helicopper

That's freakin' hysterical!!!! How about CyberBuff????

Note the emphasis on STAB resistant vests - not bullet resistant. It is possible to stab someone wearing a kevlar vest because it designed to withstand high energy impacts by projectiles but not low impact sharp weapons. Many corrections agencies issue stab resistant vests which I believe have more solid material in it than just kevlar fiber (or any of the new fibers that are out there)... NYC did issue (or authorize) bullet resistant vests but not the stab resistant ones... The line about "cutting edge" was hysterical.

Thanks for the info - does this "political appointee" hold any fireground authority? Should HE even have been on the scene of an incident in the first place?

It is not insensitive to discuss a problem that is endemic to the industry - yes, a tragic local incident brought the problem to the forefront but nobody is speculating on the cause of that particular accident nor is anyone casting a negative light on either of the victims (Matt or his partner). A lot of other people have already pointed out that you can't wait to address an issue of safety. We need to face facts... EMS is not a money industry, most agencies are lucky just to break even and many operate at a loss that must be offset by other ventures or subsidies of some kind. There are no cash cows in the transport industry! In fact, the reimbursement rates are a joke. They don't cover the costs of the calls, have not been adjusted to compensate for the skyrocketing fuel prices that everyone must contend with and not everyone even has the wherewithal to pay (read uninsured!). As a result EMS personnel are poorly paid, understaffed, and in many cases overworked. Labor issues, as already highlighted, are a problem too. Try telling your boss that you're too tired to do a call and you will most likely be terminated. You can't compare the EMS industry to fire or police either. Police and fire operate in specific municipalities (or at least districts) while ambulances may contract with facilities all over the county or region. That's alot of driving that doesn't occur to the cops or FD. Cops can sit and watch the blinking traffic light in the middle of their town when their eyes are crossing at 4 AM, the FD can sleep between jobs but EMS is out there driving all over the place and that takes a toll on you too. It is ridiculously expensive to live in our area and EMS wages don't reflect the high cost of living. It's pathetic but that's our world. So, we see EMS'ers going from Job A to Job B to Job C and back to Job A with very little real rest in between. To say that fatigue is NOT a problem in the industry is just plain wrong! Should there be regulations like those for commercial truck drivers? Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure what we can do other than be more sensitive to the fact that we're not robots and need some down time once in a while. We just can't sweep the problem under the rug.

Why does being a volunteer matter?? As ALS said, provide quality service and people won't give a hoot if you're paid, volunteer, or if your vehicle says Joe's Hot Dogs on the side. We need to educate the public better about the services we provide, resources we have, how to properly and effectively access them and so forth. Advertising that you chose to do this for free while the guy next to you does it for a paycheck is irrelevant. Vacguy, why can't you ask the PD to be a part of that program? If it is outside of your district why don't you collaborate with the agency whose district it is and provide blood pressure screenings, info on accessing emergency services, medic alerts, or any of the other valuable programs out there that do promote EMS? Why don't all the EMT Bravo EMS'ers use this forum to coordinate a big media campaign to promote EMS week next year? Set up activities so there is something going on every day that week, promote it with the media, get elected officials involved (after all it will be a BIG election year), get big signs made up and post them all over the place, etc. A little bit of coordination can insure that it is more well known than in previous years. Just some thoughts...

The lengths to which people will go to avoid doing their job never ceases to amaze me. Whether this was a lack of training or a lack of supervision it sure sounds like negligence to me.

Is the fire "director" even part of the field staff or is that an administrative person who was on the scene? It boggles my mind that we still have these stupid arguments at incident scenes.

It is after all international border. We've all heard the threats of emergency vehicles being used as weapons or carriers of terrorists so it shouldn't come as a great suprise that after being beaten up for allowing active TB cases to cross the border they're playing by all the rules. Eight minute delays for a mutual aid company? Come on, we have first due companies with response times longer than that. If the FF had a criminal conviction that made his entry this country an issue, then the Customs actions were not completely unreasonable. It's all a matter of perspective. Is the Canadian border a joke? YES. Should we criticize Customs for doing their job at a designated border crossing? NO. Change the policy or deal with the delays.

I sure do - response times were great back then 'cause you heard the shots fired around the corner and were waiting in the rig for the job to come over. Sometimes the victim just knocked on the door instead of calling 911, too. It does seem like history is repeating itself... firehouse closes, EMS moves into trailers in the FD parking lot (ironically) (after living at the ER for a while)... Now, firehouse closes, FF moves into trailers... What's next???

This helicopter is the same model as the civilian medevacs now being used all over the US and unless I'm mistaken, they all have air conditioning. Between the radios and other equipment heating up the cabin, the big freakin' windows act like a magnifying glass and heat up the cabin like crazy in just average weather. This is no replacement for the Blackhawk, it is more an intermediate ship for use between the Kiowa and Blackhawk. Like the Huey used to be (sort of)... We initially planned on no air conditioning for our new helicopter but greater minds than ours prevailed and recommended that we get it despite the extra weight. Having the AC was definitely the right move and we're not in a "hot environment". Think about the added wear and tear on the crews operating in that thing with no AC in the middle east or southern US... Bad situation on people already under tremendous stress!

It's not morbid and shouldn't offend anyone. Even in his final hours, Matt continued giving, more of himself literally this time, and embodied the true spirit of a hero! We may never know exactly how many people benefited from his generosity and selflessness but the fact that he did it speaks volumes about him. RIP, Matt!

It's not surprising that courses got cancelled in Westchester - we know it all already! They should include units on blue lights in the courses... That would undoubtedly drum up interest as training threads die a quick death but lights and siren threads go on forever! Maybe halogen lights for FF1 and Strobes and LEDs for FF2? Good luck to you!

Have they eliminated the extra career position or is the former dispatcher now available for responses?

He certainly can't be any WORSE!

I too know a great many people that work for ESA and in the Garrison area. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you - especially our injured brother. All my hopes for a speedy recovery!

It's probably the same for the fire exam as it is for the police exam. They use "banding" of grades... Everyone with a 100-100+ is one "band", everyone with 95-100 is another and so on... When you submitted the application probably doesn't enter into the ranking. I think for people with the same score they use social security numbers for ranking (at least that's what they used to do on PD tests). Departments must canvas one band before moving on to the next so they can canvas blocks of people before actually selecting anyone. I know some PD's canvas 25 people at a time even when they're only hiring for a few positions. Good luck!

Is the critical transfer from HVHC to WMC an EMS crewmember? This was an Empire State Ambulance involved in the accident? Any other facts at this point?

Somebody want to give us the background on this? Sounds like the mayoral candidate was pretty well informed and was proposing some solutions to age old problems. Why did the FD Chief take such exception to it?

You raise a very valid point and if training for the 99% of other calls is being overlooked, there is a problem. However, a city like NY probably does more confined space rescues in a year than many other STATES do - think about it - tunnel jobs, construction jobs, collapses, etc. To have 52 medics in the City trained for this specialty does not seem unreasonable. If they were trying to train EVERY medic it might be impractical. 52 medics can keep these skills sharp with training while the remaining medics in the City are focusing on the majority of the calls. You suggest 3-4 per year - I would argue that there are probably 3-4 per month in the five boroughs. It seems like there's a building collapse once a week down there. The program was funded with grant money - not the city's regular CME budget so what's the problem? You seem very passionate about the subject - care to elaborate on what you mean about the training problem you see down there?

GIS is able to work wonders with electronic mapping and data projects. Though I'm not a GIS expert, I'll try to explain as I understand it... Working from a base map of a given area, Westchester County for example, data is added in layers (FD's, PDs, response areas, sewer lines, power lines, hydrants, water mains, lakes, industrial complexes, tax maps/property lines, roads, etc, etc. Using GIS viewers, these maps can then be viewed with whatever layer you need... For a fire, water mains, and hydrants. For a weather emergency, rivers, streams and flood prone or flooded areas. They can be printed on large scale plotters for use in incident response, planning, etc. I was involved in an exercise this Spring where GIS was probably the hottest commodity because they were able to print maps needed by almost every part of the organization. I'll see if I can post a few as an example. Long story short - if you have access to GIS people and their products - GET THEM INVOLVED in your operations and responses. They can prove to be invaluable and save everyone lots of time producing this resources by hand.

Kudos to you guys for not buying a ladder just because you didn't have one and using the adjoining communities resources when the need arises. As has been stated before, not every department needs to have everything, especially in Westchester where we can get just about anything in a short time.

Give 'em heck, Hudson! Best of luck and hopefully we'll be saying "congrats on your promotion" before too long! Must be nice to have that precedent in your pocket as you march into court, too.

Agreed, we're all held to a higher standard and should stop and think about that for a second once in a while. As for the NYC detective, it seems from what I've read that he was not using/abusing the drugs while at Ground Zero but rather became addicted to prescription medications after becoming severely ill AFTER working at ground zero. He would not be the first MOS to become addicted to pain meds while confined to his residence while out injured - in this case sick - in the line of duty. To me, NYC is trying to limit their liability by tarnishing the reputation of this detective and implying that the drug use was the cause of his death and not his weeks spent at Ground Zero. Typical NYC move. Shame on them! No question, the guy's a hero. First for putting up with living below the poverty line while in the academy and serving the NYPD as a cop and detective AND second for his efforts at Ground Zero.

On what do you base this statement? The City of Yonkers has ONE heavy rescue and covers 10 times the geography plus interstate highways and parkways and a commuter railroad. The New Rochelle FD has ONE heavy rescue and covers I-95 and many other major roadways and railways. FDNY runs only FIVE heavy rescues in a city of 9 million. Please explain to me how a 4.6 square mile district - covering just a few miles of a state highway - and responding to a call every other day warrants two heavy rescues and a 7.5 million dollar station with "social hall"? If it is too much for the tax base, it is irresponsible to propose such a building. I gotta go with the other posts on here - build a shed for storage and go to the VFW, bingo hall, church, or a diner to 'socialize'. A taxpayer revolt is gonna happen one of these days and we're all gonna face an austerity budget!

From what I saw on their website, they seem to have one engine, one tanker, two heavy rescues, and a utility type pick-up truck with trailered boat (a Zodiac, I think). They say there's another utility and boat coming too. Anyone more familiar with the apparatus?