sklov5949

One of the main things I think about when an engine company is designed is the hose bed. Our dept uses the rear or business end of the apparatus 99% of the time. I am much more concerned about getting the hose off rather than packing it, IE: low workable hose bed. I can take all day to repack the hose.

Plenty of fire departments are going for this change. In my opinion the FDNY, Chicago, and LA County are real fire departments.
The fact is we are not steaming victims. The longer we allow the fire to burn un-interupted the less chance the victims have. When water is applied things get better always.
As for basement fires attempting to get down the stairs is a very risky tactic. Exterior knock down that is able to hit the seat of the fire actually will make descending the stairs tenable improves conditions throughout the structure.
Hundreds of fires have been conducted to test these theories both in the labs and in mutltiple aquired structures throughout the country. The revoultionary tactics outlined in FDNY Ladders 3 written in the late 60s worked very well for our department when natural fibers dominated the fuel loads. Then fuel loads of today lead to fires that are much less forgiving.
What's being advocated for the most part is the following. If you can take some of the tremendous energy out of the fire with some exterior application I would say probably never more than 90 seconds is necessary that will aid in your sucess and make it for a safer attack. No one is saying not to vent but coordination and timing is very important now. The research actually validated the benifits of VEIS, horizontal, and vertical ventilation when coordinated with suppression.

Things must be pretty quite around EMTBRAVO land to throw that hand granade!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My understanding of the pilot program was because they have so many guys on the line their hands were reducing the flow to the nozzle. 2" hose is much harder to compress than 1 3/4.

http://youtu.be/U8XFhXrVxTQ

Job, Worker, Goin' to work, DO WORK!, J O B, Stretching on a dwelling, OSW, Going Good, All Hands, Confirmed Worker, Burner, Suit Up!, Dumpin' The Monitor, 10-75, and my favorite; Shake and Bake Boys, We Got A Barbecue!

Dan, did you catch the Building marker? Red box with an X. It's nice seeing proactive stuff like that!

Dan, did you catch the Building marker? Red box with an X. It's nice seeing proactive stuff like that!

I would pay twice what we pay now per year for a career firefighter/paramedic staffed department, and triple that to add in a uniformed policeman in each public school in my township. Happily.
I asked not to play the vollie card because we preach until we are blue in the face that we are no different than a career fireman,,(not true BTW), then we ask for special perks because we are "volunteer"....sorry - you cant have your cake, and eat it too..

It is absolutely amazing how THE DUTCHESS COUNTY PERSONAL DEPT. works... and let people or person become chief that dont even have FF 1 ..............LOL.

I can only guess who that one guy is...

I can only guess who that one guy is...

"ATTENTION"...

"ATTENTION"...

"ATTENTION"...

Date:09/06/2012
Time:0953
Location:119 Dog Tail Corners RD
Frequency:DC911 Fireground 11/12
Units Operating:JHK ALL, Pawling, Litchfield, CT tanker, DCDER CC73 and 16, Amenia, Wassaic, and Union Vale. NPD, DCSO, and NYSP as well.
Weather Conditions:Perfect
Description Of Incident:Call for a smoke from a residence, first arriving Chief found heavy smoke from 2 story SFD.
Reporters:X129k
We got out on first dispatch and put the fire out.

SVB was one of the best chiefs we ever had. Great fire commander, teacher. A no nonsene ,straight to the point kind of person. AND he cared about his men.

This is quite shocking, the whole situation. I'm asking myself "is this really happening?" It's surreal. ny10570 who we now know his name is Lenny Joyner, see his photo on the Denver news story, has been a regular productive member of this board for years. We know his political leanings, his compassion for others, his decency....yet most of us didn't know him personally.
I wish I had.
To those members here who had the honor of knowing him, condolences to you all. We all share in your grief.
For all of us here who care, who feel, please take care of yourselves now. Don't be tempted to grab the beers or anything else to drown the pain away.
Talk about it. Write about it. Share your feelings with those of us here who care for you and want you to be okay. That's what this site is about. A Fraternity of sorts. Times like these are the most testing for everybody. Talk about it at the firehouse, the precinct, the ambulance quarters.
Lenny got called home to God way too early, yet he obviously died doing what he wanted to be doing. Living his life the way he wanted it to be. Quite an adventurist it seems. I imagine he was quite ecstatic to reach that peak, to see that view, to be closer to his God.
Our board has another hero now. And his name is Lenny Joyner. God Rest In Peace.
Edit: Last name proper spelling.

The TIC is one of the best improvemnts the fire service has seen in the last 30 years. The problem comes in if it is just plain thrown on the rig and training is not done. Now as we become accoustomed to using it we run the danger of relying on it.
For me the best use of the TIC is locating the fire. When confronted with a zero visibility situation and the need to locate the fire the TIC is phenomonal. In the past members relied on things like listening and feeling heat on their ears and blind searching which all had inherent flaws. The TIC allows you to find the fire faster and allows you to get water on the fire faster and that makes everything better. Now the TIC is very useful at assisting with the primary search but the reason I rank finding the fire higher is this is your number one priority is to locate the fire. Once you locate the fire you know the life hazard. Also locating the fire makes us safer.
The TIC is also a supervisory tool. It allows you to keep track of your crew. Compare doing a large area search with tag lines compared to the Officer guided TIC search I think the TIC guided search is acutually safer.
As for using the TIC to guide overhaul I think this is the least benifical use of the camera. After a decent fire almost everything is white on the camera. The fire areas should still be opened up based on standard practices. And opening up should continue until clean bays are found. This is not to say that you should not use the TIC I always do but regardless of what it shows there are areas that I will open anyway.
As for training sometimmes people on here are looking for some outside trainers to come in and on this topic I would reccomend Safe IR. They are excellent instructors and are the experts on the topic.

If you have followed Brunacini for any length of time, you would have probably found that he appears all over the country with theories, advice, etc. and when you read about incidents that have occurred in Phoenix over the years seem to contradict what he has been saying in his speaking engagements. I kinda think he should spend more time in Phoenix.

From Poughkeepsie Journal article about fire Prevention:
"As important as smoke detectors are, they don't do anything to actually put out the fire. The next step in fire prevention and safety may likely be that sprinkler systems will be required in all new homes, as part of the state fire code, Steenbergh said."
Here's a comment from the Pojo news from XBMer:
"Think about that statement for a second: 3100 people are killed each year in the US by a fire in their home. There are 310,000,000 people in the US. That means the percentage of people killed in a house fire is: 0.000097% That is a pretty small percentage. In fact, based on 2009 statistics, you are about 5 times more likely to die from a homicide.
Does that sound like a good reason to increase the cost of each home by tens of thousands of dollars? Does it surprise anyone that spending other people's money is part of the thought process of a captain of a fire department? They spend money like the stuff that comes out of their hoses. Who is going to do all the yearly testing on these sprinkler systems? Who is going to do the maintenance? (I think it is obvious who will pay for them). Note to all fire captains out there - when you make a ridiculous statement regarding the future of fire protection, people might start to question the past statements you made to justify your spending (and the taxes the public now pays to support them)."
Sometimes I just don't understand the mentality of people. We pay thousands of dollars for insurance and never use it but you have it Just in case...

So which is it the IAFF or the Department that wants it? They are not one and the same and often they are on opposite side of many issues. NYS has 100 depts that are career or combo and only about 6 provide ALS. I dont think you have studied this enough.
Who are you to determine what a community should think is valuable and is willing to pay for?
All of Florida "forces" everyone to be FL. firefighters to get hired or promoted, does that make for a down grade in firefighters?
So you've inteview all these ff's and determined this? I've been a paramedic and an instructor for over 25 years (firefighter & officer for similar), but my agency is BLS. I became a medic because I wanted to. My medic training makes me a better fire officer and my fire training makes me a better medic.
I know many depts that its highly competative to even get into medic programs.
I also know a number of non fire based medics, that are burned out, or want to be an RN, Cop, FF and the medic will be dropped when they get there. The medic is just to pay the bills for now (some are good and some are not....and many are forced by Mommy & Daddy because they need a job).
Then how can you make claims about the entire fire service? Since the majority of EMS in the US is fire based and has been that way for 40 or more years when is this padding going to have any effect?
Yes you are clearly a newbie and reading a bunch of articles maybe only has given you a small view of whats really out there.
So its better to provide it for profit like the big commercial services?
BTW, I'm not pissed off, Its common to see inexperienced people try to prove a point here.

City of Poughkeepsie Ladder 1

So many thoughts on this so hopefully this is somewhat followable. The original poster was prompted to ask his questions based off the medal day book. So on that fact I will say this I think it is dangerous for most departments to attempt to operate like the FDNY. We have the ability to put a lot of firefighters on the scene very quickly and probably unparalleled. That combined with strong SOPs that spell out where everyone goes and what they do based on the building type and location of the fire put us in a unique situation. This is in no way a knock on any other department but I think your procedures and risk management need to be based on your staffing, experience level, and what you face. In a majority of cases I believe small departments should concentrate on putting all their initial effort on placing the first line in operation. Even in the case of people trappped unless you know exactly where they are the best course of action may still be to get water on the fire.
As for the can as a truck officer when I enter an apartment prior to the line which is frequently the case when the fire is on the upper floor since the engine will be delayed in the long stretch I usually bring the can firefighter with me and leave the irons firefighter at the door (inside holding the door closed). The can allows us to knock down fire very well. As long as the fire has not flashed over the can will have an impact. The can is very effective at pushing fire back and allowing us to close doors. And in the etreme cases where protection is needed to effect a rescue the can is handy. Passing fire is a very dangerous move and should probably be reserved for known victims.