helicopper

Another problem is damn near every town "demanding" a Con Ed rep at Town Hall or the local PD/FD/EOC/ABC/LMNOP every time there's a major storm. That's ridiculous and a colossal waste of money. No wonder their expenses are so high; they need to keep 100 liaisons employed so every little fiefdom has their own personal ConEd whipping boy. It does nobody any good at all to have a rep in Town Hall or the PD when restoration is regional and doesn't necessarily coincide with jurisdictional borders. Seems to me those 40-50 reps would be better served supervising field work and let the rep in the County's EOC coordinate local needs with ConEd services.

Since Operations is supposed to be built from the bottom up and since 95% of our responses don't rise to the level requiring branches, how about starting with the Medical GROUP and building from there? If there is a single command, it would not be the Fire IC, it would be the IC. But now here's a wrinkle. Since statutory authority exists for multiple agencies having jurisdiction including, but not limited to the FD, wouldn't that put us into Unified Command on almost every incident?

Yes, we have no bananas... 30,000 pounds of bananas to be exact!

This is a management problem. Superman retired long ago (I think he lives somewhere in the Keys now) and it is up to today's managers to properly manage and direct their subordinates to go to rehab or whatever is needed.

If we're going to criticize reading comprehension we should make sure we're not living in a glass house. My comment was not that a reptile doesn't have a nervous system, it was a question about whether or not it was capable of "suffering"? Does it feel pain?

Alright, if not after every bottle when? I agree that 20 minutes may not be much but doesn't it depend on how strenuous the work is and how challenging the environment is? Exposure to extreme temperatures may require intervention even after relatively short periods, no? I was just trying to identify a good time and bottle changes seemed like a logical choice. It's a shame that we still don't operate with adequate resources even after all the lessons learned.

So who should be responsible for rehab? If a FF enters rehab after a period of exertion and has what you call "elevated vital signs", you cool them down and allow them to relax for 20-30 minutes and their vital signs don't come down during that time, then I think there's a reason for transport. What about elevated vital signs requires immediate transport absent some kind of complaint or issue? This is like saying everyone who steps off a treadmill at the gym requires immediate transport to a medical facility because of their viltal signs. If we don't do rehab and we allow a FF to return to strenuous operations in heavy equipment and SCBA with already elevated vital signs aren't we doing them a disservice? What would expose us to greater liability? Not doing rehab and having a FF suffer because of it or having a FF go through rehab for a while before returning to operations?

It's a reptile not an animal. Does it have a nervous system capable of "suffering"? Sorry, but a venomous snake is not your average nuisance pest in/around the home. It is readily capable of causing death or injury so despite what the statistics show I don't think you should leave it roaming around your house or yard.

EMS shouldn't be "pulling FF for rehab", it should be a regular part of the FF rotation through operations. Gotta change bottles? Gotta go through rehab. Otherwise it is almost always forgotten and if you leave it to the FF you'll always hear "no, I'm good. Just give me another bottle". This brings us back to another point that has been discussed here before, do IC's have enough resources to properly rotate people or do they have "just enough" to get 'er done? Not to shift gears too much but does rehab document each contact with an FF to identify potential trends toward a problem? Are they comparing initial vital signs with vital signs after an hour or two to detect that someone's blood pressure is high?

FF Kevin Townes is reposing at : Camelot FuneralHome 174 Stevens Avenue Mount Vernon, NY 10550 914-664-8500 Visiting Hours: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 from 1600 through 2000 hrs Funeral Services: Thursday,December 15, 2011 at 1100 hrs Grace Baptist Church 52S. 6th Avenue Mount Vernon, NY 10550 914-664-2676 He will be laid to rest at MountCavalry Cemetery in Valhalla, NY

Virginia Tech Police Officer Deriek W. Crouse was shot and killed on Thursday, December 8, 2011 during a traffic stop on campus. He was shot by an as yet unidentified gunman while in his police car (the gunman was not involved with the traffic stop). The suspect later killed himself when confronted by other officers. Police Officer Crouse was also a veteran of the US Army and the father of five. RIP Officer Crouse.

Is that Colonie?

Is one ambulance enough for a working structure fire? You have to be available for potential civilian victims as well as ready to treat injured FF(s)? Since the FD operates with two-in/two-out (as a minimum for illustration only), wouldn't it be prudent to have at least two ambulances available in case both require urgent care? It also takes extra hands to work a cardiac arrest so if a victim is removed from the fire, it would be better to have the extra hands already on site. None of this considers the type of structure, time of day, or conditions, either. If you have a multi-family dwelling at 3 AM or a smoky fire in an office building at 3 PM you should probably add to the assignment. I remember an early evening fire in an apartment building that had about a dozen ambulances staging.

Has anyone ever analyzed the cost of the fire service in Westchester County? The 59 or so FD's cover about 470 square miles and over 900k people with tons of apparatus but at what cost? Does anyone know?

An article about an agency in our area states this and I have a question: if only 25 of 70 are active, riding members what exactly do the other 45 do? I know FD's have fire police, exterior members, auxiliaries, etc. but what exactly is the benefit of having 65% of your membership not contributing to the main purpose of the agency?

I'm with you on that. My question is what capacity are they in? Are they allegedly active members that are simply inactive or are they some other kind of member (social, associate, etc.)? Do agencies have any policy on how many members the organization can have and how many must be active, riding members? I remember info from an FD that boasted having over 300 members but only about 40-50 were actually qualified to don SCBA and perform fire suppression operations. I just don't understand why organizations carry such robust memberships of people that can't/won't/don't contribute to the mission.

The location of the tragedy seems to be coincidental. The gunman targeted a police officer on a traffic stop; it could just as easily have been off campus as on. Sadly, there is very little that can be done to prevent an ambush.

Not sure if you mean the police or fire training centers but you can probably request a tour of either. 914-231-1827 is the # for the police academy and 914-231-1615 is the number to the fire training center.

Try a mongoose.

It's an interesting situation and I applaud them for taking a stand. Many many many jobs use OT to avoid hiring and this reinforces the fact that they're understaffed. They've laid off members and filled their shifts with OT. Now the refusal of OT points out two things - they need more people and OT can't be relied upon to guarantee coverage. It's not about their pay or the desire/need for OT. It's about standing together and trying to improve working conditions, an act seldom seen in the EMS community where we happily step over the still warm body of our brethren to take their shift or fill a position. There is little if any solidarity in EMS.

Interesting discussion came up recently that I have the opportunity to listen to and I think the question fits our area's operations very well. When does mutual aid end? In other words, at what point does it stop being stop gap emergency assistance and start becoming the augmentation of a system or service? Please look at the big picture and not at a single resource response to a short-term incident (like a FAST truck to a fire) but rather a five day fire or a week-long suspect search. When the NYS Fire and EMS mutual aid plans are used to mobilize resources from across the state for a major incident (ice storm, hurricane, etc.) and the incident duration is weeks instead of hours, do the mutual aid resources have the right to request reimbursement for their expenses?

A few questions... Are there any unincorporated areas of New York that are not part of a village, town, city, fire district, school district, etc.? Would all those who paid (and supported the system) have cause to sue if the FD put out the fire of a non-subscriber? It's like the Tea Party people who are suing municipalities all over the country because they paid for permits to occupy and use the spaces now being occupied for free by the "occupy' movement. To all those who assert that fire protection is a right, on what do you base that? Where is it written that we're all entitled to fire protection as a "right"? Great discussion! Thanks for all the interesting reading.

Here's an interesting question on the subject... If you're under 18 years of age you can't legally RMA, right? So can a 16 year old legally accept an RMA? Seriously, how can a 16 year old serve as the "guardian" (for lack of a better word) for another juvenile involved in a motor vehicle accident?

So, if Stamford's volunteer companies are all overflowing with new volunteers to the point where they're being turned away, why is this even an issue? There should be no issues at all and they should be getting out on calls and the issue of consolidation or whatever you call it would be moot. You'd think they could have found a more eloquent speaker and focused on the positive instead of harping on the negative. Wow. I didn't watch the whole video of the meeting but did catch parts of it. It seems that the speaker contradicted himself when he spoke at one point about how strong the volunteer forces are and later said that the volunteer departments are absolutely dependent on the career FF to get the apparatus out. Just from an outsider's perspective it seems that there are alot of inconsistencies and contradictions in the presented material.

I don't think so. There are already youth, cadet, explorer, and junior programs for those under 18 so it isn't like they can't get into the services at an earlier age if they so desire. I think 18 is about the right age for EMT and wouldn't advocate lowering the age for that. CFR is available at 16 so again, there's a progression for them if they get involved at that age. Honestly I don't think the answer is in lowering ages. There are big problems in the emergency services (paid and volunteer) and no simple solutions.