Bnechis

No, but I gave you a rep point for having to know LTNRFD since you were a mere first responder

They also make their telephone poles out of concrete. It is not because of fire, is because they cut down most of their forrests to burn, build ships etc. and how much was destroyed in multiple wars. That is the main reason that 200 years ago they wanted to control No. America...timber.

There have been 1 or 2 dozen calls over the last 30 years along the sound shore that required a dive team. How about 1st we worry about getting enough trained people on every ambulance and fire truck to the hundreds of thousands of calls over that same time period.

Yes, but they usually are not "on-call" for emergencies. They have to call in a patrol mission to the CG region and get approval. Then once approved they go out on patrol. If an incident occurs while on patrol then, they may respond.

Well said. I found this cemetery was the sadest military cemetery I have ever visited. 99% of the headstones were 19 & 20 year olds and all died within a week of D-Day. When I was there, I saw a bus load of German Senior Citizens going into the cemetery. Most would have been about 8 - 10 years old on D-Day. They were very upset and they told me they remember what was going on then and how it was something their country did. It was very moving. They made it clear that they were very thankfull for our nations sacrifice as it improved their lives. I will never forget.

Yonkers City Admin. has proposed cutting 2 engine companies and a battalion chief to save money. Part of the cut would be the ellimination of all FD response to EMS calls. There is rumor that the city has a proposal to replace the 11 engines (each with 4 EMT''s) with 4 one person flycars (Not clear if BLS or ALS) for $1,000,000/yr. Well done YFD and FF Rodrigues. I think the city's new position id: "How dare you save a life, when we are trying to strip services to the people"

Add Epi-Pens to the list. Last year they "repackaged" it into a "2-Pak" which means you buy 2 epi-pens and a little plastic clip to hold them together. and the price went up 4 times. Last year the wait on the repackaging was 4-6 months. Right now I've been on back order since April. I understand they need to make money, but it was not that long ago that they were the top profit industry in the world and now they are playing games with peoples lives.

Which dept is that? The only one I am aware of that came close is Fallon NV. They are an ISO split of 1 / 4 (in the non-hydrant area). Since you lose 40% for no hydrants, the best score you can get is 60% if FD and Communications are perfect. (the FD rating is a 1, but the community is a 4 then).

Sorry, I did not get that. But whats preventing you from going to the ER Director and asking him to still be a medical director for you?

Your agency is required by DOH to have a medical director. Generally the medical director is your ER director. This should be part of your QI/QA program.

Thanks 16Fire, thats exactly what my point is.

That was correct as of a year or 2 ago, I do not know if they still are. No the only thing they were rated on was the total damage paid out for damage. While the patrol would have reduced the cost for specific buildings the amount out of the total citywide damage was very small. Consider that the loss of all the buildings at the WTC did not change the rate more than 1%.

This has come up a few times over the years, but only in 2 or 3 states. Allstate did this in Texas 15+ years ago and then went back to ISO when they found it was cheaper to let ISO rate the community then for Allstate to do it. The problem with using fire loss is most communities do not have enough fire loss in a given year (or years) to statistically calculate a loss rate for insurance. And one major loss in a year will throw the whole calculation off. I only know of one location that "fire loss' is use to determine the rate and that is NYC. Even after 9/11 the 2001 the total fire loss in NYC was statistically almost the same as any other year. And in dollar loss it has been consistant (factoring inflation) over any 10 year period during the past 30+ years. NYC is hurt by this system as they rate an ISO PPC #4 and in their case it is no reflection on the firefighting ability of the FDNY. Because of high life safety issues (which ISO does not consider), FDNY tactics use larger water flows than most FD's are capable of. From a damage perspective FDNY may stop more fire, thus save lives (and preventing major exposure isues), but tend to have higher water damage to the primary building. They also do limited salvage work, therefore the "fire" damage tends to be higher in a dollar amount and ISO rates them based on the dollar loss

Its clearly not as good as having a municipal system (hydrants). But ISO does not care if you have tankers or not. If you chose to prove you can move the water, they set a senario based on the fire flow needs in your communitiy and you prove you can develop a 250gpm flow (or more) within 5 minutes of arrival and maintain it for at least 2 hours. "Water on wheels" is a good way to do it, but there are others.

It varies based on a number of factors, but generally each PPC level is worth about 8%, which depending on home value could be $50 to $500 per home per year. So moving up 3 or 4 slots could be a nice amount of cash when adding up every home in a district.

Yes it is, but that does not mean the FD should give up. There are FD's without municipal water systems that are ISO 4 and those with a minimal system that are ISO 3. They did not blame the lack of system, they went out and figured out how best to fight a fire without it. Yes many are split. A ton of tankers? Do you know what is actually needed or are you guessing? And if the water supply is out of the FD's hands (No municipal system) then what is the plan for fire attack? Does the FD have a plan or have they told the community that they have no ability to fight fire? I see many depts without hydrants that have spent a lot of time and money training to move water, but they are not getting credit for it...why? Adding a municipal system is not likely in most places. What does it take to be an ISO 9? 4 volunteers (one assigned as chief), with 1 hour per month of training (that includes intitial training) and 1 "fire truck" with 300 gallons of water, a 50 gpm pump (at 150 psi), 600 feet of booster and/or small attack hose, and some hand tools. What does it take to be an ISO 8B? a minimum of 6 responders (average) to fires, 24 hours training per year (per member) and 4,000 gallons of water (plus be a 9). They do not care how you get the 4,000 gallons there (so 2 engines with 1,000 gal and 1 with 2,000 gets you there or any other combination). Auto aid can be used for the water & manpower. So you show ISO you do this and they lower the rating and most private residential properties can get up to 8% off their fire insurance premium. So 607 communities in NYS could drop from 9 to 8b if they can manage to do this. Now if you can not do this, how do you fight fire? 1st I did not say below a 4 is a "failure" of the fire dept. its a failure of the communities fire protection (which covers more than just the FD). 2nd what do you get on your school report card when you get below 65%? ............a chance to repeat the class till you pass. If an FD gets a 4 without a municipal water supply, their actual score (not the communities) is in the high 80's or 90's.

1st ISO does not rate fire departments, they rate fire protection in a communitiy. It is possible that the communities do not have fire dept. It is also possible that some communities are using fire departments that are to far away to be effective. (ISO generally considers more than 5 miles to be effective).

Yes its great that Arlington has maintained their ISO 3 PPC Rating. But it does not take hard work to maintain ones ISO level (as long as the politicians do not cut personnel, apparatus or stations), it takes hard work to improve it. The ISO PPC ratings are an open book test: PPC#1 = 100%-90% (A) PPC#2 = 89.9%-80% ( PPC#3 = 79.9%-70% © PPC#4 = 69.9%-60% (D-F) PPC#5 = 59.9%-50% PPC#6 = 49.9%-40% PPC#7 = 39.9%-30% PPC#8 = 29.9%-20% PPC#9 = 19.9%-10% PPC#10 = No Fire Dept. NYS ratings are as follows: 2 Communities are PPC#1 24 Communities are PPC#2 219 Communities are PPC#3 562 Communities are PPC#4 595 Communities are PPC#5 274 Communities are PPC#6 69 Communities are PPC#7 12 Communities are PPC#8 120 Communities are PPC#8B 607 Communities are PPC#9 33 Communities are PPC#10 So the insurance industry says that approximatly 79% (1991) of the communities in NYS recieved a failing grade for there fire protection efforts and every property owner will recieve higher premiums in those communities. Note: Communities may have more than 1 rating (called a split rating)

We have blamed the legislature, the courts and the vulcans and while they all have a hand in this....The despirate impact has two solutions; One is the supreme court, the other is NYC has to prove that the educational level being tested for is needed. Chief R. has simply listed why firefighters need basic educational skills to perform the job. It is sad that NYC can not (or has not) shown this to the court, because once they prove it is needed to pass the fire acadamy and perform at the minimum standard in the field, then this issue should go away.

Thanks for the vote, but this one defies logic and I can only sort out what can be sorted out. This one is beyond that until Despirate Impact is tossed.

You know they are writing off the entire program. So there is a couple $100,000 that is not going to reduce the national debt. Unlikely that anyone will buy it and it makes the local FD look foolish. Is that the official uniform for the department?

I generally agree, except does it really reduce health care costs or just transfer them to other entities? Hospitals have tremendious infastructure and personnel costs, when companies can skim patients without those costs and then when in over there heads ship the patient to the hospital, the hospitals lose the revinue, but no the costs. If its a free standing facility that is ownd by the local hospital then they are supporting themselves.

It always amazes me how stupid elected officials can be. Since there is no exception for Fire & Public works, they have effectivly outlawed fire apparatus and snow removal (among other things). Puts the community in wonderful liability in the event of an MVA on any street that it outlawed its own vehicles to drive.

The term Squad is the only apparatus in the county system that is properly defined: "A vehicle(s) consisting of at least an Engine with or without other support vehicles (i.e.: Rescue, Ladder, or Utility Type), equipped with additional and specific equipment to handle hazardous materials / WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and/or technical rescue, that will respond with a minimum of six (6) trained and certified members, included a company officer. For hazmat and WMD the minimum training level shall be Haz-Mat Technician (as identified under OSHA 1910.120) and the squad shall have the equipment necessary to perform air monitoring, level “A” suit and decontamination. For technical rescue the minimum training level shall be based on NFPA 1670. All members shall be at the technician level for structural collapse, trench rescue and confined space rescue and at the operations level for rope rescue. The squad shall have the equipment necessary to initiate a response, safely size up and identify additional resources required to safely mitigate these incidents." The basic engine definition does not include training or personnel so an engine with no driver or firefighters is still called an engine, but its useless. Would that make our ladders RESCUE-LADDERS (they carry extrication tools, air bags, cribbing, etc.)? My problem with any designation of a rescue is it needs to include capabliities (NIMS TYPING?). We have rescues (light) on a pick-up chassis called the same as a 24' tandum axle heavy rescue. We have "Heavy Rescue's" that do not carry enough equipment to handle a 2 car MVA and Medium Rescues that carry much more. And while a rescue engine can do a lot, I have yet to see one that carry's enough cripping and hose to do both jobs well. The term "heavy rescue" should be based on its capabilities not on the weight of the truck. Does it roll with trained personnel? Hose can't stretch itself.

So no trucks (moving, delivery, loaded vans, etc.) can legally drive in your city? I find that very unlikely.