firefighter36

It was tabled for two weeks. With agreement from the union. Time needed to resolve a number of financial and legal issues. 
 
The IAFF gave $1,000 to each of the 8 members to help them over the next 2 weeks.

If your going to seriously compare numbers, most of the American population lives in urban areas and larger towns served by career or combo departments. Also, I would be willing to bet my next 5 pay checks on it that there are significantly more career firefighters than volunteer. Let me explain that one. You cannot say that a volunteer department in a small town that has 200 members in it, has 200 fire fighters. Stop the interior/exterior nonsense. No career department has an "exterior" FF. If you take the number of volunteer interior FFs and compare it to career, I think you'd be surprised. These towns should come out with the real number of people in their department who can pull you out of your house when it's on fire instead of saying they have hundreds of members "serving" their community . 
I have been an active volunteer FF for a couple of hours now, and a career firefighter for a few minutes. The biggest thing I have noticed is the hate of the volunteer FFs (who work somewhere else like say, FDNY) by Volunteer FFs. That's more of an issue than Union staff VS volunteers. Most likely, sorry but gonna say it, fuled by some level of jealousy . They can be their own worst enemy. 
 
Enjoy your day.
TYFYS

This story is AMAZING. Eight firefighters, just trying to do their jobs, became the loosing victims at the hands of these chiefs. Apparently this has been brewing for awhile based on what is posted here.
 
The fact that other volunteer members as well, went along with this gives those volunteer members a black eye too.  As many know, "The Fire Service is following this story". Port Chester, NY is again (as in June, 1974) the focus of attention for the fire service. 
 
What would motivate individuals to hurt the same people they all depend on ? What will the citizens of Port Chester think of those chiefs and the members involved now ? The same individuals who were supposed to save lives and property, NOT damage it more.
 
 This leads me to ask, what are the qualifications to become a chief ? What happens if they violate the rules they are supposed to enforce ?
 
 In this case being that there is now an attorney representing those eight Port Chester Firefighters, if all is correct as posted, I'm sure there WILL be some legal action taken against those chiefs.
 
 As a Chief of a Department, it is expected that you do the right thing. You take a stand on what is right, even if its not the most popular thing to do. That's your job, putting the citizens and firefighters - FIRST.
 
 To encourage other firefighters to destroy anyones house, regardless of who it is, is way beyond me. For a group of fire chiefs to "RECOMMEND" the removal of eight career firefighters goes directly against anything taught in the fire service.
 
  Fire Chiefs should be looked at by other members of the department as Role Models. Citizens consider them the leaders of a group of dedicated individuals who are willing to even die for them if need be.
 
 These THREE Fire Chiefs, along with the volunteer firefighters who supported them, are not only a disgrace to the Port Chester Fire Dept, but to the ENTIRE FIRE SERVICE as well. Not only that, but I am sure when this is finally settled and over, it will end up costing (Not Saving) the taxpayers of Port Chester for the actions of these three fire chiefs.
 
  There is a Lesson to be Learned here. This story will go down in the history books of the fire service. If you are a volunteer fire chief who just happens to have a grudge against career firefighters, it is well worth your while to give that some serious second thoughts. You will do much better leading by good example and bringing out the best in both career and volunteer firefighters working together. Not only for the citizens you are to protect, but also for those who work together during some of the toughest, most dangerous working conditions any human beings face in a lifetime.  
 
 The sooner those laid off firefighters get their jobs back, the better it will be.

Make no mistake about it, this whole thing was orchestrated by the 3 chiefs.  I quote the Mayor in his attempt to justify this to me "This was all balanced against our volunteer response capabilities and their contingency plan."

 
How is this even acceptable? outisde of this recent issue....idc if you are career and vollunteer at home, but to vollunteer in a combo dept? do those "double dippers" run mutal aid into other career depts with PCFD?
 
Before this gets out of hand, im career and vollunteer in my boonedock town in no whereville CT, but i dont run mutal aid fires into the neighbooring iaff city, nor does anyone else whos career and vollys with me.

If Rye Brook presently has eight firefighters and they picked up the eight dismissed firefighters from Port Chester and paid their salaries with the million they no longer have to give the PCFD. That would give them . 16 members on the Department, the same number of career firefighters many of the smaller jobs in Westchester have right now give or take a few ===Larchmont, Pelham Harrison, Pelham Manor etc. When appropriate officers could be developed from the group, ie One Captain, three Lieutenants and twelve firefighters on 24. hours a day coverage
A four person or three person shift could take care of the vast majority of smells and bells calls before the need for mutual aid. 
 The benefit for Rye Brook would be a professional Department for about what they are paying now without having to deal with the contract and any future PCFC drama ,additionally, they would get fully trained veteran firefighters well versed in their Department and community. ( they work there now)
 The eight Port Chester firefighters would again be employed and their families protected.
  I think it would be worth a conversation. it could really be a win-win-win all around.

I don't live in Rye Brook, but this would seriously bother me: (From Journal News)
 
"... the village will save $800,000 next year through eliminating base salaries totaling $600,000, as well as associated benefits, overtime and equipment costs, officials said."
 
So for eight full time positions, including benefits and other perks Port Chester is saving $800k by eliminating these positions.
 
"Rye Brook has paid Port Chester just under $1 million a year to staff the Rye Brook firehouse for a 12-hour overnight shift."
 
Okay, I'm not a mathematician, but Rye Brook has been paying Port Chester a million bucks for one half time position and Port Chester has been paying less than a million bucks for eight full-time positions.  So the Rye Brook contract pays for the entire paid Port Chester staff annually, but they still can't keep them on? Port Chester has made an annual profit of $200k thanks to Rye Brook! Anyone else see something wrong here?
 
Like I said in the first sentence, I don't live in Rye Brook, but if I were mayor, now that the contract has been breached I'd be doing the math that Port Chester has now supplied and sue going back to the original date of contract for the total amount they overpaid for the half-time position they were given.  There is obvious fraud here on many levels.  Port Chester is going to end up paying so much more on this one in the end... 

Sorry to hear that a collusion is suspected. How about Rye Brook picking up the eight PCFD firefighters and giving their area 24 hour fire protection for the same or nearly the same million dollars they are now paying Port Chester. 
They could be self sufficient and escape from the annual contract drama.

Any Career Firefighter from other Departments volunteering in Port Chester must resign forthwith, The volunteer members must ban together and think of a sane way to reverse this situation, as they hold the upper hand in this battle, Remember Port Chester is a densely populated compressed community with a high fire risk not some pristine Norman Rockwell community,

Of course I find this unbelievable of how a place like Port Chester, NY could eliminate its skeleton crew of firefighters. I find this very hard to believe because in this day and age, we all know it is a national trend that the volunteer fire service is NOT attracting the numbers like it used to. That is a sad fact, but with todays economy that is a fact of reality.
 
I live in the eastern half of Connecticut. It is an area of mostly rural towns but with two or three smaller cities. Many of those surrounding towns have been forced to hire some type of fire fighters due to the fact that those volunteer numbers are dwindling. Just within the last ten years, the following rural towns have been forced to hire some type of career fire staffing:
 1) Montville
 2) Waterford
 3) Colchester
 4) Voluntown
 5) Canterbury
 6) Preston
 
  In some cases, they have been forced to hire MORE than just one driver. Preston hired three, Colchester is up to five (I believe). Montville and Waterford has added evening shifts. Within the area are two casinos (Foxwoods and Mohegan) as well as the U.S. Federal Sub Base Fire Department who have their own staffed fire departments that also are used to protect these surrounding areas.
 
  More towards the middle of the state, the smaller Town of Portland, Ct has contracted with the staffed City of Middletown to provide one engine company on a routine basis for fire emergencies.
 
 Apparently all of the above realize how important it is to provide some type of fire protection for their areas. Is it a fully staffed fire department ? Of course not. In some cases the fact remains these are only skeleton crews and there is still a much needed force of a volunteer system of firefighting.  
 
  But for a fire district or town to take a step backwards like this is putting its citizens at a greater risk. I would think that would be a liability issue for this district should a serious event occur. I am reminded of a very serious fire that took the lives of 24 young victims the night of June 30, 1974 at a place called "Gullivers" right here in Port Chester, NY. One of the worst fires in our nations history. Apparently that is all forgotten about now.  

The tax payers will not see a penny of savings.  This was not a cost cutting measure but a way to fund additional positions and raises without going over the tax cap and doing so at the cost of the 8 firefighters and their families. 

#RyeBrook Mayor Paul Rosenberg responds regarding elimination of paid #PortChester firefighters. 
"To my Rye Brook Friends and Neighbors:
I want to bring you up as to date with a very important issue which has arisen in in the past 24 hours.  A shared fire services contract with the Village of Port Chester requires them to staff the Rye Brook firehouse with one “career” firefighter from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM daily.  In the event of a fire, they would respond together with numerous Port Chester volunteer firefighters.  
Last evening, as part of its budget adoption, the Port Chester Board of Trustees voted to remove the “career” firefighters from their budget, moving to an all-volunteer fire department.  When that happened, Port Chester put all “career” firefighters on leave, including the firefighter who was staffing the Rye Brook firehouse.  At that point, we made the decision to staff the Rye Brook firehouse overnight with Rye Brook Fire Department personnel.  
Despite Port Chester’s breach of contract, the Village of Rye Brook will ensure that the Rye Brook firehouse will be staffed around the clock while we consider all of our legal options.  As in the past, the Port Chester volunteers will continue to respond.
Please be assured that the safety of our residents is of paramount concern to us, and we taking every step to protect your safety. 
I will continue to keep you informed as events warrant."

It is clearly not a financial issue. Watch the village board meeting on their website.
 
1) they state they want to add cops
2) they state they failed to pass the tax cap override 30 days prior (as required by law)
3) they stated they can only add cops if they cut the budget elsewhere (since they can't legally raise taxes)
4) they started with a number of cuts, including the $600,000 in salary/benefits for the career firefighters 
 
now here is is the kicker.......
 
5) they included dropping the Rye Brook "payment" (with no explanation). This payment is approximately $1,000,000 for fire protection.
 
So how many cops can they hire with this math? $600,000 - $1,000,000 = negative $400,000. In other words, the village will have to come up with an additional $400,000 to fund the FD. 

Why not just merge Harrison EMS and Harrison Fire? Firefighter Paramedics.

In 2016, more so than at any other time in most of our lifetimes thus far, Democrats are going to vote Democrat and Republicans are going to vote Republican. The country hasn't been this polarized and divided in quite some time. Fact is there's nothing any candidate can do to swing voters of the opposite party, the line are too firmly drawn. The middle ground, like the middle class, is disappearing as rhetoric replaces reason and ignorance overwhelms intelligence....and that's bad for the politicos and bad for us.

If only we'd learn from the past and stop doing it over and over again in the future....
I can be a little hawkish....but we're digging a lot of holes for ourselves....
On the flip-side, I'd like to see us actually fight someone, and not in the media and the television cameras. War is ugly, now it has to deal with the flow of easy information and public perception.

I realize this isn't fire related and may offend the sensibilities of some, but just sharing my thoughts on various sites on the state of our world today and what to do about it......



Russian bombers buzzing a U.S. carrier, forcing fighters to be scrambled to defend the ship. China's threats to deny freedom of navigation around the Spratly Islands and the adjacent shipping lanes. North Korea building ICBMs that will reach the U.S. mainland. Iran about to have access to $100 billion thanks to the recent nuclear "deal". Millions of "refugees" flooding Europe and soon to be heading here. A border so porous thousands enter the U.S. illegally every day. ISIS inflaming the Middle East and slaughtering thousands. The Russian military fighting in Syria. Hezbollah stepping up attacks on Israel. The House of Saud in disarray. An American Ranger killed in Iraq during a rescue mission. Troops to remain in Afghanistan indefinitely...and so on and so on.



What I'm about to say I don't say lightly, for I have seen first hand the horror of what war is and what war does to people. That said, with threats looming at every turn and growing stronger and bolder by the day, it is time to bring back the draft. Our national security and the safety of American citizens can only be guaranteed through strength...and that strength can only come from a military that is prepared. I fear that today we are not.



After the lesson of Pearl Harbor and horror of World War 2 our military was tasked with being able to fight two wars at once and that philosophy served us well and kept our enemies at bay. As time has passed we have drifted farther away from that philosophy in the mistaken belief that we "won" the Cold War and are untouchable. While we blissfully basked in our glory, the threats we face have grown ever more numerous and ever more dangerous. Well folks, the the Cold war never ended and new adversaries have since emerged and brought their war to our shores. It is time to awaken from our complacency and face the cold hard truth. We were the top dog only because we paid the price necessary to be it, but that willingness is slipping away. Ignoring the threats will not make them go away and fooling ourselves by denying they exist is even worse. I wish no one harm, nor do I wish to see our young men and women forced to serve needlessly, but if we continue in our ignorance because it's easier, than we will only reap what we have sown with the blood of our children and theirs.



And yes I have a personal stake in this. At 51 I'm too old to be drafted but I do have a son that is 15 and his life is more valuable to me than my own. My boy has no desire to serve in the military at present, and while that may change, it may not. Nor do I want to see my only son get shipped off to die in a foreign land. But this I know, if he were to be drafted than he would serve. And I know this because he is my son and we talk as men. So yes he would serve, in small part because I'd want him to, but in far larger measure because he knows what his responsibilities are as American. He knows and he understands that his freedom and the freedom of all Americans isn't free. He realizes that, like his grandfather before him, he may be called upon to risk himself now to face down our enemies so that his children won't have to later.



The idea of bringing back the draft is not popular, that's for sure, but the the evidence is there for those with eyes to see that makes clear it is necessary.

Consolidation is a separate issue. In the broader picture, it's key. However, it doesn't address the fact that NRFD units are understaffed and forced to operate short-handed. Consolidated or not, the 5 engines and 3 ladders protecting that area need the proper staffing and supervision.

This situation is a disgrace. The handling and management of resources in The Village of Lachmont is hollow. They are a career dept., which is understaffed. They have few volunteers and they've spent decades reducing the relevance and responsibility of that outfit. So, what you're left with, as with many of the local "combo" fire departments, is an illusion of safety. It's a great big gamble that the politicians typically win. Luck eventually runs out.
What has happened, twice, recently in Larchmont is an indicative of 2 problems:
1) Many FD's in Westchester lack any semblance of adequate staffing. This is a problem that some have tried to address through a regional consolidation plan....but no one has the stones to see it through, not to mention the fact that many are entrenched in guarding their own little fiefdom...
2) In this example, in this municipality, it appears that a serious lack of judgement was made. The residents of Larchmont pay some of the highest taxes in the NATION and they should expect the fire protection they pay for. What? Everyone was just so excited to go Yonkers they shut the lights and call the TMFD? This is gross-negligence in management. If someone died in a house fire in Larchmont, I would expect the LFD chief to go to jail. The LFD's first responsibility is to the residents of Larchmont. Mx aide is important to give and receive, but if you can't continue to perform your primary duties, you can't perform them for another municipality.

I understand the nature of some FD's response areas makes POV response necessary, but there are ways to offset the "need" for members to get to the station or scene "hot" in a private vehicle. Chief among these is what volunteer EMS organizations have been doing for years...duty crew staffing. A crew of four in house will get that first rig on the road and on scene with a crew on board prepared and ready to work while the rest of the off-duty members are responding at a reasonble pace, and it will shave minutes off the response time to boot. Add in staffed mutual aid companies and the overriding need for members to speed around town, blue (or red, or green or whatever colored) lights flashing diminishes considerably...even if for only a part of each day.
It's 2015 well into the 21st century....maybe it's time to reevaluate HOW we volunteer as opposed to simply why. And here's one more bonus from a recruiting standpoint: if members know they only have to be available for set hours (where they can train as well), then that will relieve them of having to drop everything for every call and they can schedule the rest of their lives, i.e families, work, hobbies...whatever, while still providing what I truly believe is a higher level of service. A win win in my book.

North Korea and South Korea will consolidate before Pelham and Pelham Manor

This guy wins.

Ya know....yeah, it usually is. When you're in Westchester County, you're living in someone's little fiefdom. Someone's little slice of the pie and it's a ridiculous exercise in redundancy. I'm paying my property tax bill (which is insanely high) and wondering why they're always asking for more money, but there are fewer cops and the roads are like the surface of the moon.
Too many Chief's, not enough Indians.....lets streamline the operations around here and put our money and manpower to better use.
It's all about ratio's with the fire service. We DO have some good resources here, so lets expand their scope of coverage and better utilize them. We could use an analogy that would apply to many volunteer departments around here:
Lets say Dept. A has 5, reliable and involved members and that department answers 2 calls a day. Dept. B next door also has 5 reliable and involved members answering 2 calls a day. Well, 5 guys is useless...and those guys would probably jump at the opportunity to do more with their dedication. So, COMBINE those depts. and you've got 10 solid guys handling 4 calls a day. You've doubled your available manpower and simultaneously increased staff utilization by 100%. In the process, you could eliminate half the chief's and their vehicles, probably a firehouse to maintain and a redundant vehicle or two.
But....that'll never happen, because everyone is too interested in protecting their slice of the pie....

I have some familiarity with the area. Manluis stations are extremely cramped for space. Fayetteville and DeWitt have newer, more modern spaces. DeWitt's firehouse was known as the "Garage-ma-hall." Not sure of how things are now, but these places all had space for live-in college students as well.

Do we owe the public the truth about their fire depts. ability to handle a structure fire? What I mean by that is we ask the taxpayers for money to run the dept, yet in truth, on any given day at any given time, it takes more than THAT dept to control the situation. Forget career / volunteer bs, this is across the board. This is not about the big one or needing a tanker/tender shuttle operation, this is the room and contents, fire that your patch on your sleeve proudly says WE CAN HANDLE.
Mutual aid to cover the empty fire houses, no problem.
Why is it the neighboring taxpayers responsibility to send its tax dollar funded dept to assist with your BASIC fire.
something is wrong here, and the longer we put our heads in the sand......................