Bnechis

It will be staffed by 168 members...just not all at the same time. We are working on a staffing plan, when it is fully staffed will let everyone know.

Nope. Thats an engine pretending to be a rescue. We are getting a heavy rescue.

Are you sure?....I thought we were buying a Pierce............

Yes its sad that its not going to happen this year and yes a lot of hard work goes into this. This event is and has always been a fund raiser for the chamber of commerce. And every year I hear how the chamber want to run the house without police and fire protection because it cuts into the amount of money they make. What responsability does the city have to helping them raise funds and what responsability do they have to protect the public. 1) Technically, NYS UFP&BC does not allow a public assembly in a wood frame structure (Ward acres) and the city & the FD were so concerned about the safety of everyone that the chamber had to sprinkler the ward acres barn (which is falling down) and pay for an engine co. We were so concerned about having a disaster that we were required to make a hydrant, stretch in, then stretch a handline. 2) The Ward Acres barn was in such bad condition that the H.H. was moved to the armory. Which is also in bad condition and also requires sprinklers for use as a public assembly. 3) As a firefighter and then an officer who has work this detail, I can tell you I was uncomfortable with the conditions and the potential for large loss of life. I know a number of officers who felt so uncomfortable with the conditions that they will not work that detail. The level of responsability that the city has is huge and becomes very obvious when you see how many parents dropping there kids off. For those who do not think that a haunted house has an extra level of fire potential, look up the H.H. multi fatal fire at Great Adventure. As a parent I would not allow my child to go to this event with the extreme safety concerns that I have always had with this event. 4) The Armory was never considered for the 2008 Haunted House. I was asked back in the spring if I could think of another location. The props were moved to a building at the proposed site of the LeCount Square Development, which has been vacant for a number of years and NYS Code requires sprinklers for this site. So why as firefighters are we so concerned with keeping this open, instead of protecting the public?

Dispatch for additional overhaul....or dispatch to extingushed additional pockets of fire

The 3 type of fire depts in NYS are fire district, fire protection district and municipal. Most municipal and many districts do not contract out. All of those listed above are municipal depts and dont contract. The majority of the people in NYS are protected by municipal depts that dont contract out. In Westchester, add to your list: Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mt. Vernon, New Rochelle, Ossining, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Scarsdale, Rye, Port Chester and many more. Those utilize governing bodies with a 3rd party but many many others are Fire Districts that directly oversee their FD (not a 3rd party): Greenville, Fairview, Hartsdale, Eastchester, and ohers. Technically, fire dept in NYS do not provide protection to any towns. Town law does not recognize FD's. The purpose of fire districts is to provide fire protection to their district, which in all cases cover all or part of one or more town(s)

Since Banksville is an ISO 9 it only makes a minor difference and only in the areas that are beyond 5 road miles from a fire station, those areas are rated a 10 (no fire protection).

Very true, but if it were true it should be determined by the C&O team after investigating it and not as the dispatch to go back to the scene. Its presumptive on everyones part to say a dept "screwed up" (and I'm in no way implying that anyone did) before the facts are in. Most recalls to the scene can be explained, but only after the fact.

Rekindle is not a term that should be utilized. Let's consider this: If fire is discovered after the FD has left it is due to one of the follwing: 1) The arsonest came back to finish the job (and this is a new fire not a rekindle) 2) The FD did not put the fire out in the 1st place, because they could not get to the seat of the fire (due to collapse or some other issue) and felt it was safe to leave or just leave a fire watch. If this were the case it would not be a rekindle since it was never out. 3) The term rekindle implies that the FD screwed up and left without doing proper overhaul and did not know that it was still burning.

What share of $$$.....there were no funds attached to the desent decrees NR was the 1st of the 6 government agencies to agree to the decree and that was in 1981. So while it may have started in the 70's it did not take affect until the 1980's. And your right I was not on NRFD then, but I'm not convinced you were on the job with MVFD then either. Your profile says your 35-44 which would mean you were born in 1964 - 1972 so you would have turned 18 in 1982-1990 so in the 1970's you were still in high school. I am well aware of the topic, I've read all the court papers have you? I also was also a casualtiy and was delayed in getting hired because of the decree. 1) Not one individual was skipped. 2) The list was not extended. 3) Good thing you got all the facts. Not! 4) You are right, lets not regionalize ....lets leave everything the way it is...that way everyone can complain about it on EMTBravo for the next 40 years, because your only other answer is they should just fork out more $$$$$ to make everything perfect and everyone knows that will never happen. You need to get all of your facts straight. Your age, When you got on the job, Which job, and when you went thru training. Oh about that...you went thru the academy 2 years before the 1st class. Hard to believe you got "all the facts"

How does it help rural area's....I've yet to see a quint that carries enough water, hose or ground ladders and generally they are too big. They VFD's around here that have been buying them, claim it works for them because they can't get 2 rigs out the door......the problem there is not what rig and what it can do. The problem is no enough firefighters.

Is this really a issue because of B.H.Liberals and Affirmative Action or a Mt. Vernon issue? If you say the 1st, then explain why this is not the same problem in NR, WP & Yonkers...particularly since we were all in the same federal consent decree?

Just Quints...I don't think so> St. Loius claims has 36 companies, 34 have "pumps and aerial ladders" plus 2 heavy rescues. They call all there quints engines, then they had/have? 4 (I think) "heavy ladders" that while quints were actually run as truck companies. Richmond, VA claims: "The Richmond Department of Fire and Emergency Services is the only fire department in the United States that operates under the Total Quint Concept." They staff 20 quints, but they also staff 3 heavy-duty rescue/tactical vehicles and "9 rapid-response vehicles for the first-responder/EMS calls and small fires that do not require the Quints" So quints are all they run except for when they don't (maybe because they are too big and expensive to use on many calls). They also have a reserve/backup fleet of six engines and three aerial ladder trucks Rochester, NY has quints. But they run 8 engine companies, 2 Truck companies, 1 rescue company, and 7 quint/midi units. A Quint/Midi company consists of a six person unit (1 officer and 5 firefighters) assigned to 2 vehicles. It seams to me that If the quint concept were so great, more depts would use it and the depts that do would not need so many other companies.

They also tell you that if you need more space to write, turn over and write on the back.

Johnny and Roy would be proud. While taking a paramedic refresher (around 1986) at St Vincents in lower Manhattan, a group of us were waiting to go in to take the State Exam. A number of medics were in uniform and there were a number of amulances and official vehicles parked infront of the school of nursing. Johnny Gage (Randolph Mantooth) came walking up the other side of the street (he was living in NYC at the time). One of the medics called out "Look its John Gage.......He's the reason we all became medics" He start to cross the street coming toward us. Then another medic called out "its all his fault"....."Lets kill him" He stopped in his tracks, but quickly figured that the medic was joking.

Control..........when they set up the system it was so that each little board had more control, because less people come out to vote. One thing the report mentioned was that there are many small districts that are so small and unknow (generally water, sewer or some other utility), that the only ones who vote are the board members.

They already give a discount for any structure with a rated (which means tested and maintained) system, so those without already pay more than those with. The rate per $1,000 is generally based on construction material (brick is better than twigs), sprinklers and FD rating.

Chris, most fire district elections/bond referendums I've seen have less than 1%. I know a number of districts with fewer than 100 votes out of 5-10,000 voters. In most districts if members of the FD & their families could not vote, you could count the total votes on your fingers, except when voting for a new fire house (millwood, yorktown) then the Tax payers come out in droves. One of the recommendations on government efficency in NY was to make all elections on the same day in the same location: federal, State, local, school, fire, water, sewer, etc. at least then when you comeout to vote for that one political race you get to cover everything in one trip and the community does not have to pay for every seperate election.

Since dozens are rolled every year, the belief is that there are a lot of drivers out there that are driving to fast, particularly on rural roads.

The biggest performance issue with shuttles is that all tankers, need to load and unload at the same rate, otherwise you end up with tankers waiting in line. The problem is every dept buys something different. Standardization is more critical here than anywhere else

The best Tankers are ones with the highest GPM rating not total tank size. The extra water is great if thats enough to handle the initial attack, but once you get into shuttles larger tanks that take longer to fill and longer to unload, also mess up the smooth flow at both the fill and dump sites. After calculating how much water can be driven 200 feet, dumped, driven 200 feet..... plus driven 200 feet refilled and driven another 200 feet. is used along with a milage chart to calculate how much water can be delivered per miute (GPM) per mile. Maybe, but some times its better to spend the money on getting a more manuverable vehicle so it can go back for more water. Great it can move and stop, can it stay on the road? Thats why most tankers roll. The FDSOA (Fire Dept Safety Officers Assoc) and NFPA 1901 Committee are suggesting that tankers should not have lights and sirens since they can not e driven as an emergency vehicle safely. What about top filling, its proven to greatly improve the tankers GPM and refuce the number of FF's needed at the fill site (so they can actually fight the fire).

The bigger problem is the public has no idea that their million dollar McMansion will colapse after 4 minutes of direct fire. My 104 year old house can probably stay standing after 30 min of fire. Since I have a central station alarm and the FD response is 3 min. I'm confident that if I have a fire, there is a good chance my home will still be standing. I agree its unlikely, but the fire service has already hoisted the white flag. If we educate the public, push as FF's for code changes and convince the insurance industry that the amount of damage that will occur when we encounter these structures because we can not make the same effort on them, maybe the Insurance industry will say, LW = more insurance. That may drive people to homes that while a little more up front, save money forever.

They claim to represent 80-90% of the FF's in NYS and of those 90,000 - 100,000+ members no one has ever brought this up? They know this is an issue that kills firefighters (so they are running awarness classes....which is excellent) and they need me to tell them that there is a problem and we should get rid of this killer? If they dont understand this without the efforts of a non member, then what does that say about FASNY and their membership? Then the members of FASNY need to step up to the plate and convince them that life safety has to be the 1st priority of all firefighters and then worry about "whats in it for me"

>> The low cost affordable housing market is just great isn't it. We definitely need to invest time into making truss marking or other awareness programs a priority for the safety of us and future firefighters. << While awarness and markings are nice, what we really need is for all firefighters to show up and vote for changes to the ICC code. As long as the fire service stays out of the codes process, the truss manufactures and Developers will keep voting to keep allowing them. Failure to fight for this means every firefighter is placed in danger for the next 100+ years as they will keep building more and more of these. Great, FASNY is teaching awarness ...what about lobbying to change the NYSUFP&BC to outlaw these killers or would that mean less lobbying time to fight for blue lights and tax breaks.

Ok. Lets look at engine company coverage: In Westchester County there is 1 engine for every 4,104 people. Is that a little or a lot? In New Rochelle there is 1 engine for every 14,652 people In Yonkers there is 1 engine for every 18,113 people In NYC there is 1 engine for every 37,954 people So if we used the same % as NYC we would need 200 fewer engines. Now I do not think this would be adequate coverage, but what if we only had 1 engine per station, that would reduce the number of engines by about 100. At $500,000 per rig (equipped) thats $50 Million in engines.