Remember585

Thanks guys, I found the form I needed.

Agreed. Problem is that many people wearing officer's shields and chief's shields refuse to think they need to sit in on some classes to better themselves in the interest of the department. It's these people that I wish we could all just kick in the nuts.

In another thread, everyone is whining there aren't enough people going to calls. You all need to decide if you want your cake and if so, whether you want to eat it or not. Having two, three or four elected Chiefs seems to be the norm around here. Do all of them NEED to go to every call? Nope, but what happens when all of them decide not to go because they assume the other one is going? Now you have no Chiefs, which will stem a new "Where's Department X's Chiefs" thread on this site. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. For every incident you need an Incident Commander. This can be a Chief, a Captain, A Lieutenant or just Joe Firefighter who happens to be "in the seat" of the first arriving unit. It doesn't have to be an elected officer or even an appointed one, but someone has to take command of the call. This is why solid training programs combined with minimum training requirements and electing/appointing the right people is critical. You never know who is going to be in charge and what they may be in charge of. Prime example, we were sitting on a wires down call last week and found a restaurant on fire. Now what would happen if the only unit on scene was an Engine without a competent boss? Again, it doesn't need to be a Chief, but be smart about who sits in the seat of your rigs EVERY CALL. Since Chiefs are elected to lead their departments, ideally it would be nice for at least one of them to show up at calls, right? After all, they have the Fire SUV and all of the radios. I know that in our department, as well as many others, a Chief may ride the seat of an apparatus instead of sending multiple command vehicles into the scene. I know some are against this and others like it - personally I don't care what others think of how we operate, because it works and we know it. Bottom line, we don't always "need" a Chief at an incident, but Seth is 100% right, they're needed to handle all of the non-incident business of the department. This includes record keeping, meeting training requirements, developing, implementing and enforcing policies and procedures, buying stuff, repairing stuff, replacing stuff, and above all - making sure everyone is happy and gets home safe. Not always true. Again, not always true. But I will say this - I would put up most of my members and Officers against many others any day of the week. That's how much faith I have in them.

Good luck calculating response times. Caller sees a fire in one of the county's river towns. They dial 911 on their cell phone. It goes to the TMC. The TMC sees the call as coming off of a tower in Rockland, and transfers the call to 44 Control. Now Rockland actually asks the caller where they are and sends it to 60 Control. 60 gets the call and since it's a department that they can't directly dispatch, they then give the call information (or the actual call) to that FD for dispatch. That FD then tones out the call - finally. Now, assume that this FD is dispatched by their PD and the PD is either busy or routinely doesn't monitor the fire radio. How will they know when the FD arrives, and who is documenting their arrival time? Like I said, good luck figuring out an actual response time.

Scott, Would it be feasible to have a Medic assigned to Somers in place of one of the EMTs WEMS provides? This way the 3 Fly-Cars could possibly be re-positioned to decrease their response times? Just a thought I had one night. I give the WEMS Medics a lot of credit, the Medics monitor the radio and will post centrally while their partners in the other fly-cars are tied up on calls.

We've used a number of different instructors and training companies for training over the years. Some good, some great, some not so good. I'm calling upon all of you in the know for your assistance. If you were looking to host any of the following programs, who would you utilize? You don't have to answer publicly, you can send me a PM. PS - this isn't a survey or motivated by anything devious, I'm looking to bring some new stuff to our department. Thanking you all in advance! - Extrication Training - Rope Rescue Training - Water / Ice Rescue Training - Coast Guard classes - Boat Operations - Elevator Rescue Operations - Officer Development - FAST/RIT and Mayday Operations - Anything else you can think of.

Two of Croton Fire Department's five companies are holding raffles this holiday season. If you would like to purchase tickets for either one, send me a PM. Raffle #1 Washington Engine Company No. 2 2011 Holiday Raffle Grand Prize: $2,500 2nd Prize: $1,000 3rd Prize: $500 Tickets are $10 each - only 1,000 are being sold. Drawing is November 28th - just in time to spend it on holiday gifts! Raffle #2 Croton Fire Patrol No. 1 2011 50/50 Raffle Tickets are only $1.00 or your can get six for $5.00 Drawing is December 19th - just in time to buy yourself something! Again, if anyone is interested in either - shoot me a PM. Thanks for looking!

People do this stuff all the time. Often, they bring suspicious packages to a local police station. "Here Officer, I found this weird box thingy with wires hanging out of it ticking and thought I should bring it to you..." If it wasn't for stupid people, most of us would be without jobs.

Rockland occassionally offers SSO as well. Their link is here.

The lack of the Scene Support Operations course offered by WCDES has caused us to see members take Firefighter I that don't want to and/or having to extend the By-Law requiring someone to finish their basic training within their first year. We had our own Instructor who gave this class once or twice per year until the county put an end to it (some BS from the state supposedly). Allow volunteer departments to have an MTO and we all could improve ourselves (there I go with the crazy talk again...)

Better get the CarFax...

Good question. You can make it five years, but what happens if in that five years, they don't catch a single job? This is what's caused us to push their training and incorporate as much live fire training as possible. I know guys that have been around for 10 years that haven't seen a flame (except their cigarette lighters) since their first year.

That and painting the rigs RED....

Our department SOG requires the Incident Commander to dispatch a Mutual Aid FAST to all working structure fires. It also states that the IC shall designate at least two members to act as a "FAST" until such time the Mutual Aid unit arrives. We've established a "FAST" at several hazardous materials incidents, including CO emergencies, over the years to keep a crew dedicated to helping our own within an IDLH. Our team began formation in 1997 and went into service June 1, 1998. We currently have several of those original members as well as multiple new ones on our team. Team members are all required to have completed the FFI, Survival and FAST courses at minimum. They must have a few years of experience as an Interior Firefighter. The team has one drill every month, ranging from knots/rope rigging to search to firefighter removals to team-building drills in live fire situations. Many of our drills incorporate many of these things to keep our skills sharp. We have "members in training" that work with us at drills and will respond to an incident to observe and assist where they can. Once they complete all of the training and make enough drills to show their abilities, our team's leaders will add them on as actual team members. We've revamped our SOGs probably 6 times over the years based on NIOSH reports, training standards and lessons learned at calls and drills. Our minimal response is one qualified team leader ("Officer") and three qualified members. 9.5 out of 10 times we have no less than six members. As far as response time - if a department near us that wants to use us for FAST coverage has a possible fire - please consider starting us out sooner. Most of us are listening to the radio a majority of the day, and when someone around us sounds like they're going to work, we start texting/calling one another and unofficially start to assemble. If we can't meet our own minimum response manpower and/or can't get on the road in a proper amount of time, we will notify 60 Control to advise the IC, and go from there. I, too, take firefigher safety/survival/rescue to heart for my own reasons. This is why I am so aggressive with it in our department (probably to the point others get sick of hearing me!) On a side note, I am pleased to report that over the past few years I have been able to get more equipment for our team that we all asked for, for quite some time. Luckily the two Chiefs ahead of me have given me the go ahead to purchase this stuff, and for that we are all greatful. (This includes new ropes, webbing, RIT-Pack, retractable search lines and more).

Amen. Survival still isn't an actual part of the FF I curriculum, luckily most (if not all now) FF I courses offered in Westchester also have a Survival course attached to them. The Firefighter I program should include Survival and FAST. Anyone that thinks they shouldn't take FAST training of some type deserves to be punched in the nuts. They obviously don't care about their brothers.

There's a novel idea...

I respectfully disagree. An apparatus that is designed properly and not only for current needs, but future ones, can be more than sufficient. Mohegan has run Pumper/Rescues for a while, and they run more MVAs then a lot of us do - without a true Rescue. Their E252 as well as E258 can handle both jobs - as far as I have seen. New Rochelle has a Rescue, but if it isn't staffed and/or available, I'm 95% sure they're able to handle accidents with 1 & 1 - as is Eastchester FD. I may be wrong, but I don't think Bedford is running as much on I684 anymore, since Bedford Hills reclaimed that portion of their fire district. As far as Bedford making the decision to buy a new R44 - that's their choice. They would know their district and their department better than any of us looking in from the outside...

I don't think there was an explosion at the Shell Station (I think it was 2/97) - I think it was just a fire in the gas station. I could be wrong. Last tanker explosions I remember were in Briarcliff on Route 9A in 2004 and the one on I287 in White Plains before that.

I've been giving some thought on some of the comments on not only Yorktown's recent fire, but other incidents and want to share my thoughts. Ten years ago, many of us were getting along fine, making do with what we had at our disposal in terms of manpower. Most fire departments would handle a single family dwelling fire with little to no Mutual Aid. Was it because we all had an abundance of manpower? I don't think so. Many people like to get on the "manpower soapbox" all too often to explain their dwindling firehouse numbers, yet it can generally correlate to other contributing factors that many don't admit to, or even recognize. 1. Poor leadership. Many people in the volunteer fire service are giving their time to the FD while balancing their family duties, jobs and other commitments. Most guys and gals join either to be an integral part of their community and/or to become part of a social club. When your leadership is doing it's job (leading when leading is needed, being fair and balanced, treating everyone with respect, making everyone feel safe and accpeted) then the troops feel better about themselves and the department they've joined. I've been in my department since I was an Explorer (1992) and have seen AWESOME LEADERS (Chiefs and Company Officers) and sadly, we've had a few too many crappy ones. If you can lead your troops when they need leading and you can motivate them by making them feel a sense of ownership in their company/department, then they'll give that extra effort. 2. Lack of Training Availability. So many of us strive to be the best departments we can be, and this means a lot of training. We've grown from doing roughly one drill per month to offering 4-5 different training venues every month. Since everyone has crazy schedules, you need to be flexible. Having just one drill night isn't going to cut it. Also, training that we are all required to have isn't always made easily accessible. I don't fault WCDES for the lack of some courses - I lay blame on OFPC (or whatever acronym they use now). Why can't volunteer fire departments have an MTO? In our own department we have a half dozen NYS and/or National Fire Service Instructors and we're being under utilized. We had a good thing going for a couple of years where one of our guys was granted a "supplemental CFI" status and was providing in-house OFPC classes, such as HMFRO, HMFRO Annual Refresher, Confined Space Awareness & Safety, Scene Support Operations and others that you just don't see often enough. Losing this has hurt our training program, and now it costs us more money to outsource and bring instructors in. In a nutshell, the current system sucks. 3. Personal Agendas. I've seen a couple of Chiefs (not just in our FD but around the county) that get elected with an agenda of their own. In order to get what they want, they start cutting funding for certain things, they lie to everyone and worst of all - they let the department's members suffer. For example, if your Chief is up in your commissioners officer / town hall lying to them about what your members need simply to make themselves look good - that will come back to the guys/gals and ruin their ambition to be a part of your department. I know I may sound like a broken record, but it really does come down to how your department is run, from the top down. If your Chief can't run a scene, the guys lose faith in them. If your Captain can't be bothered with drill night because of his softball games, how are the guys in the trenches expected to show any initiative? And if all the guys walking around with collar brass don't take the time to guide, mentor and lead their men/women - kiss it all goodbye. These things have major negative impacts on your department's performance call after call. You might get 40 guys in line at a parade, but how many of them can honestly remember the last time they got out of bed at 2am for a CO call? Leadership makes/breaks fire departments - we can blame it on anything else we want, but this simple truth is what hurts so many of us. Stay safe & train often. /thoughts.

Define "extraordinary response" - I don't follow. Not following you here. Are you saying neighbors can't respond to neighbors in case they have a fire at home? Please elaborate. What's so amazing? Host FD's 3 rigs, MA source Engine, MA Dump Site engine, 5 MA Tankers, Cascade Unit, FAST. Again, not following you here. While I agree a FAST company needs to be on scene as quick as possible, that location is very remote from Mohegan's HQ, as well as all of the other Mutual Aid that came in. Also, these times in the post above may no be 100% accurate, as the writer said. I could be wrong, but I think I heard radio traffic stating a person may still be inside. If there's a chance someone is inside, I believe the OSHA 2 in / 2 out rule is not expected to be adhered to - and according to said rule, your apparatus operators may count as your "two out." When we arrived, there was at least 10-12 members of the YHFD on location, so I am sure all of them didn't go inside initially. Still would have to call Tankers... Not 100% true, there are guys out there (myself included) that believe things can be done better, but with what we all have at our disposal at the moment - we do the best we can. Yorktown and Croton are two neighboring departments that have done plenty of assessments to see what we can do to help ourselves and our customers, which has led to automatic aid responses of FASTs, Tankers, etc. We may not be a "consolidated" group, but our intentions are for the best of all involved, given what we have available to us right now.

Sorry for your loss, and may God look over her.

Date: 10/5/11 Time: Location: 7 Springvale Road (Springvale Apartments) Frequency: 46.26 / Fire 10 MFD Units Operating: 2272, 2273, E122, E123, TL8, R51 VAFD Units: 2572, E225 CFD Units: 2081, 2082, E119 w/ FAST BFD Units: 2551, 2552, U12 w/ Cascade DES Units: Battalion 17, C&O Zone 4 w/ 1404 CCVAC: 8811, 8805, 88B? Weather Conditions: Cool, clear Description Of Incident: Fire in laundry room on first floor of split 2/3 level apartment complex. Reporters: Remember585 (O/S) Writer: Remember585

That's exactly what my guys did for your fire. By the time I got across town to our Station #2, T10 was on the road w/ 2 guys and E119 was pulling off the ramp with 8 guys. Since your department implemented the FAST response on the initial dispatches, many of us have somewhat "tuned" our ears to listen for you. I had guys calling me the second you got dispatched asking which of our resources are on that box assignment, and they started assembling. Hope we got there quick enough. PS - let me know if you guys come across one of our halligans...

How the F*** do they get the portable pond off of Mahwah's E425?!

Wait, is this Somers of the Village of Croton...