Bnechis

Very well said. How many departments would buy all those rigs without head lights? We do not need to respond to calls at night is no different than we do not need to respond in the winter. You can not expect the 20+ FD's (Plus PD's) to buy the multi million dollar boats that are actually needed. The only way we will ever have the boats needed is to consolidate and do it as a single agency. If a departments fire station was snowed in, do you think they would consider alternatives? The harbors being frozen means we have not done the planning and purchasing that is needed to ensure the safety of our personnel and the public. A big part of the problem is most departments believe this. How many departments believe that their depts can get enough people to a working fire? Most are blind. If our planning is left to "I believe" then we (or those in the water) are doomed. Chief well said!!! 14 fire departments in Westchester are on the river and 7 are on Long Island Sound (LIS) plus police departments. How many have boats? How many can do the job 24/7/365? if we had 3 larger boats on the Hudson and 2 on the Sound could they cover it all and for less? I think we will never find out because of the turf you mentioned.

We have done NOTHING. In fact we have reduced response capabilities. Didn't the county have cutbacks proposed in WCPD's marine unit? And on Long Island Sound New Rochelle PD cut back its marine unit and eliminated its dive unit. Interesting point, yes we are too thin, but that is because every dept is trying to do everything. Both NYPD & FDNY are large enough to have dedicated units to do this. What about marine firefighting, is that part of our core? We did, before the hoisted anchor (and rotor) and scaled back on the hudson, NYC & Long Island Sound (and a 50+ mile radius of the Atlantic ocean around NYC).

I will post the details next week with the pic's (it will be clearer when you can see them) All is well thanks & I hope all is well with you. Are there any seeds left in that melon or did you leave them in Afganistan

We took delivery, we have been outfitting it. training is scheduled for next week and we expect it to go inservice at the end of next week. I will post next week as we train. The 91' Pierce Rescue 4 will be renumbered R-54 (collapse unit) and reoutfitted to carry trench equipment and additional shoring. The current R-54 (former NYPD/NRPD ESU Truck) will be donated to the Farrell Fund (the found another home for it).

I put on gloves to drive, but thats because I see to many emt's handle the patiens, then drive. and rarely see anyone clean the wheel, the door handles or the stretcher.

Thanks MOM!!!! The rest was well stated as well.

Yes they were very good. What impressed me most was the way SVI communicated with use every step of the way. R-4 has a lot of very specific details that their engineers work in 3d with us daily, making sure we got exactly what we asked for. NEFEA was great, they got involved when needed and not when it required engineers to work out issues. For a very complicated project, I was able to slep each night knowing all was well. I can not say the same for other projects.

Nope, the rescue was very easy. The punch list was less than 2 pages (after 800+ page cotract review).

I wonder what peope use as the basis of thier choice? Is it looks? Is it the name? Is it the fact that some major dept uses them so thats why? What about maintenance, how well do they hold up? In my career I have seen a ladder fail because a manufacture forgot to recall a defective design. I have also seen 10 year old frame rails rust so bad that the vehicle may have to be scraped. Also rigs that leaked everytime it rained. And another brand that the radiators fall out every 16 months. In the past 11 months I have worked with 2 different manufacturers to build an engine and a rescue. The experiences were night and day. One I would buy from again and again. They were professional, got the job done well with very minimal issues. The other was very painful, we got what we wanted, but not without major effort on our part. I suspect that the majority of posters have never actually purchased apparatus. It changes your perspective about companies. Since most components are the same from one manufacturer to the next, the bigger issue is how they perform and how they support their product. Eng. 6 was reported to be very reliable when Blacky and Scout was the hourse power.

Thanks, didn't mean to leave you out, I should have written Greenburgh Squad #6.

Thanks...Thats ok "the points don't matter" - Drew Carey (whose line is it anyway)

Good thing that fire commissioners are sworn in to protect the community.

Sorry, long day and tough keys on this laptop....lol

The Westchester Special Operations Task Force (WSOTF) consists of 10 departments operating a Technical rescue, Hazmat unit and 6 squad companies. The squads are from Yonkers, New Rochelle, Mt Vernon, White Plains, Eastchester & Scarsdale, and Greenville/Fairview/Hartsdale. All squads are trained and equipped for in Hazmat/WMD and Confined Space, all are trained for trench & building collapse, but only 4 of the squads are equiped for that. We train together, we would like to train together more, but sometimes funding is funneled elsewhere and not to WSOTF ($400,000 from a WSTOF major collapse drill went far north). If you wanted the services of WSOTF they can be requested thru 60 Control, but you have to ask for them, if you want WSOTF otherwise they will send the team they feel is "best". Yonkers, Greenville and New Rochelle responded to Hawthorne for a building collapse after a tornado strike (about 2 years ago). 18 minutes after dispatch we had approximatly 56 technical rescue techs onscene which included 3 collapse units and 2 heavy rescue units. This was on a weekday afternoon. Is it a duplication to have the Westchester TRT? what kind of response can they provide? Last weekend Valhalla FD had a vehicle into a building and they requested the WTRT to respond. The onscene time was 20 minutes from time of dispatach. How many members arrived in 20 minutes? WSOTF was able to get 56 fully trained members to Hawthorne in the same time it tok WTRT to respond to Valhalla with "X" number of responders. Note: as of last summer they had approx 25 members who had completed the states building collapse course. New Rochelle (and others) have responded M/A to other counties and even north to the Canadian Border. When we were trying to establish a county wide system (years before the WTRT) we traveled north a number of times to show volunteer depts that we wanted their participation.

Or they leave the crossing post to go to the fire and little john gets hit.....

New Rochelle does not have a technical rescue team. We have a squad company thattrains collectivly with the other Squads and Yonkers.

No its not "consolidated". The Westchester Special Operations Task Force (WSOTF)was designed to operate with multiple squad companies county wide. The original plans included departments from one end of the county to the other. A small group of very vocal individuals insisted that they would start there own volunteer team and they would have nothing to do with a consolidated team. We trained over 700 responders (FD,EMS & PD) for Hazmat/WMD to tech level then trained about 400 to technical rescue technicians, rope, confined space, trench & building collapse. The group that became the counties TRT was offered in a number of times, in fact we brought equipment to Yorktown and to Valhalla to meet with different depts to go over the concept of those department participating in WSOTF. They refused. That would have been a consolidated well equipped and trained team. If it was not for the fact that the County found the pot of gold (Syossit FD) Tech rescue vehicles on sale for 70% off, the "County TRT" would still not exist.

He mike you got some very stupid people in Stamford its a good thing SFRD has a crack rescue. LOL B.

Can you define "appropriate number of trained personnel"? How many trained personnel do they have? There are standards for this. What type level team are they? Type I responds with 56 members Type II with 26 (or 28 I forget) If every trained member on the team responded (assuming none are at there real jobs) how many trained members do they have? Again I quote Col. Jessep: "You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know." Training 2 drills per month is not enough to be competent in building collapse, trench collapse, confined space, rope rescue and the plan to add water rescue

Col. Jessep: "You can’t handle the truth!" [pauses] Col. Jessep: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

The state team is run out of the Albany Area, thats why its refered to as the "Albany" team.

This is true in the northeast, but in many portions of the country county or regional depts. are career or combination. Often because it is cheaper when it is done on a regional bases. While the volume may be lower in bedroom communities, the type of response is based on the emergency, not the type of community (if the house is burning, the fire des not care if its in a city or out in the country). The spending difference that you speak of would be based on trying to fully staff a volunteer dept in Westchester with career personnel. When you look at the southern regional models (GA, SC & FLA, etc.) most stations with the call volumes seen in many Westchester depts. would only require an engine (and a tanker if no muni water system). Its amazing that they send less for career depts then we spend and meet national standards for response. Clearly the overall budget is less in a volunteer dept., career depts. are established with larger populations than those found in most bedroom communities. Either a city or county/region. When covering a larger population the costs per family (or per tax payer). As an example I compared the per capita cost of my city FD with that of a number of VFD's in notrthern westchester and we average about $100 less per capita. The key is regionialization. Even more amazing would be the amount of money that could be saved in the volunteer communities in Westchester if they would become a regional dept. The only one who would not save money is the apparatus dealers. If life hazard or significant property dammage threat is not an issue then why does every dept in westchester need all the apparatus it has? Based on that statement alone, do we need all of the FD's (and stations and rigs) we have? If politician did a risk/benefit assesment they would figure we would be better in some communities with no FD and pay the next dept over to come to the 1 call every few days. Politicians do risk/benefit assesments for there career, not for the safety of the community. If they think funding a new tower ladder in a VFD that does not need one will get them reelected then they will get a new TL. If you ask that way, of course they will never go for it. One County in S.C. showed that going county wide and career dropped the ISO rating from a 9 to a 5, saving each property about $800/yr in fire insurance while increasing the fire tax by $300, they put it to a vote and everyone is saving money today. You are right it wont happen here, because we will fight to keep our depts. seperate, even if we can not meet the needs, because we are way to proud of the "great" job we are doing. The reason taxes are #1 in Westchester is because the pleasure of our communities is to do it this way, because they do not understand that the rest of the country does it for a fraction of the cost (this is mostly school tax, but every tax contributes).

They set up the Albany Team....thats all the $$$$ It is not possible to train everybody. Particularly if you want them to be competent. Consider how hard it is to train all member to be competent as firefighters, then double it.

How do you document respone times? Does the clock stop when the 1st rig get thee or the chief? If the 1st rig, does it need to be manned to stop the clock, or is a driver by himself stop the clock?

If building construction is as important as everyone has stated (and I strongly agree)....how many depts require training in it to become officers and chief officers?