AFS1970

There is no question that Volunteers save on payroll costs. The other costs they may or may not save vary greatly by department/district. Do LOSAP's cost what pensions do, too many variables. Does training cost the same, depends on who is getting paid for what. I know of one department that pays volunteers a per Diem wage to attend classes. We know that Volunteers don't save money on turnout gear, although some of that is because of certain standards that do not take usage or overall condition into consideration. Is there duplication of apparatus due to the district lines, yes there is. However this is usually not because of how many career or volunteer firefighters there are, this is almost always a creature of the management involved. When I was a Volunteer my department had 3 Engines, 1 Truck & 1 Rescue, for just over a mile square district. Our Truck was the busiest piece in the house because we were also the first due truck in two other districts, both of which had trucks, and parts of a third that also had a truck. However to see why this had happened you need to look at a couple of historical things. City planning wise, when these departments were formed, there were not the roads we have today and mutual aid was not an easy thing to accomplish. Historically many of these small communities were very isolationist. So apparatus was needed because calling the guys next door was not seen as a viable option. By the time I joined, just under half our runs were automatic aid. Since then one of those districts sold their truck and did not replace it. One of the districts went from 3 engines to 2. So there is some progress being made, but it is by the nature of apparatus and how long they last (at least the older rigs) going to be a slow process. As for how many rescues are needed, I do not think FDNY is a fair comparison to most communities. Many suburban communities use their rescues for extrication at MVA's. FDNY uses truck companies for that. Then there is NYPD ESU which also does extrication. When I joined my former department we took the rescue on EMS calls, we went on all medicals in the district. As a result the Rescue was busier than the engines. That changed when a powerful lobby got the engine to go on medicals and suggested getting rid of our rescue. The Chief could not be swayed by the actual data / statistics. Although the rescue was saved, it stopped going on EMS calls. After the advent of a first responder policy (precursor to EMD) the engine's medicals went way down. However is you compared the number of rescues in Westchester to the number of rescues, ladders & ESU trucks in NYC, what would you get? I am guessing a little closer to apparatus parity. That of course is where call volume comes into play.

These facilities are worth a lot of money, both to those that build them, run them and collect taxes from them. There is one about to be built across the street from me. However no attention is payed to the impact on emergency services, or really any public services when something is built. Stamford has a thriving bar scene, mostly clustered around two streets. I have often wondered what the impact on the sanitation department is from this, do the crowds generate more trash, does it mean a truck has to make an extra pick up, does it mean DPW has to hire an extra crew? I do not mean to equate the elderly with trash, but it is the same sort of issue financially and politically, that a specific type of building is built with no regard to the community impact.

Remember a while back when a facility ordered employees not to do CPR? This is the next illogical step in that process. This is why we have to stop letting the Lawyers and Insurance Agents run the show. Of course there are many aspects to this problem. Of course there are the nursing homes that simply do not provide this service. Then there are the EMS agencies that have little if any motivation to cut down on the number of billable patients. There is the competition within private EMS that has pushed for laws that do not allow for other ambulances to respond in their districts. There are the manpower (both paid & volunteer) issues that could probably deal with a town's call volume reasonably well if it were not for a few of these facilities, but end up being amplified by this problem. I am not sure what the solution is, but it is clear from all levels that patient care is not the main concern.

I don't think there is a perfect model for a fire department.

Date: 01/27/2016 Time: 20:00 Location: 1 Blachley Rd (Chelsea Piers Complex) District: Stamford Units: E1,E4,TL1,U4 (IC) Description: Report of smoke and flames from a manhole in the parking lot shared by a gym/athletic complex & a TV studio. Recall holding E4 & TL1 at 20:15.

With a lot of the older groups, they actually did not own their names. The record label owned the name and could hire and fire members at will. This is what allowed the groups to continue with few if any original members.

Date: 01/26/2016 Time: 18:50 Location: 209 Seaside Ave, Apt. 3 District: Stamford Units: SFD: E4,E2,E5,TL1,R1,U4 (IC),E3 (RIT),U6 (Safety), U7 (Safety), FM103 (C&O), FM111 (C&O), SEMS: M3 SPD: 3A55, 3B57, 8S3 (Zone Sergeant) Description: Initially reported as a dryer fire in an occupied apartment. Tennant reported seeing flames and evacuating the apartment. U4 declared working fire at 19:01. PD requested for traffic control. Eversource (Power Company) requested to the scene. Fire under control at 19:42. TRFD maintained a crew at Station 1 during this fire in case SFD E8 was needed to relocate. As fire was held to a single alarm no relocations were needed. Note: Simultaneous to this incident SPD had a vehicle pursuit with multiple foot pursuits as well as SFD & SEMS handling a pedestrian struck by a vehicle with lengthy delay in police response.

Rest in Peace.

Years ago I went on call for a Seizure. When we pulled up I recognized the house. As we walked in I saw the homeowner actively seizing laying on the couch, fully dressed. I recognized him as a police officer (and VFF), and thinking that he may have come home after work and fallen asleep on the couch did a quick search around his waist as I was approaching him. I also asked his (at the time) girlfriend who thankfully knew he had come home and put away his weapon. My first thought was to him coming out of it with an AMS and being armed. Now that is all well and good with a house you know. with a house and patient you do not know there is not much you can do. From what I have read there was no time to ask the wife in this case. Plus someone else in the house may not have the correct information. My wife knows where I keep my guns, but if she comes home and I am already home, she may not know if I am carrying one or not. If she comes home, finds me in need of medical assistance and calls 9-1-1, I doubt she would even think to look, nor would most people. More and more I am becoming a fan of vests for EMS, although I am not sure that arming EMS would be of much use in a scenario like this.

Volunteering does not need to be done from home, but it is able to be done from home in many communities. The biggest single factor effecting this type of response would be call volume, after that would be the distance / response time. Look at the thread on run totals, many of the departments are in the 300's, which means for the most part 1 call a day. In a system like this it is hard to justify full time staff, paid or volunteer. I know of one own where it is small enough and most members live in town that home response is very easy to accomplish. Another I heard of had a member who took home a fly car and home responders who went and got the ambulance. Different solutions work for different towns although all have some similarities. As for the double edges sword, this is an issue in the fire service also, although it is mitigated sometimes by the need for multiple apparatus. What I have see is a call comes in that 3 rigs would go to, you have a crew for the 1st rig in quarters, so they get out fairly quickly. As members come in and get the other rigs on the road the crew of the first rig starts canceling them en route. This in turn has the effect of members not seeing themselves as useful and leading to less responses and eventually quitting. I don;t know the answer to that, because I would not want to keep unneeded units on the road, but the sudden cancellations were definitely a problem. This sounds like the same thing being reported by the VAC in questions.

More and more I have become a proponent of taking EMS out of the private sector. Despite being generally a small government type of guy, there are some services which have to be part of the government. There are many issues that come with a privatized service both for the community and the employees. It is also interesting that while we all seem to accept private EMS, if you suggested privatizing the police or even the fire service (any more than it is now) there would be a huge outcry. No this being county or city based would depend largely on the specifics of the community. I don;t think any one is better or worse than the other. Any argument you can make about County being better because it is bigger, could be extended to a single statewide service or even a single national service. I think that would definitely be treading into government overreach.

I know of at least 2 who came back to duty, and I worked with a 3rd who retired and became a dispatcher.

Many years ago there was a display about firefighting history in Stamford at our local historical society. They had a helmet and some other gear from the injured at this fire. You can not be around our city and be involved with emergency services without knowing or having worked with these guys.

Tracking him right now.

RIP

Merry Christmas, Brother, to you and your family.

We had a similar concept many years back in Stamford, called Squad 81. I was too junior to ride the rig, but it worked out fairly well in the beginning. My perception of it was that it was the proverbial horse designed by committee (you know, a camel). At each level the concept had more rules applied to it, there was an over abundance of fairness, there was a strange bit about housing the unit. It was eventually abandoned, although I think the concept is still valid. One idea I have had was to use your NFIRS (or other reporting) data to deploy mixed crews. Based on the idea that anyone who signs up for such a crew obviously wants to go on calls, and that we can easily tell when and where the calls are occurring. What if we could prioritize what stations needed to be staffed on what shifts, then let people sign up. We could use data to tell us where to put the crews based on where they would be closest to the call volume, understanding that they would still be covering all the districts involved.

I know they all have other jobs. I was with someone once who needed an ambulance and when the small cart showed up there was a 3 man crew. One was an elevator mechanic, another was a ticket clerk and I think the third was a track worker. A few years ago I took my EMT refresher at the yard in Stamford, I was one of only 4 in the class not to work for the railroad. At the time they said they had the goal of having an EMT on every track crew, because they would be closer to any incident than a local service.

I could not disagree more. After 26 years dispatching both Police & Fire I can tell you that it is absolutely possible to do both with a reasonable level of competence. They key I have found is not to have a background in either service, so you come in as a blank slate. I was a dispatcher for several years and already a dispatch Instructor when I first thought of becoming a Volunteer Firefighter, recruited by a fellow (now former) dispatcher. Now I am still a dispatcher, an ex-firefighter and he is an ex-dispatcher and now a career firefighter. I did seek out some additional fire dispatch training, but that instructor despite being a career lieutenant had only rarely worked in dispatch. He was also too young to know who Johnny & Roy were (and that did come up in class).

I know one ex member who was a volunteer in my city in the dark days before FF1 certification. He served many ranks up to 3rd in command of a large department then moved out of town for work and resigned. A couple of years ago that department was looking for day time drivers and this ex-member, now retired from the job he left for, was willing to rejoin, but lacked FF1. He had been a Driver last time he was a member, and had a CDL. Fun loophole, most departments would consider him grandfathered if he had been a member for the whole time, but since he left they did not think that would be the case. He did not rejoin. Now these cases are all anecdotal, but I bet we can all tell a version or two. In order to train our members, we may need to think out of the box a bit. Most of the classes we need are arranged by hours, but as long as we have the right number of hours the scheduling is pretty much up to us. I took an officer class once at a neighboring department. Most departments would have this at least 2 nights a week. This department held it once a week. It took twice as long but it taxed the members less. They also provided dinner at each class, because so many people were coming right from work to a 6pm class. Looking back on it, that was a nice way to train and retain members, while getting them certified.

Sometime the lack of diversity is a myth used to perpetuate a certain agenda. In my old department we once had an unusually diverse group of 6 recruits. One happened to be female. Our Chief was quoted as referring to them all as "The new guys" and a reporter seized on the fact that only 5 of the 6 were in fact guys. Completely missing the point that 2 were Colombian, 1 was Middle Eastern (I forget where exactly) and only 1 was a white male. They didn't even notice that one of the instructors of this group, who was a Captain was also Colombian. Mostly because that did not fit the agenda of the article. I am all for anything that recruits more volunteers. I was not thinking of any standards being lowered, when I said diversity for its own sake, I was more thinking of a department starting such a program, getting a few recruits and patting themselves on the back for being so diverse all the while not having really meeting their goal but having a few new poster children to parade in front of the community. I am not against diversity by any means, but it should be part of a more comprehensive recruitment plan.

Never having served in a district with elected commissioners, I am unfamiliar with what role they have in the operation of the department. Are they able to decide if they will accept training that has been approved by a chief on a case by case basis? Are they able to dismiss a member outright? It would seem to me that this would be outside of the administrative role that I always thought a commissioner had. That being said this case is not unlike two I know of. One a similar case of a past Chief, who a certain group of members wanted to stop from driving. They were mostly successful although he would still show up and drive for major incidents. Another was a Past Captain & daytime driver, the same group of members worked hard to get him banned from driving, because they claimed he could not see/ This was based on him parking the rig at a slight angle a couple of times. Never leaving the bay it was supposed to be in. He complained that the bay was dark, and in truth the lights were often turned off. That problem was largely solved by new lights (installed for a different reason) and leaving them on when out on a call. Like animals that eat their young, we often do little to retain our members, especially our senior members who bring a great knowledge base to the department.

Diversity may be one way to fix our recruiting problem, but it is not the only one. It may not even be the right one for some districts. It might just be present already in some areas. I remember a number of years ago before I was a member anywhere, there was an article in our local paper targeting one of the local VFD's and their supposed lack of diversity. This district while fairly large, was a primarily white suburban area of town. One of the community leaders interviewed did not understand why the department was not recruiting at the local high school (pre OSHA age limit days) that was near one of their stations. That department did try and do some recruiting there after the article. They got a few members, but being kids, many were more interested in when they would get blue lights then when they would attend training. That was the ones that had cars. This district relied on home responders for the majority of calls, and the high school drew from a few low income neighborhoods where many kids did not have cars. Thus this was a short lived program. A friend of mine is an EMS chief in NJ. His town has a growing Hispanic community, but he has had trouble reaching out to them to volunteer. The next town over has several fire companies, all neighborhood based and as an extension of that geography are historically ethnically based. When one of the firehouses suffered a fire, my friend referred to it as the black firehouse, because even now that is what it largely is. I do not doubt that we have not sought out new recruits from outside of the neighborhood. However I am not sure that this was any intentional lack of diversity . I had a high school teacher who was turned down from the department that I eventually joined. He was turned down because he did not live in the district. By the time I joined that was not a rule they enforced although it was still listed. I never lived in the district. That teacher was not only white, but Irish, an ethnic group that can not be said to be under represented in the fire service. This article brings up some interesting points, but I just hope it is not diversity for it's own sake.

I would like to see a system that takes all of this into consideration. I have no problem with tests, but I think seniority should count. Certifications are not the be all and end all of a good firefighter or officer, but they are the best industry standard we have right now. So if you had a test, and then after passing points were added for certifications and seniority, that would seem fair to me. A senior man would have an edge, so would an educated man. a senior & educated man would be neqarly unbeatable, unless he had retained nothing and scored low on the initial test.

A few years ago in Stamford we did a test where we sent members all over town with pagers and not only did tests from Dispatch but also from the backup tone encoders in the various stations. We did identify some areas where pagers were unreliable. That was just one city, I can imagine that there would have to be a proportionately larger number of areas in a county. Now weather these areas match up with the areas that have bad cell coverage, I do not know. Cell companies are always looking for new tower sites because they want to be competitive, so these areas change regularly. When I was in Belltown, we had largely abandoned using the horn, except in a few rare circumstances. I personally used to use it on reported structure fires, as an additional alert method to the pagers. I know of a few calls where we picked up a few members who were in the area and for whatever reason did not have their pagers with them. So the horn was helpful. I also know that we bought a paging program to send text messages to members phones. We mostly used this to get all the administrative messages off of the radio. However it did have some use for incident pages. We did get members responding that were out of radio coverage but close enough to respond. The reason that you can't depend on it is that you do now own and maintain the infrastructure. Back in the early 1990's there was an outage on a satellite, that was apparently used by many paging companies. They did not know about the outage, until people were able to get in touch with others by phone and ask why they had not returned pages. So in a fire setting, do you want to be the person who has a house on fire and you find out the pagers are not working because nobody showed up? The horn/siren has a distance limitation, but in a small community where most members live or work nearby this is not an issue. I do not know anything about Delmar. I agree that this is probably someone who moved into the area and then wants the area to change to his liking.