res6cue

This is the email reply I just got from Steve:

Thanks for the reply, but I probably should've been more specific with my question. What I really mean to ask was, how many depts in Westchester bordering the Hudson River have certified divers that go out with their marine units for incidents on the river? I guess I'm particularly interested in depts closest to the TZ Bridge. The Rockland County Fire Directory "Redbook" lists Irvington and Verplanck as the only Westchester river depts to have divers. Is that accurate, and are they fully certified?

How many Westchester depts have legitimate dive-rescue teams to go along with their marine units, like Piermont does? I'm genuinely curious, I have no idea.

Paging/alerting will indeed be on UHF T-Band, simulcast from all 10 sites as well as over low band. Specific frequency yet to be determined, but it's a fairly safe bet it will fall somewhere in between 470 and 471 MHz, probably closer to the 471 side.

I had a feeling this thread would pop up here when I saw your post on RF. Anyone following the progress of this system knows it's been a solid decade in the works, with a lot of big potholes and speed bumps along the way. There is finally some real concrete and steel progress being made on the system. As the FCC applications indicate, the system will now operate in the 700 MHz spectrum instead of the UHF T-Band "470 MHz" spectrum. In a nutshell, the UHF licenses were very restricting as far as location and power output, since UHF frequencies are in such demand in the Metro area. The move to 700 MHz was more or less a no-brainer, given the fact that the 700 MHz spectrum was already divided up by a committee, with each county assigned their own specific frequencies if they wished to license them. The timing was perfect for Rockland to take advantage of those allocated frequencies, given the fact that no UHF trunking equipment had been ordered yet. The system itself will be Motorola P25 Phase II TDMA. At present, there are no scanners that can track a true Phase II TDMA system, although as these systems become more popular it's almost a given that both Uniden and GRE will come out with models that track them. The final Phase II TDMA standard was only approved at the end of last year, so it's still fairly new. It's also worth noting that the low band paging on 46.18 will be kept around for the foreseeable future. As long as the low band transmitters continue to operate and replacement parts can be found, 46.18 will be kept on the air. UHF paging was also in the original plans, however I can't confirm at this time whether or not that's still going to happen. Also 44-Control is getting a new building as part of this whole project. The old room in the basement of the FTC is too small to house all the trunking equipment. In fact, it's really undersized just for the day to day operations, much less when the poop hits the fan. PS - Take all of this with a grain of salt, as this system has changed so many times over the years, and I'm not an official spokesman for the system or county.

Rockland's system is pretty simple. I have a guide I once sent to N2FG's website...let me dig it up, check it and post it in the O&R section for you to sticky.

It's not an Inferno chassis, the info is wrong. It's the same chassis as the new rescues.

Are they still running Blauvelt's old Arrow as Engine 75?

You must not look too closely at all the other Pierce rigs, then. The exterior skin might look similar to the old Dash (although any Pierce aficionado could point out many differences without much effort or eye strain), but the interior looks more like a 1982 vintage Arrow cab than anything Pierce or anyone else has produced in the last 20 odd years. Tell me, what was the last mainstream rig you saw designed with the motor in the crew cab area after the 1991 revision of NFPA 1901 which required fully enclosed cabs? Then again, you were barely out of the womb when that standard was passed and the apparatus world underwent a drastic change (leading to the demise of the original "CF" built by Mack), so you're automatically forgiven for having a somewhat myopic view of apparatus.

I really ought to know better than to keep this thread alive, but I just can't resist chiming in with my semi-annual post. First of all, Rockland has its fair share of drama and BS, just like everywhere else. The grass is always greener from the outside looking in. Let's get that clear right up front. Rockland is a small, tight knit county and fire service community, always has been. Part of that is due to the fact that the county's entire fire service is 100% volunteer going back 177 years and counting. Another part of that is due to geography, namely the mountains and Harriman/Bear Mountain parks running the entire western and northern borders, the river running the entire eastern border, and another state running the entire southern border. Of the 9,000 or so annual fire calls, very few of those are interaction with out of county depts (going or coming). The RCFTC is a nice facility, and has always been very progressive in making sure the latest and greatest techniques and props are available. The flashover simulator that was installed in the early 90s is a good example of that, it was one of the first in the entire US. I remember depts coming from hundreds of miles away to train in it. It also helps to have so many FDNY brothers as volunteers and instructors in the county, and some damn fine men at that. While most people these days only know the name Andy Fredericks, the tradition of FDNY men among Rockland's ranks goes back a hundred years or more. Many of the fire companies in the county have FDNY men listed as charter members. That tradition continues to this day, with many of those volunteering FDNY brothers working in elite squad and rescue companies in the city. I'm sure there are other factors that contribute to Seth's perception. He mentioned Rockland Paramedic Services, which as someone who started out in Spring Hill EMS 21 years ago, I can attest to how much it meant to have a single ALS provider operating in the county. Back when I started, it was the Good Samaritan Hospital medics, and Nyack Hospital medics. They eventually merged to become what is now RPS. There were various ALS services in Haverstraw/Stony Point throughout the years, such as Mobile Life, Empress, and actually too many for me to even remember. Those two towns are now covered by Rockland Mobile Care, which is RPS for all intents and purposes. They run a Type II up there instead of the usual fly car because one or both of the towns requires the ALS provider to have emergency transport capability. Well anyways, discussing EMS is getting off topic, since only one fire dept in the county, Piermont, runs EMS calls. That might be another reason the fire service is so tight knit, the fact that it still is a FIRE service, and hasn't been torn apart by outside distractions. 9,000 annual runs, only 179 of them Piermont's ambulance going on BLS runs. The county Volunteer Firefighters Association is a strong organization that does it's share to keep morale up among the 42 fire companies that make up the 26 depts. I cannot remember a time when the annual county parade didn't have 100% attendance from all 42 companies. It's almost unfathomable to think a company ever would miss that parade. That's just my 2 cents, from a guy on the inside looking out.

After many months of hard work and planning, the Rockland County Sheriff's Communications Division is very pleased to introduce 44-Control's "FireWatch" Online CAD website. FireWatch is a real-time feed of fire incidents from 44-Control's Computer Aided Dispatch System. http://www.44-control.net Please take the time to read the important disclaimer and information regarding FireWatch at the following link: http://www.44-control.net/disclaimer__information_page.htm Any questions or comments regarding FireWatch should be emailed to firewatch@44-control.com Please do NOT call the dispatchers at 44-Control with questions regarding FireWatch.

Thanks, Seth, I'll be sure to pass it along to the PTB at 44. Between the "official" live audio feeds on RadioReference.com that are connected directly to Control's console and stream right out of the radio room, and now this online CAD site, Rockland is really trying to do right by its all-volunteer fire service.

I'm not familiar with that system, but probably not. IamResponding.com looks like a 3rd party "middle man" solution. FireWatch is an official project of the Rockland County 911 Center aka 44-Control. What you see on that site is being fed directly from the CAD system at 44-Control in (just about) real-time.

The link is fine. The server was spazzing out for a bit the past hour. The damn thing has had 100% uptime for over a month straight, but of course decides to flake out the day it's announced to the public.

Actually, it has pontoons for river calls!

2010 Rockland County Totals from 44-Control's CAD* Dept 1 - Blauvelt - 188 Dept 2 - Central Nyack - 160 Dept 3 - Congers - 322 Dept 4 - Haverstraw - 223 Dept 5 - Hillburn - 107 Dept 6 - Hillcrest - 827 Dept 7 - Monsey - 684 Dept 8 - Nanuet - 517 Dept 9 - New City - 595 Dept 10 - Nyack - 437 Dept 11 - Orangeburg - 271 Dept 12 - Pearl River - 314 Dept 13 - Piermont - 161 fire, 179 EMS** Dept 14 - Rockland Lake - 15 Dept 15 - Sloatsburg - 173 Dept 16 - Sparkill - 182 Dept 17 - Spring Valley - 957 Dept 18 - Stony Point - 292 Dept 19 - Suffern - 299 Dept 20 - Tallman - 716 Dept 21 - Tappan - 197 Dept 22 - Valley Cottage - 210 Dept 23 - West Haverstraw - 195 Dept 24 - West Nyack - 356 Dept 25 - South Spring Valley - 205 Dept 26 - Thiells - 218 TOTAL - 9000 * Actual totals are a bit higher, these numbers only reflect calls dispatched by the county and don't take into account "silent alarms" and whatnot ** No FD's in Rockland run EMS except for Piermont FD's "13-EM" BLS ambulance

For whatever it's worth, this guy was NOT an officer anymore, and hasn't been since the last elections the past spring. The JN relied on stale info from Piermont's website (which has since had the Members and Officers roster removed).

I'm happy to announce that the official 44-Control Live Audio Feed is now hosted on RadioReference.com! http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?feedId=2823 This is a very significant move for a number of reasons: - The feed will now be able to support an unlimited number of connections. This means no more "Unable to connect" messages when there's a major or interesting incident on the air. - The audio delay that was sometimes up to a pitiful, excruciating 1 minute and 30 seconds is now reduced to around 10 seconds or less! - Easy to use interface which includes a built in Web Player. No more need to use a standalone player like iTunes or WinAmp or Windows Media Player. Now you can listen right from your browser, including on mobile devices. You still have the option of listening from one of these standalone players if you prefer that. - Mobile device apps are available for listening to the feed (see http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Live_Audio_Mobile_Device_Support for more info) - Audio archives from the previous 2 weeks are automatically saved on RadioReference.com, and are available to those with a Premium Subscription to the website (currently $30 per year) Please update your favorites, bookmarks and links accordingly. The old links to the feed will not work anymore in a few weeks. Any questions, comments or concerns, post here in this thread or contact me directly.

Low band channels 2 (46.08) and 3 (46.48) are now being streamed also. Stereo feed with F2 on the L and F3 on the R. 98% of the time these frequencies are dead silent, but when there's a working fire and ops move off F1 (46.18), you'll hear the rest of the operation on this feed. http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?feedId=5447

All these new "Severe Duty/Service" cabs crack me up. They're basically nothing more than the manufacturers realizing they've been pumping out inferior, plastic covered crap over the past decade, and have decided to start building them like they used to, where they won't fall apart after a few years worth of use. No plastic interior trim, no pain in the a** multiplex systems, heavy duty components, etc. How great is that, when you think about it...a whole marketing scheme designed to turn something negative into a sales pitch! Of course no surprise, Pierce started the trend with the Arrow XT, then KME and now E-One follow suit. Gotta love it, only in America can you actually make money by admitting in a roundabout way that you've been producing crap for years. BTW, seeing "E-One" and "severe service" in the same sentence makes me laugh. You couldn't pay me enough to take one of those recycled beer cans. I will never forgive them for what they did with Saulsbury. The day E-One and that garbage truck manufacturer that uses the once-proud "American LaFrance" name finally close their doors forever can't come soon enough as far as I'm concerned.

Rockland County's HELP program might not be full-time, but "Chopper 1" is extremely active. It can be seen in the air and heard on the air almost daily, performing all sorts of tasks ranging from helping law enforcement, to spotting large brush fires, to lighting up the river under the bridge for the marine units during jumper down calls. It's extremely rare that 44-Control puts a page out for a pilot and gets no response, usually the chopper is up well within 30 minutes of the request. The program enters its 36th consecutive year of flight in 2010, quite an accomplishment when you consider it's a all-volunteer operation. http://www.co.rockland.ny.us/Fire/HELP.htm

There's an issue with the Drupal front end that has been down for a few days now. The forum was unaffected, but you'd have to go right to the URL to bypass the blank screen on the base URL. http://www.rocklandfires.com/forums Of course now there's yet another DNS failure, something else that plagues the site constantly (as well as nycfire.net and bergenfires.com, since they're all on the same server). Maybe one of these days the server and DNS issues will finally be straightened out, but I'm not holding my breath since it hasn't happened yet for 4 years.

Good post, well said. First of all as for the tech specs on the rig, 17-Tower is a 2002 Spartan Gladiator chassis, a General body and a Metz L32 102' aerial (now marketed as the Rosenbauer Raptor). It has a 1250 GPM pump and a 200 gallon tank. It's run by the Spring Valley H&L, one of three companies comprising the Spring Valley FD. The other aerial in the dept is 17-Quint, a 2007 ALF/LTI 100' midmount tower ladder with a 2000 GPM pump and 300 gallon tank, which is run by Rockland H&L. The Metz replaced an extremely compact 1981 ALF Water Chief 75' rearmount stick, which was smaller than most pumpers on the road today. Cramped space in the firehouse was a big issue for them with the replacement. The Metz fit that bill nicely. Not too many 100' aerials out there mounted on such a short, single axle chassis. The outrigger spread is also pretty paltry, which helps in tight areas of the village. As far as the "shopping cart" bucket, yes it's extremely tight. Truth is, this truck is not designed to be a true tower ladder, that bucket (which is removable) is supposed to be for rescue use only. The Metz doesn't meet NFPA standards as an aerial platform, only as an aerial ladder. However, the mindset of most fire depts is that "if it has a bucket, it's a tower ladder!", and so they leave it on all the time and operate out of it as if it were a proper tower ladder. That's their call, if it works for them, so be it. As far as its viability at fires, I've seen it in action firsthand on numerous occasions, and it gets the job done. Just like any other rig, it has its pros and cons. If for whatever reason it can't be used in a given situation, the dept has the option of using the aforementioned 100' ALF midmount tower ladder. If that doesn't work, they can call Hillcrest for their 75' rearmount stick, or South Spring Valley for their 75' rearmount stick. If they need another tower ladder, no shortage of them either. Hillcrest for their 95' midmount tower ladder, Monsey for their 95' midmount tower ladder, Nanuet for their 75' rearmount tower ladder, Tallman for their 100' rearmount tower ladder, etc etc etc. Need a TDA? Nyack will be more than happy to take a ride up the Thruway with one of their two 100' TDA's, just give them a call, it certainly wouldn't be the first time that has happened.

Yes. He's an ex-Chief of Hillcrest. Gordie is Tim's brother, not father. Also, 44-1 is the Fire Coordinator, the Deputies start at 44-2.

The new firehouse was built on the site of the old firehouse, nothing was changed. Same apparatus housed there, Jackson Engine's 1995 KME "10-1500" and the Fire Patrol's 1990 Saulsbury "10-Rescue", as well as the district van "10-Patrol" This station is not near the Thruway, you're probably thinking of the Catherine St firehouse (Chelsea H&L's 1999 Pierce Quantum TDA "10-99" and Jackson Hose's 1984 Hahn "10-1001") which is near the High Ave entrance to the Thruway NB. Check the map of Rockland firehouses I made for the location of their firehouses. I can't speak for the Nyack FD, but the layout of the streets and the traffic patterns would make for a pretty congested response if you tried to house six companies in the same building. The six companies in the heart of the village (1 TDA, 4 pumpers, 1 rescue) are housed in four firehouses. Mazeppa Engine and Highland Hose are each housed in their own buildings, the other four companies are paired up in two firehouses as I've detailed above. http://signal-12.com/map.htm