Remember585

I've always been more accepting of the recommendations of the IAFC vs. FASNY or even the NVFC. I appreciate the gratitude. I know that I have a few guys in our department that are qualified to deliver OFPC training, but aren't allowed to anymore. I would love to be able to instruct some of this stuff, since we've been doing our best to be as flexible as possible to deliver the most we can FOR NO COST to our guys. Thankfully those that want something bad enough still make trips to Valhalla, Katonah and Mamaroneck. Losing our FD as a sattelite facility was a blow to all of us, but I understand where the county was coming from. Besides physically going to certain firehouses around us and dragging people to classes, WCDES has made a strong effort to offer as much as possible. Now that budgets are getting trimmed every year, I can't keep paying outside help for stuff I know we could do ourselves, and it sucks.

From what I always was told, the annual eight hours consisted of one hour of each of the following: General Hazard Recognition Station Safety Response Safety Scene Safety PPE SCBA Tools & Equipment New Developments And in your first year, you have to complete 15 hours in the above categories (minus the new developments) with more time dedicated to PPE, SCBA, Tools & Equipment and I think GHR. AND, lastly, I am also under the impression that Firefighter I covers all of this. Anyone that knows better, please feel free to correct me.

And this is why I get my panties in a bunch all the time. Guys come on here, pounding on their chests, that they're better trained because they are career firefighters - but we all know that some places aren't meeting their minimal requirements. (I am NOT speaking specifically about any one department, so please don't slash my tires guys! ) We ALL have room for improvement, we just need to put the paid vs. volunteer BS aside and make those "looking out for us" (see: FASNY, etc.) come together and develop a realistic training requirement for both sides and give departments the abilities to meet these requirements (IE: MTOs for paid AND volunteer). Our Department, as far as I can tell and based on what I hear, is pushing more training than most others around us. It would be so much nicer if all the time many of us took to become FSI I or II could give our guys OFPC programs that we lack in Westchester. We have close to a dozen members that are FSI I or II basically being under-utilized. We all know improvements need to be made, but we're all hitting that glass ceiling created by the state, due to narrow-minded and tradition-bound organizations that have made it impossible for all of us to be better. The desire (by most) is there, it's just a shame a lot of us speak up and find our concerns falling on deaf ears.

The Ben 2 is a nice helmet. We use Cairns and over the past few years, the 1044 has been our choice. Fits nicely on the ol' noggin. But if you got the moola, go leather.

I saw this at the Fire Training Center not too long ago - very nice rig and set up extremely well.

Maybe soon they can all "Occupy Rehab..."

Seth, The CE's proposal can be found at www.westchestergov.com - I tried linking it but my laptop is being stubborn. If you go down the list of positions in DES, read across each position and compare the columns of current staff vs. 2012 staff. That will give you a good idea of those being let go. Not fully related to merging - the county is eliminating A LOT of positions in every department - one member of our FD who has worked for the county 16 years is being let go. It sucks and I hope someone comes in on a white horse with a never-ending checkbook!

DES is eliminating 11 various positions. And if I read the new budget proposal right, there's room for one Commissioner and two Deputy Commissioners.

I'm not sure a 3rd Aerial is needed at a "routine" house fire, and New Rochelle generally handles them with two Trucks. BUT - from what I have seen in the time I have been dispatching them is that they almost always have other incidents occur during fires, so now if the two Trucks are working the first fire, there won't be a Truck to pick up additional runs. A bad move by New Rochelle government! And not to mention, but there goes the 2nd Jaws on I-95 calls, right?

Pellet stove and a canary? Nice work Peekskill EMS, glad to know this asset isn't too far away from us in the southern end of the 10th.

Residential gets 1 & 1 Commercial gets 2 & 1 Schools & Nursing Home gets all five companies (3, 1, 1). If Croton gets lumped into this merger, then it must be called Buplancktrose-on-Hudson. And as far as EMS goes, Croton EMS has basically morphed into "CrOVAC" with the paid personnel from Ossining...

What crime was committed? It doesn't matter to me that she is the Fire Chief's daughter, who did this means nothing to me. What I hate is how this information has become so "vital" to news stories. If it's an accident, then I see no reason to publish it, let alone make it a subject HERE, since it does nobody any good. Right?

Why do they report who struck the Officer? Is it really neccessary to do this, knowing she's probably dealing with enough already?! Focus should be on the officer and his recovery. I almost feel like this thread should be deleted... it has no benefit to anyone involved.

Minimum staffing level changes begin today. Hopefully some kind of answer can be found so none of the NRFD members get laid off, and L12 remains open. Lohud Article

What does that matter? Nice car - good luck with it.

Like you would know...

These people should go back to "occupying" their parents' house, playing video games and getting stoned. Stop pretending you know why you're there!

When are you all going to learn that you can't come here and ask about ways to recruit / retain volunteer members without certain people making comments of the less-than-helpful type? Don't you know that all of us volunteer firefighters are the devil? C'mon! If I may offer one idea for recruitment and retention, here it is. Make your department one that people take pride in and are willing to be an active part of because it's their department. The subject of recruitment and retention came up recently when another volunteer agency near us started asking for money to launch a large recruitment/retention plan. Those of us in our FD had informal discussions about it and all agreed that if your department is one that actually looks out for it's members, keeps petty immaturity at a minimum, elects proper leaders and simply does the job asked of it without attached drama, then it will succeed. Our department's biggest recruitment tool has been the same thing for 100+ years - REPUTATION. During our good times, like now, we see increases in our new member base. During the few times we've had less than par leadership, we've struggled to get some new members and at the same time, saw some good ones leave. We can offer all the free s#it in the world, but when you really examine it, nobody is going to put up with the petty BS that ruins many volunteer agencies for some free gas or a membership to the gym. You need to make your agency one that it's members are proud to be part of and makes sure the concerns of the members are heard. Make them feel welcome, make them feel proud of what they do and most of all, make them feel safe by giving them the training and direction they all want. Be safe.

Went there a few days after the fire and took a walk thru... definitely some wainscoting used as flooring in the kitchen area over the old stairwell which was hidden in the basement by a door. Meant to take some photos but like normal, forgot the camera.

I like the compartment door handle bezels on the Universal City rig - maltese crosses! That's pretty cool. Seth's photo

Date: 11/12/11 Time: 19:07 Location: Eighth Street (Cross of Westchester Avenue) Frequency: 46.26 Units Operating: 2491, 2492, E128, 83B1 / Montrose E121 / Buchanan 2553, U12 / WCDES Bat 10 Weather Conditions: Cool, Clear 43 degrees Description Of Incident: Fully involved detatched garage fire Reporters: Remember585 Writer: Remember585 19:07 - Verplanck dispatched for a reported large shed fire. Montrose & Buchanan on standby. 19:10 - 2491 on location, fully involved detached garage fire. 19:18 - 2491 requesting an Engine from Montrose to scene. 19:19 - E121 responding. 2491 advising them to come in from Westchester Ave and hit the hydrant. 19:21 - Bat 10 responding. 19:28 - 2491 requesting the Buchanan Cascade to scene (U12). 2553, U12 responding. 19:30 - 2491 requesting Cause & Origin Team to scene, Zone 4 paged. 19:40 - Bat 10 reports fire "pretty much darkened down in a 15' x 30', 1 1/2" story garage."

Just wanted to openly thank our Mutual Aid help for being there at this job. I also want to give a "tip of the hat" to our own guys and gals for putting forth an aggressive attack on a stubborn fire. A job well done by everyone on scene. Unit rundown Croton FD units: 2081, 2082, E118, E119, E120, TL44, T10, R18 Ossining FD units: 2331, 2334, E98, TL42, U51 Montrose FD units: 2273, E121 Yorktown FD units: E272 Buchanan FD units: 2551, U12 Cortlandt VAC: 88B3 Ossining VAC: 36M1, 74B1 WCDES: Bat 10, C&O Zone 5 And thanks to Millwood FD for covering us and answering what I think was almost a dozen additional calls while we handled this fire. I know there's some that were asking questions about this fire, so here's some info. We were operating at a primary line and pole/transformer on fire at South Riverside and Oneida. We were repositioning E120 when the transformer exploded. I asked the crew of E120 to tell the patrons at Umami Cafe (next to Anton's) to stop standing outside to watch this transformer fire. As the guys were cutting across the lot of Anton's they heard some kind of a "bang" and saw black smoke dumping out of the building. At this time, they radioed me and I made my way over and saw it, giving the "10-75." At the time, all of our apparatus with the exception of TL44 were out on incidents. Luckily, the other incidents were in the middle of being given over to Con Ed, so they could respond to this fire. Car 2081 pulled up a minute or so later and assumed Command, and I took the "Operations" role. The crews of E120 & T10 stretched a 300' preconnect to the B-side door. We took a quick look inside with the TIC, and could see the basement was the origin of this fire, and made a push downstairs. A 2nd line came in and protected the first line into the basement. As the additional companies arrived, crews made a primary of the restaurant and apartments upstairs (both negative), began horizontal ventillation and stretched an additional two lines in from side A. We coordinated the basement fire attack with guys on the main level who opened up the floor to help the guys in the basement. While this was going on, part of the main level collapsed into the basement, pushing us back and eventually out of it. The fire was being fed by what we think was the gas line to the kitchen appliances, making it a royal PITA to extinguish, but we were successful in keeping it from taking a hold of the entire basement. The fire was in a 125 x 75 two story restaurant on first/apartments on 2nd building, with masonry block walls. The fire followed pipe chases up to the 2nd floor apartment. Crew made a push into here, only to find the floor burnt thru (glad they were sounding the floor as they advanced). They were able to get at it from a neighboring room and from the roof over the front of the restaurant. Since the guys were taking a beating between the fire and the weather, I suggested to the IC early on to bring in an extra company for relief. This was when Montrose E121 came to work. Later on, when we realized we had been operating about 90 minutes, I then suggested to the IC to make it a full 2nd Alarm for relief, which brought E272 & TL42 in on the box. We were able to use the member from these three units to rotate personnel for relief as needed. All in all, thanks to the weather and building construction, smoke was very heavy and wasn't lifting much, so the use of the TICs and old school sounding tactics allowed all of us to go home.

Pete, The fire remains under investigation.

Establish it, assume it, embrace it, love it. Someone, whether they say over the air they're in charge or not, has to be "the guy" (or gal) making the overall decisions. If they don't and allow everyone to do whatever they feel like doing, it becomes what the Germans call a "clusterfookin." And don't kid yourselves, if you've got any kind of legit incident, you can not effectively run it if you're part of the operation. If you're a hands-on Chief or Officer, that's fine, but make sure someone stays put and runs a Command Post.

Just wondering... How does a department legally check the status of a member's drivers license? Thanks.