Bnechis

While your statement is technically true, if you believe what you wrote, you should never respond to another call again. We generally know that most of the chemicals in an autobody shop are flammable/combustible (& yes they are also toxic)and with the volume of fire involved in this incident all of these materials have been consumed or if properly stored (as determined from the UFP&BC required inspections) in flammable lockers, they may still be contained in those containers. The greater hazard to firefighters at this call the TRUSS!! The toxic chemicals that are improperly stored in every garage, basement and under the sink in every kitchen is of much greater hazard to us, along with the chemicals in every vehicle fire. These concerns you raise are much greater in most peoples homes than in the autobody shop. Yes they are hazadous materials, but the only time I ever saw the levels elevated is in mt vernon and it was not an autobody shop, but a distributor for autobody shop chemicals. I bet if the health dept. checked for ground levels prior to the fire and after the fire, the levels would be the same. Spills are not uncommon and as I previously wrote either the majority of this stuff has burned and gone up in the smoke or its still inside the flammable lockers.

As a general rule of thumb many commercial occupancies do change what they have regularly, but Autobody shops are not in that catagory. the solvents, paints, epoxies and gases they store rarely change. The City of New Rochelle requires permits for any occupancy that is performing welding/cutting and/or for spray booths. These 2 permits will not be issued until a NYS GML 209-u form be filled out and an inspector will review this, the MSDS's and perform a field inspection (as required by NYS Law) prior to issuing the permits. CIDS info will be documented and are available to 60 Control and all rigs. Each of these properties is also inspected by field units from one of the engine or truck companies. The NYS GML 209-u form is requires that all commercial occupancies must by both UFP&BC and by insurance law list all hazardous chemicals (over certain minimum quantities)by catagory listing the maximum quantity stored at anytime. This law requires this form be updated annually and submitted to the fire chief. It has been law for 26 years. Yes we must always be prepared for anything, and that includes knowing before the call what is located there. Thank You and to you and your family as well.

And why not know? Part of the FD's planning & training should include knowing the hazards in your district. Infact its a big point item under "training" in the ISO rating.

While the overall numbers may be down, in the 1st 8 months of 2010 there were more murders (9) than in the same 8 months of 2009 (3). Even if you add the rest of 2009, there are still more in 1st 8 months of 2010.

According to YPD between 1995 and 2007 154 people were MURDERED in Yonkers. In the past 3 years while crimes against property is down, violent crimes agains people is up. During the same time frame there were 363 rapes and 5,414 assaults reported. How do you "buy" this rating for your town? If they are number 1..... Town of Colonie - Population 76,211 total crime reported 2,794 City of New Rochelle - Population 72,585 total crime reported 1,899 (2003 FBI report) NR had a higher % of violent crime (18%)vs.(6%), but thats still based on a total that is 30% lower.

None of the above. Its an adjective, like great; AWESOME; COOL. Somewhat antiquated - more commonly used in the 1980s. From "radical". i.e. that skateboard is totally rad. Goes along with narly & dude.

Both Congress and the NYS Legislature have been doing it for years

Chief I find it hard to believe that even the city of homes would have a police commissioner who was dead for 14 years. LOL

Other than the reason listed for hooking up to exhust capture, why would you need to divert the exhaust and what problems can this creat?

Why would anyone want that, when they can have high turnover, low pay and few oppurtunities

Thats because we have too many depts covering a single engine company size district with 3-4 engines. ISO requires spare engines and trucks, but we cant afford them, which is ironnic because we have about 100 rigs more than needed to max out the points

Thanks I SEE

According to the commercial: "Denvers air Ambulance only uses Duracell Batteries in their night vision" Some day Duracell will have a logo I could use instead....

Funny I thought it was the other way around. People with money drive themselves or call a cab unless they really need an ambulance while those looking for a free ride call 911

Generally Yes. I suggested this to one town that had 4 or 5 ladders (different fire depts), that whoever was getting a new one, make that the spare for the town and let everyone chip in for maintaining it.

ISO does not recognize mutual aid. Maybe because their is no garuntee that it will even be called or called in a timely manor. They recognize automatic, which will respond everytime. While this is better, each dept is still basicly rated as stand alone for the apparatus. if you take the extra step you save 10 million.

No, ISO sells the ratings to the insurance companies. They notify the mayor & fire chief as o what the local dept is rated. It is also on most insurance policies, however it is coded as part of a 4 or 5 number system, which tells the agent, the building construction, sprinklers and FD rating.

Personnel (onduty and oncall) Training Apparatus including spares- all including minimum equipment and testing (pumps, hose and ladders) Station locations (distance to calls) Prefire planning In depts without municipal water (hydrants) they evaluate the FD's ability o maove water (but only if the FD requestes it) Otherwise they are automatically rated a 9 (on a scale of 1-10)

It was only theoreticall because they decided to not replace the engine & truck with a quint. They bought a quint and kept the old engine. Its only banded for residential in NYS. The bands are 1-3=A, 4-6=B, & 7-10=C. In NYS 239 depts are A, 1,417 are B's and 868 are C's Commercial every number counts. And in this case they were a low 5 and the change would have moved tham to a high 7 They do pay attention, but most home owners do not notice because whats an additional cpl of hundreed. But add that up over the 10-15 year rating period and add up that money for every property in a community we are talking millions being spent. When the ISO rating improves its common to see insurance sales people move into an area and offer discounts to "steal" new customers. Correct. The apparatus is just one aspect, the personnel is worth a lot more points. Now lets consider how the personnel in my example work out. if each of those 3 depts. maintaned 2 engines and a ladder they still need 36+1 members on every fire call. Thats 111 firefighters but if each dept. runs an engine, 1 runs a ladder and 1 a rescue. Thats 5 rigs for a fire call, if each rig ran with aproximatly 7 members you'd be golden. Thats one dept running 7+1 and the other two running 14 each. Wow many depts can actually manage this.

The municipal water system is worth 40% of the total rating. The FD is 50% and communications is 10%.

Generally there needs to be a hearing by the employeer. If he is proven not guilt in court of the DWI, he still may not win the hearing if he was charged with conduct unbecomming, unless he can prove that the arrest was not warrented. i.e. he should not have been arrest in the 1st place, therefore his behavior was not conduct unbecoming. Very difficult to beat this part of the charge. The reason the charge is conduct unbecoming is because of the way the media portrays it......"Firefighter Arrested" not Joe from NY.

Not likely. A properly equipped quint gets counted as either an engine and 1/2 a truck or a truck and 1/2 an engine (dept tells inspector which). I have yet to see a quint that can carry all of the equipment required to be "properly equipped". Either its short of hose, short of ladders or both (and always short of all the other little items). The rescue engine, generally does even worst. Adding a quint to you fleet may help your rating (i.e replacing 2 ladders with 2 quints = 2 ladders + 1 engine [each is 1/2 ). But replacing and engine and a truck with one (to "save" money) hurts your rating. I watched one dept convince the "board" that merging the engine & ladder with a new quint would save $500,000. There ISO rate changed and it will now cost the property owners about $7,000,000 in increase premiums (over 12 years) to save $500,000.

Only if they are not required to have a ladder. If required to have a ladder (any combo of: 5 or more buildings 5 stories tall &/or requiring 3,500gpm fire flow) then you also need a spare. For larger depts, you need atleast 1 spare for every 7 units (of a type). So if the ladder is required the rescue may count partually as a spare. You will lose about 50% for not having the arial and loss more points if you dont carry a full compliment of ground ladders (I've never seen a rescue that even carrys 1/2 of whats required).

The question is was he suspended for drunk driving or more likely he was suspended for "conduct unbecoming" which is based strictly on the fact that he was "arrested" by definition that maybe "conduct unbecoming"

Yes in America we use metal scaffolds, but standpipes, sprinklers and other fire precaustions are not always used here either: consider Meridan plaza, 1st interstate bank, the World Trade Center, Charrlston, Worchester, Our Lady of Angles, Coconut grove, Iroquios Theater, Triangle Shirt Waist, Deutsche Bank....and the list goes on and on. And the number one fire killer: the single family home in the US. We lead the world in fire loss of life and its because we do not fight for fire safety.