AFS1970

Once the power company was on scene and confirmed the lines were no longer live, then and only then can I see using our personnel and equipment for such an event. Now that being said, the reality is that the power copmpany is not about to shut down anything to get a cat, so it is a * and void issue. I realize this as reality and I have owned cats most of my life.

Just a quick correction. The current Tanker 78 was never an oil truck. It replaced a converted oil truck that was the original Tanker 78.

I agree, I have also listened to several of these, and they are great training opportunities. The live broadcasts usually conflict with my work schedule, but I try to catch the repeats.

I think recruiting used to be done primarily by relationship. All new recruits had some sort of relation to who recruited them. This is the case with family and friends, but also with neighbors and coworkers. Somehow along the way this changed. Next we have word of mouth, but unless you already have some sort of relation to the person this rarely works. This did however lead to organized recruitment programs, which included public presentations, which I guess is a form of word of mouth recruitment. Active recruitment is just one of the many changes that is taking place in the Volunteer Fire Service. Years ago there was no need to explain who you were and what you did, everyone just knew stuff. In general, I think this has lead to fewer but better informed recruits.

I doubt it, they have stayed the same through several owners.

I have heard that there were only 5 all white fire fleets in CT, so I guess that makes Belltown one of 4, once Norwal submits to the red mennace, lol. I may be wrong, but I think New Haven and Manchester are 2 of the others, I am not sure of the last one.

Using donations for anything other than what they are intended for is wrong, I don't think any of us will disagree on that. I hope this is all a mistake but that is up to the investigators to determine. As for the connection to Septemnber 11, I hope that was just bad timing and not some way to tug on the community's heart strings. I know that my department does our fund drive in the fall, although we do not do door to door solicitations, it is possible that our fund drive could occur on or arround September 11, which would be strictly by accident.

So much of this topic is going to be state specific, but I think some general ideas that should be in any program are: 1 - Follow whatever laws or regulations are in place 2 - Provide enough oversight that a younger members immaturity and inexperience do not get the better of them. 3 - Understand that junior members are not the soultion to manpower problem but are a great resource to the department and source for future firefighters. 4 - Make sure that roles and responsibilities are clearly spelled out to the junior member, their parents, and to all your other members. 5 - Train, train, train, this kind of program is all about training.

I have heard that Norwalk may be changing to red rigs. But I had heard they were getting in a new Engine before any kind of Rescue. So I'm not sure what that rig may be.

For those of us not in ConEd land, any idea where these are avalible? Even who makes the cases, that we could add our own board into. One of our members made a board, which works pretty well, but the case/table would be better to store and deploy it. It also looks like those boards are big enough to allow for tracking of a large number of incomming units.

Yes the fire department computer is aleged to have been used. However, how many of us use these computers for a variety of things. If I do a whole bunch of shopping on the internet, and overrun my credit cards, there will likely be no mention of the fire department in any procedings with my credit. That's becasue it wouldn't really be all that interesting. Sadly, Fire Chief caught in Sex Scandal sells papers and attracts TV viewers. As I have said in other posts, I strongly believe in everyone being Inocent until proven guilty, and I hope for the best outcome for this chief, his family and the fire department. If he is guilty, this should serve as a reminder that firehouse computers do belong to the firehouse, and we probably should do anything on the FD computers that we wouldn't want someone else doing on our own personal home computers. When you are involved with public safety like we have all chosen to, we have to remember that what we do, WILL reflect back on our agencies.

Tonight was a first. I actually used this site to respond to a call. I had just come home from being in NYC today, and had not turned on my pager yet. I was checking the forums and saw the post from Jason762 about a working fire in the Springdale District of Stamford, and looking at the times realized it was still going on. I responded to Belltown for station coverage, while our Engine was on scene in Springdale. So Thanks EMTBravo.

I was thinking about some of this while reading the thread about the situation in Englewood, but as I wrote the reply, I realized it was a topic all its own. While increasing call volume may have contributed to the need for paid staff, and system abuse has certainly been a large part of that call volume increase, I don't think anyone in management really wants those calls to go away. This is simply because we allow departments to bill for EMS, instead of having the local governments provide it, like they do (in general) Police & Fire services. As long as those system abusers equal income, there is a vested interest in transporting them. Since welfare / Medicare / Medicade and in some cases insurance will pay for those bills if the patient does not, there is no reason to turn them away. A free service has more stake in remaining available for emergencies and as such will be more likely to undertake the public education campaign needed for such a change. Since a free service, is likely under bigger budgetary restraints, they can’t expand rapidly as call volume increases, so they need to conserve resources more. Another thing is that prioritizing calls really only works well in a multi-tiered system. In Stamford all ambulances are ALS staffed by at least one Paramedic. So even though we have state mandated EMD, and we are strongly encouraged to find the right priority code for the call, after they are coded, they all get the same ALS response. So triaging out the calls is only good if there is a non-response option which we do not have. I have tried arguing in favor of sending a call to a transport company but have been told on multiple occasions that “we have to send them an ambulance because they asked for one”. The callers know this full well, and feel free to call for toothaches, stubbed toes, the common cold, ect. True call prioritization will lead to reform, in that the low priority calls will be handed off, handled slower, or possibly be delayed while an emergency call is handled. Especially in a small single ambulance town, where the impact will really be felt. I have many friends who are in EMS, both in Stamford and other places, both Career & Volunteer but as long as EMS is not government supported, no agency is going to want a call coded non-response if it means it will be passed off to another private company which is effectively their competition. Small VAC’s that receive donations are often reluctant to turn down a call, in fear of loosing potential donations. In a way, system abusers are the lifeblood of such a system, because they guarantee call volume, even if there are no emergencies today.

No one should be sorry for ranting in this thread, as I started it with a bit of a rant. I had not even considered the thought of the no one showing up for the minor call then everyone showing up for the major call aspect of this. It has been a long time since we had Ambulance staffed that way in Stamford, so I often forget about those calls. I was not in any way saying that there should been a non response of someone. I do think that if there is a non emergency service in the area, that some calls once triaged through a valid system could and most likely should be shunted down to the non emergency units. As for there being no shortage of hucking crack heads and drunks back and forth, of course thereisn't, and the bigger the city/town, the more there will be. I also agree that public Education is a good approach to start with. However like I said there is no motivation in the upper levels to educate or triage out paying customers.

I agree that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and I do hope that for all involved this case is resolved quickly. There are plenty of older people who are immature, just as I suppose that there are many younger people who are more mature than others their age. However, I don't think that in a case of alleged criminal misconduct, that age or maturity is really the issue. Since we all should be learning right from wrong from a very young age, and with the fact that society as a whole is more out the open about rape than we once were, I can not see that being young or immature is a valid defence for such a charge. As for both being too young, this debate periodically comes up. In PA a 14 y/o was killed while responding to a fire call, and there have been many court battles on his status. But some departments (my own included) take members at various ages under 18. But the Alleged victim in this case is reported as being 18 years old. If 18 is too young, where are we going to draw the line next? 21 years old? Not knowing any more facts about this than what has been posted here, I would put it forth that the Fire Department actually had very little, if anything, to do with any incident. Other than both parties being members of the department, and possibly having met through the department, this likely could have happened anywhere in any type of organization. So I am not sure that this charge, has much to do one way or the other with an appropriate age for membership in a fire department.

I don't see this as pork at all. However it shows a problem with the whole grant issue. Which is the perception, both from the public and within the fire service. Since the DHS is ultimately in charge of several grant programs, they all get lumped into the category of homeland security grants. A small town getting a SAFER grant for recruitment has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism or the threats that are present in New York City or not present at that Cheese monument. The article did not say that they had been turned down for their AFG vehicle grant, but I can tell you from past experience, a department with seven vehicles, even old ones, will not rate that highly on the vehicle list. Either way, the AFG and SAFER programs are only related in that they are both managed by DHS, they each have thier own guidelines and project limitations. Ordinarily I would say that $665K is alot for a recruitment plan, but I also know that advertisements cost alot of money. If their request made it through all the levels that it did, they must have made a very good argument. Also since SAFER is about staffing, the ammounts are usually very large, due to the high costs of staffing.

Date: 02/02/2007 Time: 21:20:17 Location: 1 Blachley Rd (Clairol Plant) Frequency: Trunking System Units Operating: E1,E6,E4,T1,T2,R1,DC1,E32 (Glenbrook); E2,HM1,C3,U266 (HM Officer); M1,M3,M901 E7 (Relocated to SFRD #1 Co), Long Ridge E72 (Relocated to Springdale Fire Co) Description Of Incident: Initial report of fire inside plant. E32 reported smoke condition on arrival. DC1 reports persulfate reaction contained to blending chamber, with periodic flame ups. Writer: BFD182 21:20 Initial Dispatch 21:36 2nd Alarm with Haz Mat response 22:43 E7 Relocated to SFRD HQ, E72 Relocated to SFCo 22:50 Haz MAt Officer 266 On Scene

While I don't think that this was all that much of an overreaction, thiink of how any of us would react given a similar situation. Find one suspicious package, someone responds to check it out, most likely the bomb squad gets called out, hopefully it turns into nothing. Multiply that by the number of similar suspicious packages and what are we all thinking? No I don't think that Boston overreacted in their emergency response. However, I do think that the post emergency response has been nothing short of overreacting. For the morons to be charged with placing a hoax device, when that was clearly not their intent, is just plain dumb. This was not any sort of fear campaign, this was an attempt at a humor campaign. If we look at a "reasonable person standard" and include all the cities where no one thought these were bombs, we have to agree that they didn't look all that suspicious. I will be the first to say that I don't think there is a look that all bombs have, that's why they work. If they had signs on them that said bomb, we'd probably get them all before they exploded. This should be treated as nothing more than every other good intent call we go on. The public saw something they thought was a problem, the emergency services responded, and after investigating discovered there was no problem. case closed. I think it is absolutly ill advised to place such ads on overpasses and critical infrastructure buildings like hospitals, but I also agree with the posted who popinted out that we don't prosecute people who leave bags behind in train stations, after we discover them to be not really dangerous.

Now that this is all over, I am glad to see that they will be cooperating in the future. I agree that cooperation before should have never let this happen. One issue we have had locally, is this. On the Highways that run through Stamford (I95 & Merritt Pkwy) the State Police calls for EMS for accidents with injuries. I have never taken a call in dispatch where they have called for the fire department, regardless of need. I have always assumed this is an internal protocol issue. The CSP however, does not call Stamford Dispatch Direct, they call the regional medical control dispatchers (C-Med) who then look up the location and see who to call for EMS. C-Med calls us. They always say that the state requested an ambulance. They do not have any information about needs for fire. This lead to some confusion, and sometimes to EMS arriving and requesting FD for varrious scenes, like extrication, spill control, extra manpower due to more than one victim, ect. So to fix this, the policy in Stamford's dispatch center is if it comes in as an MVA on the highway it gets a full response or an Engine, Rescue & Ambulance. In addition to this, if it is on a city line and there is either a question of jurisdiction or access problems, we will call the next town for a dual response, which I suppose probably doubles the number of units going. It is the responsibility of the first arriving officer to cancel unneeded equipment as soon as it is practical. Which is usually done more to keep from committing unneeded units to the traffic jam that results form the accident than to keep units from blocking traffic themselves. I think education for all agencies by all other agencies would be a great thing, so that everybody would understand each other's needs and reasons for those needs. That way we would all know what each other were planning on doind and why. Then there would be no surprises, and I bet less conflicts.

It is with deep sorrow and a heavy heart that Chief John Didelot announces the passing of Past Chief Chester Buttery, father of Veteran Member and current Stamford Fire Rescue Department Lieutenant Bill Buttery, and Grandfather of past member Christie Buttery, after a long illness. On behalf of the Officers and Members of the Belltown Fire Department Chief Didelot extends our most heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the Buttery Family, during this time of loss. Chief Buttery served the Belltown Fire Department for 56 years, joining on January 5, 1951. He succeeded to the position of Chief after the unexpected death of Chief Fred Loveland. He served as Chief until the election of Chief Dan Remling. Chief Buttery then returned to service as Assistant Chief under Chief Remling, serving until 1981. Although he had moved to Florida after retiring, Chief Buttery was a frequent visitor back to Stamford, and his brother firefighters here at Belltown. Chief Buttery did his best not to miss our annual Christmas Party and would always attend any department function when he was in town. In between his visits home, he kept in contact with the department through letters, and always enjoyed receiving updates on the department and our membership. There will be a Departmental Memorial Service; arrangements are not complete at this time however.

Memorial Arrangements are as follows: Wake - Monday 02/05/2007, 16:00 - 19:00, Cognetta's Funeral Home, 104 Myrtle Av. Stamford Memorial Service - Tuesday 02/06/2007 10:30, Belltown Fire Department, 8 Dorlen Rd. Stamford Uniform of the day is Class A

I echo that, Rest in peace brother.

Connecticut Fire Academy has one in Windsor Locks and Stamford Regional Fire School will be getting one in the near future. This is a great class, in my opinion it should be part of FF1.

Seeing the Mt Pleasant listing I forgot this one: Stamford Police Accident Car (old Chevy Suburban with a Stretcher and Port-A-Power) which went out of service sometime in the 1970's. I actually have a patch from Regional, they went Bankrupt in Late 2001 or Early 2002, I have a friend who worked there until the end. I know they were at the World Trade Center on 9/11/01.

OK, we do the same sort of demo almost every year, HOWEVER we stage about a block away, and come in as if we were responding, we have the lights on but go normal travel for the block to the school driveway then turn on the sirens as we enter the property. This is usually a very unrealistic parade of Police, Fire & EMS all arriving at the same time. Then we do the MVA, which also includes a DOA of a popular student, who gets removed by the local funeral home, and an arrest of another popular student for DUI. In our case this is set up with our department, usually coordinated by EMS, and dispatch only knows that we have some rigs on a delayed response due to public education. We do not respond from the station to this drill/demo, that would be unsafe and take far too long.