Bnechis

VAT - Vehicle and Traffic Article 9 - EQUIPMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES AND MOTORCYCLES § 375. Equipment. 3. Amber lights. a. One or more amber lights may be affixed to a hazard vehicle, and such a light or lights which display an amber light visible to all approaching traffic under normal atmospheric conditions from a distance of five hundred feet from such vehicle shall be displayed on a hazard vehicle when such vehicle is engaged in a hazardous operation. Such light or lights shall not be required to be displayed during daylight hours provided at least two red flags visible from a distance of five hundred feet are placed both in or on the front of, and to or on the rear of the vehicle and two such flags are placed to each side of the vehicle open to traffic. Such lights or flags need not be displayed on the vehicle when the vehicle is operating, or parked, within a barricaded work area and said lights or flags are displayed on the barricade. The provisions of this subdivision shall not prohibit the temporary affixing and display of an amber light to be used as a warning on a disabled motor vehicle or on a motor vehicle while it is stopped on a highway while engaged in an operation which would restrict, impede or interfere with the normal flow of traffic.

I never have a problem at JFK and even LGA is much better. And they do not run ads to not bring your car.

Rear only.

Unfortinatly, the county &/or the airport have not told anyone of this. They have told us there is not enough parking so get dropped off/picked up or take mass transit (which is not available from most communities or at 5am to get on the early flights. Are there any signs indicating that overflow is available?

The 3 critical projects that need to be addressed are: 1) Parking 2) Parking & 3) Parking

Never been to Victoria or Vancouver, I see.

It is still illegal to use forward facing blue lights on police & fire vehicles.

NY is a partial OSHA plan state so municipal workers are covered (including PD, FD, & DPW). Maritime is covered under its own regulations (which includes some confined space, but not as detailed as the general industry standard). Utilities (Power & Phone) have an interesting exemption, they are only exempt until they have an incident. When 29CFR1910.146 1st came out, it was based on the number of fatal incidents that were occuring in confined spaces, the utilities complained that they had enough procedures inplace that nationally they had few if any incidents. The OSHA rulling was they did not have to comply with the regulations, however, if a utility has an incident, OSHA can and has given sitations for failing to meet the standards. The federal and NYS state law is very clear on this, they can only list the local FD, if the FD agrees in writting to taking on the responsability and they are equipped and trained to meet the standard. By the fact they are paying for your personnel, sounds like your dept has agreed.

Most Confine Space Incidents with workers down in a sewer are due to Limited Oxygen (less than 19.5%) usually due to displacement with methane and/or hydrogen sulfide. Since these are gasses they do not generally require "decon" however, due to other products personnel are generally hosed off. This does not require "hazmat", just an engine company to hose them after clothing has been removed or cut off. STAT flight always had a policy of no hazmat victims even if decontaminated, because of the concern for off gassing in the aircraft. The two big questions: 1) Did the gas fill in after they were in the space or did they fail to monitor the space before entry (as required by state & fed law)? 2) Where was their rescue team? The law requires one on-scene or within 4 minutes prior to entry.

Its Vegas baby...take a chance. 50/50 you can get off the ground before 684. Thats better odds than you get in vegas.

Excellent question. The real solution to this is consolidation of departments. This does 2 things, 1st it expands the pool of potentail officers and 2nd it reduces the number of positions needed. For example: Dept. A runs 3 engines, 1 ladder & 1 rescue out of 3 stations. It has a Chief, 1st & 2nd AC, 5 captains, 5 1st Lts, & 5 2nd Lts (18 officers). Dept. B runs 2 engines, 1 ladder & 1 rescue out of 2 stations. It has a Chief, 1st & 2nd AC, 4 captains, 4 1st Lts, & 4 2nd Lts (15 officers). Thats 33 officers. If merged, they may be able to reduce companies, but even if not, they will reduce the numbers of officers needed. Reduced Companies: 4 engines, 2 ladders & 1 rescue out of 4 stations. It would need a Chief, 1st & 2nd AC, 4 captains (1 per station), 7 1st Lts (1 per rig), & 7 2nd Lts (1 per rig), 21 officers, a reduction of 12 positions. Even without company reductions you still save a Chief, 1st & 2nd AC. This makes 3 highly experienced officers to fill in the captains ranks. The problem is no one wants to hear this. If 2 or more departments actually used this rational to go to the community and claim that not only do we have a continous manpower problem, we also have a leadership problem and that the current leadership feels this will solve the probem, its much more likely that the community will consider this.

Thats a major challenge. In many depts. itrequires a cultural change and for the chief to understand that the department is "bigger" than he is. Excellent. In addition to the chiefs, the goals need to include those above and below. Above: The Mayor, Manager or Board of Commissioners should require that in each years budget the chief(s) must submit his goals for the next budget year and the status of the goals set in the previous budget. This responsibility is rarely seen. Below: Each company and its officers should also have goals and review its previous years status. These goals are generally more task oriented and often but not always help the dept meet its annual goals. For example a company goal maybe to improve its ability to establish an attack line in xx seconds. If a dept goal is to get 4 more ff's on each call a company goal, might be to get 1 more (if each company did that, maybe the dept can meet its goal). We require our Deputies to review the NFIR's every tour. It is up to them to send them back to the company officer who fails to complete their paperwork. If you as a LT. you do not quikly learn that the DC will get pissed if they have to keep sending the same problem back, you will not do well as an officer. If you are dispatched by 60 Control you have FireRMS available to you for your NFIR's and it is designed to have someone review your documentation. We recieve requests almost everyday. The courts have made it clear, time and time again, that if it was not written, it was not done.

Many of the posts have talked about the number of years needed (2, 3, 5 etc.) But that does not cover experience. Can (or should) a firefighter be promoted to LT. if hey have never actually been on the line or performing a real search inside a working structure fire? VFD's are one of the only organizations that will allow someone who has never actually done the work, &/or never been trained to make life and death decisions. I know depts that do this and its beter than one year terms, but particularly for chief officers, how do you grow in the job, It takes you a year to figure out the basics then you start a project and by the time its 1/2 way done you are out and the next chief is not interested in it.

Lower taxes and better services, Why would we want that here?

So I replace an engine and a ladder with a quint what does it save? Engine $500,000 Ladder $750,000 Quint $850,000 So you save about $400,000 (these are all general #'s). Now ISO comes in and says is that quint primarily the engine or primarily the ladder that it replaced? You get full credit for one and half credit for the other. In addition you lose additional points for not carrying all of the ISO equipment (and no quint can fit all the eng & lad equipment). Now depending on size of your department (the bigger you are the less it hurts) that may cost you one point on the ISO PPC or everyones insurance goes up about 8% per year. In my city doing that could cost the property owners $2- $4 million per year. So if the new rig lives for 10 years, to save $400,000 you cost the community $20,000,000. "I was told there would be no math"

"The plan selected by the mayor, in my opinion, will give the North Stamford area more than adequate fire protection and flexibility at little or no increase in taxes." "More than adequate" - what standard does that meet? NFPA 1710, NFPA 1720, ISO, Fire Accredidation, etc.? "Flexability" - to do what? What if it does not work, is that flexability to hire more without oversight? "I do not see any difference between a responding apparatus staffed with a Local 786 crew or a Stamford Volunteer Fire Department crew." so he cant see the difference between a 3-4 man crew vs. a 1-2 man crew. Vinny Gambini: "Maybe you're ready for a thicker set. You sure? Let's check it out." "The Stamford VFD plan, as I see it, will provide more flexibility in the types of apparatus that can respond to an incident..... The SFRD firefighters do not switch from one apparatus to another." Can anyone list any major dept. that routinly jumps from rig to rig? Can it be that the team work that develops when assigned to a specific rig is better? In baseball do the pros switch from catcher to outfield? Wouldn't this make the team more flexable? "If they are assigned to an engine they stay on that engine. A serious road accident requires an engine and a rescue, and you're likely to get a better mix of firefighters and apparatus responding simultaneously under the SVFD concept." So 1 ff on an engine and 1 on the rescue is better than 6-8 on an engine and rescue. Or does this flexability mean we take the rescue and leave the engine back? Hope we do not need it. "Cost is another item that appears to be in question. Under the SVFD plan, the staffing levels will not be much different than the previous volunteer department staffing levels other than the paid chief's position." The big question: Was the previous staffing enough? Can you show that the response of career & volunteers has met any accepted minimums? "Thus, the historically low cost the taxpayers have enjoyed, by virtue of having their fire protection supplemented by volunteers, should not change." True, as long as enough trained volunteers show up in a timely manor. This has not been happening, maybe it was when the author was chief. "Volunteers are always eager to be trained to drive and operate fire apparatus, and they reach the highest levels of proficiency. For decades, this has greatly multiplied the numbers of apparatus rolling out to calls with zero cost to the taxpayer. The best example would be any one of the damaging storms that hit North Stamford. I can remember times when every piece of Turn of River Fire Department apparatus was deployed at separate locations, all manned by volunteer drivers and crews, with everyone working together as professionals to get the job done, regardless of who was getting paid and who wasn't." Back in the good old days, this was the case. Now it appears that many of the active members are no longer showing up, maybe because they moved away. But they still know those that are left behind can do it. This is not about getting paid or not, its about getting enough trained firefighters to an incident, the current depts are not getting the job done.

Have the members who were laid off and/or demoted returned to their original status?

As an example when the Tornado hit California Closets in Hawthorne. within 18-20 minutes we had 50+ technical rescue technicians on scene with 3 heavy rescue units, 3 collapse units, and assorted other units. No OT, no backfill needed. Thats how the system was designed. Now if a 2nd call of equal needs came in we would need to bring additional personnel in, but we actually have it. Same issues apply to a hazmat incident

Hazmat Technician, 600 Firefighter (14,400 Hours) NYS Level “A” Trailer Training, 200 Firefighters (3,200 Hours) WMD Training 200 Fire Fighters (1,600 Hours) Local In-Service Training, Dirt Bomb, Decon, Mark I, Chemical MCI, etc. Functional Drills 250 Fire Fighters (2,000 Hours) WMD Training 160 Fire Fighters (640 Hours) Functional WMD HSEEP Exercise 75 Fire Fighters (600 Hours) White Plains High School Gunman and WMD Release Exercise Squads 4, 5 & 6 plus County Hazmat, Law Enforcement and EMS Mt. Vernon WMD Exercise Squads 1, 2 & 3 plus Yonkers Hazmat, Law Enforcement and EMS Additional Training, approximatly 600 ff's: Confined Space Technician Basic Trench Rescue Advanced Rope Rescue Emergency Response to Terrorism – Tactical Considerations for Hazmat NYS Advanced Hazmat Technician - 100 Fire Fighters $200,000 Federal funding for equipment $600,000 outside funding for training 40,000 man hours invested in training $26m local community investment in personnel costs for training for WMD Bus & NYS Level A Trailer WMD, Hazmat & Collapse Training Props. YFD Hazmat & Collapse Units NRFD Collapse Unit Greenville Collapse Trailer The county use to use some of the grant money that they want to consolidate to support some of our equipment needs, such as mass decon shelters. To my knowledge the squads do not factor in to this plan.

The WSOTF System was designed to respond with either a Hazmat Unit or a Technical Rescue Unit. Both of which are coming out of YFD (but could include any other legitmate unit). YFD Hazmat TF responds with a minimum of 15 HM Technicians plus any squads as assigned. One of the reasons for the establishment of WSOTF is thru drill it was determined that at a major HM incident you need a minimum of 30 - 50 hazmat techs (particularly if multiple people need decon or during summer days when everyone in suits need rotation often). The squads must have a minimum of 6 HM Techs (1 officer) With 5 squads, that means the system has approzimatly 50 HM Techs ON-DUTY in fire stations or on rigs 24/7. A squad can perform one hazmat/WMD functional task at a time. - Entry – Recon (Detection) - Backup - Technical Decon - Dress Out Support / Medical Monitoring - HM Accountability, ICS & Research We found that to actually perform proper and timely technical decon (for entry team) it requires 12 members (2 squads). 1 sets up the technical decon while the other suits up to operate it. Then the set up team can suit up, which by that time the primary team needs relief. this way we can continue rotating decon for a number of hours. Can either DES or the proposed DPS unit put this kind of manpower on scene in a timely manor and without OT?

The maroon was purchased as part of the 100 aniversary of the 1906 Great Fire (as that was the cover of the rigs then). They claimed they would go back to red after that series.

And Teddy didnt go far enough...

That sounds more like another 1980's NR medic...who now is in a Fl. fire/rescue dept.

The drivers headphones do not provide hearing protection, they are single ear or one ear open. The purpose of them is you can hear the radios without blasting them and you have intercom with everyone on the rig. its voice activated so to talk to the officer or crew, you do not have to hit the button. to transmit on the radio you need to hit the PTT button, but thats less effort than picking up the mic and hitting that button.

Its just you. Get your eyes checked