SRS131EMTFF

No offense but there is a huge difference between a 18 year old soldier and Johnny Smith from next door. I am not sure I really trust either to be driving me the ER with lights and siren however the soldier at least has literally countless hours of training, a certain level of dedication joining the armed forces, defined supervision from qualified superiors and has been qualified and certified to drive. Very few 18 year olds fit any of these categories. And joining the FD down the road and getting 20 hrs of supervised driving experience is not nearly enough qualifications to be driving anything especially something as life and death as an ambulance with a patient in the back with CPR being performed in 4 inches of snow or a fire truck running to working fire with people trapped for extreme examples.

I believe that you should not a driving anything larger than a chiefs/fly car in non-emergency before your 21st birthday. I personally have no interest in driving, I would prefer to live without the liability and instead focus on my skills as a fire fighter/EMT. Let the old timers drive, I would much rather spend my time on a call concerned about hazards, residents, assignments and size up than worrying about if some jerks car was going to notice my 20 ton fire truck with lights and sirens running to a call. There is a time and a place for everything, but no time or place for teenagers and 20 year olds to playing ECC or LCC in a world where 25% of firefighter fatalities are from traffic accidents. If you look at the demographics, even older experiences drivers are being killed in these accidents, tell me how it is smart for someone with obvious lack of experience, sound decision making capabilities and a potentially adrenaline rush which can cause a lack of coordination and fine motor control (i,e, teenager/young adult) to be driving lights and sirens to a call.

I would say that cutting the battery cable is the number one complaint of tow truck operators behind 1. you could have picked a better spot? 2. This had to happen a 3:30am and not between business hours 3. Wheres my coffee?

Agreed, if you look at the sequence of photos you see it is not there during the initial attack, its only now during the overhaul that it is being seen.

Awesome. Its not that I dont appreciate Eli's work, I really do, I just dont care about a 5 new deliveries from upstate or downstate when I am trying to read about other topics. Not for nothing and this is not a knock on Eli or here but LFD171s site does an amazing job with updates and actually has pictures of the rigs being replaced.

Thanks for the info. I will certainly be forwarding this.

Hats of Incident Management (excerpt) I know this is shown frequently but I thought this was especially comical and relevant given this discussion.

Come again?

incorrect. HFDs TL was a member of the lost generation of aerialscopes between FWD/Baker and Seagrave. From what I understand HFDs TL is OOS and NFVFD old straight stick is being used in its place. The TL is out at seagrave and being rebuilt/repaired/replaced, last time I checked no one was 100% on what its status was. The problem is the TL was not maintained to standards (i.e. Incorrect maintenance) or something to that nature and thus needed extensive repairs to return to service. From what I understand it is the last of this generation to be even considered in service.

Thats better than the speed in which you see JCFDs TDA take a left handed turn.

Just as you say Instructor...no one actually cares about what we do except us. I am glad the issue was resolved but I think this was a whole lot of hullabaloo for what some idiot thinks. I dont remember who has it as their signature but one of the members here has a quote saying dont fight with idiots, they just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience, well this argument was certainly dragged down much further then it needed to/

The word from the horses mouth is that it is going to be a 100ft mid mount Sutphen tower ladder with delivery due within a few weeks/months. This is not a new development and has been discussed here for some time. The better question is not what are they getting but why they felt the need to replace a very strong truck only a few years after they sold a brand new, barely used rear mount straight stick?

What are the 11 companies always at 5?

What about saline solutions in jump kits/medical bags? I had my 250ml 0.9% saline solution bottles more useful as a brick then as solution the other day even after a 2hr drive in a heated car. I know it was cold up here in Vermont but I had no idea I had to worry about saline solution.

The short answer is yes cold weather does lessen battery life. Essentially all a battery is is a chemical reaction. In most cases it is the reaction with Lithium ions (Li) and another cation in an equilibrium reaction. Once you connect the terminals of the battery to the terminals of the device you change the equilibrium of the reaction forcing an increase in concentration of the useless cation and decrease in concentration of the useful Lithium. The reaction is reversed by adding energy (heat is one from of energy). The lithium ion equilibrium reaction is temperature dependent much like most other chemical reactions. The closer to absolute zero, 0 Kelvin or -273 celsius the slower the chemical reaction. Since a device needs a pre set amount of energy at a given time with the chemical reaction occurring at a much slower pace at lower temperatures the device is not getting enough energy from the battery as it needs and is thus shutting down. Its not that the battery has any less energy in it (well thats not 100% true with older/corroded batteries whose equilibrium reactions have been changed or have been abused but the point still stands), its that the battery can not transfer that existing energy to the device because the reaction is occurring too slowly for it be any use.

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. nice job kid.

+1 for ingenuity.

The information is out there if you are willing to look.

Heres the link to News 4 NY article about the department/flag. L.I. Fire Dept. Logos Seem to Bear Confederate Flag Resemblance ignites controversy in primarily black community FULL ARTICLE: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/LI-Fire-Dept-Uses-Confederate-Flag-Logo-114340964.html Good luck Chief, seems you have a public relations nightmare on your hands...

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-january-19-2011/main-st--anytown-u-s-a-

I think you are correct, the officer would usually carry the BFR or SFR. Although depending on the size of it is usually just called the TIC after it breaks/malfunctions/runs out of batteries on the inside. joke.

looks exactly like the Gladiator. What makes this any different?

The only thing that saying 2 kids in the car may assist with is dispatching. I know in the 45-medic service area if they think there is the possibility for multiple patients or high risk patients such as geriatric or pediatric they will assign additional medics to the call. Additionally this can help command get ahead to the problem and dispatch another ambulance if there is again the possibility of high risk patients or the call not close to the main service area of the district (i.e. out in the boonies where assigning another ambulance could potentially get BLS or ALS to the quicker than the primary ambulance (i.e. closer))

From the Darien Volunteer Fire Department website: "During this project, our brothers and sisters from Noroton and Noroton Heights Fire Departments will be providing us assistance with their aerial ladder trucks." http://darienfire.org/

Looks like 2 WPPD officers were re-instated and all of the other officers had found work else where. Meanwhile only 2 of the 9 firefighters laid off have been rehired in white plains and else where. Hopefully the 7 other brothers/members will be employed shortly. http://www.lohud.com/article/20110110/NEWS02/101100369/White-Plains-re-instates-two-laid-off-cops