Bnechis

In someways this is true. No one predicted that planes would be used as weapons agains America and we could not do anything to prevent it (Kamikaze? ElAl pre flight screening) Oklahoma City truck bomb (doesn't almost every federal building now have baracades to make vehicles stand off) Nope, we never thought someone angry with the US would use vehicle bombs (never heard of the middle east). How do you expect anything to be preventable if people dont speek up when they see something? Yes thats unfortinate, but in this case they did and yousaid they were wrong for doing it. So which is it, you appear to want it both ways. And if he gave you a ligit answer, it would have been it could be made to look like anything. Sounds more like he was just trying to dismiss your question. They have found a lot more than that, you just are not being notified. One way to keep informed is to read each weeks FDNY Watchline it makes it clear that this is not even close to the only one and yes he was stupid, most have been, which is the only reason we've been so lucky. Central Station Burgler alarms dont stop the true pro, but make the amature move on to an easier target. Since the media plays it up. Going to the extent they did in Mamaroneck, just may get the attention of the guy who is planning harm and he will say this area is prepared and i'm better moving it down the road. But we will never know.

You are correct Mamaroneck is not on the same list as Manhattan, But its pretty clear that every attack in Manhattan was stagged outside the primary target. WTC 93' came from Jersey City and they had a back-up staging in Yonkers. During a routine building inspection in Mt Vernon, a warehouse filled with chemicals was discovered. Turned out they were WMD's being shipped to Libia. The owners are spending the rest of there lives in lock-up. The EPA's estimate during clean up was a detonation would have killed up to 40,000 (1/2 in the Bronx) and the crater would have been 1/4 mile diameter. One of the NYC threats was staged in Bridgport, Ct. just a simple drive down I-95 thru Mamaroneck to NYC. I wonder where they purchased gas for the trip? Then there was the political bombings in Westchester in the 70's Including 1 on Mamroneck Avenue (just up the road from this location). You are right, Mamaroneck is not a likely target, but it is a likely staging area and its very likely it could pass thru. And whats the chance that someone that plans harm in NYC screws up and it actually happens just out side. The people doing this, have mostly been foiled, because they screwed up.

For the same reason that Westchester "needs" 58 fire departments.

Do you also answer yourself?

NYS Labor law requires all fire departments to provide either workers comp or GML207a. This is how PESH (NYS OSHA) can give violations to volunteer departments for violating labor law. THe consider vollunter firefighters to be unpaid "employees" based on the workers comp.

LOL...thank you

It would be great if the streets got plowed. Many areas in the county still rely on spring to take care of the snow.

Ok now it’s time to get serious. Like any other rescue we need to access the patient, stabilize them and then extricate them. Access: We need to get to their level (even better if we can get above them). Ladder/Tower ladder if within reach of the road Ground Ladder. The 35' may very well work and relatively quick. High likelihood you will need more than 1, to get enough personnel and leverage up there. Tree climbing spikes & ropes (requires practice) Stabilize: The patient needs to be supported and potentially raised to extricate, prior to lowering. There are many types of harnesses, many are very difficult to put on someone who can’t "step into them" so you need to select one that can be placed on the victim. Diaper style may be the best choice, but there are others. We will also need a simple hauling system and a high anchor (a sling around the tree or the ladder itself. Again we need height above the victim to do this. Extricate: Many cases involve tree trimmers who get pinned when a section being cut shifts and pins them. This may require winching the section and or cutting parts of the branch. We must be very careful that either of those maneuvers will not cause additional shifting, which will make the situation worst.

Not so rare? They make national news because they are dramatic and rare. If the saw worked on the Tree rescue, this should do the trick for Ballon Rescue: The line gun also works well for rescuing a cat in a tree. When using it for cat rescue...think shooting skeet backwards............... Shooting Skeet: Step 1 - Pull Step 2 - Shoot Cat Rescue: Step 1 - Shoot Step 2 - Pull And for cat lovers, we dont really shoot cats in trees. we also do not rescue them. Cats come down on there own. If they did not we would find cat skeletons in many a tree.

Timber.....Sorry I had to do it.

I think its more like...I'm speachless. WTF can you say about the politicians that could turn there backs on these hero's.

Chris, I agree with one major and one minor exception. When times have been good the NYS conference of Mayors has convinced NYS to reduce the pension system payments (sometimes to 0%) but the local tax increases have not reflected that savings as the politicians have spent on pet projects, Then when times are bad and wall street is not pumping up the pension system the state raises the pension costs to cover the loss and the local politicians threaten to cut personnel to cover the loss. The minor one is, during good times its hard to get capital projects like energy efficiency windows or other things that will save money. It is also the time to replace equipment that has high maintenance costs. While funds cannot be saved, money can be spent on items that will reduce operating costs (which is particularly needed in bad times).

Can you give any examples of the "decades of poor financial planning", I think they have a very good record. Their fleet replacement plan is one of the best of any large dept. What items are not needed? That would assume that the politicians just do not understand and thats why they are not providing the manpower. The real issue is they do not care. The are only concerned with keeping their job and that means keeping the voters happy.

I have seen depts convinced of many things with just one demo. The whole debate on Class A and CAFS, we need to remember its just another tool. USFA did a 6 month (or yr long) study with Boston. They installed a system on the busiest engine and had it respond to all working fire (in addition to its primary responses). The final report was basically, its nice, it works, thank you very much and that was the end of it. I do agree, that there are benifits to it, but I also have great concerns about our ability to use it. A number of fire instructors have told me that when doing live burns at DES (both classes and dept drills), they ask the MPO what pressures they plan on using and the most common answer is dont know, just till the hose is hard. The other issue, is while standing by mutual aid in another dept., there were 2 M/A engines from 2 different depts (we had a truck there). One engine had CAFS and one class A both drivers said the chiefs who bought the rigs said it works great, and both drivers said they dont use it because it never works. Now most of this is training issues, but it leaves me very negative, that most MPO's have issues with basic pumping. That needs to be addressed 1st.

43 Bayard. 2nd Alarm. Just prior to the above picture, members were ordered off the 3rd floor. A 2.5 gal PW extingusher was left behind. It BLEVED and here is the result: We are still looking for the handle, hose and sling.

I do not know if class A and class B work the same on the issue of backflow. When developing a large capacity program to deal with a tanker fire, we looked into how to flow foam from a tower ladder. We now have large eductors that can feed our tower ladder. While extension of the boom is not a problem, elevation above 30 feet creates enough back pressure that minimal or no foam flow. If this back pressure is an issue with class A (and it should be based on the pressures inside the venture of an eductor) then the only way to get foam above the 3rd floor is to carry the buckets & eductor up with you. And since you need 200psi at most eductors and standpipe systems almost never give that much pressure that wont work either. Come to think of it, since the maximum distance of most systems is 200 feet from the eductor, and you need about 150' (minimum) from the standpipe to nozzle, that only leaves 50' to get from the engine to the standpipe, then up the building. Most of the time you need 50 feet or more to get to the standpipe. That leaves 0 feet of elevation. Finally, we supply standpipes with 2 1/2" - 3" lines (some use 4" or 5") how many depts have anything larger than 1 3/4" eductors?

Well done!!!! Now lets look at Ethanol (which is alcohol mixed with gasoline). E85 is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, while E10 is 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. E10 is commonly found in cars. Ethanol is now the #1 rail transported product, with 350,000 annual railcars, usually rail cars carry pure ethanol. MC306 Tanker trucks generally care either E85 or E10 with approximately 8,400 tanker trips annually. Which is about 10% of the total tanker trips. Ethanol is a polar solvent which means it mixes with water. Gasoline is a non-polar solvent, when gasoline and ethanol are mixed they create a unique series of problems for the fire service. One concern is how much foam is needed, which is dramatically more than with other flammables. The 1% / 3% (Hydrocarbons / Polar Solvents) AR-AFFF is considered the most appropriate for Ethanol and should be set at 3%. 15 gallons of Ethonal from a car tank that has spilled on the ground and ignited will require approximately 10-16 gpm of foam concentrate for a minimum of 15 minutes, which is 150 to 230 gallons of concentrate. If an M306 gasoline tanker were to spill its entire load the requirements would be approximately 80,000 – 128,000 gallons of concentrate. I do not believe that much concentrate exists in the entire region. Airport Crash Trucks are not an option, they do not carry Alcohol Resistant Foam. If the fire occurs in a loading dock the flow rate needs to be doubled. If the spill is contained in a diked area, the application time doubles, but the amount of foam needed maybe less based on total square footage.

Yes, both should be called. But we still find the majority of depts. that do not call enough interior firefighters to put out the fire in the 1st place. Once thats done, there is less need for FAST & Rehab. We also need to address who has FAST and who has rehab. These are basic skills.

In NR on a 10-75, 60 control automatically sends FAST & 1 ALS ambulance.

We do not. Seen too many that fail, mostly because they are not properly maintained or the mpo is not properly trained. You can preconnect an eductor and drop it in the foam just as quick and it works everytime.

The issue here is your definition of a structure fire. A special rehab unit is rarely needed for a room & content fire, even when its called a working fire (10-75). its over in 10-15 minutes. A room & content fire is not a structure fire its a fire in a structure. A structure fire is when the structural components of a building are now under attack. Will it is a technical language issue it is important that we compare apples to apples.

Priceless Someone please correct this if it is not correct: I'm driving up RT 35 in Somers and I witness an MVA roll over with intrapment. I call 911 on my cell. The Hudson vally transportation center in Hawthorne transfers my call to 60 control. 60 Control dispatches Medic 45 and notifies NYSP. Then they notify Somers Dispatch Center to send Somers FD & FD EMS.

The system we designed is tied to our vehicle mapping system. It will give us the dispatchers notes (type of call, special info and instructions), CIDS info and will identify the call location on our GIS map. Which also gives hydrant data. In addition the MDTs include AVL so the CAD system will be able to "see" where the resources are. We received a group grant toward this system which will put the mapping system into 9 southern Westchester departments (2 already have it installed). We expect to have it operational by spring

Not exactly, but we are working on having it running by spring. Maybe it would have been sooner if the communication report from the fire advisory board (the one that supported the trunk system) supported data transmition, but but I understand that was not considered important by many depts.