Bnechis

1st it would have to work. Many of those systems have been developed and there are lots of places that have walked away from them. Before any system including the trunked system would be used by everyone it would have to work for each type of agency (PD, FD, EMS and career, combo, vol. and urban, sub, etc. etc.)

Those do lead to lots of questions. But there are also some interesting concepts buried in there. First, it is very poor practice to put both the staffing level and the equipment operation in the charter. The charter is a basic overview of the local government and should basically list the following: The City shall provide a fire dept. that is responsable for fire suppression, EMS (or 1st response) and what ever else it is responsible for. It may include that the chief is elected, appointed or hired from civil service list and thats about it. The number of career staff is usually dictated in the annual budget, sometimes in the union contract, but the only reason its in the charter is to preven the expansion of the career staff. These are often written when a dept. changes from vol to comb. and its because the volunteers, or general public or the politicians are afraid that this will expand and being in the charter prevents it without a public vote. While it is desirable to control the growth, it may also be a managment issue of what is the least expensive way to provide the service. If you are running 12FF in 4 shifts with 3 as minimum manning, you need to pay OT, everytime a member is on vacation, sick, jury duty, military leave, etc. Many depts have determined it is cheaper to hire additional employees and reduce the OT. The driver issue is also an operational issue and the charter is micro managing the dept. It is not uncommon for the labor/managment contract to include that. It is much easier to negotiate a change if needed than to have to ask the public if it is ok for someone to drive. Both items can be controlled, but it is almost like having the US Constitution saying how many ship the navy will maintain and who can drive the humvees (only sargents and up or would that be down?

For a home that is no more that 2,000sq ft and no basement...otherwise, you need more.

I agree that theis was pretty basic, if you have the training and equipment. I have seen many rescues with mounted winches, but not many that carry the slings and/or chain needed to perform this type of basic stabilization.

No, but if you can put it there, why leave it up the block. If its positioned and conditions worsten, you are in a better position to react. Particularly if the primary truck crew is not available latter to operate the unit. While it clearly can be done with ground ladders, is it not safer to operate off an arial if you can? And more important if you do not practice rig placement at jobs like this, as you rarely get to do it in training, you will most likely not do it when its really needed. While I suspect this is a 1950's or 60 stick built, how do you know if its not light weight truss? Even if it is not, good practice for when it is. fair enough

Yes WPFD did a great stop. Yes we see the power lines. With a rear mount you put the turn table under them and rotate the stick and you made the roof. Simple truck positioning, done all the time and the stick is well below the danger zone.

Great Photos Chris, But the ladder is located infront of the exposure (and the supply line is blocking the "front" of the building).

I agree but before we run we need to walk and crawl......most agencies have not planned for 10 patients.

More than most agencies plan for, train for or have the resources to handle.

Just because its a truss ( and no immediate life threat) does not mean an exterior attack. If the fire is not a threat to the truss do you just wait till it burns the building down?

It is just like when the 5th graders "graduate" to the middle school. Hopefully the majority will continue their education. because FF1 and Survival is not elimentary school, its closer to Kindergarden. I also hope we are not wasting lots of money on training individuals who will not stick with it. When one looks at the thousands of graduates over the past few years, there should be no shortage of personnel, but we see the overall staffing numbers are still dropping. Good luck as you complete the very 1st step in becoming a firefighter.

http://nfpa.typepad.com/nfpablog/2012/07/lightweight-construction-being-called-into-question-after-a-police-captain-and-his-family-die-in-a-house-fire.html NFPA - "Lightweight construction called into question after a police captain and his family die in house fire" "In recent decades, an expanding range of construction methods and building products...often termed 'lightweight construction' have been widely embraced by residential builders for their ability to deliver economy and functionality," says the story's author Alan R. Earls. "However, findings [from both reports] confirmed what firefighters have long suspected about what happens to lightweight construction when it is exposed to fire. In repeated tests by both groups, under carefully controlled conditions, lightweight structures were found to burn faster and lose their structural integrity quicker—in some cases much quicker—than those built with dimensional lumber, with obvious ramifications for the fire service and for anyone who lives in a residence constructed with lightweight materials."

Now: All personnel costs covered for years #1 & #2. SFRD must pay for turnout gear and training (if they pay for any other recruits), same for uniforms. If they normally require new members to pay, then SFRD does not have to. After 2 years, SFRD must pay all costs to maintain. SFRD is not obligated by the grant or law to maintain the positions after the 2 years. How about by the Mayor, as the Grants 1st question is: has approval been given by the oversight level to submit this grant request? Yes they should be advised, but at the time they are offered the job and not on EMTBravo or the newspaper. Yes it would be tough to lose it over funding. But the idea is to improve the safety of the citizens and the existing firefighters for the next 2 years. The hope is the economy will be better then and the funds can be found. The reality is over 2 years a dept the size of SFRD will probably have that many retirements and the positions might disapear based on attrition, but these new hired members will replace the retiring ones. Even if they are laid off, they stay top of the list until positions open, so while it sucks to get laid off, it is highly likely that they will end up having a full career. They need to know whats up in the begining before they take that risk, but some will take it, even knowing what might happen.

Pavia, however, said on Friday he is considering holding off on handing the grant to elected officials for approval until the city's Charter Review Commission issues a referendum this November........" Pavia said. "Each of them are intricately entwined with each other. To go forward at this time without consideration would be irresponsible." I hope its been made clear to the Mayor and the public that he has 30 days to accept the grant and 120 days (unless its been changed) to hire. If he knows this then he is willing to let the clock run out and not take the money.

I kind of been wondering what does the average homeowner, particularly in North Stamford understand about this whole mess. Last week I went to a BBQ in TOR (near LR's district) at a long time friend of my parents. They have lived there for 40+ years and they asked if I knew anything about what was going on. I asked what they knew of the situation and they told me they knew from news reports that the volunteers were not getting to some serious fires and there were lots of lawsuits. They also told me they had had a fire about 12 years ago and thought the FD's did a good job (I asked what a good job was in there minds and they said the house did not burn down). The husband is disabled and they have called 911 for assistance over the past 2 years and said that SFRD was the dept that showed up. They were very concerned that since he can not get out on his own, that if they have a fire the VFD's might not show up and the SFRD will not have enough firefighters there quickly enough to help. They also said they have had multiple visits from volunteers come and ring there doorbell and tell them they should be supported because they save so much money and they do the same job as SFRD. She told me that when asked why they did not respond to there calls, she said they would look into it, and thats why they need a paid volunteer department. She also said they never responded back with an answer.

Each chief fills out a card for the order of Mutual aid his dept will recieve. No where on the form is a slot to refuse anything other than specific apparatus that can not go mutual aid. So MVFD did not list YFD as 1st.

The NR hiring is under the control of the Federal Courts. Your questions is interesting but, the answer would have to be determined by the courts. If this were to occur the town or village would not be hiring only the city, and the city can not use the T&V list. Well said. I particularly like reflective drapes if they go on the rig Since most studies cost between $30k and $75K how detailed will this study be at only $6k by an unknown local firm. Current state law does not allow consolidation between city's and a town or village. It also does not allow a city to have a fire district or be in a fire district. It does allow contracting of services.

Great Job

In another thread (http://www.emtbravo.net/index.php/topic/46574-can-westchester-depts-handle-this/) I asked if Westchester depts could handle a OMD fire like the one in Nassau county. No on was able to say yes with any credability. Last week we had a bus accident/MCI on I-95 in New Rochelle. When EMS command asked for 2 additional ambulances (they had 4 onscene or inroute) and 1 mutual aid ambulance responding into the city to handle another call 60 Control said; "we are trying to get you more"......"Trying" sounds like hoping.....(not knocking the dispatchers as this is a system problem not a dispatch one). We also requested a Bus to transport non-injured and or minor injured patients. We were told that none are available. Luckily NYC was not busy as FDNY-BEMS sent us a task force and a MERV. How far can we bury our head in the sand?

But think of the children.............

Your guess is as good as mine. We found out about it this morning on LoHud like everyone else.

It was not commissioned by "politicians" it was commissioned by the career fire chiefs association.

You left out Pelham Manor. We do border the Town of Mamaroneck and while not bordering we wre within about 30 feet from Larchmont at one point. My vote is we consolidate with FDNY, (We take over of them.) If that does not work, lets jump in with Stamford. In NYS Law Cities are prohibitted from "combining" with villages or Fire Districts (towns). Cities can be contracted to provide protection to those communities. ISO says they have more career responders (3) on average than volunteers (2). And few if any are interior. Yes, and it cost the city $0 for that study.

SAFER grants are agency specific.That means SFRD's grant must go to them and them alone. If they had a volunteer R&R component, then that would have to go to volunteer R&R in the SFRD and not another dept. Now is it possible that they wrote that adding career personnel would help the VFD's? Yes its possible, but the Senators staff does not get to see that. My Experience with the AFG's (interesting abbreviation for the Fire Act Grant) and Politicians in Washington, is they love to take credit for giving you this wonderful grant, that at best they voted to fund the grant and at worst voted against it. But in either case you got the grant because of all there hard work in Washington. They never know what it is for, infact I have been always ask what the grant is for.

Most Americans believe that they will never have a fire and the only reason they have insurance is because the bank requires it to get a morgage. Insurance never makes you whole. You can't get back what was lost, including the 2-3 years you will be rebuilding (and fighting with the insurance company). Also, most people are against sprinklers because they do not understand how they work. They think every head goes off with just a little smoke (thanks to hollywood) and that the water damage will be devistating.