CTFF

You've lost me with the above point. 5)You're concerenced with mutual aide already in the SVFD? You also expect it to simply come from SFRD? So you still see the need for SFRD to put out fires up north, you would rather not pay for it though, right? Later on in your critique of the SFRD plan you worry about out of town residents who may be put in risk as their FD comes to aide stamford. Are you worried about the downtown residents who's closest unit may be up north fighting a fire an unable to provide water or CPR?

Can you really go with "No ifs, ands, or buts" when your reply starts a Sentence with If?

This all depends on the city administration. The city could encourage all sides( SFRD, L786, The VFD's & LRPDA) to sit down and talk. From what I've seen to this point I don't see the City supporting talks.

I'm pretty sure I asked about the paid guys in Long ridge, Gilligan.

it's tough to reach any other conclusion in regards to the Mayor and pushing forward, I don't think we've seen any pause from him on this issue. He has repeadetly stated that one Fire Dept in Stamford can't happen now for a variety of legal reasons. Yet somehow a way has been found to merge three (hopefully four) of the volunteer dept under one Chief. The Charter hasn't changed, no boundries have been changed, so what has? If four of the Dept's can merge, why couldn't all six? I Doubt there is any thing in the charter that precludes SFRD and Glenbrook from joing the other 3 (soon to be four?).

Wait, I thought it was one dept?

Will the long ridge paid drivers be given seniority in the new SVFD? I assume they'll be the first hired positions based off of their seniority.

Also how did you guys allow Fahan to outsmart everyone? He's got you all over the barrell I hope he asks for the world to sign this deal. That guy is dumb like a fox.

1. Nope. SFRD has not built it's stations with the thought of working as a combination stations. Parking is a mess at 3 different stations during shift change and additional cars can make it even more of a challenge, Many of the day rooms are not conducive to having extra bodies there and the same can be said about the bunk situation. On the rare occasion that more firefighters are working then minimum staffing those bodies are sent north. This is to help the houses that have longer response times for second due engines. While I'm against vollies riding out downtown If we are told it will happen I would expect the On duty Deputy to have say where this man power is stationed. Do you envision a ride along program to have structured shifts or as the volunteer has time available? 2. No, I don't support the concept of allowing volunteers to fill spots needed by minimum manpower. Overtime benefits the cities and career firefighters, when you consider while I am being paid time and a half it truly only costs the city the half ( they've budget for the shift anyways). Plus they don't pay any extra benefits. Will the SVFD have overtime or will volunteers fill shifts? Will the volunteer be paid for that shift? 3. Yes. If you do get to ride downtown I'll expect you'll sit the watch, handle the orderly detail and other details handed out by the Officer. This is done in a systematic way currently and you guys have many watches , orderly and yard details to catch up to us. 4. I have no problem following the chain of command, I work for a Capt or LT. If you need something done go talk to that guy. 5. Most of our training is done during the day in conjucntion with the training divison or the house officer. This allows us to train in a much faster time period then training with the volunteers on a standard drill night. That being said I think on drill night the career and volunteers in a combo house should work together. 6. No. Would you support the Career staff in voting for volunteer officers positions? Or descions an individual company needs to make? 7. Until the mayor is willing to get everyone in the room, this is about it.

Are you saying 24/7 with a mix of paid and volunteers? Or does the plan already recognize the need for 4 man career staffing but it will be sold to the public as something else?

As long as he knows he will be getting a smaller crew from the volunteer dept, consisting of paid personel out the door more often then not.

Cogs, I'd simply like to see all the numbers for all of the dept's. Hell I'd like to see the NFIRS for each dept showing who actually responds to calls. I think the whole situation is still a very long way off from being resolved.

So today's annoucement was about TOR, BFD and LRFCO merging per news12. Springdale has not voted on it.

Simply amazing you have GFD's numbers but not SFCO's or TOR's, guess the note would have been too big for the birdy.

4pm @ TOR station 1 for the announcement according to my sources.

A little birdy? C'mon Coggs, if there is a signed agreement one would have to think that the memberships of the big four have seen the agreement and voted on it, right? Or did you miss that meeting?

My guess is you'll see the "Big four" ( Long Ridge, Turn of River, Belltown & Springdale) have agreed to merge...

what about the company officer or IC who sent his people on a rescue they are not trained for nor equiped for? If one of his crew is killed or hurt badly this may open the city and himself to a lawsuit.

Give us the other side of the story then.

Consolidation as I meant it means to reduce the number of Fire Deptartments, not meaning to move equipment to one location.

Sadly this is not a Westchester only issue. We see these problems in CT as well, I'm sure if you looked hard enough this issue is country wide. Yes consolidation is the answer, most don't want to hear it.

From the short article in the link there is talk of staffing firehouses 24/7 not adequate staffing. To me it seems that this is about getting rigs on the road and cutting the delay out of home/work to firehouse to call aspect of the volunter service. I meant unsafe to the people who need a rig wherever they and need it now as opposed to unsafe for firefighters driving to the firehouse/call.

I'll be the first to admit what I know about "bunk in programs" is from what I read on online firefighter forums. In my opinion it's a form of compensated staffing, free rent for making calls. Are there enough towns with all volunteer dept's with college's close by to make this happen? Shouldn't those dept's be making this move if there is a need for it? My family has a place in upstate and our local fd does about 80 calls a year, is there a great need for a bunk in program there? Also is this grant bascially saying that the respond from home to firehouse and then to the call an unsafe practice?

Yes, it's called career staffing.

This is clearly a waste of taxpayer funds and I'm not sure how anyone can even defend this.