16fire5

Onondaga County, NY 1 PSAP for the entire county including the City of Syracuse. It can work in NY. Oh yeah they are interoperable and pretty coordinated.

Actually the "Space Case" is the piece of cribbing with angle iron attached and airbag bungie corded to it used in the situation of a person trapped between a train and the platform. Pretty easy to make and if you contact your railroad you could probably figure out a place to do the training with a training manakin. FDNY units get this training at the Rock where there is a building with 2 subway cars and a subway station. Units practice using the airbags and/or bottle jack to lift a train. Very good training.

Not uncommon for Manhattan Truck companies to respond to these incidents. After the area is cordoned off the will knock off the remaining ice that prevents a falling hazard. Same think happens with broken windows in the high rises.

Yeah it kills how few places follow the NFPA standard my town included. I guess if you have maps with main sizes you can overcome but why should you have to? In the city the main size is usually on the barrel and it has a line under it if it is only feed from one direction (dead end). If you have a regular engine chauffeur with some experience they usually know their area pretty well. One of the most under appreciated guys on the fireground but most critical.

Can't agree more while 2 1/2 definatly has its place in many situations interior residential attack is not one. I would strongly consider using the 2 1/2" off the bat to knock down the garage from the driveway. I would like to confirm the interior garage door is closed/intact if possible before flowing exterior water. This is usually the case and if it was done to code this door usually lasts a little while. Two minutes with the 2 1/2" should take a lot of the heat out of the fire and by then hopefully some more companies are on the scene. Once second due is on scene I would drop the 2 1/2" and stretch a 1 3/4" handline into the house with the truck who hopefully has a camera and is poking holes looking for fire above us. By the looks of this video we can be pretty sure it's in the attic above the house. Even if the double 5/8" sheetrock held this fire was lapping under the eaves and surely made its way in. Just some thoughts why I went this way. The heavy fire in the garage could possibly overwelm the 1.75" if the push was made from inside without taking the heat out of it first. A 4 FF engine can't fulfill 2 in 2 out and do interior ops required here. I'm not used to being on a 4 FF engine so some of it is just guess work.

And when they become a chief or IC for that matter they too will have to follow the law and comply with the respiratory standard (2in 2out).

Just off the top of my head we have a former NYPD pilot and multiple helicopter pilots from the 106th ANG rescue wing.

They made the switch to UH-72A Lakotas. http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/01/15/15800-hail-and-farewell-to-helicopters/ They should look real familiar since they are the military version of a very popular medivac helicopter.

The air recon chief responds in a much lighter chopper (Agusta?) so based on what our resident helicopter pilot has been teaching us in this article it seems that the air recon chief's ride was grounded. I am fairly sure the air sea rescue aircraft is not set up to do the things the air recon chief provides. It is used to hoist the high rise roof teams in the event it is required.

This approach is flawed. It should take the call type into consideration. For EMS failing to crew up in a minute or two should immediatly result in the next due or even better the closest staffed unit being sent for high priority calls. This is done in other areas even in NY state. For fire a first alarm assignment should have some requirement based on the building type so once again if the home agency is requiring additional dispatches for even the first due the next due should be started. I'm not saying this would solve the problems Helicopter hits the nail on the head with accountability. But what I describe above could be enacted immediatly by the AHJ i.e. the fire chief empowering the dispatcher and setting benchmarks.

You only get a CFR engine on a 76 or 77

Due to the IAFFs ban? If they are FDNY members they resigned because they are not allowed to live in CT. I'm sure a lot of other things go into decision making like wives and kids and second jobs. Quit blaming the IAFF for the true external forces that have diminished volunteer numbers over the years. I'm begining to think this thread should be "Cogs position dosn't hold water"

We (fire operations) almost never get called to help people back in bed. As M Ave. said when we get a run for lift assist it is to assist an EMS crew with a heavy patient. I'm not sure who gets these calls in NYC. That being said if I got the run we would do what the fire service does best handle it.

We are operating with out a "Door Firefighter". Our procedures assign the "Door" Firefighter's responsibilities to the Control. Which is obviously impossible for the firefighter to do both simultanously. The engine lineup is as follows Officer Chauffeur Nozzle Back-up Control

A close friend of mine (no emergency service involvement) had a scary incident while jumping his car this morning. He's a real technical guy but he got a little complacent. Which brings me to the topic. I'm finding that I'm constantly having to correct or stop firefighters while disconnecting batteries at MVA scenes. First too many guys have no respect for the hazards involved in what they are doing. Here's my thoughts. Have a reason to disconnect. Patients still in the vehicle, fire hazard, anything legitimate is good with me but sometimes the car will be driven away or there are no hazards and no one is in the vehicle. Use the right tools. I really can't bear to see the haligan used. It really can be a recipie for disaster. The haligan is more than long enough to accidently hit both battery terminals. Which believe me when I tell you is a bad sight. Accessing the battery. When the car is totaled and all the fluids from the vehicle are now on the highway do we really need to use the forcible entry saw to open the hood and spray the entire area with sparks? I mean I thought that's why we disconnect in the first place to eliminate ignition sources. I'd love to hear others thoughts on the topic.

All the things you say are right on except they should have already been being done.

75' is our height mostly because by the old codes thats when the requirement for Class I construction kicked in. But with everything else there are plenty over 75' which don't fit the bill. I can think of an 11 story ordinary construction built on a hill that is 75' on one side and there are plenty of Class II's in the city that although they have standpipes have open interior stairs and are up to 20 stories.

This is why I'm a proponent of using a small tool with a insulated handle. It almost eliminates the posibility of completing the circuit with your tool. I think this is the sign of members lack of profiency with the irons. Don't get me wrong it is not easy but you should be able to get it open manually. I have used the bolt cutters on a number of occasions to cut the staple on the hood and then pry it up. One way to become proficient is to use the irons. Thanks for all the responses I was begining to think I was out of touch. My advice to all the officers look after your members on these bread and butter responses and teach them to do it right. Don't be afraid to speak up how bad would you feel if one of your guys blows up a battery and seriously injures themself because of improper technique in a non emergent situation.

While high rises are one reason for five firefighters even more challenging are the NFP buildings up to 7 stories tall that have no standpipe. Upper floor fires in these building frequently require stretches of over 10 lengths of hose i.e. 500'. With the officer directing the stretch and the chauffeur hooking up and the control firefighter at the back of the rig removing the hose and breaking the line for all intensive purposes it's 3 firefighters stretching. Anyone who has worked in both 4 and 5 firefighter engines realizes the difference is huge. While procedure does call for engines to team up and we do with the exception of fires in private houses the second engine is seldom on scene initially so the first engine bears the brunt of making the stretch alone.

Best avatar of the moment.

I've used both and I'm with M on this one I'll take real chains every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I think the cost of the on spots can go to better use when specing new apparatus. I will also mention that when I worked the other night we did find a street impassible even with good chains. As for driving in the virgin snow it is not an option on the residential streets since cars are parked on both sides and they are generallly not wide enough to get outside the tracks. We break links frequently but don't think I've seen much damage from chains. The fact that engines may have to stop on a hill to hit a hydrant and then proceed to the fire to me makes on-spots pretty useless.

I think this is a flaw in the system. In a lot of cases the members most qualified and with the most experince are not in the leadership positions and 20 something year olds are. Or the chief is from company B because it's their turn in the rotation. Honestly it's 2011 do we really think everyone should get a turn to be chief?

72 Engine has 4 firefighters. When called with the satelite 2 firefighters ride the satelite.

I try to stay out of this because I really have no knowledge about Stamford. I think that the continual comparisons to MD and VA by people up here is unfair. I'm glad it's not MD or VA. Everyone wants to be like Prince George's County. Why? It's a mess down there. It is impossible for any Chief to run the place because the individual companies all claim independence. Getting in first due seems more important that going home to your family. The Career staff is treated like crap. There are some good combination systems out there but the ones I've heard about have a Chief empowered to be the chief of the whole department i.e. all the firehouses and apparatus. They have training standards and require volunteers to play within the rules not say "I'm a volunteer you can't tell me what to do"

Not sure what your getting at here. The first roof FF brings the rope unless it's a FP MD. The roof FF should not take both the rope and the saw and if you don't believe me watch the video of the fire on Houston St. The second roof FF will bring their saw. If it's a top floor fire there's lots to do up on the roof I think the OV should go up there with the roof FF. I understand the concern about the delay but the OV can vent the top floor windows from the roof, drop down, or it will get done by the second OV. A very in shape young FF was killed a few years back when he fell from a roof with the rope and the saw.