Bnechis

He prefers the title: "Top Dog"

If the lawyer can get him off? Financal issues and an area for narcotics trafficking.... A one cop (with no gun) town had no police service when he was there. And he was in a very good position to look the other way or worst.

"Police Chief Ernest "Chris" Armijo decided to step down Wednesday after news stories reported that he wasn't allowed to carry a gun because of his criminal background." "He decided the attention was distracting," Distracting or scared that someone would confront an unarmed LEO? Reminds me of Barney Fife

Yes you are correct on the additude of the general public. But thats because the fire service has done a very poor job at explaining the costs involved. Yes your neighbor has insurance, but does he know that he maybe paying 60-80% more for his insurance because he has no hydrants? If the fire service has not sold itself and the public does not know, we can only blame ourselves.

Thats a bus not a cab......unless

Spy shot: Lots of leg room, no charging ports and minimal emmissions so its "green". The NYS version has been modified for your safety with the "Mini Bloomburg Drink Holding System".

Spin the wheels answer solves the issue for the IC, but not the public or the politicians. I worked EMS in a community with a large combo dept. in the mid 1980's. They would have about 15-20 career ff's and 10-15 volunteer "helpers" at a working fire. Only 1 or 2 of the volunteers would be interior. So what you would see is most of the career staff inside and outside an IC and a couple of mpo's running around like crazy and a dozen sets of helpers in gear standing around waiting to pick up hose. It always looked like they had lots of guys because they did not even have "enough" work for all of them. During contract talks the union always complained that they guys were taking a beating and needed more men. The mayor would hold up the front page of the news and show them the sea of turnouts ready to help. The union would tell him they will not or can not go in, and he would tell them they have plenty of firefighters. Then one day the union told him it would be politically very bad if a volunteer was killed/injured and as they had lest training (which the mayor had always agreed with) they needed to do something to "protect them". New Helmets would be a great idea and they bought them all nice yellow helmets. The community still saw the sea of firefighters, but the union was able to prove to the mayor that all those yellow helmets in the news are not firefighters and he finally agreed.

Fair enough. So the solution would be to have an annual standardized performance report form to the state comptroller. Currently all Counties, Cities, Towns, Villages and Fire Districts do this annually for financial reporting. If every dept had to list response time, average manpower (day, night, weekday/weekend), interior vs. exterior, annual training, etc. Then the citizens who pay for the service would know what they are paying for and depts could not hide behind false "Hear Say". Maybe then depts that are sub par will not do everything in their power to avoid change.

There is nothing wrong with having helpers. But there are a few problems that come up: 1) Do not call them firefighters if they are helpers. When a department tells the community it has a 100 firefighters (or members) it never tells them that only 10 or 20 or whatever the number is are actually going to enter a burning structure to save their kids, parents, wife, etc. The community thinks it has great protection, when maybe it needs to reconsider its system. 2) I have seen incidents with 100's of "helpers" (most were just buffing) and they stood around watching someones home burn to the ground, while 4 FIREFIGHTERS tried to stop it. If you have more helpers onscene than firefighters, then they are not helping. 3) I find accountability at most fires is very very poor at best. Throw a lot of extra helpers in and it gets worst. No they do not have to be, but they are often much better pump operators if they have spent so time on the nob and gotten bounced around or not given enough water by the MPO. Yes you can but what % of the dept is a firefighter and what % is a helper. While its nice to have the extra hands outside, 99% of fire depts do not have enough firefighters to do the hard part. Which in my mind means other communities get a better response from your department, than your own community.

I was not trying to bash and my comments might be slightly dated, but I was basing them on: http://www.emtbravo.net/index.php/topic/44719-south-salem-working-fire-132011-discussion/ I've seen hundreds of depts that have or want to have a ladder company, but they still have work to do on the basics engine company operations. There are hundreds of unmanned / undermanned apparatus in Westchester (in volunteer, combo and career depts) and a massive lack of basic capabilities. And at the same time we spend a lot of money for service, that in some places is very good and other places very poor. I am sorry if that offends some people.

Like Westchester really needs another unstaffed/understaffed ladder.

They were looking at the LI Mega Show.

Very risky under civil service and pension laws as you could lose your pension or be reclassified and lose your job.

Civil service does not have a driver or exterior only. They require all our members to be interior firefighters. If you have enough firefighters responding to your incident, you do not need "outside" helpers. If you do not have enough then yes it would be nice. As another poster said, we pick up our own hose.

If they all have the same training, why 3 classifications? Where I am we all have the same training and classify everyone as a firefighter.

We use companies, engines, trucks, etc. so we have accountability and maintain a span of control. THe IC does not have time to keep track of a bunch of guys doing some work around the edges. When we call mutual aid we need FIREFIGHTERS, not HELPERS. I believe that all of those depts. have a policy for M/A of a minimum of 3, so which of those listed only sent 2 BINGO!!!

>> "Our plan is to staff this Canteen 24/7 with at least 2 people and have it automatically respond to working fires (1st Alarm) within a 40 minute or so drive from its home base. It would also respond automatically to any 2nd Alarm or higher outside that 40 minute window or when requested by local agencies. This procedure has been successful for the Providence Canteen for many years and we plan on adopting it. We want everyone to understand that we are not there to hinder your operation, but to provide rehab to firefighters, police and other hard working personnel. The process of automatically responding means the Canteen will be there when it’s needed to rehab personnel on scene, not hours later. If we arrive at your scene and you do not need us or want us, then we will turn around and await another incident without question". << >> "If you are an area chief or official and have questions or concerns on exactly what we intend to do please contact us......This is all new to us at New England Citywide and we are looking for your input. Again we plan on adopting a lot of Providence Canteen's ways, but we also understand things done in RI or MA may not work here in CT". << This sounds very well meaning and most likely a needed service, but I have major reservations about the model they are using. Why not go to the chiefs 1st and offer the service, not we will show up no need to call. Why not set it up on an automatic bases so the dispatcher will dispatch you instead of you hearing it on a scanner and buffing it. Automaticly responding on a 40 min drive distance for a working fire? Most of our working fires are done in 30 minutes or less. Also what does "responding" mean? I see they have red lights are they legal to use in CT? How is this different than "Aviation Fire" in the Bronx?

It is not Ambulance company "A" and ambulance company "B" its "F & B" ambulance and "Unit" ambulance.

Would LEO's want to be onscene when the s*** hit the fan and EMS started to draw guns? Does it throw more security or more confusion into the incident and does it make the scene safer or not? I am not talking about EMS providers who are trained/attached to an ESU/Swat team. Just your every day EMS worker.

You win a cookie (D.Rickles) very common in these type of homes if the chimney is not on an outside wall, one side is the closet for one bedroom and the other side for a 2nd bedroom. When you check the basement, you find a furnace and or hot water heater but no CO readings. You check the bed rooms and no sources, but CO levels. And they are intermitant. Turn up the heat AND the hot water....you will get readings. Both applances in concert may produce enough to work through the old morter. I have had a couple of these that we kept going back to, because one device did not do it. Note: Both "APPLIANCES" are working fine so it is not the jop of the appliance tech to fix it. People are getting a toxic gas in the bedrooms and we took an oath to protect them.

Both good answers, but nope. This is why understanding building construction is so critical to ff's. What is between the closets of 2 bedrooms in a queen ann or victorian home?

He was not suggesting we be appliance techs. If the CO source is not clear and you do not test the appliances how do you stop the hazard (that you can not find)? Do you shut down every appliance since you do not know which one is the source? And I have seen more than 1 appliance is as fault. Finally how complicated is it to test appliances? Furnace....turn up thermostate Water Heater....turn on the hot water tap Stove...turn it on We are not looking for what is wrong with the appliance just if it is the source. If you turned on the hot water and the hot water heater is now found to be the source, we turn it off, tag it and have them call for service.

Both good answers, but no. Hint: the closets.

Great points. Here is a scenario I have come across a few times: CO levels high enough to set of alarms on the 2nd floor of single family residential. Structures are victorian or queen ann type 75+ years old. Levels come and go with higher levels in 1 or 2 of the 3 of 4 bedrooms. Levels also in the closets. No fuel appliances on the 2nd floor. What is the source?

The last thing you want is for them to get "experience" in someone elses way of doing things. Not saying they do it the wrong way, but each dept. does do things different and you do not want new ff's that now spent a week or 2 somewhere else and want to do it that way.