Bnechis

At the other end of the spectrum, when dispatch advises you to: "respond with caution" is that a liability concern. Do we always respond with caution? In our case this situation is created when 10 codes were dropped (by one side) and plan English based on a typo is used.

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Officials-2-firetrucks-lost-in-crash-saved-lives-945656.php STRATFORD ---- The Stratford Fire Department is reeling after the sudden loss of two of its fire engines in a crash on Interstate 95 in which one tractor-trailer slammed into Engine 1, and another into Engine 5. The two crashes occurred almost simultaneously, officials said. Lampart said the two engines......were parked in a "staggered" configuration on the highway, in order to protect the lives of the firefighters, police officers, EMTs and other first responders to the original car crash. In this positioning of the trucks, one is parked in the right-hand lane and the other in the center lane, in order to both direct traffic around the mishap, and also to provide protection in event an incompetent driver happens upon the scene. "The system worked," Lampart said. "Even though we lost two trucks, we would have been looking at six or seven fatalities and or very serious injuries had those trucks not been in place." People, Lets be careful out there

It should not now. Someone wrote the wrong definition for 10-20 and we cant get 60 to stop using the term. 10-20 = respond non-emergency mode. All responses are with caution.

You are correct. You should not pay to staff firehouses IF volunteers can do it. My father always told me that "if" was the biggest word in the english language. The problem in North Stamford (and much of the nation) is volunteers are no longer showing up. In North Stamford this has been the case at every working fire, day, night & weekends. If the reports are true (and I have no reason to believe they are not) there have been many calls that have gone unanswered (covered by SFRD) or only a VFD chief has responded. If the current level of volunteer response is acurate, then the 2 FD plan is doomed to failure bucause its relying on vollunteers that do not exist.

Didn't this debate start because one (or more of the "big 5") could not muster enough troops at night and ended up burning a couple of homes to the ground?

Truck Chains (for 15-30 ton vehicles) cost about $150 per pair. For cars & SUVs they run about $50 and they can last about 10 or more years.

I get it, what can possably happen in that extra 2 minutes....hmmmm since fire growth doubles every minute, lets take a 1,000 sq/ft apt. with an 10 x 12 bedroom fully involved at the 8 minute mark (thats 120 sq/ft or 12%). at 9 minutes its 240 square feet and at 10 minutes its 480 Square feet. So in 2 extra minutes it went from 12% to 48%. Want to give it a few more minutes, whats the harm? Boy I hope they closed the door on the way out or lots of other tenants will be in extreme danger. There is a business model for the fire service, it was developed in 1910 by the National Board of Fire Underwriters. They base insurance premiums on fire coverage. Since most properties require insurance (for a morgage), and the FD is a fire insurance policy, a good dept reduces the price insurance companies charge for property insurance. NFPA 1710 clearly states that this minimum standard is based on a 2,000 sq/ft single family dwelling without a basement (and minimal exposures). This does not discribe many properties in NYC. This is refered to as doing more with less. Interesting that many medics call SSM (system status management) system sacrificing medics, because very few of those systems manage to retain personnel the way most municipal services do. Actually FD's are an economic engine. Based on insurance cost reductions that range from 8 to 12 to 1. That means for every dollar of one persons taxes spent , $8 - $12 is reduced on there property insurance. You never suggested doing things better, you suggested doing more with less. If you think thats such a great response then you are use to a service level that is so poor, you do not know a good service from a poor one.

Its not the fire thats so stressful, its dealing with personnel, managment, politicians, pension issues, give backs, etc.

The New Rochelle Civil Service Office is accepting application for the Firefighters Exam. Located at New Rochelle City Hall, 515 North Ave, New Rochelle, NY 10801 1St. Floor. Application can be picked up at the office. To register you must have a completed application alone with $25, Photo ID and proof of residence, i.e. Phone bill, Con-Ed bill, Cable, Paystub. Office hours are Monday thru Friday 8:30am to 4:20pm. Application Deadline is Monday January 24, 2011

Well said. We follow this policy and if you want our personnel it comes with a supervisor. His roll is as a liason to the Command Post. We started doing this after an incident in a multi dwelling fire, where the host dept pulled its members out and switched from offensive to defensive and forgot to advise our members. We find it very helpful to have someone in the CP who knows what we can or can not do. Our primary responsability is to our members (and our community), we want to help the neighbors, but that does not supersede our primary responsability.

That would hurt emergency service job security

In parts of europe where driving is a privaledge (like we like to claim here). the road test is 2-3 hours long. It includes proving you can do the above and instead of the tax payer paying, the student who wants the license pays for the classes. You want to drive, you pay. Insurance companies give a big discount for having this so it actiually pays to do it.

Let me get this straight...its the liberals & the conservatives who are to blame. Instead lets just call them by a common name....Politicians. Hopefully, justice will be served and YFD members and the Joyce Family will find peace in that.

While the 20+ year old rigs may not be dead, are they safe to operate? Read the fatality reports for rural FD's. They are almost always due to vehicle accidents. Thats why new vehicles have superior braking and handling capabilities. How many 20+ year old tankers were actually engineered to drive at speed on back roads?

NRFD 2010 Total 7,938 318 Fires, 45 All Hands Working or Multiple Alarm Fires 3,989 EMS 1st Response 1,331 Automatic &/or False Alarms 2009 Total 7,558 269 Fires, 55 All Hands Working or Multiple Alarm Fires 4,243 EMS 1st Response 1,323 Automatic &/or False Alarms

Do you really think that NYS has a better clue than Yonkers. They both have the same game book.

Since MTA does not answer (or negotiate) to NYC why would this be an issue? MTA is its own disaster, that sucks funds from everyone.

Watch it again. Granted we do not know the whole story, but he was able to move forward. Also listen to all the conversation, he was telling of the FF's (as they were yelling at him to move). And yes it looked tight because of the snow piles, but in the end he managed to move, but it appeared to be at his own pace.

It was reported that the split cab was needed because of contract issues with the mechanics needing to occasionally work on a rig inside a fire house.

NYS does not have a "weather exception" Not normally, unless the SEMAC (NYS DOH Medical Advisory Committee) aproved it. Dont know if its true, but many reports were that a "state of Emergency" was not declared. IV's during MCI's & Tx by BLS hs been outlawed in NYS as of 2004 http://www.nyhealth.gov/nysdoh/ems/policy/04-02.htm 1) It was not state of emergency (But it should have been) 2) What law allows this? This makes sense if allowed. But its not clear if this is whhat was happening.

It's good to be the king!

Yes the NFPA 1720 standard allows for only 4 members in 10 minutes. To bad the Law in NYS requires more personnel than 1720 if you plan on entering the structure (29cfr1910.134). And based on the 10 minutes, many depts in this article do not even meet this. Is it that 1720 allows less members or more time 10% of the time? And that does not change the AHA standard for EMS and they nor grandma cares if the crew is paid or volunteer when grandpa is on the floor. 1st depts need to be honest about what they actually provide. Response time is 1 thing, trained members who show up at calls is another. Their are still many depts that claim to have 100's of members, but cant get 4 to show up. There are combo depts. that run with substandard number of career because the community still thinks the vols. show up when they have not in years. If people understood whats provided and what it costs you'd have a better shot at it. Particularly when you can show what the other costs of fire protection are (particularly insurance costs).

While it is clear that many of the benefits are the result of labor unions, most of those gains were 50-80 years ago and many of those gains are now long standing laws of the land (i.e. 40 hour work weeks). I am an active member in an IAFF local and a rep on the NYSPFFA 5th district, so I do understand and believe in the power of our union. IAFF is a strong union in a strong union state (NY), but because of civil service laws, particularly the taylor laws we are very different than most "unions". We can not strike and we have binding arbitration. Now I have also worked for bith union & non-union EMS agencies and my experiences there make me question the effectivness of EMS Unions. the 1st commercial service I worked for was represented by the Teamsters. EMT's & Paramedics were the lowest paid & highest trained employees in the Teamsters. There was a rumor that those who organized us managed to get fired and the Teamsters found them jobs driving trucks for A&P for twice the money (that was before I worked there so I do not know if it was true). What I did experience was during contract talks, we were offered a raise, that every member felt was substandard. We decided to take a strke vote. Teamster officials were outraged at us, they did admit that we were the lowest paid teamsters and this raise was less than anyone elses. We took the vote and it was over 75% in favor of striking and we were threatened, told the vote did not count and we would have to take another vote with the teamster officals video taping us to document who wanted to strike. They also advised us that they would not certify a strike and it would then be considered a wildcat walkout and we could all be fired. So instead of striking, we dumped the Teamsters. I also worked as a medic for a major non-union hospital. While there 1199 attempted to unionize the hospital. Hospital administration gave them space to put up there info, had every employee rotate thru their presentation and then we voted. out of 6,000 employees less than 250 voted for the union. Maybe that is because when an employee feels that the employer is looking out for the employee there is little need for a union. About a year prior to that 1199 attempt, workers at NYC-HHC went on strike. Our hospital president told us that our annual pay raise would be delayed until the strike was over and he insured us not to worry. HHC was on strick for like 5 weeks, when it ended we got our raise, a 1/2% more than they did, plus retroactive pay and we did not lose time due to the strike....so win, win, win for us. Unions have helped EMS, but they have also hurt EMS. What is holding career EMS in Westchester back, is dozens of perdiem EMS agencies. Most EMS union workers also work these perdiem jobs (yes to make ends meet), but they reduce the need for the union and its bargaining power.

The national standard for EMS is BLS onscene in 4 minutes and ALS in 8 90% of the time. That includes the ambulance in 8 (so in systems with ALS flycar or medic/engine) either BLS transport is 4 minutes & 8 minutes for the flycar or 4 minutes for ALS and 8 for transport. This is based on AHA, American Amb. Assoc and NFPA standards. For Fire calls the standard is 1st due engine (with 3ff's/1off) in 4 minutes and the remainder of the 1st alarm assignment in 8 minutes (minimum of 16 firefighters & officers). This based on NFPA. ISO while not using time, they use response distances (and calculate the response time based on it). If you cant meet the times (which they also consider if members are inhouse or not) then you need to double the number of responders.

Good for the County Exec. As more info is available to the public, the better we can justify our operation or request additional resources. That discusion is critical to service improvment. The problem is the info released is not enough to make for good discusion. What is need is the following times: Processing time (time to answer 911, transfer & or dispatch) + Turnout Time (time from dispatch till apparatus is on the road) + Response time (drive time) = total response time. In addition the response time needs to indicate how many trained responders arrived with the 1st unit (and its onscene time) plus the total number of responders and apparatus that arrived in the remaining initial response and there onscene time. Examples of why this is needed: Your 1st due engine arrives with 1 FF in 4 minutes, but the remaining 3ff's take 15 minutes. 2 eng and a ladder arrive in 7 minutes with 4FF's 30 trained members arrive in 10 minutes, with long drive distances. With just a list of total times how can anyone figure out if the problem is not enough members, not enough who can get the rigs or long distances because of rural area. If a VFD with a single station "in town" but 20-50 road miles to cover in the outlying area maintains an intown response under 6 minutes, but outlying takes 20 minutes. This depts doing very well, but it may not look it. They should, maybe that would force some depts to get their heads out of the sand. Since most depts do not accuratly document the times (as listed above) most do not know. Also average times are not considered the standard, fractile times are. The problem with an average time is if your average is 4 minutes that sounds very good, but that could mean on your last 20 calls; 19 took 3 minutes and 1 took 25, now if all the 3 minute calls were for automatic alarms and the 25 minute one was for a child trapped, you see why averages dont tell the real picture. Its a great start. If you are afraid of the public knowing this info, then you are no longer serving the public. They have a right to know.