Bnechis

Not in Westchester

"Absolutely an attempt to stifle patriotism" or this is a labor management thing, where the board is flexing its muscles? a lot of people have assumed the first and most are blind to any other possibility

But the taxpayers have given the commissioners total control of them. The only say the taxpayers have is voting for one commissioner each year and an up or down bond vote to purchase.

You are correct, the commissioners are not driving the apparatus, but they are charged with setting department policy. and even if the policies they set are improper or even outright wrong it is still their legal roll to do it.

I have read on a number of sites the backlash, almost all based on the board being unpatriotic or trying to be PC. Beyond, what the board reported as being a safety issue, no one knows what the motivation is. But, I have witnessed, flags getting larger and larger on the back of rigs, to the point that we are disrespectful of the flag. On engines, I have witnessed hose being laid over a flag that's so large that without wind or driving it hung below the level of the bed. On ladders, I have witnessed grease and tattered ends on the flag where it whips against the turntable gear. I have also seen where it rubs on ground ladders as they are moved in and out of the ladder tunnel. On all rigs, I have seen filthy flags, because the dirt that swirls around the rear of the rigs. On the safety side, I have seen them hiding flashing safety lights, turn signals and break lights. Saw one get burned by high intensity flood lights and have seen firefighters grabbing the flag to help them climb the rig. This is not patriotic, nor is it how the flag should be respected! I am not saying they should be removed, but consider how we are displaying them.

So what are the costs vs savings when we include insurance? in my city the average taxpayer is paying less than $275/yr for a career fire department. If we eliminated the FD and gave back everyone's $ the cost of insurance on those average homes would increase by about $1,200/yr. If we were to switch to a volunteer dept. to main the same rating as we have now, it would require a minimum of 48 volunteers responding on every fire call. so the big question is how many communities can manage that?

Yes the community must decide, but they must also be given information that is truthful. We just witnessed in Portchester the mayor and chief swear they had 150 interior volunteers, when the records show less than 60. They said, don't worry, the dept. didn't need career personnel, but in two months time their are now mounting complaints that the response times are noticeably worst. If the dept. lies to itself and the public, how can the public make a proper judgement? you are correct that this attitude exists, but in far to many VFD the real threat to the members is, declining membership, failing to respond in a timely manner and lack of training.

In the last five years we have seen at least a dozen middle to high end homes with catastrophic fires, that are insured and still sit burnout. The families can't afford to repair them even with the insurance. about six years ago my free standing two car garage was distroyed in a storm and it took me over two years of fighting with the insurance company to pay. Even then they did not pay everything I was entitled to. The biggest fight I had was with getting replacement value, which they refused to pay until it was made very clear that my policy covered replacement value. Even then they didn't want to pay.

At what point is it fun and what point is it a problem? a brand new $1.4 million truck That belongs to the taxpayers? A rule that only fog streams would be used... Until someone using a hand line switched to straight stream, to hit one of the crews in a bucket? How about when the ladder pipes were switched to straight stream and were turned on other platforms? Members operating in those platforms could have been seriously injured...but it's all in the name of fun.

We have been told not to use brushes to wash the truck as it can harm the finish. What is the possibility that a master stream will damage the paint?

Too bad it was economically flaud study. my favorite part is the claim that volunteers have increased statewide by 30,000 - 40,000.

It has nothing to do with the quality or capabilities of the latest FD officials, it's the political oversight that is unwilling to allow the FD to manage itself

You seam to be the only one with a real problem. sure lets take Port Chester out, I can change the name to many many other communities that believe the local FD is properly staffed when it is operating at such low numbers it can not even meet two in two out without mutual aid. These depts include volunteer, combo and career. My fight has always been about under staffing and calling people something they are not folks the public and the department. last year acity councilwoman in another Westchester community made the comment that she was so proud of the 120 volunteers in their department. The Fire Chief almost fell out of his chair. He had to explain to her that most of the members were in their 70's and 80's and no longer responded to calls, but they were still "members". That brought the total number down to about 50, with only 18 or 19 being interior he said. And of those only a few were really active. In fact they average less than 2 interior firefighters responding to calls. Not too worry, their are plenty of members!

You said you googled "exterior firefighter" and found nothing. i said I googled "yard breather" and found a number of sites. maybe instead of challenging me, you need to learn how to use google?

The misleading term is firefighter, because the public expects a firefighter. When your kid or parent is trapped inside and a bunch of people show up with turnout gear, they expect them to actually do something. Recently, the Mayor of Port Chester claimed that the PCFD had 300 members, 150 interior. But we know that they only paid for 75 bailouts (required by NYS Law) but 16 were for the career FF's of both PCFD and RBFD. So they only have 59 at best. To many depts lie, even to themselves about the number of members.

Actually if I wanted to used a decisive term I would have used "Yard Breather" and I googled that and found a whole bunch of sites and definitions. Now these are members who are considered interior but never get inside because they use all their air walking back and forth outside. if you watch all the videos on YouTube you can see that a vast majority of exterior personnel stand around waiting for the fire to go out.

Particularly about modify / falsifying official records and possible insurance fraud.

When it is out of town, it's almost as available the rest of the week when sadly in many departments, their are no members available to respond or as is the policy in many depts, the engine goes first, so by the time the ladder arrives, it is blocked out by hose.

Yes our senior men often get the job of driver, but that does not mean they are exterior. They still must pass their annual physical as an interior firefighter, the must pass mask fit testing. If on the truck, they are the OV or Roof, if on the engine, they are expected to operate in high rise fires depending on arrival order. And the 4th due engine including the driver is always assigned as FAST on working fires. If they can't do this, it's time for retirement.

It was tabled for two weeks. With agreement from the union. Time needed to resolve a number of financial and legal issues. The IAFF gave $1,000 to each of the 8 members to help them over the next 2 weeks.

Those "support" soldiers still have to qualify on the range, get thru chemical training and then while driving supply trucks they have had to fight, some being killed, other injured and some captured. They are placed in support rolls because that's where they are needed and that's where they will perform best, not because they are unwilling or unable to do it!

So then let's call it what it really is... you ou have Firefighters and you have Firefighter Helpers. i see too many departments that claim how many members they have, but they won't admit to themselves or the public they are sworn to protect when they do not have enough interior "firefighters" to actually do a search or make a real attack.

The claim was budget issues. But layoffs save between $600,000 (the amount the budget was reduced by) and $800,000 (the amount the mayor later claimed it would save) and the $900,000 that "Ryebrook contributes" which would no longer be accepted means that eliminating the career staff would cost more money than it saves. PC did the layoffs fails on the Mayor and village board of Port Chester the Chiefs were not removed no other municipal layoffs or cost reductions

It's not that the Chiefs "Did not save the jobs". It's that when the mayor said: "before we proceed with the budget amendments, is the fire chief ok with these changes?" Once the chief said yes, they moved forward with the budget change. They never said the words: "layoffs, fire department, career firefighters, etc. so they had already planned this out, because they were afraid to even mention it in front of the public. We all understand that at times the chief has to live with what's been given to them. But to not complain at all? Not to fight for your department? Not to simply agree that this is completely acceptable. Particularly when their has been a running battle for years.

Sue who? agreed. They've also ignored ISO and IWWA standards not sure. But that's the impression I get from the PSC