Bnechis

I don't believe there are any laws or statues, but NYS DOH teaching plans and every EMS textbook describe the EMS Duty to Act. Duty to act is often a test question on NYS EMS certifying exams. I've been to a number of Legal seminars run by Fire and or EMS providers who are lawyers that specialize in emergency service issues. They've always said you can find it in case law (which means past lawsuits) Basically if you are "on duty"....(ie. signed up for a shift) you will lose in court if you dont respond. Otherwise volunteers generally don't have a legal obligation to act. The same can be said for "off duty" career personnel, dont generally have a duty to act, once they sign in at work, they dont get to pick and chosie which calls sound "good"

When I worked as a flycar medic, it was common for me to wait 15 - 20 minutes as they paged for any available EMT or Driver for the sick male, but 30 seconds after they tossed the call to mutual aid, they had no problem getting multiple rigs out the door for the Pin Job. Medical emergencies need 2-6 (depending on severity).......Pin jobs do not need 20 - 30 (particularly for the single vehicle mva

Their LODD is lower, and there civilian fatalities are lles than 1/2 of ours. The US has the worst fire safety record of all industrialized nations (read America Burning & Revisited...USFA). Most of the construction in the european countries I've visited was stone or concrete. In france I was suprised to see that the have so few trees (remember thats why England & France cam to America 200+ years ago) that there telephone poles were concrete.

Once again we are faced with the fact that NYS does not have any standards for fire protection. The training requirements are for interior FF's not the provision of fire service. As long as you claim to have a dept. you are set. Now lets look at what ISO requires as the rock bottom minimum to be a fire dept. Minimum Criteria for Class 9 To receive a Public Protection Classification (PPCTM) of Class 9, a community must first have the minimum facilities and practices needed to get a PPC rating. The community must have at least one piece of apparatus with a pump capacity of 50 gpm at 150 psi and at least a 300-gallon water tank. The community must also earn a score of at least 70 credit points on the following items from the Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS): Records Records must indicate the date, time, and location of fires; the number of responding members; the number of training sessions; and maintenance of apparatus and equipment. Each community must also keep an up-to-date roster of fire department members. 10 points prorated Equipment The community must also provide the following equipment: At least two 150-foot lengths of 3/4-inch or 1-inch fire department booster hose and a 1-1/2-inch preconnected hose, or the equivalent, each with a nozzle capable of discharging either a spray or straight stream. 15 points each Two portable fire extinguishers suitable for use on Class A, B, and C fires. The minimum size should be 20-BC rating in dry chemical, 10-BC rating in CO2, and 2A rating in water-type extinguishers. 4 points One 12-foot ladder with folding hooks 10 points One 24-foot extension ladder 15 points One pick-head axe 1 point Two electric hand lights 4 points One pike pole 2 points One bolt cutter 2 points One claw tool 1 point One crowbar 1 point So to be a class 9 department all you need is a brush truck and No SCBA's NYS has 658 ISO 9 rated depts. (Thats 26% of all ratings in NYS) Now depts can be much better but just have a sh*t rating, but this is the minimum. NYS also has 32 ISO 10's......Which means No Department is even recognized. Also in NYS is ISO 8B which to get that all an ISO 9 Dept needs is: Specifically, to get a rating of Class 8B, a community must meet these requirements: It must meet the minimum requirements defined in Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS) Section 106, "Minimum Facilities for Applying This Schedule." IE be an ISO 9 It must be eligible for at least 5 points in FSRS Section 400, "Receiving and Handling Fire Alarms." It must be eligible for at least 20 points in FSRS Section 500, "Fire Department." An average of at least six firefighters must respond on first-alarm responses to structure fires. For active firefighters, it must conduct a minimum of 24 hours per year of training in fighting structure fires. The water supply must be able to deliver an uninterrupted minimum fire flow of 200 gpm for 20 minutes. The minimum fire flow must be able to start within five minutes of the arrival of the first engine company. So if your dept has 4,000 gals of water on wheels (including automatic aid depts) and 6 members with 24 hrs per yr training (wow 2 hrs per month) you can save your home owners 8% on property insurance. Ther are 99 depts in NYS that are ISO PPC 8B...why cant the 658 class 9's do this? 31% of all NYS depts rate as 8B, 9 or 10

All soft billing is......everyone you transport gets a bill...if they dont pay, you dont send them to collections. The fact that everyone gets a bill is what makes the whole thing legit.

Actually most insurance companies base the amount they pay on the Medicare Rate (which is set by the Federal Government). But a profit of Zero does not mean they can't have a surplus of millions. If you are billing Medicare or Medicaid, then you must bill the individuals (for the remainder of the bill or the whole bill if they are uninsured)....Its the LAW. Correct (see surplus above) What do companies and civil service have to do with one another? True Municipal EMS (they run the whole system) is often but not always civil service....Commercial services that are cntracted are almost never civil service. If the insurance companies find out that's what your doing, they may decide to report your agency to the Feds. Then you may find it costing you a whole lot more. And the Medicare whistle blowers law gives the person who reports you a % of the fine....nice incentive.

I hope your in better shape than any our 18-20 year old Pierce units.........Of 3 1988 Pierce Pumpers: 1) was sold for scrap metal.....1) is awaiting the next scrap auction and the 3rd is a back-up to a spare engine and will be scraped as soon the new E-25 arrrives this winter. Now we do push them hard (and got our money's worth), but before you claim they are strong and very reliable, you need to have at least some experience. And we wont talk about our 1989 105' rear-mount that collapsed 10 years ago (2 members are perminantly disabled from that).

Is this a Ferrara issue or the local dealer? If its the local dealer, a change is about to be (if it has not already been) anounced.

This is refered to as "soft billing" and its illegal. Check the medicare rules carefully. It is commonly done...but there are ways to do it and there are ways to get in big trouble with the feds on this one.

Comrade..... Stalin said it was an election, even if only he was on the ballot.

And remember that in the event of a water landing your seat may be used as a flotation device. Sorry Chris...I had to do it.....lol

In some departments, the IC is the IC because he got more rounds at the bar and has less training and experience than others who "rock" the boat

It is not possible for a regional approach to work.....they have it all wrong, they need 100's of units with no manpower to cover every little village, like we do here. Its the only way. Nice pics......

If the copter is so good, why is everyone jumping out of it.....lol.

About 60% of our calls do not have a chief officer dispatched on. And a large %'s of the 40% that they are dispatched to, they are cancelled by the 1st due before they arrived. I think this is an area where the career and VFD's operate very differently. If your company officers are properly trained, then this works. If you know what will roll everytime, rigs and personel...then this works. If you only get to be chief for a year, maybe its important that you get to use the lights and siren, cause next year your coat will say "EX-" This is not bashing VFD's. I know many fine ones that do train there jr officers and do trust them to run the calls, but not many around here. A few years ago I was teaching an EMT course in community with a VFD. I was teaching at the local VAC. Fire alarm came in next door, so we took a break to watch. Chiefs car came screeming in and parked directly in front of the home. THe chief (I could tell by his white helmet and nomex shorts and T-shirt ["I fight what you fear"]) ran into the home. I was supprised to hear him yelling "MOMMY" (found out later it was his mothers home..lol). 2 additional chiefs cars pulled in front of the house (both ran in). Then the 1st engine arived. the street was so jambed that the engine was within inches of the chiefs cars. they asked for a line and the only way to get to the cross lays was for a FF to hope up on the hood of the chiefs car and pull the line (loved the sound the coupling made when it hit the hood and was draged over it). Then 2 more engines pulled in (one in front- only left about a foot between the bumpers) and one behind (also so close that you could not pull hose). Followed by the rescue. Last to arrive was a 100 rearmount, it had 2 engines and a rescue between it and the house, making it about 150 feet from the building. In this case, CHAOS (Chief has arrived on scene) proved to me that in this depts case, they might be better trusting the company officers...they counld be an worst.

I can't name a single career dept that sends more than 1. In fact, on residential alarms we send none. We let the engine officer handle it.

The term originated in the early 1900's when NYS made volunteers "exempt" from jury duty. but the state no longer allows anyone to get out of that civic duty.

Way too many. And most are duplicating the same efforts as everyone else (Budgets, policies, procedures, etc.) Depends on what they use the cars for. The numbering system technically has only allowed for 10 numbers and for us that has been a problem since we own more than 10 vehicles that are not "apparatus" 2301 - Chief of Dept 2302 - Shift Command (on duty deputy chief) 2303 - Spare Command Car or 2nd Battalion during storms 2303A - Chief of Support Services (note this is the same identifier as the spare command car chiefs portable radio) 2304 - Training 2305 - Dept Shop 2306 - EMS 2306A - Spare Staff Car (note this is the same identifier as the EMS portable radio) 2307 - Dept Shop 2308 - Fire Prevention 2309 - Code Enforcement Officer 2309A - Safety (note this is the same identifier as the Code Enforcement Officer portable radio) Then we have a new van and a new pick-up without numbers. Thats 14 vehicles sharing 10 numbers. Note we have a new numbering system in te works which will clean this up a bit, but that also means making some "cars" into utility #'s And we already have utility's that should be Id'ed as apparatus, but the county does not catagorize utilitys.

Most homeowners and commercial insurance policies already charge the property owner a fee, to be able to pay the FD for "Salvage" and "Overhaul" services. Since 99.9% of FD's dont bill for it, the insurance companies keep the money. Same goes for extrication and MVA fluid spills (Hazmat). And for all Hazmat...not just the nasty stuff... Federal Law (Sara Title III) requires that the spiller pays 100% of all costs associated with the spill.

Because FASNY has been very effective in lobbyng agianst it. Same reason that CFR ir 54 hrs. it does not matter what matterial needs to be covered. All that mattered is someone determined this was the maximum amount of time that they were willing to sit in class and got there elected officials to agree in the form of legislation. Why is it that volunteer ff's need less training to do the same job? They don't need less, but the politicians agreed they need less. Why is it that in NYS a barber must have more training to cut hair than a volunteeer or career ff, officer or chief of Dept.? A career chief by law needs initial training & flips (chances are to get to chief he needs a lot more to compete on exams, but thats all that is required). Thats less than 1/2 the time needed to be a barber. If a barber screws up.....It should grow back or a plastic surgon could fix it. If a chief screws up, people could get killed, the community lose a major industry or everyone get forced out due to a hazmat error. Chris do auxilary cops get the same training as full timers? Do they have the same responsabilities?

Was it patriotic or capitalistic. Ben Franklin started the 1st vol. fire company to protect the 1st fire insurance company in America, the one he started weeks earlier. I love how we forget critical events in history. Another historical fact: Boston had a paid "Fire Watch" 100 years before Franklin started the Friendship volunteer fire company.

I was under the impression that original medic programs (in Westchester) can only be run at WCC as per NYS DOH rules. Refreshers can be run at an ALS approved course sponser.

If you want to remove one end of the bell curve, then the only way to even it is to take the 337 FD's that protect towns and villages with less than 1,000 in population. If each has 40 members, thats 1,348 members. Also lets consider how far out from the norm we are talking about.....if each dept. own 2 engines thats 674 engines to protect about 150,000 people. we protect 50% of that population with 5 engines. Does this mean that thrre are 664 too many engines (I dont think so). This would also mean that an engine exists for every 222 residents (average). If FDNY had an engine for every 222 residence, they would need 36,072 engine companies. Wow. maybe consolidation is a good thing. Also maybe another reason that so many VFD's are having trouble with manpower is we have way to many depts trying to staff way to many rigs. Don't know where you got your 47,408 #, but your way off. The population of the 10 largest career coverage area (not including FDNY) is 1,267,577. That means the average is 126,757 almost 3x your figure. yes we all agree that the number of career FD's is far out numbered by VFD's. The question is how many people are protected by what. I dont know your number source, but there are 102 depts that have union members (some all career many combo). And yes its only about 5% of the depts. But like I said the top 10 alone protect more than 55% of the population and if you consider that 20% of the 1,824 departments combined protect only 0.9% of the population.

Why wouldn't I? FDNY is a career dept and NYC's population is counted as part of NYS

The main problem is this is not about the fire service, its about this legislator trying to buy votes (which they all do). If he gets re-elected it worked, it does not matter to the politicians if it actually helps or hurts fire protection.