helicopper

Here's a question for our Dutchess County contingent... A while back DOT started closing a lot of the grade crossings (intersections) on the Taconic Parkway to cut down on accidents and traffic. Now many of them that still can be crossed have signage saying "Emergency Responders Only". Since "emergency responder" is not a defined term in the Vehicle and Traffic Law, does Dutchess County have special legislation for this or are other measures in place for their use by other than defined emergency vehicles?

OK, in the FDNY or other large FD's it is fairly easy to follow a multiple alarm assignment. You know you're getting 3 of A, 2 of B, 1 of C, and a whole host of special stuff when you pull the pin and ask for the next level alarm. But here in Westchester (or Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess for that matter) when you hear an agency call for a second (or higher) alarm, is it always a uniform response (2 of A, 1 of B, etc.)? I've heard varying second alarm assignments that call into question the consistency of the response. If it's not uniform is it simply based upon each FD's run assignments in the CAD? If it is totally different, there really is no way to assess the number of "multiple alarm" fires because the definition is different everywhere you look. Just curious...

You mean they're not dead until they're warm and dead, right? Too many unanswered questions to know for sure what the mistake was - if there was one.

This has been quite an interesting thread! To answer this question, without even changing district/tax lines, we could improve the response to calls by instituting "closest unit" dispatching. The geographically closest three engines, two ladders, and rescue go to the job along with the chief of the district where the call actually is. It would probably improve the overall response, streamline resource management, and improve interagency operations. Then, based on these responses departments can focus on maintaining the apparatus most critical to their area - as was already said, there's no reason for 50-something rescues in the County. Instead of maintaining a fleet of ten apparatus (apparati? ) with staffing for only four, a department can buy the best equipment for their mission while the department up the road buys what they need for their piece of the puzzle. Many others have said this before much more succinctly than this. As for consolidating departments, I applaud the effort and hope the study proves one way or the other what will work and for how much. Then maybe someone will honestly make an effort to rally for such a change. Yes, it would be possible for laws to be rewritten enabling countywide departments - if the support exists and we all know what a big if that is!

The initial issue of uniforms is issued by the Department (in my job's case) and all subsequent uniforms, shoes, etc. are the responsibility of the member and paid for (at least in part) by a uniform allowance. Detectives get the same uniform allowance so if they need to buy a suit instead of a uniform, the money can be used for that. Our job doesn't issue any civilian attire. Of course, the reality is most of the uniform allowance goes to Christmas bills or other "realities" but the intent is to maintain uniforms.

Ray was a major part of EMS in our area for many, many years and it is a very sad day for all who knew him or were touched by his teaching. RIP and condolences to his family!

How far you stage away depends on a number of things - the type of environment (in a city, one block may give you three or four escape routes while in a rural area you may need to be substantially farther away) and the type of hazard (an EDP in a 5th floor apartment is a different threat than a street shooting or a structure fire) as examples. Many moons ago my partner and I "staged away" from a shooting job in a parking lot (lights out I might add) about 5-6 blocks away and the incident turned into a pursuit that terminated at the intersection right in front of our seemingly safe parking lot. Needless to say we had front row seats to the action - and we both wouldn't fit in the glove compartment! As ALS said, time and distance are your friend - even on rural roads one mile is a long way for someone to travel on foot and if the "threat" is leaving the scene in a vehicle he/she is probably not going to care about your ambulance parked on the side of the road a mile from the crime they committed. You don't necessarily have to "hide" - just be far enough away to avoid an immediate threat. You don't need an officer on the ambulance to tell you to practice good scene safety, size-up techniques, or common sense! That's week one of EMT class. Relying on someone else to make decisions for you is no way to work in the field! Everyone's got to be thinking - especially about safety! You absolutely can pre-plan for these types of things! Develop an SOP on what the appropriate response will be (hot/cold), where staging should be considered, how communications with on-scene units will be coordinated, etc. Then exercise it in training! Use pictures of the area, a command board, just local "trouble spots" that everyone will know, and run through scenarios with crews to get them thinking about safety in a practical and efficient way. Finally, if you've got 20 minute response times as the norm because of the size of your area, I would suggest thinking about sub-stations or other ways of reducing the delay in delivering care to someone in need. That's an awfully long time to be waiting for oxygen, don't ya think?

Fully sworn yes - these days they are almost all retired from elsewhere because there are VERY few part-time police academy classes anywhere. Full-time it takes about six months to complete the academy and required field training so for a part-timer, that's a long schedule. Most departments (though there are probably a few exceptions) do not allow an officer to hold more than one police job at a time. A lot of jobs won't even allow you to work a security job.

I think those are the only ones left in the County. Brewster and Cold Spring may hire in Putnam but that's about it for Westchester/Putnam.

Lighten up a little, oneeye! The bottom line is EMT's SHOULDN'T be underpaid to begin with and if someone wants to work as an EMT and not go to medic school they should be able to support their family doing so. Paramedics shouldn't have to go to private hospitals in NYC to earn what they deserve. A paramedic working in Westchester or Putnam is just as important to his/her patients as a paramedic anywhere else. Geography shouldn't dictate a reasonable wage. Parity with police and fire is not necessarily the best option but there should definitely be a BIG bump in wages and benefits for the people who are coming to save OUR rear ends after it hits the fan. As for fire based EMS, there should be options for those who wish to be a medic and not an FF or vice versa. To require BOTH specialities limits the pool of candidates unncessarily and requires a ridiculous amount of continuing education to stay current and proficient in both jobs.

Probably not. It is paid for by all of us.

Oooo good one!

I remember a story a few years ago about the comforters in hotel rooms - supposedly the comforters are the nastiest things in the room becuase they DON'T get changed on a daily basis and who knows what people are doing on them between changes/washings. Yuck!

Westchester County has a FLEET of buses and all it takes is a phone call to get one assigned to an incident for rehab. Just 'cause it doesn't have red/white lights or say "fire" on it doesn't mean its not a resource for us.

If they were using x-rays they probably had to post a radiation warning just like at the radiology department of a hospital.

There was a lively discussion earlier this year about the proper course of action if you came upon an accident with injuries/extrication while responding to a fire call. There were those who felt they should pass the accident to continue on to the fire call citing the possibility of a structure fire as more seroius than the accident. I'd like to revisit that discussion given the recent events in Baltimore and ask the following question: Do those of you who believe that you should pass the accident to take in the fire call think that Engine 29 did the wrong thing by stopping at Truck 27's accident? Listening to the radio transmissions from that morning, the response to the fire call was immediately covered with additional apparatus and more units were also dispatched to the accident. Isn't that the same way it would happen here? The original thread and Baltimore threads are proivded below: Thread on the Baltimore accident involving Truck 27. Thread on stopping at an accident during a response to a fire call. Radio traffic from Baltimore FD Before anyone starts with me about this being inappropriate - this topic has nothing at all to do with the Baltimore accident. The tragic accident that Truck 27 was involved in only highlights a point that was made in the earlier discussion and is being used to emphasize one viewpoint as an example - not as criticism!

SLEEP !!!!!

As KHAS indicated, it is generally cheaper to pay an employee overtime rather than higher a new employee and pay their salary, benefits, etc. There is a tipping point, though, where the sheer volume of OT negates the savings and some savings could be achieved by adding some full-time staff. The problem is nobody wants to add budget lines for personnel so the OT keeps growing. What about that line about a detective losing 40 days pay as a result of the investigation! OUCH!

Agreed - without question! But do we also stop if its two civilian vehicles that bounce off each other??? And I agree that all the parties involved did an exceptional job communicating!

Training required? To transport a cooler? Come on, there's a whole bunch of football fans who do much the same thing every Sunday! It wouldn't necessarily have to be overtime for the PD to do it. Every time a took a cooler from the airport to the medical center I was already working - it took 20 minutes and didn't incur any OT. But I would appreciate the extra flight time!!!! Khas, you bring up an excellent point about the training angle. Same can be said for the ASPCA people too. 484, are you sure they all transport the teams? Every time I've seen on of these trucks around there's been nothing more than the driver - usually waiting for a cooler. wcr20, Emily Litella or Rosanne Rosanadana???

Congratulations and Good Luck!

There are fixed wing resources that do organ transports for long distances. Our PD has picked up the organs at the airport and transported them to the hospital to expedite their arrival too. They're mainly volunteer pilots who donate their time to ferry the organ(s) where they need to go - the nice thing about using airplanes is that they're able to fly IFR (instrument rules) in bad weather. Most helicopters won't (or can't) fly IFR. I always thought organ transport vehicles were defined in the VTL but when I re-read it after this post I see that it only defines "blood transport vehicles". I checked NJ but couldn't find anything related to them - I thought that was why they were operating out of (or at least registering their vehicles in) New Jersey. So, the short answer is that it appears (unless someone else can find the regulation) that they have no authority to operate as an emergency vehicle in New York. Frankly, I'd rather see these vehicles operating with lights and siren instead of the ASPCA "police". But that's been discussed in another thread already.

It will be tough for any job to get four cops from any one job there fast enough to use the diamond formation. If we communicated more effectively though, it may be possible to get County, DEP, and you there and form the immediate action team. Hmmm... did Oswego say something about centralized communications????

My comment wasn't directed at the Commissioner - I wouldn't know him if I ran into him. My comment was directed at the residents of the district who ignore what's going on around them! Is it actually a "highly contested" race if only 200 out of 14000 bothered to vote???

Isn't it sad that only 44 people came out to vote? This in a district with about 5000 residents. Pathetic!