Bnechis

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Everything posted by Bnechis

  1. 1) Cost Effective? Really? While the pre-manufactured Butler style garage and living quarters is a cheap way to house firefighters, they are a stones throw from multi bay volunteer stations that refuse to allow the staffed units to be stationed with them and at the same time fail to get their fleet staffed during calls. so now you have multiple stations blocks apart covering each other. Total waste of $$$. 2) Thank god they don't. While I am all for regionalization. If one of the 59 local FD in Westchester can not provide an immediate response, they have a few options: 1. Work on internal issues to increase manpower, including shifts. 2. Merge with 1 or more other depts. 3. hire staff, 4. all of the above. If a VFD in Westchester is unable to staff its calls it has options. Staffing career regional rigs is a Band-Aid they puts the financial burden on the county taxpayers and not on the local ones. Since my local taxes grantee a response to my house why should my county taxes go up to cover other locals who are unwilling to pay?
  2. It can take 6 - 12 months to certify a test. It also takes at least a month to hire before an academy class. Interviews, medicals, drug and background screening, fitting & issuing uniforms & PPE, etc. And that's assuming they are hiring. Good luck, be patient and take lots of tests. Also on many test if you are not a resident 6 - 12 months before the tests, your chances are 0
  3. Bingo, DiBlasio does not want perps caught, because they are his biggest supporters
  4. One key to HIPPA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is that if you are not billing health insurance (including Medicare & Medicaid) you are not covered under this. I do not believe that ME's bill insurance for his services
  5. Often that's the plan. We tell the municipality we need to modify, in some cases we give them years of warning, that the next rig will be a problem, then when it shows up too big, they scramble to fix it.
  6. Even if they took measurements, they are trying to fit the smallest "full size" modern engine into a bay that was designed for most likely pre WWII station.
  7. We originally used them on our tour command vehicle, but every time it went out on I-95 to a call at the toll barrier they sent us a big bill and penalty for responding to the tolls and not paying. So we took them off and no more bills.
  8. In the latest round of "does MVFD have enough firefighters?" Mayor E. Davis made a great statement to News 12; "Their is only so many people that can work a fire" http://westchester.news12.com/news/union-president-ernie-richardson-mount-vernon-blaze-highlights-understaffing-1.8998682
  9. Both as horse drawn and as early motorized weight was a major consideration as they did not have the power to overcome the additional weight, but then something happened they most have missed here, in the 1930's we started building enclosed cabs. During the 2nd world war, most depts. could not purchase anything as most metal was being directed toward the war effort. and immediately after the war there were still delays in the recovery. We found some depts. started buying them and then they disappeared until cities needed to cover the members for protection.
  10. While that was a massive fire, the General Slocum was the "biggest" maritime disaster in NYC history On June 15, 1904, the General Slocum caught fire and sank in the East River. At the time of the accident she was on a chartered run carrying members of a church group. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died. The General Slocum disaster was the New York area's worst disaster in terms of loss of life until the September 11, 2001 attacks and remains the worst maritime disaster in the city's history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_General_Slocum
  11. I don't think the issue here is money. He believes they do not need anything.
  12. News 12 this afternoon and again this evening with three different reporters reported that Rye boarders New Rochelle. Since both are city's one can only assume that Harrison, Mamaroneck village & Town and Larchmont have been eliminated. Its a good thing that news 12 is as local as local news gets. http://westchester.news12.com/news/i-95-ramp-to-i-287-reopened-after-fatal-crash-in-rye-1.8989131
  13. Even old fire trucks in NY can't consolidate......we are doomed....
  14. Am I correct in saying this a separate event from the Cats Skill Fire Cats Truck Show at the Orange County Gov Center at the same time tomorrow?
  15. Some of those "Supplemented by paid EMT/Driver" agencies are really "paid personnel sometimes Supplemented by a volunteer"
  16. I agree with everything, except your last line. NYS BEMS has teeth, they just don't use them. They have the legal authority to revoke a CON for failing to cover the calls. I think the state is concerned that if they start enforcing this, they may eliminate a vast majority of services. The Westchester EMS council has tried very hard to address the issue, but is very restricted by state regulations as to what it can do. It also gets minimal support from the EMS community. What would you like it to do that its not doing, (that it legally can)?
  17. And add Eastchester
  18. More than just a hassle, when rigs go out of service for up to weeks at a time waiting for a minor part. Also have had to replaced cracked dashboards & engine covers.
  19. Not true. We have been going thru many minor parts that are critical to keeping the rigs in-service. Door handles are a big item. if you can't close the door you are out of service and they are an ALF only part. Lots of other minor issues that are critical. Also LTI components are an issue.
  20. Don't you know? hehehehe
  21. I find most "communities" haven't the slightest idea what level of risk they have. They do not know if the dept. is staffed or not. They see trucks parked in the station and they believe they are protected. If the FD takes a week to respond as long as its not their home that is burning, they are ok with it. And the costs in their mind is almost always too much. They want to pay nothing, because they know they will never need it. And they pray like made that the dept is well staffed, well trained and well equipped as they are dialing 9-1-1.
  22. 1) they only staff with the 1 firefighter, so when he switches their is no one left on the rig. 2) Since the State has imposed a tax cap, with penalties on the community for breaking it, no one is going to spend more money to improve services, even if they know they are woefully understaffed. 3) I know of only a few in the county that even come close to meeting the standards. 4) how many depts. even prep for it? How many that have fire stations in the flood zone even know enough to get out.
  23. This is happening all over Westchester. Flycar medics are transporting BLS calls because local agencies can not or will not provide minimum staffing.
  24. In the past its been referred to as thinning the herd. Darwin refers to this as strengthening the gene pool and survival of the fittest