Bnechis

Says Job of Destroying U.S. Economy Now in Congress’s Hands WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The international terror group known as Al Qaeda announced its dissolution today, saying that “our mission of destroying the American economy is now in the capable hands of the U.S. Congress.” In an official statement published on the group’s website, the current leader of Al Qaeda said that Congress’s conduct during the so-called “fiscal-cliff” showdown convinced the terrorists that they had been outdone. “We’ve been working overtime trying to come up with ways to terrorize the American people and wreck their economy,” said the statement from Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. “But even we couldn’t come up with something like this.” Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/12/al-qaeda-disbands-says-job-of-destroying-us-economy-now-in-congress-hands.html#ixzz2GUavavNy

In a related story yesterday, Barack Obama signed an executive order raising the pay of Joe Biden, Members of Congress & all federal workers -- costing taxpayers $11 billion over the next 10 years. The VP and Congress should get merit based pay (meaning they owe us).There are hard working federal employees who deserve raises, particularly if those federal workers include members of the armed forces.

In extensive Colliers Mansion-hoarding situations even this will not be enough. On an EMS call I had one that we were met at the front door which only opened to about 24 inchs. there was a tunnel (think hampster habitat) and we followed the patients son thru these tunnels (note: this was before OSHA Confined Space Regs). I noticed the tunnel was starting to slope up (on the staircase). We got to the master bedroom and it opened up to almost full size. We had had a critical GI Bleed and requested FD. Pt. got O2, 2 LB IV's and MAST Pants (this should help date it for some). FD arrived and we knew she would not survive the trip through the house, so a 6' x 8' "door" was cut in the 2nd floor wall (from the exterior) with a K12. Pt was removed via ladder. Afterwards the building dept. condemed the building and the "overhaul" was done with front end loaders. My point is we were there under non fire conditions and there is no way without being shown the tunnels we would have even found the pt. if stuff had been disturbed we would still be looking. I found it amazing that people could live that way.

Thanks BFD1054

Great post. Your 99% is not accurate, while we may not need to search for life (if everyone is accounted for) we still need to search for fire (the seat of the fire) so the engine can get in and complete extingushment.

Thank you.

It is with deep regret to announce the passing of Retired FDNY Firefighter and former Village of Pelham Fire Chief Robert Glover on wed. December 19 in his home in Pelham. Visiting hours at Pelham Funeral Home, 64 Lincoln Avenue: ---Saturday, 12/22/12, 7:00pm-9:00pm ---Sunday, 12/23/12, 2:00pm-4:00pm and 7:00pm-9:00pm • Funeral at St. Catharine’s Church, 25 2nd Ave. Pelham, NY ---Wednesday, 12/26/12, 11am

Thanks, Yes village FD's can bill since they are municipal. The NYS Association of Fire Districts and a number of assembly members who have said they would back the legislation have told me that it was Silver and it was because of the American Ambulance Association lobby. If this is the case it means that commercial services have a big advantage over fire districts (as you had mentioned) and the insurance companies end up paying the commercial service, since the fire district cant bill and reduce the taxes.

In the past few days I have seen at least a dozen pictures (on multiple sites) of different depts. in the area driving around town with Santa in the hose bed or in the bucket of a tower ladder (in one case, he just missed hitting a traffic light). Most depts do not allow members to ride in these locations because of the potential for death or serious injury. How can we ignore our own policies and allow this? And if the answer is to please the children.........consider how happy they would be if you run over santa. Can anyone justify this?

Bill, NYS law only prohibites Fire Districts (as a special taxing district) from billing for service. Municipal Fire Departments (like Yonkers, NYC, Binghamton, Troy, Albany) has always been allowed to. A number of cities in NYS bill for Ambulance service and from 1974 till about 2000 New Rochelle billed for service that was contracted to the FD (it was stopped when it was determined that a larger billing base would bring in more $). One of the arguments for changing the law is that it is unfair that the citizens in fire districts (towns) must cover all costs while those in municipal depts (City & village). The bill you speak of has been introduced during every session of the legislature over the last 20 years, but Speaker Silver has never allowed it to the floor. Interesting since his district is is lower Manhattan and FDNY bills in his district. It has been rumored for years that he gets a high amount of campaign funds from commercial ambulance companies, could it be that they do not want compatition? The irony here is that you live in a fire district so every call in your district is taxpayer funded and the insurance companies can not be billed to reduce your taxes.

I would like too add a few more likes to this!!! As the Chief of Department, you are setting the proper example and its called LEADERSHIP....Well Done. Responsability was previously mentioned and the chiefs is safety of the members and the public, but he also has a general responsability to the community and that is the continuation of the Fire Departement. If we kill Santa, the FD may not survive the legal and financial loss. The community might not be able to accept the additional costs to pay out millions in claims or the increase in insurance. Well done Chief. Merry Christmas

There are lots of age old traditions that we no longer do because we realize we should no longer be doing them. Again we are back to "common sense"........does that not mean we should not do it? You are correct, its the drivers responsability. We teach our drivers that its there responsability (legally and morally) to not drive until all riders are buckled up. There is a Fire Service Attorny out of Texas who specializes in emergency vehicle accidents (he works nationally and will represent either side, based on who go to him 1st). I have heard him speak a couple of times and he talks about how he makes a lot of money from the drivers, officers and departments who do not follow national standards. He says if he is against you he will question you as to why you did not follow your dept policies, national standards and state laws and when an award comes in against you he gets all your stuff. Lack of responsability = liability.

Does your policy say when doing higher speed calls? We require seatbelts when driving back, doing inspections or going to the store, etc. Are you saying you do not teach your drivers how to drive safely? We do teach driver safety, but that does not always take into account the other driver doing something stupid.

My common sense says we have a policy that says no one (does not say except santa) shall ride in a non seatbelted location. If you are waving to the crowd behind you and are not looking forward it was suprisingly close. Nice PR........ABC World News: "Santa Killed while riding on top of Mildew Hose company fire truck." Holiday Spirit: "sorry Mrs. Smith, your husband who plays Santa every year is in the ER, they are trying to remove a traffic light from his head." My point was, there is no way to do it safely.

Was a midmount tower, Santa was in the bucket. If he had hit, the driver never would have known

We tried to get opticom and found that the traffic engineer was very much against them and would not allow them even if we got a grant to pay for it. Then he got a grant for it and told us we would have to come up with a $60,000 match and we needed it fast. We got the match from private donations within 5 days. He told us that we were too late and he had turned the grant back. Intersection control is at the discretion of local Public Works, county public works or state DOT (in our city all 3). Trying to put a system together with multiple agencies that do not care to do extra work for us is tough. Also look at the St Loius intersection crash & roll over...It was a controlled intersection so just having them is not enough.

Thats not our policy (working fire)......aka 10-75

I tried, but after pressing "1" I still dont hear english.

Maybe you need to reconsider "light" Beer.

no

Sometimes of more importance is how old are the spares or staff vehicles. Often staff vehicles are 8-10 years old and while the frontline vehicles do not need to be replaced, the frontline vehicles will be downgraded to fill in the staff needs.

We use stainless steel glove boxes. They are not listed, but they apear to be strong enough to do the job. We went with them after the plastic ones would crack (particularly if a firefighter leaned on them). We got them from our EMS equipment supplier. Of interesting note: the standard for the crash worthyness requires the components be tested and certified, but how do you know if the installation will hold up during the crash? Who says that those mounting them did a "proper" job?

Maybe because no one is worryied about getting hit by a box of gloves I still see firefighters without seatbelts, SCBA's in open brackets, helmets unsecured, tools and other equipment on the floor, etc.

Previously I always felt that they should be moved to the November elections to improve turnout. But after reading the article I agree that a better fit may be the May school board /budget elections. They get a large turnout and generally the party politics dont exist.