Remember585

As far as "standardizing" accountability in Westchester, I was under the impression that every department - at the very least - adapted the green tag for interior personnel and red tag for exterior personnel rule. Other than that, I don't know if a specific system or way of using the tags was ever adapted. Barry, while I see the merits of consolidation, and I am sure at some point it may happen, I don't think departments should be waiting for it to happen. Also, in earlier posts, mention was made that it shouldn't be asked if everyone is out of the building. Aren't we all supposed to be accountable for not only ourselves but our crews? I see what you guys are driving at, but I would rather see more people asking then nobody. The better FAS Teams in the county have been helping the accountability issue for a while now. I know that we always designate either a guy or a team to "keep tabs" on how many brothers are operating inside a fire building. Yeah, some places we've gone don't get what we are doing and think we should be nothing more than lawn shepherds, but we find that knowing how many people and where they are is beneficial to us. As a department, we recently had an officer's meeting and discussed the topic of safety & accountability. We all agreed to make a push to have a better grasp of who is where at our incidents. Some of the approaches we're taking include mandating personnel to report to their station to ride apparatus vs. going directly to the scene, having apparatus call responding with their manpower code (how many are on board), and designating a safety and/or accountability officer at every fire or incident where applicable. We'll soon see how it works out. Lastly, while discussing the two tag systems - we have the "luggage tag" type accountability tag system. Part of the reason we have been behind on issuing the tags is because the cards that slide into the tag/case are a pain in the neck. Does anyone know of a thinner card or a trick to make putting them together easier? Any help is appreciated - thanks.

Brontosaurus 1 was always fun. When we were clearing Phelps once with 55B2 when "The Sopranos" was still on, I said "Fifty-Five Bada-Bing Two is in service." Got back to quarters and our Chief was waiting for me. Expecting him to be real pissed, he said, "Hey *******, it's 55B2 not 55BB2." Well played Chief, well played.

No idea what you're referring to... best one ever was the foot injury in the HVHC parking lot at like 3am... You: "39M1 to 60 Control." Me: "60 Control is on." You: "John, are you serious?" Me: "Yup, she is standing in the ER entrance awaiting your arrival."

Any reported structural fire in our hydrant areas gets our Full Department Response, which should be 3 Engines, 1 Truck, 1 Rescue. Any reported structural fire in our tanker areas gets the above plus our Tanker and 2 Mutual Aid Tankers on automatic dispatch. Confirmed structural fires in our hydrant areas gets a FAST, Cascade & two Ambulances. Confirmed structural fires in our tanker areas gets the above plus 2 more Tankers and a source Engine. Our Schools & the Sky View Nursing Home get an additional 1 & 1 on a "10-75." For all of the above, an Engine and Ladder relocate to cover our district. In Tanker areas, we now move a Tanker up to cover, since we are pulling most of them in our area to the scene.

Let Krispy Kreme fund it and call the chopper the "Flying Donut" or "Glazed from Above."

Sorry about that. PCP / Dust is crazy stuff. The few times I've had to do calls dealing with patients on these drugs have been nothing short of entertaining, yet scary. Remember everyone, as funny as they are one moment, they're even crazier the next. BE CAREFUL!

Hmmm.... that guy sounds familiar. Merry Christmas everyone!

Keeping the injured brother in mind this Christmas Day. Get well soon.

The 24/7 staffing hasn't gone into effect yet. CEMS had two Drivers, no EMT. If the 24/7 gig was operational, the call would of been covered. Satisfied?

When they call us, we show up. Oh, and we do the following; - School visits with the apparatus - Support Little League teams - Fire Prevention education at the elementary school - Fire Fair (our annual open house teaching fire prevention and safety - Assist with local events such as Harry Chapin Run for Hunger, Half Ironman, etc. - Firehouse tours for scouting and other groups - Most winters, we put down water to help the skating pond freeze for everyone's use - When our High School teams have won recent titles, we provide escorts back to the school & around town - In the past, we've provided CPR training to local groups - Annual Candy Cane Runs bringing Santa around town - Bring Santa to local holiday festivities I'm not sure if this counts as doing things for the community, but in addition to the information on our website, we periodically share fire prevention and safety information in local newpapers and online news feeds. There's a lot more that I know we have done and will do, but that's all I can think of at 1AM... Every fire department should be visible (in the good way) to their community. Our community's should be proud of their fire department and not have a feeling that we're a bunch of strangers. They call on us during their worst times, so if we show our faces in good times, it may soften the blow when they really need us.

Found an interesting article on "The Daily Croton's" website regarding Fire District elections tonight. Check it out HERE.

May God bless Officer Figoski, his family, and the NYPD.

Believe me, if someone doesn't want to drop their bunker pants, it may be due to the fact that there is nothing underneath!

Our 10-75 policy is for local EMS to bring one BLS ambulance, one Mutual Aid BLS rig and an ALS unit. The theory is to have one rig committed to the scene and one for transport. Since we don't do EMS anymore, we have left it up to EMS to make arrangements to have these resources, as well as a Rehab unit. If EMS hasn't asked for something, the FD IC will. Sadly, the last fire we had (a 2nd Alarm) we never saw the local EMS. As Grandpa said in "Grumpy Old Men," "You can wish in one hand, and crap in the other..."

Only if it's a three page spread!

He was trying to write this article for months. He was calling me and I was calling him and we couldn't sync up. I need to pick up a copy and check it out.

Kenny, If you're referring to Care One, I think you may have an exhaust leak into your rig. They're about as dependable as the Giants have been! I'd rather take my chances of planting "ambulance seeds" in my garden, watering them and waiting for an ambulance to grow!!!!

I, too, agree that the Croton EMS agency did in fact take a nose dive in it's call coverage. What everyone is afraid of speaking up about is why. It wasn't "a lack of time" by it's members. It was a lack of honest leadership, accountability by the leadership and far too much personal life drama being aired out like a pair of wet socks that made most of the founding and active members (and an Officer or two) resign. Croton EMS didn't exactly "grab the bull by the horns" to get things "fixed." The village, with the urging of residents and others (you know who you are on here) to do something before someone had to die. There were members of CEMS (some who are still there) that were making noise about how things were sinking and that it might be time to man up and get some help. It fell on the deaf ears of the "leadership" while they all continued playing their immature games that ultimately made a lot of members (this one included) resign. As a resident, I am glad something has been done. As a founding member of CEMS I am disheartened how things played out, but the writing was on the wall for a long time that the fecal matter was being projected at the proverbial fan, and at a high rate of speed. I hope the paid staffing helps (I have seen it help during the hours it's there now) but as I said earlier in this thread, if people just listened from day one that we needed to stop crossing our fingers when the pagers went off and went to a dedicated schedule system, then we could have had people stick it out, do their shifts, and only need paid help in the shifts we couldn't cover. But now that I am a "quitter," I am in no place to speak of their operations now. I know they've got some new people in leadership positions that seem to have a good idea of how things need to be, and I support them on their journey. And no, don't ask me for an application to join again.

Seth, Croton did a study earlier this year that showed that most EMS calls in Croton are BLS. Paying for a Full Time Paramedic isn't neccessary. What I can't understand is why so many members of Croton EMS became MORE ACTIVE now that there is a paid EMT there. If they're getting enough people at certain times or on certain days, then dump the cost of the paid EMT and use the volunteers. That's how other places do it, and that's what I suggested over two years ago when we discussed future plans. It is fine to have the paid personnel there when nobody is around to commit to the day or certain times, but if you have a day, say Sundays for example, where two or three people will commit to a duty crew, then save that money. Between how much they're paying someone when they have 3-4 volunteers on the rig showing up (wasted money) to the amount they are getting for recruitment/retention (probably wasted money), it's becoming slightly irritating to taxpayers like me. Make the members look at a calendar and make commitments. Use the paid personnel for the voids. You save that money and use it for recruitment. If you have a crew doing a shift or two together, they get good at it and learn from it. That's how most of us used to get our training (night crews, etc.).

Good news! I hate to ask, but how long will this last? Is the City of New Rochelle going to be faced with the potential for layoffs again next year? Glad the brothers aren't getting laid off. And L12 is remaining in service.

The old Croton EMS Ambulance 55B1 was given to Croton Police, replacing the very old and tired old CPD "Truck 1." The photos were taken outside of McCaffrey Signs in Peekskill by "Onlocation." This unit is used for their Dive Team, Tactical Team, Accident Investigation Unit and (I think) a mobile command unit.

Our newer Driver/Operators have been getting the following: EVOC (For all operators) Pump Operator (For Engine / Quint) Aerial Operator (For Quint) Initial Driver Training requires the following pump evolutions: Pumping off tank water Pumping from a hydrant (including transitioning from tank to hydrant water without a loss) Drafting Pumping two lines of same size Pumping two lines of varying sizes and/or master stream device Some of the training we have been putting our drivers/operators thru includes: Relaying Standpipe Ops Foam Ops (with Eductor) Something everyone should consider is training their drivers/operators how to draft even if you have hydrants in your district. It's a skill you may never use at an incident, but you all know Mr. Murphy is always lurking in the shadows...

Here's a short video of a portion of the Vermont State Police agility exam:

Croton EMS has a paid EMT from Ossining EMS currently from 0700-1900, every day. Starting on 1/1/12 (I think) it will be 24/7.

Nothing like waking up today, getting a phone call about this and not knowing anything about it. I'd love to know how our village is planning on fixing the "communications problems," since they've never mentioned anything to us. Unreal. That aside... I know that we (the FD) lost a boat, some radios, lights and other equipment during this rescue effort, so I am glad that the village might be able to recoup money for them from FEMA. I'm going back into my cave now and biting my tounge about this whole thing now.... :angry: