Monty

29th??

A lot of very good points - as usual. While the truck is equipped and in the County, as someone said you need trained personnel and that is in the works. The next team meeting should be soon, they are usually the last week of the Month will be Wednesday March 28th at 7:00 PM at the FTC in Valhalla. To join, turn up fill out an application form and get a signature from your agency head (Chief). While the concept for the team was started in 2001, prior to 9/11 it's taken a long time to get recognition and funding. Now, comes the training, setting up the team, SOPs etc, etc so it will be some time before the team is officially online. I was just reading in Fire Rescue about a collapse last year in Phoenix (News Story PFD photos). This was a 7 hour operation, many units, lots of people and resources. Chances are, if something big happens, you are going to need multiple and as many resources as possible. I don't believe this team has the desire to put anyone out of business, or score points or anything else other than to utilize willing volunteers to provide an additional resouce to the local community.

Sounds like something for Myth Busters! Must admit, though I'm inclined to agree that anything plugged in will help discharge a capacitor more quickly. If there is something plugged in that is being charged, like a cell phone - and even if it did backfeed, it would become discharged pretty quickly I'm sure, given your typical electrical load of lights, radio, heaters, fans etc.

From what I can remember (and maybe I'll check this weekend), most of the notices I received were between 19,000 and 30,000.

Wow, that's a lot of firefighters (131) for a 3187 sq ft duplex. Glad to hear that everyone was able to get out without further injuries. Here's for a speedy recovery to all.

My Grandfather was a fire-fighter in the blitz and as a small kid was around firetucks quite a bit. These days it's that little shot of adrenaline - thinking on my feet, the camaraderie and the service.

It seems in something I read that it implied that there were multiple fires in the building. Wasn't that one of the factors in the Lairdsville death that was highlighted as one of the problems (along with using FF's as victims)? I'm not sure what NFPA 1403 says about it but if there were multiple fires in the building I'm sure that will be a factor in the investigation. I remember when I started how much I learnt from observing and participating in live burns. I expect now that they weren't 100% NFPA 1403 compliant. Well worth doing live training if you get the chance - but a lot of work to be compliant and to minimize the risks of doing so.

Mmmm, maybe because this is a no brainer. Kind of tough to argue this one. I did pass the info on to my SO - god forbid anything happens! I guess some of the things to say are: Spread the word to other brothers and sisters that PASS may be unreliableTest regularlyContact your elected officials I did go to Scott's website to see if they had anything to say on this topic - they didn't. However, they are advertising a new kind of radio tracking system for FF's (Pak Tracker) - wonder how thoroughly they're testing that!

USFA Firefighters Memorial Database

At the moment, NYTF-1 is the only NY team that is part of the FEMA USAR organisation. However, NY-TF2 is available through the state compact agreement, but wont be funded by FEMA.

Amen. Might not have been the brightest thing to do - not that I'm a prude but don't like the sound of the advert giving people the finger! If the intent is cleary a bill board, not sure how they can be charged with placing a hoax device, but I guess a jury may get to decide one way or the other. Now, I'd also think that Turner could pony up the cash for the emergency response - write it off as a charitable donation for homeland security training , besides, I'm sure they've got a lot of mileage on the publicity.

Be nice to get out early on friday - one can but hope .....

This was discussed in topics earlier NJ DC Arrested for not moving. truck and Fire Chief Arrested For Blocking Roadway. After hearing Chief Goldfelder this weekend, made me reconsider my thoughts somewhat on the matter. I wonder if he's been involved in this case? Anyway, came across this today on the Daily Record

I think to srcfd's point, the 23rd is the fourth Tuesday, not the last Tuesday. The 30th is the last Tuesday as there happen to be 5 Tuesday's in January. MY understanding is that the meetings are the 4th Tuesday of each month.

Great idea and way to bring everyonme in to the 21st century. Don't know if something could be done on the County level. A compact for mutual aid, County resources, County funding etc. Maybe even at the state level with OFPC. Maybe there should be a ranking, or league tables. As mentioned elsewhere, the scale of doing something nationally is a real challenge, but maybe ISO could update their rating process, or do it more frequently or something .... in theory reduced premiums (from reduced losses) would cover the cost and be an incentive.

Two interesting stories highlighting how times have changed. Ex-Mpls. fire chief inspires policy changes on sex Pranks in the firehouse Right or wrong .... something to think about in these modern days. Briefly Minneapolis Chief was accused of having intimate relationships with other female firefighters, allegations of favoritism and retaliation. Subsequently the city now has a policy on Romance and Nepotism and forbids certain positions from having sex with others in the department! The second is about a lawsuit in LA regarding dog food being put in a FF's meal and the various repercussions after the incident. Lenghty, but pretty well written piece in my opinion.

ditto Although, after listening to the podcast from firehouse.com with Jeff Cool, I'm not convinced that just a rope would be enough in some situations.

I know this was discussed a while ago in the topic Ferrara Strongarm Video, Ferrara Fire Videos but killing time I found this Press Release on the web. I can see having one or maybe two of these in an area for those occasional massive fires - but why do they need 13! They have one plus these two delivered last summer and then an order for 10 additional units. Actually, looking at Istanbul Metropolitan's web site, it looks like an interesting place, they have 100 resuce robots and getting 5 helicopters for disaster rescue and fire-fighting.

Non-White Plains residents might as well not apply either! They're another city pretty strict about preference to residents - I understand they go through the whole city resident list before considering the non-resident list. Last time they were hold the same time - I'd suggest reserving that date in June for testing

Great Presentation. Very well done, great speaker. I'm sure everyone came away learning something new, refreshing / reinforcing what was already known. It was interesting to see how many topics discussed on the board were covered: Wear your gear all the time - Chiefs set the tone and should wear their gear Block traffic - stay out of traffic when working on the road Respond with caution (All the time) - get there alive, don't become part of the problem Wear seatbelts Use SCBA - don't try to be a hero in smoke Be safe, if not for you, for others you love and would be impacted by you being killed, maimed, incarcerated etc. Chief Goldfeder is going to be in Putnam in May 2007, I'm sure it will be another great session. He also mentioned Gordon Graham being a great presenter who is going to do a session in Rockland. Probably doesn't need to be stated here, but FireFighterCloseCalls.com well worth a visit.

I've had no problem taking classes in Rockland. Problem with Westchester is the registration fills up so quickly. But then, you have all the no-shows and the county doesn't technically accept walk-ins on the day ......

Interesting story in the Albany Times Union, the last part of which is pasted below ....

NFPA (Nothing Free Published Anytime?) allows you to preview their publications online if you don't have the documents. Every so often it's interesting to have a look through. Thanks to ALS for giving me the incentive again to kill some time at work and do something useful . Anyway, here's the section from 1500 .... (6.3.5). 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 are also interesting. I guess it's almost for another thread - but hey, how about Phoenix and their SCBA mounting policy? [attachmentid=1829]

Afraid we're still a bit behind on this one .... It was brought up recently at an officers meeting about having EMS dispatched on a working fire (10-75) report but we were told that EMS is usually listening to the scanner and will show up anyway And if needed, are quick to respond.

My wife refers to some departments as Social Clubs with Fire Trucks. It seems that we can't drag ourselves in to the 21st century. Probably, everyone has some sort of policy against any drinking and driving apparatus - how many have rules about responding in POV? How many actually enforce this? I wonder what would happen at a DUI checkpoint? It seems some are more interested in keeping numbers up, keeping the old traditions, not upsetting the old timers or something else other than why we should be here (in my mind anyway it's the service, not the social life). Part of the reasoning I hear for having so much variety in rules and regulations is that it is because NY is home rule and it's up to each locale to set its own rules. Subsequently the state and county don't want to get involved. However, the County could get involved in Mutual Aid plans or County resources - if it had the desire to do something other than maintain the status quo.