Bnechis

All OSHA "standards" are laws. 29 Stands for "Labor" and CFR stands for "Code of Federal Regulations". Everyone of their regulations (or laws) is inforceble on non-governmental employees in all 50 states. 25 States are "plan states" and recieve federal funding to do the OSHA funding. In exchange for the funding they must agree to enforce the OSHA Laws on all "employeers". In NY, NJ & CT. they modified this and the states only enforce the regulations on governmental "employeers". The New York State Department of Labor - Public Employee Safety & Health (PESH) is the agency that is charged with enforcing these laws. The NYS courts have long ruled that volunteer firefighters are considered "employees"of their departments because they are "covered" by workers compensation insurance (which is required by law). The law exists the problem is PESH is streched so thin that they only show up if there is a complaint or serious injury/death. And while NFPA "standards" are not laws. The NYS courts acknowledge them as if they were in civil litigation and in at least 1 criminal case of wrongful death.

I agree with your general thoughts, but Before you compare your service levels with others, you may want to consider that your minimum standards in 6 months are drimatically below the level that all career firefighters in Westchester must have before they are allowed to respond to any calls.

There is no way that Rt.9 could handle that traffic

On April 1st 2013, Scotland's 8 regional Fire & Rescue services were merged into a single national department. The 8 regional police services were also merged into a single national service. The 8 regions were originally made up of many smaller depts. but during and after world war IIthey were merged. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21938388 Wow, 8 depts are too many for an entire nation so they are merging them into 1. We have 59 in just our county and they all believe that their community would not survive without them. Infact we have whole towns with 8 departments. What was most interesting is their reasoning for the merge, they wanted to save money, but most important they did not want to reduce services. All over America we see depts cutting staffing, cutting companies, cutting houses, cutting salaries and the number of volunteers dropping, but still no one is willing to merge to make sure the services delivered in the field remain strong? So this merger will save enough money to maintain every company, every station and the minimum manning on an engine will remain at 6 (1 officer, 1 driver & 4 firefighters).We really need to rethink how we do this and why we do this.

Not knowing the details, and I am just speculating. But wWhen this happens (particularly since it has been in planning for 3 years) pension buyouts often occur. Also Sr. members may be close to retiring anyway, plus since this is a long term cost savings and they acknowledge that thier may be very minimal savings the 1st few years, they maintain the positions to help move the transition along untill those members retire and the positions are then reduced.

http://westchester.news12.com/news/merger-talks-end-between-westchester-medical-center-sound-shore-and-mount-vernon-hospital-facilities-1.5220439 "Officials from Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla issued a statement yesterday saying they have terminated discussions involving the acquisition of Sound Shore Medical Center and Mount Vernon Hospital. Westchester Medical officials say differences of opinion on how to improve the facilities and service ended the talks" What a great soundbite......"difference of opinion"....... I thought termination occured because Sound Shore Health Systems sighned a contract with Montefiore for more $$$ than Westchester was offering.

While that is unfortunited, its muchbetter than reducing the number of apparatus and or manning.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service could never get over 1,999 posts and 100 pages on EMT-Bravo....LOL

Sort of.Stat law would alow this to cover all incorporated & unincorporated towns (including villages). But current state law requires Citys to provide fire protection. Now if you have only 1 city in the county, they could legally provide coverage to the district "By contract" which could (if negotiated) include some/all of the existing depts.

That was never a consolidation...It was a quilt (patchwork)

Dinosaur: "Those laws are easily amended IF there's a drive to do so. Nobody is going to go out and do it unless they're being lobbied to and right now all the lobbying is AGAINST consolidation/regionalization." (Sorry the quot got cut off) They do not prevent it, they just make it very difficult or if you are looking for an excuse not to do it, its a great excuse. Well said

Your 1st statement is 100% on the money. And clearly this is what is happening here now. It may be smaller in area, but it does have 3x the population. And I was using it to compare regions, not a state wide or national service. I spent time riding with them and in some ways their traditions are stronger than ours. It was easier to accomplish because of their organization, because they already had done it and because there was a lot less "turf". Dutchess 297,739 Nassau 1,341,033 Orange 373,551 Putnam 99,718 Rockland 312,520 Suffolk 1,494,388 Westchester 950,283 Total 4,869,232 (Note I added Rockland and we need another 425,768 to equal Scotland) Scotland 5,295,000 Nice comparrison.

You are correct. The cheapest way to fix it was to hire civilian medics, because it appears that police/medics are not cost effective.

Controlling wind driven fires. In other words it stops unwanted ventilation

Generally, airbags for hazmat are 3 types: 1) pipe plugs (inflate inside to seal a pipe, often used to keep spills out of pipes) 2) patches (wrap around a leaking tank and presurize to maintain product in the tank 3) low/medium pressure bags to lift a truck/tanker to an upright position.

Most places do not need them as there is limited brush and/or limited access for brush trucks to get in so you are hand streching anyway. Town of Mamaroneck had one in the 1980's. it became a driver training unit and then a light rescue. it was replaced with Rescue 6. Much better use.

Thats a lot better than many places, but it does not meet OSHA (or PESH depending on the type of Agency) 29 CFR1910.132 General Requirements 29 CFR 1910.133 (Eye and face protection); 29 CFR 1910.134 (Respiratory protection): 29 CFR 1910.135 (Head protection); 29 CFR 1910.136 (Foot protection); 29 CFR 1910.137 (Electrical protective equipment); 29 CFR 1910.138 (Hand protection) And others (Body, Fire, etc.). For assitance start with this: http://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3151.pdf

You bring up a number of good points. I do not know if their are actual statistics on this, but I do know my own experiences. At 1st was thinking that outside of emergency services I have not experienced violence directed at me, but after thinking about it I realize that I have had 2 experiences, both while traveling.One was in San Francisco where a drug adict pull a knife on my wife and myself and demanded money. Now I say knife, but it was much closer to a nail clipper (the blade was about 2") I hit him in the face and we walked away (he kept saying "why did you hit me" ....I told him because he asked me too). The 2nd one was I got into a little wresling match with a pickpocket on the Paris Metro. Now in emergency services I have worked areas were we would find bullet holes in the EMS station (some from inside, most from outside), have been shot at, have had guns and other weapons flashed around us, was baricaded with ESU in an apt. while the pts family and there gang were rioting trying to get the rivel gang for hurting my patient. Had my amb. broken into while treating a pt and threatened with being shot if I continued to treat them. And one of my favorate was being told by PD: "we have a shooter on the roof, I'll cover you while you go out into the court yard and drag the 2 victims to cover". I asked if he would give me his vest?. As a side note, I met my wife on that call Now I was originally thinking that while the violent calls were generally in areas I would not consider going into if I was not working, we all know that violence can happen anywhere, but I always felt that this was a big consideration, until I had an incident in a building I would never have expectedit to be in, on a "man having a stroke" (called in by thepts wife). As we banged on the door and yelled Fire Dept. the neighbor came out of her apt and said he has had a stroke before. So we forced entry (actually my nozzleman was a locksmith and he picked the lock faster than Icouldopen it with a key). While searching for the patient, he poped out of the bathroom, 38 in his hand and pointed it at me from about 2 feet away. I yelled "GUN"! and started backing out. He said: "what are you doing in my apartment"? I said: "Leaving". Its a bad feeling to have a line of responders between you and the door (cop, EMT, Medic, Nozzleman, then me) and as I exited all I could see was the cop running AWAY from the apt. Turns out he had a history of a stroke. He also had a history of being a cop that was fired from our PD. A tactical team was able to remove him without incident. So can it happen anywhere.....Sure. But in my experience its rare and I know there are a lot of other hazards we face that responders are unequipped and/or untrained to protect ourselves during that are the bigger risk.

Yes but the biggest complaint I have seen/heard is when the police side is busy and grandma has a stroke, she got a substandard response. I saw many times under that system an ALS pt in the back with the medic/cop driving and watching the monitor from the front seat with no one in the back. I know that much (all?) of that is gone with the advent of the civilian EMS positions, but that defeats your entire justification.

Just remember the rule of 3's: After 3am Above the 3rd floor or Over 300 pounds and you are walking or I pronounce you where you stand.

1) Yes but when the contract for sanitation ends in summer and they walk out in July. 3-5 weeks of garbage pilling up and the politicians cave on negotiations. 2) Seeing as your retired EMS.....I remember friends leaving NYC*EMS for NYC Sanitation and at the time we joked that both wore green uniforms, both drove white trucks with flashing lights, both had to pick up garbage, but sanitation limited the weight and it was already out on the curb.

The reality is this is occuring in almost every VFD. Just change the names and the article can be reusedin every community. The real issueis how will each department handle this new reality. Way to many are either throwing dollars at recrutment/retention without a good return on investment or are ignoring the problem and are shrinking to a point they can no longer function.

Agreed. And yet that is exactly how we run EMS in NYS, except they get no pension benefit from working the 80 hours+ per week. Interesting how EMS agencies are not physically safe or healthy for their employees. Which in turn makes it less safe or healthy for their patients.

Can anyone explain why it took so long to extricate the driver? What challanges did the responders have with this extrication? It is rare to take so long, so I would suspect something complicated this incident.

1) You are ASSuming that motorists are smart enough to choose another route 2) Those that were complaining the most apparently did not choose another route