AFS1970

Let me echo that Nice job!

Electing officers in and of itself is not a bad thing, this can and often does provide a confidence vote as a sort of check and balance system. The key is to making it so that only qualified candidates are eligible to run for office. I would rather work for a well trained elected boss than a poorly trained appointed boss. There are of course professional/Industry standards like OSHA or NFPA which require additional training, but how many departments make this available or enforce this when it is made mandatory? There is a flip side to this, no matter what requirements you adopt, you have to make it possible for your membership to obtain them. Requiring Fire Officer 1 is all well and good, but if there are no classes in your area, then you will quickly run out of viable candidates. If need be, a department must be willing to host whatever classes they feel are appropriate requirements.

Christmas Eve 12/24 07:00 - 15:00 Christmas Day 12/25 07:00 - 15:00 New Years Eve & New Years Day I was scheduled to work 15:00-23:00 but I got both off in a row, which is unusual.

My fire department (Belltown) always sends something down to dispatch where I work, the funny thing is, it never seems to arrive when I am working. Ever see what a cookie tray or wedge looks like the day after the vultures have eaten? Each Squad (Shift) in the police department has a Christmas party somewhere locally, and the Dispatchers are always invited. I was at ours a couple of nights ago. Nice party, and I got to put faces with names for some of the new guys. Seriously it is nice to see that Dispatchers are remembered. Belltown used to give individual gifts back when there wer 4 or 5 dispatchers, and we have pictures of several of the old time dispatchers attending our annual dinner and receiving some type of award. But at least for me what works better is a quick call to say nice job after a specific incident, that way you know you are getting the right shift, and you don't have to wait until Christmas. We have a couple of Police Lieutenants who make a point of doing this.

I had to laugh at the remark about dispatchers not knowing the capabilities of their console, because it is sadly true. When we got the our current radio system, we were given a 2 hour class in how the console works, from the vendor. All subsequent training is done by senior dispatchers, many of who either don't remember or never learned some of the less frequently used functions & channels. Thus new dispatchers never learn some of these functions. We have had the State Police Helicopter come to town for joint operations a few times. The first time we were looking for a joint channel to work on. Since we use a trunked system, and they can only program a conventional channel into their radios. They sugested an I-Tac channel, which seemed like a good idea. The supervisor didn't think we had that one, asked a couple of dispatchers who agreed we didn't have it and they were all set to try and dispatch over a portable radio. It was interesting to see the looks when one person on the floor said we did have the channel and set it up on a console. For the one or two times we actually had to talk with Trooper One it worked fine. As for true interoperability, our current Trunked system allows for that but only on limited groups. No radio has all the channels. We do a large Parade every fall & a large fireworks event in the summer and each service uses their own channel due to high traffic volume. EMS chooses not to use the Trunked system at all and used a Med Channel. So a Police Officer on the Parade Route still needs to call the command post, ask for EMS and then the two command posts talk to each other and EMS is dispatched out. So Interoperability is not used at our large events.

I think CFE's are a great idea. Many departmetns do this but don't call it that. Any regular drill schedule with a good variety of topics are essentially CFE's. The only thing missing from most programs is a set of attendance requirements. Somewhat related to that is the idea of CFE articles. Many EMS related magazines offer CME articles that you can read, take a quiz and send it in to be graded and receive CME credit. Now there are more fire service magazines out there than EMS magazines, so this should be a simple thing to take care of. IT could even be run internally by a department, that subscribes to multiple magazines. The only problem I see with this, is again an enforcement problem of people using all book work and few practical classes to meet their requirements. With a little bit of agressive management, this program could be a benefit to the fire service.

I don't know if it was the same thing or not, but I saw almost the same response in Times Square about a month or so ago. Someone explained to me that it was a mobilization drill, to see how fast they can get a certain number of units to a certain location. If that was a drill, I for one commend NYPD for doing drills like this. Around here, people are affraid to use the lights and sirens for a drill, even at a drill field. As a result, we never really get a feel for how long a response would take, or how we perform in a time sensitive scenario.

Although this is slightly different, I remember working in dispatch during a call a few years ago, that the oposite decision was made. The call was for some sort of trauma, suffered by a Child. ALS transported to the trauma center and the child was stabalized. When a Helocopter was called for to do the transfer to New Haven, their ETA was longer than it would take to drive. The EMS supervisor at the time had the ALS unit take the child from Stamford up to New Haven.

Now I may risk getting this thread locked by saying this but here goes. EMTBravo, like just about every other internet forum has rules, rules that we as members agree to follow when we join as members. Many of the remarks that get made and cause a thread to be locked, as violations of those rules. Why should a few people be able to prevent the vast majority of memebrs from participating in a valid discussion on a topic? As I write this, I missed the ability to post in a contoversial topic, by about 4 minutes. Is my opinion unwelcome? It seems that unless I constantly keep this site up looking for topics, I very likely will not have the chance to be heard. Wouldn't it be better to deal with individual troublesome posts as individuals? If a member of this forums breaks a rule, I don't think anyone would have a problem with the forum staff taking action, as long as it is against that member. I think that the administrators and moderators do a great job with this forum. But we all need to calm down and realize that sometimes the fire service is controversial, and sometimes we like (and need) to hash things out among out among our members. It does not matter if it is Fire vs. Police, or Career vs. Volunteer, or even Management vs. Labor, anytime there is a topic which people feel strongly about, there will be strongly worder posts. That's why there are moderators, to moderate such discussions, not prevent them. We really do all Emergency Services as disservice, by ignoring issues and pretending that they no longer exist or never existed in the first place. In one thread it was locked after someone posted that we should all get along like brothers. Boy we really need to nip that in the bud, don't we?

While we are on the topic of hypocrisy, How can any of us sit here and say the IAFF is wrong for telling their members what they can and can't do on their days off, while standing up to declare that it is wrong for those same IAFF members to work at a trade on their days off? It seems to me that if we really are all about personal freedom, then it has to extend all the way. It seems to me that sometimes we try to fight blatant hypocrisy with yet more hypocrisy. As for being in two unions, I may be wrong, but I remember hearing that in Connecticut you can't be a dues paying member in two unions, regardless of AFL-CIO status. If that is true, then it certainly sheds more than a little light on this situation.

I am lucky enough to not respond up to I95 and only go to the Parkway a couple of times a year 2nd due. So what I see are all surface street MVA's. While I have seen far more collision scenes where everybody worked well together than where there were problems or disagreements, I have like most of us seen problems arise. Our city has one of the largest PD's in the region, yet we are lucky to get more than 1 PD unit at a scene, and he/she is the investigator not there for traffic control. So traffic is always an issue. Those towns with active Fire Police are lucky to have a unit that is there for traffic control. We used to have a Police Chief who would personally stop at scenes and order the FD off of "His Roads" and then yell at the poor Patrolman who was unlucky enough to be there, for letting the FD be there. Thankfully he is long gone from our area. Given that culture, cooperation is simply not going to happen, and both sides will become antagonistic towards each other. As for canceling each other, there is an order in our dispatch center that no service can cancel another service. This is usually not a problem, but I have heard horror stories years ago of EMS canceling FD due to no extrication and PD calling them back for the gas leak. I can also attest to the calls that come in as no injuries and then become with injuries later because they think this will magically make a PD unit become available. All that does is tie up an FD unit, because now someone sits at the scene and baby-sits until PD gets there. I am a little surprised to here people say the PD isn't qualified to cancel FD but is qualified to slow us down. Shouldn't this be an all or nothing issue? Either we accept PD qualifications or we don't, we shouldn't be accepting them half way. A good example of cooperation was a call the other day. We got a walk in for an MVA with "fluids all over the road" a couple of blocks from the station. We responded, and approached from a side street since the scene was on a 2 lane road and traffic was backed up. As we were approaching we saw PD was already on scene and surprised to see us. I spoke with the PO, who was doing the report in his car; let him know we had a walk up. We found a very small antifreeze leak, but it was running towards the storm drain. We put down the "Kitty Litter" while we checked the patients for injuries. Since we had the side street blocked, and we didn't need to the Chauffer drove around the block to free up traffic and reposition the engine. FD personnel directed traffic for a few minutes until a 2nd PD unity arrived, and we left. Now we didn't have to move the rig or direct traffic, but it was simply the right thing to do, to help the public by freeing up the blockage which included a loaded school bus, and help the PO who would have otherwise had a much more dangerous scene on his hands. As for the fluids which were far less than the good Samaritan lead us to believe, we got there assessed what we had and took care of it quickly. Are they all like this, certainly not, but more often than not, these are simple calls to deal with.

Nice site, good job with it.

Well I talked with the DOL last week. I found the person I spoke with to be very friendly and helpful and went over all my questions with me. As for riding apparatus, they most certainly can, if they have recieved propper training, in riding. That is basically how to sit safely. They also have to use all safety devices that are provided, like seatbelts, or man saver bars. I am curently working on translating the DOT rules into our internal SOP, and then I will be sending it to DOL for review. The only two sections I really disagree with are the no overhaul and no hydrants rules. But these are the rules and we must adapt to them. The DOL enforcement officer I spoke with did say it was OK the hand stratch 5 & 6 inch lines to a hydrant, as long as the minors did not hook up to the hydrant or operate the hydrant.

Stamford, is a mix of many of these methods. Our new Mobil (MDT) system has the hydrants listed aproximately (some are a few feet off, but most are pretty close) These are also listed by NFPA Hydrant colors. We also list private yard hydrants in yellow on the map. In Belltown specifically, we also use the Yellow ring around the poles, with a verticle stripe facing the hydrant. This is done on both sides of the hydrant, so that you can find a snow covered hydrant by finding both marks. Some hydrants have the flags, but most of the plastic flage have been broken off, the metal poles are still there however, so that helps a little bit. We also have road books with hydrant locations, mostly for the rigs that don't have MDT's yet. As for snow removal, it is strongly encouraged that residents do this, but few do. We go out the next morning and clear the snow from arround them. We also have a couple of those low hydrants, that the wrench hits the ground on. Now on a non winter topic: How does everyone deal with overgrown hydrants? We do not go out and clear brush away from overgrown hydrants. There are only a few, but they are there every year.

The original Black & White Miracle on 34th street, would be it for a movie, allthough A Christmas Story is a very clsoe second. For songs, My favorite older song would be Angles We Have Heard on High. As for Modern song, it would be Christmas Eve Sarajavo 12/24 by Savatage (before they were TSO, they played really cool metal) which is originally from thier rock opera Dead Winter Dead, about the war in Sarajavo. Since others have also mentioned TV specials, #1 would have to be the Year without a Santa Claus, The Snow & Heat Misers were so cool. How The Grinch Stole Christmas is also a favorite, as is any story by Dr. Seuss.

The problem with increasing the call volume for a large number of non fire calls is that we risk the campus becoming the proverbial boy who cried wolf, and may end up with a slower response to calls until someone gets on scene and confirms the fire. And what is the difference between check and advise and quiet response? Only who is checking and advising. Accident prevention programs are all well and good, but if you don't have a big accident problem to reduce it will be hard to determine how effective such a plan really is. While I do not advocate non response at all to fire alarms, public/private partnerships can work out well in some instances. One that comes to mind is 9-1-1 hang up or no talk calls from payphones in common areas of our local shopping mall. We routinely call the Mall's Security staff to check and advise on these calls, as they likely have someone walking by the area and can respond much faster than local police. They will call us back if the call is not unfounded and they need a response from any public safety agency. As for billing for false alarms, my city has such an ordinance, and one must remember that smoke alarms that are set off by cigarettes, overcooked food or steam from the shower are functioning properly. They detected smoke or something similar to smoke such as steam or sawdust, and activated. These are not malicious false alarms and are not all that easy to bill someone for. Troublesome yes, illegal probably not.

A while back, NYC Subway had one of these done for the HBO series Deadwood. The car was made to look like an old wooden railroad palor car, with various characters standing around. I suppose this is similar to the outside wraps that have been used on busses for years. When I was in Seatle, I saw busses that looked like a Subway Sandwiche and a giant pink cadilac.

Out of curiosity, why do two of them have uniforms that look like Firefighter's (silver buttons, smaller badge) and one have on that looks like an officer's (gold buttons, larger badge)? Just wondering.

I may be somewhat biased here, as my department uses exclusively Smooth Bore for structural fire fighting, and has since long before I joined. I have never had any experience outside of a controlled training environment with Fog Nozzles in a structural environment. I have been at several drills where we have done side by side comparisons, and I much prefer Smooth Bore Nozzles. As for other topics, a site like this is all about brotherhood, and part of that is sharing meals, discussing differences and similarities between departments (which includes apparatus color). Someone’s like of die cast collectibles or fire photography does not make them any less of a Firefighter or any less dedicated to training hard and coming home alive. But that home would be very boring if I didn't have outside interests to come home to, and the firehouse would be very boring if I didn't share many of those outside interests with my brother firefighters.

I think LED's have become their own worst enemy. For years every one had flashers and t\some rotators. Then Strobes came out and everybody went strobe crazy, but these lights still drew allot of power. Still studdies were saying to have more lights, because cars were becomming soundproof, and sirens were less effective. Then LED's came out and we all thought, hey more lights....less power this is great. Now we have had to coiin terms like Carnival Effect because we collectivly went LED crazy. Now we are begining to change colors because the trend is to blame the responders for getting hit. resqstuff hit the nail onthe head, if motorists would slow down, they would be able to stop better. LED's have added a host of new options, on both apparatus and personal vehicles. The trouble is every time a new light comes out, we expand the deffinition of enough, because technology allows us to. At some point enough will be enough but there will always be those of us who will stretch the limits.

Very nice site, Glad to see that the history was one of the first items included.

If the reason for not responding to a scene is because all you can do is "Air & Stare" then we really shouldn't be sending Fire units at all. My district is surrounded by 3 or our city's 4 EMS stations. Even on serious calls it is rare that I get a long time on scene before a Paramedic Ambulance arrives. We work very well together here between Fire & EMS, but most of the calls in the EMS system are "Air & Stare" type calls. (by the way, I like that term, I've never heard it before). But supposing it is a call that doesn't require Oxygen. If a certified & qualified home responder is able to get to the scene safely and quickly and determine that the entire Engine crew is not needed and can free the apparatus up and wait for EMS then I can't see how that is a bad thing. Having someone who is not bringing an appropriate level of care to the scene is useless however. Adding extra MRT's to a scene full of EMT's is (most of the time) going to be one of these cases. SOP's are written for a variety of reasons, but are usually in the best interest of the department. If a station often gets multiple simultaneous calls, then station coverage during EMS calls is paramount. If this is not the case, then the last thing you want to do is create a boy who cried wolf mentality among your volunteers, and have them get used to not responding because they are never put to good use. Encouraging non-response is one way to injur of kill a volunteer system.

Our masks are numbered, as are our regulators. I just need to remember my numbers to find mine if I misplace them. I suppose this idea would work well if they were not numbered, and I do like the fact that it might just improve identification and/or accountabliity.

Just like in Curious George: There was no fire, only a naughty little monkey.

It is a very sad day, both for the fire service and for hostory buffs. As I've said on other forums, it is strange how salvage is important enough to be on the FF1 Practical exam, but not important enough to keep the last Patrol units of all time in service.