Bnechis

For the drill each dept. is backfilling itself. UASI funds are paying to maintain our normal staffing at home while rigs are in NYC

The drill has been an annual event for the last 8 years or so. What does backfilling have to do with this? I can not assume only paid will be called (the Long Island FD's that go into Queens are not), but in Westchester's case thats what FDNY's told us they wanted and that its in their plan.

Funny a former Yonkers Fire Commissioner use to say that. White Plains has participated at the Airport. And many of the EMS responders are career.

Or All departments that meet the minimum training and staffing requirements as established by FDNY and OFPC. Since it is their drill to exersize their plan and the state mobilization plan.

Sad to say it really is not. Thats great,

Yes they do

Was used at last weekends WMD Drill. Very empressive. The large TV screen in the rear outside compartment was neat. They had displayed both live video and thermal imaging, remote gas detector readings (up to 16 detectors) and cameo cloud modeling. All being feed from the command area.

How many depts. have trouble getting 4 trained interior firefighters to a call in a timely manor? Yes having a up to date website is nice, but how many depts are struggling (do to lack of time and personnel) just to cover basic response?

Every county owned park, road, golf course, building, jail, etc. loses money. Funny that the biggest money making rides at playland were sold to private vendors. Maybe if we actually owned the profit making rides it would not be losing money. Yes, but not because of playland. NY is one of only 3 states that requires counties to pay medicid and thats along with some other mandates make up 80% of the county tax. We are also overtaxed because only a few other counties in America have as much duplication of local government as Westchester. How many police chiefs, fire chiefs, school superentendants, village managers and there cars and all the other apparatus and "stuff" we are paying for that sits there for years because we do not need it?

Correct. In addition they will lose any REMAC authorization for medical control items (albuterol, epi pen, mark 1 kits). There is a catch 22 here since DOH requires all agencies to have an ALS plan. This move was approved was approved by the state. Remac has advised those agencies that are activly working towards implementation will be given some leeway as long as they are kept advised of the status.

Some of that issue was the lack of understanding on the police chiefs part as to what was being asked of them. A surprising number of them did not know that they already had EMD. The initial reaction on some chiefs, was who is EMS to tell us how to manage dispatch, instead of working towards improvement.

They spent over 2 years researching it and in working with the police chiefs they extended the deadline from 1/1/2012 to 1/1/2013. A number of police depts. are in the process of implimenting EMD who would have never done it without a deadline.

ISO requires a minimum of 2 class A pumpers on every structure response. They only consider a tanker for the 8b classification (i.e. if you are a 9 and have 4,000 gallons on wheels in your 1st response they will make you an 8b and save some of your residential properties some money). They do not require a tanker to deliver water for improved rating (they require you prove you can develop the needed fire flow and they do not care how you do it). That is do to lack of plaining or simply ignoring ISO. There are rural depts without hydrants that rate a 4 and almost every dept that owns 2 engines and a tanker are eligable to be an 8b.

http://meritmattersusa.blogspot.com/2012/10/well-whaddya-know.html Monday, October 8, 2012 Well, Whaddya Know! Based on his score, the nephew of Judge Nicholas Garaufis was probably not going to be hired from the last FDNY hiring list, but he now has a very good list number resulting from a test crafted at the Judge’s direction and approved by him. What does the law say with regards to judicial recusal? Glad you asked. The U.S. Code (28 U.S.C. Section 455) states: "Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned. "He shall also disqualify himself in the following circumstances: "He or his spouse, or a person within the third degree of relationship to either of them, or the spouse of such a person…is known by the judge to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding." Yes, a nephew is within the third degree of relationship according to this law.

Chief was it actually refered to as "turning the lights on" back when you needed to light them? Sorry I had too

I thought that when the PD finally got the blues, it included front, however in rechecking the regulation I found that was not the case. What was interesting is they did change the regulation again since 2011. That version added FD rear blue, but did not allow EMS (unless FD Based) to have it and now they allow it. THey also added the the Commish of DMV can determine the following: The commissioner is authorized to promulgate rules and regulations relating to the use, placement, power and display of blue lights on a police vehicle and fire vehicle. In other words the state legislature is tired of the blue light issue.

As stated you already have the knox box, just need to enforce it. We found an effective way to get it is to make sure the owner knows you will force the door each time there is an alarm. even the stuborn ones given after the 2nd time. Suggest the alarm issue and the potential liability for not following standards to the village attorney. They may run the ball for you. Also, the fire district may need to go through Cortlandt Town to get that part of your district included. If it already is, make sure Croton knows it.

The ANJ in Croton most likely is the building inspector/official. He/she can enforce it if he/she wans to or if his boss (Village manager) directly or via the village board orders it. If you are looking for other changes that are not under the current code the village can pass it as a local code and then attempt to get it approved by the state code council (good luck, thats not easy). There are many fire safety features in the NYS UFP&BC (code) that local building officials do not activly push, that is the reason most career depts. have been given the authority by the AHJ to enforce components of the code.

On a seperate note, the apparatus manufactures will not deviate from NFPA 1901 without a signoff for liability and most spec's say the apparatus will meet all State & Federal legal requirements for motor vehicles. I wonder how much liability falls on the manufacturer if the vehicle is in an accident and it has illegal lights?

I do not know if you can sue a local government for breaking the law, but the theoretical damage is future liability. If they are involved in an MVA a smart lawyer will easily be able to prove the apparatus was at fault if it was operating as an emergency vehicle, since the blue light means it can not operate as an emergency vehicle. Before it was legal for blue lights on police cars I did watch a lawyer argue in court that the cop who ticketed him for failure to yield did not have to yield because the blue lighted police car had no legal rights as an emergency vehicle. The court through out the ticket. Because it is legal for forward facing blue lights on police cars.

The current municipal economics in NYS is no longer sustainable, so It does not matter if they need the personnel or not they can no longer afford it. I have been writting that this was coming for the last 5 years and almost no one wanted to make any changes to prevent it from happening. I feel very sorry for the employees, thier families, the coworkers who are left holding the bag and the commuity, but this is going to continue every year in more and more communities until we rework the entire way government is structured and funded in NYS. Its going to be a long and painful slide.

On 2nd thought, they will only steel from some elevators. Anything left in those elevators with floor drains will be safe and will not move.

Not knowing the building is not an excuse. "I am sorry sir, but we can not fight this fire with an aggressive interior attack and search because we do not know the building".......This would go over like a lead ballon. We learn building construction to understand different types of buildings and what to expect. But no matter how aggressive a department is at building inspection and preplanning the dept will never see the inside of the majority of structures before the fire and if they do the chances that an individual firefighter will have seen it is almost 0.

Maybe they know that $95,000 is a little low for a chief.

OMG, if it falls into the wrong hands, those people will be able to break into elevators all over the city and steal everything that is in those elevators.