 4, 6 PM, Main street Cobleskill. Ends at Sunshine Fairgrounds where there will be food, activities, vendors, and fireworks at dark. Fun time for families. Come and meet moose!!

I like the idea. I hope it generates more good discussions and learning ops. Great idea!

Hey. We have a county-wide team with members from different depts. We train together monthly. When we receive a call there are FAST "Bags" at different stations in the county, when you respond you pick up your gear, air pack, and FAST Bag from your station and notify dispatch you are enroute. We need at least 4 members to operate, first one on scene is FAST leader. When the team is assembled we do our 360 walk clearing any hazards/obstructions, putting up ladders for egress, and reporting any major concerns to the IC. The FAST bags have irons, rescue rope bags, biners, tubular webbing, etc. We acquire saws, ladders, and other items from the trucks on scene. The team is brand new and still forming, and we are working on ironing things out and trying different things. It is difficult to adequately staff a FAST around here, or get one on scene within a decent time, and its even more difficult to get the chiefs in our county to call us. Everyone thinks we are not needed. Our team has made one rescue since its inception 2 years ago; a firefighter fell from an attick ladder on a porch roof while trying to open the soffit at a structure fire and injured her knee. The team got her off the roof with a stokes and some ropes. But manpower is a severe issue in our county, and travel time to some of the scenes, depending on where you are responding from, is extremely long. But so far it is the only thing that works for our county. Originaly we were going to have each dept have their own team, with at least 6-8 members, who would respond on their engine or rescue to the scene as FAST, but manpower is a problem and it would deplete 8 members who would normally be fighting the fire. Than theres the problem that some depts in our county only have 3-4 interior firefighters. Sorry for rambling on, just trying to help you out. Stay safe.

Oh, I was assuming that with the LED lights that it was a "flashlight". Ok, I guess I will call the company and find out for sure. I know that they also have different colors and use them for an accountability system of some kind; like blue for firefighters, red for officers, etc. Thanks for the heads-up brother. I will let you know what I find out from the company.

They transport the PT in the crew cab? How do they keep the cab somewhat clean while gearing up for fires? Its a good idea, but I have some questions about it. Firefighters donning their sooty, dirty gear going to and coming from fires and MVA's, it probably hard to keep clean for PTs, and I would imagine the smell of soot and other firefighting smells would be overbearing to the PT. Has anyone worked in one of these that could shed some light on my questions? Its a good idea, a great quick and easy solution to transporting someone rapidly to the nearest appropriate facility without having to wait for a bus to get there, but how much water and storage space do you loose, if any? Do you load/unload the stretcher the same as an ambulance or is it more difficult? Sorry for all the questions, just curious to learn about these. Thanks! Moose

Great video...a fitting tribute.

Interesting...definately a new concept. I am not sure if I like it or not, I need to see more pictures, preferably of the rear pump panel and of some of the new features that were mentioned. Pros: Easily accessible preconnects for rapid deployment with limited staffing. More water for the rural setting without hydrants. Rear-mounted pump allows MPO to see around truck and see action. Function Vs. Form is what I think they were going for here, having everything within reach of the FF's so they exit the rig ready to roll. Cons: Pneumatic tilt bumper? Lots can go wrong with that, and are the technicians coming to the house to fix the problems or will the truck need to go to the plant and be taken out of service? More additional PM issues to deal with, by adding the pneumatic cylinders. Maybe just a fixed bumper would be better. Something like this needs to be tested "Hands-On" for me to be able to make a difinitive decision, pictures only go so far. Good pictures though!!

Just wanted to share a picture of our first piece of motorised equipment ever purchased by cobleskill. It is a 1923 Lafrance, its kept up by a 50 year member of ours who was past chief. It goes to every parade. Enjoy.

I have plans, to avoid two things; sun burns and brush fires!!! Have a great summer too!!

You guys are not showing your age, just your passion for the fire service. Engines are getting bigger arent they? Most of the time you dont even use half of the stuff on it either! Take it easy. Moose

Could you have your people call my people?!!!! We need something like that at our dispatch, we get notified by the ER when we call in the report 5 minutes out. Kind of late to find out you need to do a 180 and head back the other way!!

Couldnt have said it better. I work in a codes office and talk with the codes officer often about construction and the fire service. He asks me about it all the time and its frustrating. I try as diplomatically as I can to explain it to him that lightweight-anything is DANGEROUS to the fire service. This discussion is NEEDED in order to honor the sacrifice made by our brothers and prevent it from happening again. Remember them, honor them, remember what happened and apply it on the job. God bless the fallen and the entire City of Charleston NC fire dept.