16fire5

Actually we from time to time get some hints. For instance after the London Subway bombings there was a poll of muslims in the UK and a shocking number felt the country deserved it or was partly responsible. What alarms many of us is although there are few willing to carry out attacks there are plenty willing to fund them, look the other way, and feel they are justified.

Actually the last line is what really gets me. They are supposed to be fine they are not supposed to take a beating. They are supposed to call for enough help to quell the situation. I'm really wondering what tactics you would advise to diffuse the situation? It's the same thing we hear about DJ Henry or an incident in Yonkers. A proper use of force and police procedure is not a pretty thing to watch but that dosen't make it wrong and it usually results after the offending party or parties fail to comply with numerous lawful orders. I for one am glad the rangers and all those there doing their job are fine.

While not common here in the north east there is a heavy emphais on air management in other parts of the county. They are leaving the building before the low air alarm goes off. Also I belive the next revision of the SCBA standard will increase the EOSTI from 25% to a higher number. The air management program I was recently aquainted with involved the crew leaving upon the consumption of 1/2 of the bottle (their SCBA gives them an audible indication at this point). They then rehab and go back in the cycle. They use an on deck/RIT concept so crews are rotated. They routinely get three rotations in by members at working fires. Very far from the norm here where we work to exhaustion. Don't really see too many firefighters work through a 45 minute bottle and then rotate back in.

Lots of car fires are routine but there are some real pain in the a** ones like this. I personally hate car fires and wouldn't mind one bit if I didn't go to another one. As an officer it's a no gain (almost never anything to save) and way to many ways to get hurt. One thing to keep in mind is the specific gravity of the product. Since the product is going to float it really makes it a pain since even when you dam it it will be the first to float over the dam. I you can figure out some way to let water out at the bottom you can keep the product where you want it. The oil industry knows this and has the ability to release water at the low point of berms that surround their tanks at tank farms. The discussion of chocking is good I was at a car fire where the car let go as we got off the rig and rolled right into the front bumper of the rig. I happened to be the chauffeurs last tour. I'm sure he'll remember it well.

I think ALS put it best. There is no substitute for an experinced nozzle team. Lots of career "truck" no engine time guys take the engine for granted and fail to realize the work technique involved in extinguishment. I have used both automatic and smooth bore to put out structure fires and I prefer the smooth bore. One benifit that may seem trivial but I don't think has been mentioned is when advancing on a fire most of us move the nozzle. The smooth bore will definatly be the lightest. Anyone who has made a real push will realize that your arms get fatigued. And by real push I mean move the nozzle down the hall and extinguish more than one room. Anyone can get to a doorway and spray water to put out a room and contents fire. I would also advocate using the smooth bore with 2.5 in standpipe situations. The chances of running into water problems are compounded when using a standpipe. Many times the PRD can not be removed. You also tend to get some real dirty water out of standpipes which could become problematic for an automatic nozzle. Those issues to me make a 2.5 with smooth bore nozzle the best choice for standpipe evolutions. An 1 1/8" tip on the smooth bore will give an effective stream with as low as 40 psi at the nozzle. Lastly what ever you have DRILL. Make sure your chauffeurs are pumping them right. Flake out the line, chase the kinks.

Along with the price increase and weight increase the durability has gone down in my opinion. Pre integrated PASS 4.5 with 30 minute bottle was my favorite.

The tech would be securing the vehicle from moving further prior to the removal. I would assume the use of wire rope and griphoists would do the trick. Photos of that setup would be good training tools.

Heart attacks and strokes are the leading cause of firefighter deaths. Getting some cardio is good.

PCSO performed the investigation of a fatal boating accident that occured in Orange County a few years back. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

When the price of gas is very high the marine patrols on the Hudson outnumber the recreational boaters on weekdays.

Indications are the first 1,000 will be hired quickly. Then not so fast.

Didn't think you could mandate that. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. My advice is to those pursuing a career as a firefighter to take every exam you can.

How is it forward thinking to have 2 fire departments for one jurisdiction? In reality the best system would be for everyone to work for the same department and same chief.

-800+ in the firefighter rank and growing every month

One of the downsides of crosslays is people thinking they need to line them up with the front door which blocks out the truck. One positive of the reverse lay which the FDNY calls the "backstretch" is the engine sees 3 sides of the building and gets the opportunity to drop a couple lines in the front of the builing and then get out of the way. Your good hydrant spacing makes this a more viable stategy.

Prior to the newest apparatus order all FDNY engines with the exception of the Hi-pressure pumpers and thoes with sattelites had 1000gpm 2 stage pumps. 1000gpm 2 stage pumps had been the standard spec. for 50 years. There will probably be some members that are either ECCs that went to new training over the last few years or are assigned to an engine who recieved a new pumper over the last few years that can shed more light. I know that prior to the order there was discussion of how the spec from the 1000gpm to the 2000gpm pumpers would be very little in cost difference. While the new rigs have increased capacity we still attempt to limit the number of linse stretched off one apparatus. This is probably a good practice regardless of what the capacity. Both running away from the supply or any time of pump failure would effect multiple lines. One real benifit is that 2000gpm pumpers are nice to have when supplying tower ladders since they TLs have the capacity to flow over the 1000 gpm rating of the old pumpers. Once again I don't have a lot of intimate knowledge of the new pumpers but there are sure to be more members on this board who do.

Do you usually stretch off the dead loads on the back like the FDNY? Assign a member to control the stretch? Pack the hose left to right only?

My comments are not in relation to the reasearch. I caution against advising people to disregard the protocol. It's one thing if you are going to do it your self but there may be some impressionable people on here that can apply your advice in a wrong matter. Plus in any event their treatment was quetioned they are much better off having followed the protocol over advice they recieved on a bulletin board. If you feel strongly make your thoughts know to those who make the protocols.

While the reasearch seems compelling I would caution against bashing people for following the protocol. I think it is more stupid and dangerous if we get people who decide to disregard the protocols based on the latest article they read.

The Texas Fire Marshall Investigates LODD in Texas in addition to NIOSH. I have read a few and think they are a learning tool. Here's the link and there are others that are have good info. http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/fire/fmloddinvesti.html I try to read every NIOSH report for LODD that are fire ground and not cardiac. The same things come up in every one. NIOSH expects someone to do a 360 and guess what it seems that at almost all these fatal fires no one does one. While they are in a technical format and some parts are dry I'm sure when you read them you will find parts where you say wow that could have been me or us. The reports are done for use to learn from others mistakes. I wonder how many chiefs have read even one in the last year.

NYS has to the best of my knowledge has not adopted NFPA 1. It is not used in NYC. The topic of the illegal conversions is on the forefront due to a number of recent fires resulting in a number of civillian fatalities in the 5 boroughs.

The issue here is not some NYS law it is the United States Constitution. We really don't have the right to make warrantless searches. Plenty of towns and villages write laws that attempt to get in for inspections. Many times these laws are challenged and struck down.

For those of us who don't know the current staffing could you elaborate? Always 2 Peekskill FF-P? 1 or 2 Volunteer Paramedics? Sorry just not aware of the specifics of how Cortlandt/Peekskill is currently staffing medics.

All good posts but another thing to consider in this discussion is the depth of the bed. Correct me if I'm wrong but the new NR engine has an L shaped tank to accomadate the low hose bed. This lowers the bed and shortens it. The NR rig appears to have 3 dead loads of hose off the back that the firefighters will remove and stretch to the fire and in cities in this area sometimes a great deal of hose. So first off the need for large dead loads of hose is necessary. Second I personally have found that I like stretching off the short beds better because the shorter folds can be stretched easier. With a long bed the folds are long and tend to get caught on everything when stretching (especially on streets with parrallel parked cars and the other things you see in the urban environment). In NYC most engine companies place the first few lengths in horseshoe fashion that are easy to carry and I tended to prefer these be short too. I liked to be able to have them off the ground if I lifted them up to avoid obstructions.

Onondaga county made the response times of the departments in the county public this year and I like how they did it. They listed chiefs and suppression apparatus second. The also listed the percentage of time the home department was beat in by auto aid (nearly every structural response outside the City of Syracuse gets significant auto aid). It was food for plenty of discussion. One department has already been absorbed by a neighboor and other discussion have occured. I agree this takes time but makes our response safer and we arrive with better intelegence.