paratrooper75

Good.

I think the test was to easy. Too many people are going to get good marks on it. You could definitley have a not so smart person and a smart person both get the same score due to the lack of difficult questions. The psych questions should have been left for the psych part of the hiring process. I felt like they should of handed out crayons to take the test and gave us gold stars if we did good, like kindergarten.

New England beat my Jets so I am rooting for the Colts.

I heard it's fine to mix with NS for short term infusions. D5W is the manufacturers recommendation due to the tests they have done. I guess it is "the most stable" in D5W for a long period of time. Thats all I've heard. Anymore help would be appreciated.

Once someone like that kills a cop and a police dog every single one of his rights disappear. He got exactly what he deserved. There is no punishment by trial that could be severe enough to bring justice to something like that. Its a shame they only used 110 rounds.

I was an Army Ranger and I am currently in Medic school. I'd have to say it would be easier to train a medic to act as a swat medic than get swat guys to train or want to train to be a medic. Our medics had to go through the normal army medic course and than the advanced Special Operations Medic course. They cross trained with the infantry guys and obviously all carried weopons. We did a lot of assaults on buildings similar to what swat guys do. The tactical part of the job was more or less left up to the infantry guys with the medic bringing up the rear. I'm not saying a medic might not get put right in the middle of a bad situation but usually they keep them back out of immediate danger. What good is a medic if he is injured or killed. And Im sure the swat medics have some sort of weopon whether its a side arm or a rifle.

This is just the first step in an inevitable direction. The day is going to come where the county will initiate an all paid municiple service to handle all EMS in the county. I'm not saying its close but its going to happen. EMS is growing faster than ever with the population increasing and the advances in pre-hospital care. I myself am a volunteer as well as career and I have to say although the VACs are very proud and dedicated you can't be sacrificing patient care for the sake of keeping a volunteer organization happy. When it comes down to it, there is no guarentee when you call 911 that you'll have an ambulance at your door at a reasonable time. Try to tell a mother that her son wouldn't have died if he had just gotten to the hospital ten minutes sooner. The mentality of an everday vollie knows two words "ego" and "excitement". Professional over volunteer anytime!

They have books at Barnes and Noble.

Anyone know what kind of score you need on the written to be hired? 110 to __?

Well put. I agree.

Personal issues with some of our management aside. Empire could cover the 911 contract right now with the resources it has in place. As far as buffing jobs--it is a strictly enforced policy that no employee carry a volly pager or radio in our rigs. Should a crew be flagged down they are required to stop and render care. Dispatch always notifies the proper municipal authorities to advise them of the situation. Should you have a patient care issue then please call and ask to speak to a supervisor. To address the dispatching of BLS crews to "obvious" ALS calls--that is a function of the information we get from the nursing facility. When it is in our patient's best interest to call for ALS from the 911 provider we do so. If we all are willing to work together to make Putnam work the way it is supposed to I am confident that this will be a big success. Rather than address these issues online anonymously why not stop by or give a phone call and see how we actually operate and so we can address whatever concerns you may have.

Thats ok, I was up there and saw an entire department riding to the parade all over the truck. They had about twenty guys on the top and all around the side and rear steps. They rode like that all the way from their hotel to the parade starting site.

Does FDNY have seperate lists for residents and non-residents, hiring the residents first like Yonkers?

I just saw that they added a tentative filing period for the FF exam for Dec. The filing is tentativly scheduled for Aug-Oct. Anybody know how many applicants they usually get?

Are the paid dutchess departments paid drivers or full time firefighters?

Ok, I have both a blue light and a green light. I also have a rear facing light in the window. I only use my green light if Im going to a REAL emergency such as a cardiac call, resp. distress, and so on. As for my blue light, it is rarely used. Lets face it the majority of the fire calls we get have no reason for me to be screaming down the road with forty five blue lights on my car like I'm Captain F*n America like some jollys do. Very few Fire calls we get are REAL emergencies. Most are false alarms or minor incidents. Now don't get me wrong If I hear a confirmed structure fire or a MVA with entraptment come over my pager I can safely say that its an actual emergency. Unless its a confirmed major incident I don't need the light. Plus there are plenty of people who are usually closer than I am anyway. I know the hobbiests want to be on the nozzle and all but its not worth killing somebody over responding to the scene. Some people get so caught up in it there is no way to make them realize what they are actually doing. Having firefighting as a hobby will always be the number one reason why we can't have a blue light rule like Jersey. "buffs" ruin it for everyone else who just want to help. As long as there is some glory and exitement there will always be volunteers responding with there own personal light show. As for the 94 year old grandmother who fell while home alone... well she can just stand by.