jcoppola

Date: 04-02-2008 Time: 1852 Location: 200 Woodward Avenue, Manresa Island Power Plant Frequency: 151.445 Units Operating: E5, E2, E3 (2nd alarm Engine), T2, T1 (RIT), R2, C2, C3, Medic 405 Description Of Incident: On scene brigade reporting an "out of control" fire in the main building of the power plant. FD arrived and took defensive measures at first due to the possibility of high voltage within. Once assured of scene safety, Command allowed companies to begin offensive tactics and used primarily dry chemical to extinguish fire. Writer: JVC 18:57: Extra engine assigned (E3) 19:00: E1 to HQ to cover city 19:27: Fire under control 19:43: Command releasing E3 and Truck 1 19:45: Car 3 (Fire Marshal) on scene 21:12: E5 terminating command and in service

The most important equipment in a RIT operation is the crew, an officer who can keep tabs on his people and firefighters who have the personal descipline to stick together and not do jobs that look like they are not getting done from their vantage point. Personally, I fee l the toughest part of RIT is being in a standby mode right in front of a very active and hectic scene.

Mechanics, especially mine, will cringe at the thought of drafting salt water, but when it needs to be done, it needs to be done. The pump will survive, with liberal flushing. Since the salt water collects everywhere, a tip I was tought a long time ago was to open every single valve, drain and discharge and all intakes and flush the bejesis out ot the pump. Stamford used the salt water channel to draft at the Yale and Towne fire a few years ago, and correct me if I am wrong, but they had the foresight to use an older reserve engine to do it...good thinking. Again, good food for thought and great thread. Joe

Great point about the 2 stage pump. Forgot all about it. One thing also to do is once a prime is obtained in parallel, switching the transfer valve to series boosts pressure and you can move a ton (quite literally) of water through a 2" tip. Awesome, this is what I signed up for on EMTBravo. Joe

Pull up to the water source, with the midline of the pump no more than 20' above the surface of the water. Ensure the pump fittings are all extremely tight. Hook up the hard suction to the intake side of the pump and the next length of hard suction on dry ground with a rope attached to the strainer. Using a roof or straight ladder, lower the suction hose into the water so that the strainer is completely covered by a few inches of water. Engage the pump on the engine. Throttle up a bit and begin to prime the pump. The primer pump is the only one that will pump and displace air, so while it is working, it will wind loudly. Once you hear water beginning to enter the hard suction hose, gradually pull a discharge to get water flowing, a deck gun works really good for this purpose and is usually what you will be feeding at a big fire. Rules of thumb - don't open your tank fill valve, as you don't want murky water in the tank. No more than 30' of lift is possible theoretically, so stick close to 20' if you can help it. Watch the ground near the draft site, you don't want to lose your pumper in the water source, use a beach ball near the strainer in shallow water to prevent a water funnel or whirlpool effect, that will introduce air into your operation and that may cause you to lose your prime. Once you are done drafting, flush the pump with clean water and fill the priming fluid reservouir. Drafting is fun, we hardly do it in Norwalk, but we refresh the skills time and again. Joe

I find that the words running into each other happens when I use a non-wide screen computer or laptop. When I use my wife's widescreen laptop, it looks fine, but my old dell 15" screen does what everyone is talking about. It may be a problem at the server end, only truly supporting widescreen formats. Joe

I just wanted to relay to the many members who either posted condolences or actually participated in the burial/funeral process of NPD Officer Matt Morelli that the NPD members where emotionally moved by the show of support they received by the area police and fire departments. Members of the Police Union have made a special effort to contact our union and expressed sincere gratefulness for all of the help and support they received by the PD/FD contingents. There were over 40 motorcylcle units in the procession with police officers and fire fighters at the funeral from as far away as Baltimore. What happened with Matt sucks, no other way to put it, and many people may have mixed feelings about how the report came out, but the bottom line is that Matt served in our brother/sisterhood with dignity and honor and he was given a proper burial with all the honors due a public servant an veteran of the USMC. God bless him and keep him and may his family be able to come to grips with what happened and know that he was simply a good cop who's life ended tragically. I for one am proud of how my brothers in the NFD stepped up to the plate and helped our Police Department from the time Matt was found until today when he was entered into eternal rest. Nice job guys, you all represented the NFD well! Thanks again everyone. Joe C.

Just an idea, can the paid vs. volunteer arguing end any time soon? It seems that many good topics are getting infected with this never-ending argument about it and going totally south. The way I see it, all of this crying about alleged censorship would not even be an issue if the "I am better than you" stuff was left out of the threads. I for one am tired of it, and it is making me lose interest in a website that I really enjoy visiting on a regular basis. I will, however, press on. Joe C.

Please, get over yourself...I know plenty of people who are volunteers who have such awesome jobs that they NEVER would want mine...teach a few classes in towns like New Canaan and Greenwich, CT and see if some of those guys want our piddly salaries...Again, I speak from experience and tone down the drama about your kitchen table, it is a bit over the top. There are too many people here who know the deal (including me) about firehouse antics.

I am sure at some point I will be taking some heat for starting this post, but I don't care. It needed to be said and needs to be done. I am not strictly a volunteer sympathizer as some may feel I am being, as a matter of fact, I better than anyone I know, can shed light on this situation as I am a 23 year life-member of a volunteer department, worked as a paid driver in that department for 3 years and I have 11 years in a 100% career department. Not only that, I teach in departments all over the state. I see first hand the dedication that some of these volunteers have, granted, some of them are finding themselves in the wrong business, but be that as it may, they still donate a huge amount of non-paid personal time to this cause. On the paid side, we are put in positions that make us miss vital family times and confinement to a firehouse for long periods of time. Many paid members wish to better their skills and take courses on thier own time without compensation having to get their own time off. We all do good things, help people, get up at odd hours, miss family meals and holidays. There are inherent problems with response times when there are no members at a volunteer house, we all know that and deal with it, thats the way it is. Staffing levels have nothing to do with us as "worker bees", that is handled at much higher levels, we just deal with alll the crap that flows downhill. There is one thing we all have in common, we all will figure out what to do when it hits the fan. In the heat of battle, the fire doesen't care if you are doing the job on your own time or being paid for it. JVC

All very well and good, but that is apparently not possible here. Joe

OH MY GOD PEOPLE...can we stop the paid vs. volly nonsense already? This constant arguing about paid vs. volly is honestly driving me away from this site, and I am a Moderator and really don't want to stop participating, but it seems like every fire service topic turns into a rant about who is better and who calls whom or who doesen't call whom. I'll address the initial question, even though my dept. has a dive team. Considering I am a paid LT. on a paid department, I feel I am qualified to answer the "hypothetical" question. If I am responding to a car in the water and I determine a SCUBA team is warranted, I will make that request to my dispatcher while en-route. I honestly could not care less if they send me a team that receives compensation or one that receives none. All I am concerned with is that the responding agency is manned, qualified, certified and equipped to do what will be asked of them. This is the case for ALL types of requests for aid, rescue or otherwise. The sticky area with mutual aid to paid departments is if the aiding municipality is responding with manpower that is equal to what they are used to working with. Help is help, there are many variables in all services, thats just the way it is. We need to remember that we all have a job to do. God forbid the public ever knew what goes on behind the scenes with the nonsensical paid vs. volunteer infighting that we have seen here and other places. I'm done.

For the longest time, Waterbury PD had a marker light atop the light bar that was steady burn. Does anyone know why they did that or was it just tradition?

Tentative funeral arrangements have been released for Norwalk Police Officer Matthew Morelli. A wake will be held Wednesday evening, March 26, 2008 at Collins Funeral Home, 92 East Ave. The Funeral Mass will be Thursday morning, March 27, 2008 at St. Matthew Church, 216 Scribner Ave. Burial will follow at St. John's Cemetery, 223 Richards Ave. Exact times will be announced as soon as possible. JVC

I have seen a large number of Connecticut PD's that use the cruise mode, Norwalk and Trumbull are two that come to mind. Our old command car had the cruise mode on the old Whelen Edge 9000 and certain drivers used it at night when "cruising". I don't see anything wrong with it as long as the police want to be seen.

Our Master Mechanic is known state wide as a phenominal mechanic and fabricator, there's none better. We are lucky to have him. His staff is excellent too, 1 full time asst. and a part timer. Their work was featured in a past edition of Fire Apparatus Journal. Besides the normal stuff they do day to day, they basically build us whatever we need FROM SCRATCH. Check out my site for some of their work: http://www.local830.org/?zone=/unionactive...20Shop%20Photos JVC

LCFD, While I take no offense at your post above, I do take exception to your comment about being a pack of wolves. I re-read all the posts and I saw no moderator comments that were "attacks" as you referred to them. The thread-starter posted an ignorant and not-well-thought-out post and he took heat for it, thats all. If someone is going to stir the pot like that and drop a bomb and run, he/she will take a ration of you-know-what for it, it should be expected. No one wishes to be unpleasant. I for one use the site as an information tool for my career, and I have learned a great deal. We don't need the forums cluttered with wining and crying about ads. I won't say anymore on this, I think the original poster knows where we all stand. And, for the record, I did PM the thread starter with friendly advice to tone it back with the ad complaining, and received no response. Joe

For all you techies...some interior pics as well.

The pictures don't do justice to the enormous size of this vehicle. Put next to a normal Engine or Rescue, it is really huge. It will serve the county well though. Joe

As a moderator, I am privy to info that you aren't. Seth makes no profit on this site. The ads pay for server fees which I know are costly because I run a site that costs several hundreds of dollars per year to keep alive. He is doing his best to keep this site alive and he has humbly asked for some folks to help him out with it. I still cannot believe your ungratefulness toward a few ads that may keep this information source available to all of us. Put your money where your mouth is!

Are you kidding me? Do you think that running a site like this is free? Who do you think puts hard earned money into keeping it alive so people like you can complain for free? What you really need to do is lay off the attacks. If you don't like the ads and the requests for funds, walk away. Nobody is forcing you to participate. Thank You.

85%. I don't even own a blue light, and my scanner is in the Lieutenant's office at NFD Station 1 so I can listen to surrounding towns to see if we are going to get any work outside of the city...now THATS a whacker. And, who needs scanners with www.scanct.com? There should have been a question about how many apparatus pictures you have stored on your computer...that would have pushed me over 95% I give up, I am one. Joe

The officers and men of the Norwalk Fire Department wish to express their most sincere condolences to the Family of Officer Matt Morelli and our comrades at the NPD. We were all honored to work beside him on a day to day basis and feel like we lost a family member. On another note, both the Morelli family as well as our Brothers and Sisters in the Norwalk Police Department can count on the total support of the Norwalk Fire Fighters Association for WHATEVER support they need going forward. I have received emails today from various Locals in our area pledging their support and relaying their condolences. It is unfortunate times like these where we really learn just what a brotherhood/sisterhood the Emergency Services are. May Matt rest in peace. This is truly a very sad day in our city. Joseph Coppola Secretary, Norwalk Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 830

The calendar for the 2008 CFA offering of June Fire School, which runs from June 2-6, has been posted on the CFA website. It can be accessed at www.state.ct.us/cfpc JVC

Is the goal of all of this to snuff out the remaining volunteer stations? It appears to me that the mayor has 1 goal in mind, to get the whole city on one taxing bracket and virtually end the volunteer system. In a way, I find this sad, because Stamford has all but lost that "neighborhood" feel that it had. Take a ride through and it really looks like a major metropolis. I fully know the flaws of the volunteer system in Stamford, as well as the strong points, however, the neighborhood firehouse was always a pillar of the areas north of downtown and it really appears that this is going away. I also realize that it is a sign of the times. I guess I am just old and remember the way it used to be. Also, thanks to all the Stamford guys for adding information and articles in this thread. JVC