John Meeker Jr

What ever happened to helping your neighbor! Thats what Fire Department personell do. Now you tell me that I have to take FF1, FF2, Fire Attack, pump ops, AVET, EMT, Hose ops, Ladder Opps, Hazmat, and incident safety officer and more to be qualified to join and help my neighbors? Trainings great and I have taken most of it but chose not to become nationally ceritified. But I really joined to help my neighbors and know whats going on around me by being at the critical incidents. Yes there should be standards that departments should strive for but I do not think you can only have the label of firefighter. You will need to have fireground persons, interior firefighters, extrication EMS types, drivers and officers and office staff. So no I do not support a single standard that fire departments should adopt.

County trunk for hospitals is great. Key the mic, wait for tone and identify yourself to the hospital. does not get much easier.

there are many volunteer fire departments that own their own equipment and bill their services annually to the town. These departments will keep their equipment and buildings and will either have to bid for the work or sell of their posessions, but there will be a cost to replace both the equipment and buildings if they are to be replaced. Example: Somers Fire District owns and operates all the grounds and buildings for the people of Somers. Should the town disband the district the town retains the buildings and equipment. This could then be used to estalish paid fire houses owned by the town. Carmel Fire Department on the other hand personally owns its building and most of the equipment and contracts with the Carmel Fire District to provide a service. If the town could do away with the Fire District, the Carmel Fire Department still owns the property and the equipment but now must solicit the town for funding if it wants to keep doing the job.

We have three of these stretchers and have learned to use the stair chair more often or a reeves to get people out of houses and not take the stretcher in. I feel a lot better knowing that I do not have to carry a stretcher over stairs that we have other acceptable methods to bring the patient to the stretcher. I like the electric stretcher and the only down fall I have seen is it will not work with the stat track system. We have issues loading the stretcher if the bus is not level.

Things have not changed much in 30 years. Kids still drink at 15 if they want to. drugs were out there then to and people did get hurt back then from stupidity mixed with drinking and drugs. don't fool your self into the safety trap that it was safe back when. I think if you remove the age for drinking it will be less of a big deal and less affect to the new driver or the new college student just off on their own. The choice to do the hard drugs is a personal choice and it has to do with how a person was raised and their risk taking level and that has not changed. How they are raised probably has changed. Just my opinion

Our dispatch does not specify what responds. The call goes out and it is open to all our department vehicles. IC has the power to request additional equipment (more tones) or release incoming if not needed. It is possible to get 4 engines, a rescue, a mini attack, two utiliies and an ambulance. This is not very likely unless it is 1900 hours (drill time) on a Wednesday. We don't tone out a full department response but it is a general response and if you are available you roll.

I appreciate the reply. it tells me alot more about what and why.

I never said I learned everything. I learned in a department that had all TFTs so that is what I learned on. My training has also shown me that if water is flowing away from the scene on the ground then it is not being fully utilized (wasted). A properly broken stream wastes less water but also delivers less when you really need it. antiquefirelt you would obviously never pick up a fog nozzle intenionally and that is up to you, I prefer to keep an open mind. I expect to have to manage my water, not just apply it like it will never end so I would want to use the best tool for the situation.

I thinkn you need to qualify the statement about not using fog on the interior. There are lots of situations where a fog is preferable and a straight stream does not work. Try to hold a fire at a doorway with a strait stream or see how much water you waste on a car fire with a strait stream. Try to ventilate or cool with a strait stream. Learn how and when to use both or you will be a danger to all when you go to protect your brothers and don't have a clue what to do with the TFT or Akron. If you use it then they become second nature, using once does not cut it. I learned on TFTs and thats all I ever used for 8 years. My current department loves strait bore but understands the idea of fog patterns and has now gone to the akron to try and get all the operating pressures to with in twenty psi. This is for the pump operator as well as the nozzle operator. Train with it and you will understand the benifits.

Many great replies. I am not sure about the Emergency Medical Service Standard. This is a standard that the Emergency Meidical profession came up with. It might be the right standard for all people but it is not publicly known for what it is. Again education is important and this need to happen before any refferendum. In a rural community you take what you can get and you are very happy when your neighbor shows up. that does not mean that Somers is a rural community and thats all we need. But it used to be rural and a lot of city folk have transplanted out to our county area. This is where education and ideas need to be shared to help people see what thier volunteer service gets them and what they need to do if they want to get the big city service. Then vote to spend the money. To give the people what they want and need I will gladly swallow my pride to provide the needed services, but I need to know they want it not just that they deserve it because some one else says so. Its my taxes too. There seems to be other issues blocking this matter in our little town and it has to do with our commissioners and paying people to do volunteer jobs. There seems to be conflicting laws (I don't know the ins and outs) that say we must provide but we can't do it this way. (very vage) So our option would be to drop BLS service and tell the town to pick it up but then the laws say we can't do that either because we have been providing for x years and are obilgated to provide it now. I'm confused at this point and feel that the public is the only entity that can demand and get a higher level of service mandated and forced past the town and the fire district. It sounds as if the service has to get worse before it will be allowed to change. Or do you know a source of about 50 ems personnel willing to join the volunteer department? Sorry for the ramblings, it is a point of concern but it is not cut and dry on how to solve.

A volunteer service is just that. It is neighbors helping neighbors and you can't always be available when your neighbor calls you. I feel that the public needs to know the difference between a paid ambulance service and a volunteer. To get a town funded paid ambulance service will cost everybody hundreds of dollars more each year on property taxes. and Ambulance companies that charge per ride cannot afford to locate enough resources to cover the relative low call volume of upper westchester county. So wheres the answer? Education is needed to control call volume to only emergency responses and find alterative transportation for the non emergency trip. Get some one to drive you if it is not life threatening? I don't know the answer but as a Volunteer I give over 20 hours a week to my community and yes it will take 10 minutes for me to get to the ambulance and then another 5 to get to the scene if I don't have to wait for the second crew member. This is the norm for a person responding to the first set of tones. This is for informational purposes only do not tell me how unacceptable or unprofessional this is. For transportation purposes in my town this is the starting point and the public has to be shown that this is normal for a non manned setup and that if they need more services then they, the public, needs to pony up and find the services that meets thier needs. This may well be a different organization, but I personnally not willing to step up as the public and ask for more taxes.

The article sounds good and I hope they find everything OK. I think that it is good training to have exposure to the heat and intensity in a controled environment, as close to reality as possible with out the stress of response to an unknown fire. It has to be done safely with good backup and plenty of water. There are guidelines for the safeties needed and we should probably post a link to those guides. anyone have a link.

Your ambulance is not a disposable peice of equipment at this scene and should be pulled past the scene into to a safe spot just past the reckage. Have police or the next arriving unit act as buffer to protect the accident scene. You will need to work the scene accordingly and not allow rescuers into on coming traffic until protection is in place. I would rather have a car crash into the accident scene rather then take out the only responding unit and possible its manpower.

I was taught that every transport to every hopsital gets a note about 5 min out. What the ED does with that information is up to them. I was told that it is my choice as to radio or cell and prefer cell. I don't do radio often enough to be familar with the toning out to open the line and am more comfortable with the cell.

raised in Somers, Joined Carmel FD in 1993 then moved to Somers NY in 2001 Captain at the moment

As a vehicle operator I would prefer that no one moves as I come through. That leaves it to me to go around and find a clear path through the intersection. If everyone stay still and does not move then no one crashs. This would put the most control in my hands and this is never the case. In our town the on coming lane is almost always an option at all intersections. If you can establish your pesents and slowly move through the intersection there should be no reason to have a person pushed throught the intersection.

I have been in a structure fire where the fire was put out but the fire in the wood stove in the middle of the house was still going. It was so cold outside that if you stood still for 5 minutes your bunkers would stiffen up so you could hardly walk. As far as the engines, regularly drain the piping but leave the pump full. if it is below 32 and you are stopped for any length of time put it in pump and circulate. speedy dry and sand are always useful. At any scene that water flows we will call the highway department to come out and sand. We will have an ambulance standing by on scene heated and ready for rehab.

You dont want to walk in on a patient who could take your tool (Knife, taser, or whatever else) and apply it to you. An edp can be calm one moment and then while you are attending to them they could use it against you. This is why the police when traveling in our ambulances our required to go unarmed. this may mean that the patient must be restrianed. your safety is key but we don't escalate the situation. I belive in being phsically trained to protect yourself, no weapons needed.

Sound like the scene up here yesterday. What people listening to the radio would not be aware of is that those live lines found a good ground and blew the circuit. the wires were not in the roadway and the house in question was free and clear of damage. Is there liability? Yes. We all know how well the public responds to taping off a scene, putting the cones up was just to mark a possible tree hazard left as the power was no longer a real danger. we all know that fire scenes change, our did.

Yes I got hooked on it to and it was neat that they did a recap on sunday nite and showed thefirst three episodes in a row. It will be interesting to see how they bring them all together.

Congratulation, Glad to hear that all went well and that mom and Michael are at home. If you need anything that I can help with please give me a call. I lookforward to meeting Michael soon. The world is full of smiles The Meekers

I know of a fire department up in columbia county that was taken over by a neighboring department do to lack of ability to cover their own call. I still feel the county is the wrong level to oversee what has been a town level service. If the local agency is failing to do what is felt to be needed then the town would be obligated to step up and find solutions. If most of the towns in Putnam County have yelled for help then I could see the county proposing a solution. No where have I see any word of Carmel looking to replace any of the three ambulance services in there town. They obviously do not see the problem. That where I am having a problem with the county stepping in.

It is the dispatchers job to figure out what the emergency is. And then direct the correct response to the scene, police, fire or ambulance. They can also assist the caller in determining what is actually going on. and then if an emergency actually exists. Of coarse if they are just screaming then the dispatch will have to fall back on protocal. I know it is never cut and dry but I don't like hering that government wants to through money at the problem with out asking those who will pay and those who are trying to play. It is like having a county fire coordinator seeing a chief doing something incorrect on a scene and telling the chief that the county coordinator will take over the scene. Well that is not how it is done and that would be unacceptable in the fire service. The county should be there to help, not take over a service. Some one also has to ask for the help. Who is doing the asking here? Maybe I don't know the whole picture but I don't like the take over attitude that I am seeing.

Why is it the county's job to make sure there is an ambulance? When is 911 going to be able to determine an emergency from a taxi ride. When are people going to use an ambulance as a last resort. Only after you tried your friends and family first, unless there is a true emegency. The current ems system is an outreach of carring neighbors to help those in need. It was not ment to be funded at the county level. If a VAC can make calls it should be their call, its their neighbors in need. If there is to be a county wide ems then there should be an county wide vote with an impact statement to the average person and a note about the added cost to the user. The biggest problem is we the service providers are being told that if someone dials 911 then we become totally responsible regardless of emergency status. 911 should be able to ask is this an emergency or can it be handle by the people on scene and let the individual state that it is truly an emergency not just a paniced call for help that is not needed. How often do you call an ambulance?

I was there all day Sunday, 7am to 11pm. The day started slow but the pace really picked up. When I got there the house was completely sheathed and partially sided, electrical run throught out the house and plumbed through out the house. The sheet rockers showed up at 9 but there was no insulation yet and the roofers had not shown. by 11pm the house was 98% sided, 98% shingled, 100% sheetrocked, two coats of spackle, interior trim going on and septic being laid. A lot of good volunteer turnout. Mahopac FD had about 15 guys and gals, there were six or seven Somers members, and a couple from Armonk. The weather is really looking crappy for the rest of the project. Let pray they get some breaks and are able to get the landscaping done. Go on up and volunteer. bring your helmet as your hardhat.