Bnechis
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Everything posted by Bnechis
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It did not have red lights or a siren thank you
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You do not need hose to buff...but a big red truck with red lights & siren gets there faster.
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NYS is also an OSHA (PESH) state but it does not require annual burns. At one point (about a dozen years ago) they cancelled all live burns in the volunteer training (they still existed in the career training) because they were unsafe for the Instructors. As the instructors employer, OFPC did not meet the OSHA standards for protecting its instructors. In NYS it is possible to go 50 years and never experience a live burn, but you can still be a "great" firefighter because your "I fight what you fear" T-shirt.
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Because the chief of MVFD gets to tell 60 who he wants 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. as does the chief of GFD. Thats why it different for every dept. If the criteria for sending M/A was who can do it without stripping the community, then almost every dept in the county could never send M/A. Yes the members always want to go to a job. But they are not the ones who get to say who goes. Again, in a consolidated dept. you get to go to more jobs, because you get to respond to more than 1 square mile.
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1710 requires a minimum of 16 firefighters to respond to an "alarm of fire" in a 2,000sq' structure (or smaller) without a basement. Once a working fire is declared an additional 3 must be dispatched. Larger structures or target hazards require more.
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Can you list any fire service text on command or tactics that does not say, send more than you need, you can always turn it around? Since those depts need to recieve it even more, they must send if they want help when they needed it. This is only needed because we maintain the walls around every boarder. Go to most parts of the country and they cover with 1/2 our apparatus, but each one is better staffed and the calls get covered better than we can. Most firefighters in Westchester can't be looking out for themselves 1st without mutail aid to back them up. We calculated that if the 10 career depts (in the consolidation study) wanted to meet NFPA 1710 as stand alone depts we needed an additional 508 firefighters & officers, but as a single dept. covering the same area with 3ff/1of on every rig and 22 members on every structure alarm (vs. 3 to 14 as stand alone) we were short about 4 firefighters. Wow, whats the cost to the taxpayer for an additional 508 employees?
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If we continue to have lots of understaffed depts every other mile, then yes it was. I have been saying that for years, but most keep fighting to maintain the status quo. Maybe its ok because MVFD has stripped those around it many times. Its where the "MUTUAL" comes in. Yes MVFD needs 3 trucks and its manppwoer, etc. But there have been many times it needed 5 or 6 or more and its citizens benefit from the mutual aid it recieves so they are not paying for 5 trucks that it raarely needs. Let managment tell the community that they need to raise taxes even more to add every resource they currently can get from mutual aid. Oh thats right the tax payers voted for a tax capping gov. So that oath they swore includes making sure that when their dept is committed to an incident, other depts will cover the district.
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Maybe thats the reason why stagging in many parts of the country is 2 blocks away. They are available in 30 seconds, but not in the way and able to harrass you. I agree about wanting to handle your own fire, my point was more about making sure you have enough back-up to available for the unexpected. Or even the expected......I know of way to many incidents, that the 1st in engine advises the IC, that they are getting low on air...then a few minutes later, they ask for relief on the line...then a few minutes later, they advise that they are coming out for air....AND NO ONE is assigned to replace them on the line. Where are the replacements? They were never called. Since most depts in Westchester are showing up with only 5-7 members (or fewer), then as you said we need to correct it. Its going to get far worst before it gets better, The tax cap is going to force reductions on every dept. If every IC had a crystal ball, no firefighter would ever get hurt or killed. Since they do not it is their job to make sure that the members are backed up. Every text, SOP, training program teaches them...Not to play catch-up. The panic button is playing catch up if its not before the incident goes bad.
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To bad the price is not as bad as we would think, but the cost is our safety. In Westchester thats not correct. Most career depts. have been reducing manpower since the 1970's. Almost every volunteer dept is having major manpower shortages. The combination depts. were set up with a few career members to augment the volunteers and in Westchester what has happened is they have not increased the career staffing, but the volunteers are almost gone. Thus leaving a massivly short career staffed dept. that has 1 18 y/o and 1 70 y/o volunteer who show up sometimes. The problem is the community still think they have volunteers so there is no need to add career members to replace them. While this is very true in places like Stamford. In Westchester there is almost no suggestion of consolidating career & volunteer. We can not get career & career together or volunteer & volunteer. And in many cases its not the fire fighters or even the departments that are against it. In one community, they are against consolidation of the FD, because if it works, then we might have to consolidate the schools, and we dont want that because our kids are better than their kids and we dont want them to go to that "other" school". Its called failure to lead and a big part of the problem is time. Volunteer chiefs are rotated so often that they never learn to lead or have the time to develop into true leaders and in some cases career chiefs who have been in so long that they no longer have vision. Its incomprehensible to me how many are not fully prepared to handle a simple room and content fire in their 1st due area. Nope lots of good points.
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When you respond to an incident at one location you are also taking away resources from every other location in town, But thats considered acceptable, because we our main focus is the active fire. We relocate, use call back or mutual aid to cover the house, but ussually the community coverage is at a much lower level (i.e. 1 eng & 1 lad, when normal is 4 and 2). We think nothing of taking resources away from 99.9% of the taxpayers then. Now if your dept. can not muster 12-20 firefighters for a working fire you either need to call mutual aid or you are shorting both your members and the community. And if you can not muster sufficiant members within the dept. then you need to call mutual aid. The key word being "MUTUAL". If you want it, then you need to figure a way to also pay it back. THat means taking away resources from your tax payers to cover someone elses taxpayers. If you don't want to d othat, then your taxpayers can support you to the point that you do not need mutual aid. There are lots of ways to deal with that, including getting the chiefs from the surrounding communities to jointly write that they will not cover that. We have seen it in Westchester. The dept itself needs to make it clear that having enough trained personnel in a timely manor is critical to everyones safety. To many times depts., chiefs and members are unwilling to say anything, because they are too busy pounding their chests.
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Till it fails its annual test or is damaged (to the point we will not even test it).
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Thats not stagging thats buffing.
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I dont buy that, In Westchester the 58 FD's claim to have as many ff's as FDNY if we cant get enough ff's to an incident its time to reevaluate everything we claim to be. Since the "other town" has 10 times more than it needs, how is this hurting their capabilities? Unless of course they do not have the resources they have told the community they have (and asked for funding to suport). Yes all resources are finite, but asking for an additional engine and truck to be in staging, when we have 200 engines and 75 ladders. Other counties around us also have substantial resources as well. Based on that, lets cut your resources again, because the politicians know that you will not complain and will do more with less, then we can cut and you will still do more with less and so on. Very true. This is the best argument for consolidation. Multiple departments going to very few fires means lots of firefighters with very little experience.
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Of the following municipal depts (i.e. not fire districts [please correct if otherwise]) which ones have fire wardens or a board of fire wardens that is still active: Ardsley Briarcliff Croton Dobbs Ferry Elmsford Hastings Irvington Mamaroneck (V) Mt. Kisco Ossining Peekskill Portchester Sleepy Hollow Thank you
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In some municipal departments (city's or village's), they have a board of fire wardens that over see the FD. Unlike Fire District commisioners they are not publicly elected, they can be appointed or voted in by the FD members. While they oversee the FD, their budget comes from the village board or city council and in theory they must answer to them (in practice they sometimes dont do it).
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Well said. That is why I asked the questions if the IC's are actually asking for the help.
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Thanks Cogs. On your last comment I agree that today we have more alarms and more rigs at an incident, but In many cases I see a similar number of firefighters. As staffing per rig has dropped &/or the vol. turnout is not what it was. As an example in the 1970's & 80's my dept dispatched 2 eng., 1 lad., & DC. With 5 men per engine (officer, driver, nozzle, Hydrant & breakman), 3 on the ladder, chief & Aide. thats 15. Today we send 4 engines, 2 ladders, Chief & Aide. but we have 3 man engines. So now we have 20, with 3 of them assigned to fast. So we went from 15 to 17 who are attacking the fire. Not a big difference, but construction has changed and tactic have as well. There is more to do on todays fire ground. Also, today we are more proactive about the safety of the members.
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You do not need a town ordinance as the Building official has the right to require it under the NYSUFP&BC. Based on the occupancy we require them (when new permits are requested) but we strongly recommend them to everyone. I found it is pretty easy to convince owners. I met with one condo board (they had 2 4 story MD) and suggested a knox box and why. THey said they did not want to spend the money on it and I explained that with their new door buzzer system we could not get buzzed in unless we knew the name of the caller (not the apt.) and since we rarely knew that, we would have to force our way in and that would cost a lot more. 3 weeks later, I responded there for a man down. We could not get buzzed in, so we forced the door. The next day they called to get the knox application. About a year later I responded there again on an assist and found the CO-OP board pres. on the floor and when he asked if we broke the door again, I said no...we used the knox key. He later told me he forgot they had added it.
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Yes we all are.....but most either do not see this or do not believe it.
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No. Actually the complaint was that their own IC's (captains & DC's) are not calling enough outside personnel to make the scene safer and trying to make do with less than they should.
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Was done over 100 years ago. Its anybody's guess as to why. The town asked it rep in Albany and they passed special legislation to make it happen. We have 1,000's of "special" laws on the books that affect just 1 community. The local rep. gets everyone to back his legsilation in exchange for his vote on their legislation and he comes home a "hero" for getting local legislation. There is never any thought as to how this effects the community (good or bad), taxes, or the state as a whole. Could it be done today...YES...but it much harder to get past Albany's "3 men in a room"
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THats correct unless there has been special legislation and I believe the only one is Town of Mamaroneck. Currently Cities can not be included in Fire Districts.
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No impact, because the points were already lost by having local PD having the PSAP. ISO wants all calls going to a single call handling facility without transfers.
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I believe you are correct. State Law does say they must be trained: "What kind of training must fire district commissioners complete? In 2006, State law began requiring that all fire district commissioners complete financial training within 270 days of taking office each time they are elected, re-elected, appointed or re-appointed. The training must cover legal, fiduciary, financial, procurement and ethical responsibilities, and such other topics as may be prescribed by the State Comptroller." My link
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Not true. It has nothing to do with being volunteer or career (would that mean combo depts can only bill some of the time or only bill 1/2....NO) Fire Districts are not allowed to bill. Correct but the point I was making is that it has been illegal for 50+ years for special taxing districts (Water, sewer, light, fire) to bill. The legislation proposed is to allow Fire Districts to do that.