Bnechis

In general doing both at the same time is a good way to kill firefighters. Because FD's in America never just stand outside and shoot water in thru windows? There are millions of large multi dwellings in this country that do not have standpipe systems (over 100 in my city alone). & I have seen many depts that do not have enough interior qualified ff's to perform SAR. While that is true, you put down other countries, many are much more proactive than we are. Read Fire in America (I and II) we have the worst record of all industrialized nations. Its wonderfull that you feel we are so advanced. Firefighting in most of europe is much more organized, with much better training (particularly in the volunteer sector and in all aspects of command). There equipment is much more advanced, particularly for highrise. And while Shanghai may or may not have a great response, how many rigs in America are properly staffed or can even get out the door? Paging any available driver for the 3rd time........ That has very little to do with it.

They have, They list the number of apparatus needed for a community (based on pump capacity) in most cases its 3 engines (plus a spare). Now where it gets interesting is if you have 3 depts., who each cover 3 square miles from 1 station, and a pump capacity need of 3,500gpm they each need 3 engines & a spare or 12 engines. If the 3 depts merge they will still need 3 engines to cover the pump capacity and 1 spare. So the same rating for engines is given to the one dept with 4 engines as the 3 departments with 12 engines. At the current cost of fully equipped engines at about $750,000 thats a savings of $6 million in rolling stock, plus reduction in fuel, maintenance, insurance and the space needed to house them. Now lets look at ladder companies in the same 3 departments. Depending on the size (hight &/or needed fire flow) of the buildings in each of the 3 districts will determine if they need a ladder company or a "service" company (ISO will credit a properly equipped rescue as a service company when an ariel ladder is not needed). Each of the 3 depts needs either a ladder or a service company and each also needs a spare ladder or a service company. Since almost every dept in Westchester has a ladder, thats 6 ladder companies (most also own a rescue) needed. Now most depts do not own a spare ladder, so they have too many engines and not enough trucks. The ISO requirement for this community is 1 ladder and 1 spare a savings of 4 equipped ladders or a savings of about $4 million plus the other savings. Why are taxes so high in Westchester compared to other parts of the country? The above example shows how we over spend in the fire service, think of how we do the same in schools and other services.

Look at the prop on it.....its just a cheap copter with only a tail rotor.

More like the day before yesterday. Nice job Chris

yes

While it is important to inform the community, does anyone even read the papers and if they do, do they pay any attention to ads (particularly from the unions)?

Not so you would have noticed. Ladder pipe on L-12 did a much better job at knocking it down. A lot less than that, they had already used at least 1/2 the water in the can.

Yes

2 have 3's the other is a 4. There is no limit to the rating a Combo dept can earn.

Its so bad because the JN says it is and we should all be mad as hell because it must be bad because elected/appointed officials who must produce something to prove they are doing there job Since, these numbers are averages, we can skew them in many ways. If the majority of the firefighters each took fewer days and a dozen or so took much more you would get to the same numbers. They want you to assume that sick leave is just for when you have a cold, but members also use it when they are injured (offduty) such as from an MVA or sports or if they have a long standing medical illness. A serious MVA could take 6 months to recover from (and be able to perform as a firefighter) that could take 60 or more days. Finally comparing sick days of people who work 24 hour shifts and 8 hour shifts is a little unfair. If a ff is out sick for 1 tour its 24 hours of duty (If its on a Monday, he is off the next 3 days and is not due back until friday), but the general worker is may still call in on tue and Wed.

No war. Thats the excuse for home rule. If this were true, shouldn't every section of NYC have its own PD & FD? No county sheriffs dept would work. A vulnerability assessment is a great idea for determning where resources should be deployed, but from some of the statements it apears that some of the communities that rely on Yorktowns k-9 unit may actually have more need for it then Yorktown. Have they done vulnerability assessments? Its not mutual if its going one way.

Why not? From the Managment or taxpayers side...If this is so important for the other communities, why should Yorktown (or any other town for that mater) have to be the only one that is paying for it?

They are shorter, have a much tighter turning radius and generally because of this greater manuverability, they tend to have a greater GPM delivery rate.

Its not new, its actually older than the radio system, and less accountability.

It did not improve, it was just averaged with a dept with a superior rating. If SRFD is smart it will appeal and ISO may seperate the ratings again.

Interesting. Now the properties downtown will pay an extra 16% but those with less protection than they use to have (back when they actually got on the road) will get an 8 - 16% reduction. SFRD should request a reevaluation. This is another example of why one dept. is needed, since now No. stamford will hurt the downtown (particularly the major tax paying companies & stores).

My point (which was clear in my head...but I think it never got typed in) was that many depts are cutting basic services and a regional approach is needed on all services not just on special ones. Saving on the special services by using a larger pool is a good idea, but its such a small cost percentage wise on the total service delivery. Since aviation costs more than many of the smaller depts total budget, its a great example. But as usefull as aviation is, a K-9 unit is much more likely to be needed and used in many jurisdictions multiple times during a tour (or at least a week). The numbers needed to be able to respond within a reasonable time would require many units located around the county. Agreed. Now lets consider the $2,000 per K-9 unit. NRPD is also uses 2 K-9 units (I'll assume the costs are similar) with about a $30m budget if we had the county provide the service it would only ssave 0.013% of our budget. The savings of spreading it out only work if you can "share" the service. If the county would need to add dozens of k-9 units to replace the dozens by locals, it just shifts the costs. The cost savings the tax payers want and the politicians are giving make this useless. In addition we would need the county to respond multiple times per week and the level of coordination and training (of our officers in working with the unit) would be rreduced I do not know how many PD's are in this boat (but looks like many are).....90% of the FD's in Westchester are already provide substandard services. The standards are OSHA, NFPA & ISO and we have depts that can not put enough trained ff's on scine to legally enter a burning building. These same depts are being told to cut back. I see very few embracing consolidation, just complaining about not having the resources or hiding the facts and hoping no one will notice.

You are correct, it does not mean that you need a career firefighters 24/7 in every house, or even most of them outside of downtown, if and this is the big "IF" the volunteers show up. since they have not been, then its unfair to the taxpayers who have been told time and time again that they are covered when they are not and unfair and usafe for the UNDERSTAFFED career members who are left holding the bag. Combination depts. in this region are just understaffed career depts., that justify the understaffing by claiming there are volunteers who fill the void. Thats fine if they actually have the training, the certification and they show up early enough to actually be of any use. This does not mean there are not volunteers that can and do the job (some very well), but as a whole its been along time since there have been enough of these in No. Stamford.

Job well done. 20 years flys by so fast.......I hope Seth gave you a gold watch (or a gold mouse). Thanks Barry

You are correct a paycheck does NOT guarantee the quaility, experience or dedication of a firefighter. But it does guarantee someone (a trained firefighter) will show up when you call 911. In North Stamford that clearly does not happen with out them. Yes money is a major motivation here, but if a dept or depts can not manage to put a team on the field and every fire results in a total loss, the money is of much less concern. Particularly if the FD ends up spending potential staffing money on lawyers and lawsuits.

1st. the counties are all cutting services as well 2nd. Having the counties handle the costs of just specialized survices, does not reduce the cost to taxpayers, it just changes which bill it comes from. 3rd. At some point the levels of service will be cut to the point that we will be forced to consolidate. Some of us have been advocating to due it before we get to those levels. Its going to happen, the issue is how much will we lose before everyone agrees to it.

First, you need to classify a "Fire Brigade" under OSHA 29CFR 1910.156 there are two types of brigades: am Incipient Fire Brigade and an "interior" Fire Brigade. The 1st has no PPE and basically can only attack an incipient fire with extingushers (and the training is at that basic a level). The other has turnouts, SCBA and other firefighting equipment plus the training to use it. They may also operate fire apparatus (consider the grasslands brigade). Most hospitals run Incipient Fire Brigades and most FD's will continue responding in that case. The fire brigades at many industrial plants may have more capability than most local FD's. The Fire Brigade at the Exxon Bayway Refinery in Linden NJ has more trained firefighters and more apparatus than at least 50 FD's in Westchester. I think the local FD in a case like that would follow the brigades lead. Another way to look at this: How many depts. will cancel when the local Police Dept. says its a false alarm? Police officers are generally trained to the Incipient Fire Brigade level. Many depts will not, though they may slow it down a little.

I know a number of depts that have had problems, but in every case its because they did not ask 1st. It is clear that the village has a lot of issues to resolve and its clear they had no prior knowledge of the pupose of 65% of this grant. While exercise equipment (along with a program to use it) is a very important in improving/maintaining a FD's ability, the 440 pounder would have other issues that need addressing 1st.

not quite. No interest in fire till much later

Was built as a school (not semi commercial) Interior halls classrooms on either side. Plus a little help from an arsonest.