jfmuller

Always thought Funerals processions had the right of way, (typically the Lead/Hearst will wait for the right of way then proceed), well according to this Bill that is not the case. NYS Assembly Bill A04972

Four Connecticut Firefighters Saved by Belts Any one catch this on the front page of Firehouse.com? This absolutely infuriates me that someone can blow a stop sign because her time is so valuable that she needs to get to work, destroys a fire engine, and puts her own health on the back burner. Seems the charge of failing to obey a traffic sign is way to light. She definitely needs an attitude adjustment and some therapy, perhaps in time Karma will get even.

Date: 10/31/07 Times: :12:03 Location: New Hamburg/8 Edge Hill Rd Frequency: 453:900 114.8, 453.800 114.8, 453.650 Units Operating: New Hamburg, Village of Wappingers, Arlington, Hughsonville Description Of Incident: 12:03 Initial Dispatch, New Hamburg, Wappingres one engine under mutual aid 12:04 Command on scene working fire in 1 1/2 Story Cape 12:06 Command Hughsonville to New Hamburg Station 2 for Coverage 12:08 Dispatch: Second Dispatch for 53-13, 53-45, 32-13 Fast team to scene, Hughsonville relocate one engine to NH Station 2 Writer: Jfmuller

It's about time some other pets step up to the plate, it always seems to be the Dogs saving owners. I Don't think things would of worked out the same if it was a Carbon Monoxide incident.

Poughkeepsie Journal Article

Alamo is a HealthQuest affiliate, non-profit agency, making a buck should not be the priority. Providing a quality service at a reasonable cost should be. http://www.health-quest.org/alamo.asp

I think your math is off considering the ambulance is only 5AM to 5PM Monday-Friday, at the least, not counting weekends it would be half of the $500,000-$600,000. Unless you want to argue that a Paramedic covering the 24x7 is funded the same as an Ambulance. Then you figure it's just covering the uninsured or underinsured, I think Alamo is trying to take them to the cleaners. Since there's not much choice out there and the problems everyone else is having with the other Commercial EMS providers they can do this. After they try to justify that they are upgrading their equipment and ambulance fleet, you'll probably still see the same old tired ambulances covering their contracts and as usual coming up short with the backfill. I am not against staff pay increases as I feel that all EMT's are underpaid, considering my Life is in their hands. Last I heard (5-10 yrs ago) they were paid pretty much the same as cashiers at Home Depot and some of the other retail establishments. I hope this is no longer the case. Perhaps they are under billing the Insurance Companies too? Especially after just learning they are under billing the Town. They should pursue that instead of relying on the town to cover bad business practices.

Get yourself an Adapter from Radioshack and you can use any Antenna you want: BNC to Motorola Adapter $5.49 Model: 278-160 Catalog #: 278-160 This is provided that you can handle the hassle of them trying to sell you a new cellphone and them actually having it in stock.

Check out this article for others available: Interoperability: The Real Story Of course most of these channels don't have the infrastructure so they don't do any good, in NY that is. (Repeaters, people monitoring, etc..) Would be nice if there was, so that FD and PD could talk direct, especially for things like traffic control, evacuation, etc.. Dutchess has a 911 police channel but FD has to talk to 911 and have them relay. Perfect example is the typical Domestic Incident with injuries, FD/EMS and PD are dispatched, FD/EMS has to wait around the corner till the police radio 911 that it is all clear, then 911 relays to FD/EMS scene is secure go on in. (Grapevine) To make things even worse we do mutual aid calls to Putnam County and they are Low-band and our radios are UHF so we can't even talk to them unless we use a separate portable they provided us. Would be really nice if they cross banded 5 freq's between low-band,vhf,uhf,800mhz so that everyone could talk together when needed. jfmuller

Oct 27, 9:04 AM EDT Cub Scouts' truck in parade catches fire BATH, Pa. (AP) -- Cub Scouts in Pack 55 got a real fright in their Halloween parade, and later an award from the mayor, when the flatbed truck they were riding on caught fire. Mayor Betty Fields said the parade had started normally Tuesday night and had gone about 500 yards before flames erupted. "All of a sudden the back of the truck started on fire," Fields said Wednesday. Fortunately, the parade contained fire trucks. The Klecknersville Rangers Volunteer Fire Co. was behind the Cub Scouts and quickly snuffed the flames. Firefighter Jason Harhart said it was unclear how the fire started. No injuries were reported. Fields said the parade continued on, and she gave the Cub Scouts a loyalty award for sticking with it.

Oct 27, 9:13 AM EDT Firefighter ordered to anger management IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- A volunteer firefighter was ordered to take an anger management class after using his vehicle's emergency lights to pull over a motorist. Kevin G. Hutchins, 44, of Palo, pleaded guilty Thursday to impersonating a public official. He was given one year of probation and was ordered to serve 50 hours of community service and write an apology to the woman he pulled over, court records show. Hutchins used his vehicle's emergency blue lights to stop the woman in March after she made what he considered an improper lane change. Only law enforcement officers have the authority to stop drivers. Palo Fire Chief Steve Mason said Hutchins has been on suspension pending resolution of the case. He said he has not decided whether Hutchins will remain with the department.

I'd have a hard time staying in a burning tractor would you? Of course there is always more info needed than what's in the paper. It always seems short articles raise more questions then answers.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pb.../608170328/1006 Thursday, August 17, 2006 Kelly wants tax breaks for firefighters, EMTs By Michael Risinit The Journal News MONTROSE, Westchester County — Volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians could get a break on their federal income tax under a proposal announced Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah. Kelly stopped by the Cortlandt Engine Co. to discuss legislation she has introduced that would provide the volunteers with an income-tax deduction of up to $250 to reimburse them for their gas costs incurred when responding to emergency calls. "A lot of people don't realize the people going down the road with the bluelights on the dashboard are us, going to calls, going back to the firehouse and going home," said Tom Johnson, a Cortlandt volunteer since 1998. "Repeat that 200 times a year and that's $500 in gas." Kelly introduced the bill this month and modeled it on legislation she co-sponsored that gives teachers a similar tax break for out-of-pocket classroom expenses. "Volunteer firefighters and EMTs donate their time and resources to help save lives and protect our communities," Kelly said in a statement. "Not only are they not paid for the critical services they provide, but their gas costs for responding to emergencies come out of their own pockets. This bill would provide these volunteers with some well-deserved federal assistance for their selfless efforts." A Kelly spokesman said the latest measure would be referred to the House Ways and Means Committee when Congress reconvenes next month. It most likely would be incorporated into a larger piece of tax-relief legislation, similar to the teachers' tax deduction, spokesman Kevin Callahan said. Michael Risinit can be reached at mrisinit@lohud.com

Sutphen did make 100' towers in the late 80's as New Hamburg has an 87 100'. New Hamburg Tower Rombout had a picture taken at one time of local Sutphen Towers not sure why New Hamburg was not there, but Dover, Patterson, Rombout and one other company not sure whom. btw nice pictures.

Rombout firefighters will dedicate 3 new trucks FISHKILL — The Rombout Fire Department will dedicate three new trucks at 3 p.m. Saturday at the department's station 1 at 901 Route 52. The department will put a 2006 Sutphen 100-foot tower ladder truck, a 2006 Sutphen engine pumper and a 2006 Ford Expedition into service at the ceremony. The tower ladder and engine will replace equipment that had a combined total of 26 years of service with the fire district, Rombout spokesman Kevin Barry said. The public is invited to attend the dedicating ceremony, which will include refreshments. Firefighters will sell T-shirts and mugs. For information, visit romboutfire.com or call Rombout Station 1 at 845-896-8620

I've always secretly wished that those that drove over flares so that they can ignore you and get by had a leaking Gas tank, never seems to workout though. You would think the Darwin system would remove them from the Gene pool. I remember seeing one of those COP shows, or Worst drivers or something like that where the police had the road shutdown because of Water Main break. This yahoo decided that it was a little bit of water and the Police were making a big thing out of nothing. So around the cars, past the cop, through the barriers and into the 8ft puddle he went with his Van. Sunk and barely made it out on his own. (I think he had a dog too, would've felt bad for the Dog if he died from his masters stupidity.) I was at a call where we had power lines down. We shut down the intersection and everyone tried racing through a gas station to get around us. Wondered who would be at fault if instead it was a bridge out. Even had one car squeeze through the small space between the Utility and curb and kept on going, drove over the down'd line and kept on going. Fire Police have never received any respect or courtesy so now they are extending it to the Police. I'm always amazed at the threats they receive from people when I help out. They should assign two officers to every post, one to direct the other to write tickets. Maybe they feel well this Officer is busy so I can abuse him and he can't leave to give me a ticket.

Maybe I'm missing something, when requested for mutual aid, once called out responding you are now under the control of the requesting IC. Therefore you cannot self dispatch, or release yourself without requesting this from the IC of the incident. That said, someone always trys to argue an exception to the rule or some obscure situation like Terrorists taken over a building Energized with bombs strapped to their chests demanding that all pink bunnies be released. As for passing an accident/fire, well always an exception to the rule, I'd treat this as common sense, evaluate the situation, you wouldn't stop for a car overheating or property damage accident, although seeing a person trapped in a burning vehicle, or severe accident, then you call out of service and deal with the situation. It is much like blowing an engine enroute, sometimes things are out of your control, use risk/benefit evaluations to determine what to do. Leaving a committed incident is just plain dumb, we all know that just because your home company is dispatched to a structure fire, doesn't always mean that it is a working fire. How would you feel for pulling your equipment to respond to a fire that turns out to be food on the stove? If do have a Job and the IC knows, provided things are under control, (fires out and there is enough resources on hand to cover your mutual aid assignment) the IC may let you break, but until he does your under his control.

This shed looks like there may be damage to the roof, from the bridge web camera: http://www.nysthruway.gov/webcams/i8701/index-hs.html Edited to fix link.

The Date of the non-aqueous Wetdown, Drydown, Dedication, or anything else you can think of without water will be August 19th. Mark your calender's. 1300hrs to 1900hrs. Rombout Fire District Headquarters, 901 Main Street, Fishkill NY

Our District has plates and titles for all of our Apparatus, in 2000 we sold our 1981 Pierce Engine to a company in Ohio through Firetec. It was a pain to get a title in order to sell the truck, not impossible. So with that the District went ahead to get all the trucks title'd and regeristerd such that later sale(s) would be much easier. The plates are normal official ones and are kept in a file cabinet not on the trucks. As always with the DMV, it depends who you talk to as some are truly clueless. I have heard of trucks coming back as Sanders, Dump trucks, etc.. A commercial chasis can be converted to anything.

This would be the first with the inverted "V" stripes. It also has an arrowstick split across the back.

More Pictures posted on the website: RomboutFire.com

We don't do "Wetdown's" in the traditional sense, so it'll be a "dedication", "drydown" or some other term. From what I heard I think the plan is mid-August. We are still awaiting the completion of Engine 62-11 which is also getting close to delivery. So it'll be a triple dedication of Tower (62-45), Engine (62-11) and 2006 Ford Expedition (62-2) which recently went into service.

Truck committee recently visited Sutphen in Ohio for Apparatus Final Inspection before delivery. Expected to be delivered by 4/28/06.