Monty

I guess to play devils advocate for a while ..... If the siren was fixed for 6 months or whatever it was, the previous occupants may have assumed they'd stopped using the siren. 99% of the time I am in my house I cannot hear my FD's house siren or horns (in fact when I hear a house siren I can't tell whose it is). Additionally, I can also hear other departments horns almost as well as my own Company. If you're in your car, you're not going to hear it. I think this is another tradition thing that has seen it's day! However, my wife and I watched the spot last night and she thought it was a complete waste of time and both sides were being immature. Maybe the 9 year old daughter is the most mature and that's why she review the surveillance video

I'm no expert but when you think about the number of runs these things do - and the streets they do them over ..... compare that to your average volunteer fire truck, I'm sure that they take one hell of a beating, now of course with all the electronics it does make it hell of a lot harder to fix anything

Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Just received a phone call that the National FF1 & FF2 exams have been cancelled - due to lack of interest :angry: . Apparently there were only about 4 people signed up for the exam. Apparently Nassau is in a similar situation and they've cancelled their running of the exams. I'm not sure there was even enough interest to run a combined class. Now I have to decide if it's worth going to Montour Falls for a 6-8 exam. Maybe if Putnam was successful with their FF1, they'll have enough interest to run FF2.

I doubt anyone disagrees with that thinking. However, according to the FEMA web site will deploy the 3 closest USAR teams within 6 hours of notification. Around here I guess that is NY-TF1, MA-TF1 and PA-TF1. So it could be that you are working without all the available FEMA resources for some time. I think it's better to have qualified teams than no teams, even if regional or state. I believe both NJ-TF1 and NY-TF2 both performed admirably at the WTC.

Convicted arsonist sentenced to 22 years. I'd have updated one of the other topics on the fire but they are all closed. Incident Alert, Pictures, Charges, More charges. From WTEN: Hopefully this might act as a deterrent to anyone who might consider doing something like this in the future.

Just to clarify, from my understanding, air pressure is required to keep the brakes off. If you have no air pressure, you cannot release the Maxi-brake.

My old department upstate used 100ft lengths. We had preconnects of 100, 200 and 300 ft. Not sure of any big advantages. I guess it makes the hose a bit lighter and more manouverable. I certainly had no problems with it and would be happy to use them again. I guess given my druthers, I'd rather have things like Class A foam or maybe even CAFS though.

RIP Chief.

Actually, I was quite surprised coming to Westchester from Albany. A Deputy Chief up there was one rank below Chief (below Deputy were Assistants). Once your term as Chief was complete, you were an ex-Chief (often shortened to Chief out of respect) and left all the Chief's privileges behind (unless you were elected again). I wonder how many other Counties follow the Westchester model - and where that came from?

Thanks - you make me feel very special Growing up in England, and being a 'curious' kid - I received numerous 240V shocks. I don't think it effected me. Actually - wait a minute. Maybe it did and that could explain a lot! My understanding is that it's really the current that does the damage - but it's a long time since I did my EMT training, and even longer since I did college.

Spending a few minutes looking around, Westchester DES has a course starting Aug 6, however that's 8 night classes - might be a ways to travel from up there. It would be really nice if OFPC could provide a clearing house for the 'outreach' classes run by the counties. Looking around, it seems really impressive what Rockland and Westchester offer on their web sites and the courses they run. I did a quick google and found Schenectady courses, Albany has courses posted from October. The only thing I can suggest is doing some google searching for other counties up your way and see if they have anything on offer.

Many Congratulations ...... Bet it was a great day. Good luck for a long and magnificent future!

Actually, I really prefer the way it was done in Albany. You belonged to a Department, not a company. You responded to all calls and performed all work, depending on your qualifications, type of call, arrival at the firehouse. So, sometimes you got to be on the nob, other times venting, other times working an extrication. I can do that to some extent now, as it is one Department - however it is very much geared to the company that you belong to.

I tried finding more on this article from The Secret List on the web but couldn't. However, firefighterclosecalls.com is a pretty reliable source. I'm not a lawyer, but I guess this could happen in NY and other states around here. I hope the jury is made up of 12 reasonable men and women! Assuming it goes to court, which I guess is questionable from my limited understanding of these things. This is a complicated business we've chosen to work in. We should all be aware of national standards and recommendations, then be able to adhere to them, or know why we don't. And be prepared to defend our decisions, whatever they are.

I think this is a question many people want to ignore. I know I was told with my old department, that you are on duty when the pager goes off, and covered until you return home. Presumably though this doesn't cover going to a restaurant or bar on the way home! However, what does 'on duty' mean? Certainly VFBL, but I doubt it covers auto insurance. My old company did run drivers license checks on ALL members, not just drivers and we did have one case of a suspended driver that was suspended after he continued to respond to calls driving himself! Be interesting if anyone from the Civil side of a VFD can shed any light. Actually, I guess in a similar manner, what about a Career firefighter? What happens if you get called back? What about if you have to fill in at another station?

Surprised no-one commented on this story from the Journal. Again, interesting to see if any changes result. Seems that the family is being very reasonable about the situation, especially given the litigious environment out there. I'm sure there's plenty of lawyers calling offering to take their case to court.

Basically, because it was the closest to my home! Which sometimes makes me wonder what I'll do when there are other firehouses almost as close as my current company.

Interesting article from the Charleston Post and Courier on questioning whether the Charleston fire department is being 'too bold'. From a distance, seemed to be well written. Also, the comments are quite interesting too. I think it puts things in to perspective for this area as to how progressive we are - as much as some of us would like to accelerate some of the changes. For background, another article, this one on the Fire Chief. It will be interesting to see the outcomes of the various investigations - and more importantly whether they cause any changes to happen in Charleston and elsewhere.

The temperature of the water does affect the cooling capability and thee number of BTU's that can be disipated. However, I think the difference between water at 35 and 85 degrees is fairly neglibile. If you want to absorb / disipate more btu's you are probably better off using Class A or CAFS rather than cooling the water applied. As for rotating the stream, the tradition has been clockwise, but I seem to remember reading in firefighting some magazines of some scientific studies done that really didn't show a difference between a clockwise or anti clockwise rotation, and in fact it may have been that a 'Z' or side to side pattern was more effective at removing heat and smoke products.

Actually, it seems better to not be a resident if driving through Virginia. These 'civil' fines only apply to residents.

Unlike NY Law Enforcement, I don't think there is an upper age limit - other than FDNY (which is even lower than the PD one! ). At least, I've not heard of any in Westchester. Actually, in civil service, is there a mandatory retirement age? I guess that would be the upper limit.

Given the recent discussions about Bowling Alley Fires, I thought I'd share this: Channel 9 News News 10 Now story on FF Dryer.

I think a lot depends on the capability of the team, size required for deployment etc. NYTF-2 had, and may still have a time of 2 hours to being on the road. Now, in theory, this is a team of 50 people that could be away from base for 48 hours. Presumably a local team would be much smaller, fewer people, smaller response aera etc - and a quicker response time. Step up to a reagional team and it's different again. Now regardless though - every team should set an expectation so that people know ahead of time what to expect. I also think that the 'time' should not include travel time, obviously ther's a difference between travelling a few miles and even travelling a few tens of miles in WC.

Actually, I think it has been something you get used to. On the Hudson line there were people catching pockets on the seat rests all the time. Me included, I had a couple of pants that that happened to. However, I don't recall seeing or hearing that in a long time. I think people have subconsciously adjusted the way they get in to and out of the seats. Now, I think LIRR is more crowded so maybe it's harder on them than the Hudson Line. Maybe after the shorter armrests are installed there will be complaints about people's arms falling off the rests

I'm far from an expert here - but I think you could both be correct. I can certainly see from this thread that if you are under medical care, then as mediconpatrol says it's up to the hospital to release the patient. Now, if a receptionist takes your details, are you receiving treatment? From the sounds of it, if the patient 'self discharges' - is not in the hospital (walks out, is dragged out or whatever), then you can also transport. In the end on a personal note - this just makes me less likely to go see LA