AFS1970

Date: 01/05/2017 Time: 16:15 Location: 69 Cove Rd District: SFD-4 Channel: TAC 2 Weather: 30 & Mostly Sunny Units: SFD: E4, E2 (HazMat), T2 (HazMat), HM1, U4 (IC), U7 (Safety) SEMS: M3 SPD: 3A12, 3B33 Writer: AFS1970 Description: Real estate agent arrived to fins sweet smelling odor throughout building and residents self evacuating. E4 arrived and requested Haz Mat team. Haz Mat team arrived and requested Safety Officer. PD requested to shut down street.

Those poor guys haven't had a consistent livery in a long time. They have the white with blue stripes which is most common, but a few years ago they had silver with blue & yellow stripes. There are still a few silver cars around in CT. As an aside, does anyone know why TBTA did not merge into MTA PD when all the others did, I know they picked up a highway unit due to the merger.

So why will it take 3-4 months to get this truck into service? If it is an in service rig in one CT town and it is going to another CT town, why such a long delay? Not like re-lettering and driver training could possibly take that long.

Date: 12/21/2016 Time: 16:12 Location: 26 Underhill St District: SFD Channel: Ground 1 Weather: 38 / Sunny Units: SFD: E1,E6,E5,T1,R1,U4 (IC), E4 (RIT), FM110 (C&O), FM111 (C&O), FM106 (C&O), U8 (SAFETY), 2ND ALARM E2,T2,U7 (SAFETY), U1 (CHIEF), U2 (ASST. CHIEF) MOVE UPS: E7 (SFD HQ) CALL BACKS: U5 (DC) SEMS: M901 (SUPERVISOR), M3, M2 SPD: 3A55, 3C43, K9-6, 8S3 (SGT) VFD Stand by: E41 (Belltown), E53 (Springdale), E34 (Glenbrook), E62 (Turn of River) Writer: AFS1970 Description: Passer by reported smoke coming from residence, unknown if occupied. SPD was in area on separate call and confirmed basement fire. E1 arrived and quickly declared working fire. U4 transmitted the 2nd alarm shortly there after. house was unoccupied at time of fire. Eversource (Power company) called at 16:41 due to arching conditions inside house, all crews pulled out until power cut off. 17:04 update was All units working. Fire knocked down at 17:25

I know there are so,e exemptions. Companies you have business relationships with (like credit cards), Charities and I think political campaigns do not need to abide by the list.

Interesting that Israel will accept volunteers from the USA but we have to jump through hoops to cross a state line.

At 21 I am sure the ink on his gun permit is barely dry. Then there is the issue of why you are drawing a weapon inside and in the company of anyone, least of all a minor. Even when I was a volunteer and worked as an armed guard, all the while advocating against the departments general gun ban, I never took a weapon out of a holster with other people in the room. I am glad I never needed to.

Nice to see a pro criminal city council take steps to make it easier to evade the police. Very often what the bad guy does not know can be a useful tool for the good guys, not that will no longer apply.

I looks like some sort of rear bag in the boat also. Might be the ropes & helmets at least to augment the wet suits on another rig. I know NJ is big on swift water units, I have a friend who's VAC has a team. I seems like it floods there on sunny days.

Interesting idea, but bleeding control can mean many different methods, some of which I can see the public not being willing to do. Let's face it the new CPR is at least partially developed because people found mouth to mouth icky and despite the numerous inexpensive barriers most people did not carry them. Now the idea is for the general public to start bleeding control? Wait until they find out what BSI stands for. I will also say there is a big difference in direct pressure and tourniquets. I also think that to invoke this by mentioning shooting incidents is a bit of an issue as I can't imagine anyone really thinking of the general public getting into things like quick clot or invasive absorbents. I am just a little skeptical of these things.

Where else are these stationed, and if there are four of them why is there a #9? Just curious.

So you do what any reasonable person would do, you investigate it. It is one thing to suspect someone of something illegal and quite another to punish them even after determining that nothing illegal occured. This policy is yet another example of a blanket policy designed so as not to offend or harrass the actual criminals.

The issue is the school policy, not the enforcement of it. The ban on something that simply looks like something else is what leads to a kid being told he can't wear his father's FD T-shirt because some gangs also wear blue, or that you can't top cupcakes with green plastic army men because the figures have guns violate the weapons policy. School administrators clearly do not live anywhere near reality.

One thing nobody ever looks at in this type of discussion is what a small agency is doing right. Itis always the bigger agency saying that they can take over the smaller district with minimal effort. A true assessment should look at the positives and negatives of each agency involved. As for the system abuse, this has to be handled in two ways. First through facility education. In my city we used EMD however getting actual answers from the staff calling for an ambulance most often requires an adversarial interogation. Starting with their evasive answer to the simple question of "Are you with the patient"?. Because most answers end up being unknown, the response gets upgraded. This not only leads to burnout but contributes greatly to the mutual aid as a higher priority call may get shunted to another district faster. Second is to stop the turf wars between the private EMS companies. Many of the bigger players have lobbied hard for regulations preventing facilities from using agencies other than the local 9-1-1 provider. Thus leading the local agency to perceive system abuse. If the local provider only had to handle calls that they would actually make a difference in, there would be no abuse. Third would be to look at a combination system, retain those volunteers willing to serve the new agency. It might mean responding out of town or working with volunteers that were with different agencies, but it would help the system overall. Not that it is perfect, but NYC seems to be able to integrate FDNY, Privates and VAC's into one system. Their system should probably be looked at by anyone undertaking such a project.

Date: 10/19/2016 Time: 19:36 Location: 1 Southfield Ave (Between Selleck St & Homestead Ave) District: SFD 2 Channel: Ground 1 Weather: 71, Clear Units: 1st Alarm: E2, E5, E4, E6 (RIT), T2, R1, U4 (IC), Working Fire: U6 (Safety), FM105, FM111, 2nd Alarm: E3, T3 3rd Alarm: E1, T1, C1 (Chief of Department), C2 (Assistant Chief), C11 (Assistant Chief of Volunteers), FM101 (Chief Fire Marshal) Special Call: E9 Callback: E12, U5 (Deputy Chief) Relocated: E7 (Station 1), E8 (Station 3) SEMS: M5, M3, M901 (Supervisor) SPD: 1B31, 1A42, 1E34, 2C292, 1C30, 2A24, 3B33, 8D77 (Shift Commander), 8S3 (Sergeant) VFD's E34 (Glenbrook), E41, T45 (Belltown), E52 (Springdale), E64, T67, R66, K68 (Turn of River) all staffed in quarters due to incident. Writer: AFS1970 *** At time of this call SFD Station 3 (2nd due) & Station 1 (3rd due) were at other incidents. *** Description: Multiple calls, conflicting between exterior brush fire and condominium fire. Possible exterior fire extending into building. E2 arriving in area reported visible fire in building. Once on scene E2 confirmed working fire and transmitted 2nd alarm due to exposures. U4 arrived and assumed command, transmitting the 3rd alarm shortly there after. At 20:10 U4 gave the MARC update of fire on all three floors of a 20 x 40 foot condominium, fire darkening down, Probable will hold. Fire under control at 20:26, U4 expects to free up 3rd alarm companies shortly. E12 was sent to assist with picking up hose and equipment. M3 was sent late into the incident for an injured civilian. Edited 5 minutes ago by AFS1970

I thought it was my computer. Glad to see I am seeing the correct site. edit: Nice that you were able to rescue some data. I was able to add what I needed to recreate my IA from last night.

Of course this hits home because of the intended purpose, however it is part of the much larger picture. One of the two things that I find the most myterious in regards to legislation is how earmarked money can be diverted away from the earmark and into something else. Then when they realize they still need to do the first project they raise taxes to pay for it and the public blames the governmetn wmployees and not those actually responsible.

Here in CT they laid off the anchors, one of which had been there since 1982 when the station opened. I agree that the 30 minute news cast was less than they could have done. I also know of at least one time when they would not cover a story that they deemed too controversial despite other local news covering it. All was not bad however, I got interviewed as a "Hurricane Expert" once, mostly I think because our fire station was first alphabetically, good thing I had time to Google storm preparedness.

What is really needed is the respect. This will not come until two things happen. First is that Dispatchers need to stop looking at this job as a stepping stone, something to do until their real job as a Police Officer or Firefighter comes in. Second is that the field personnel need to stop looking at dispatch as a dumping ground for people that can't hack their jobs. Either your ex-con, semi-retarded nephew who can't pass an agility test or your wife or sister who likes to listen to scanners anyway or even worse that fat guy who almost has his 20 in and needs someplace to hide because you know he should be able to take it easy until his retirement. When you recruit for Firefighters and Police Officers, you have a budget, detail several people to the effort, visit colleges and military bases, set up tables at fairs and community events. When you hire dispatchers you just put a posting up in city buildings and hope for the best or worst, because you don't really care who sits in the chair. Then all of a sudden when your failure to hire right comes back to bite you in the ass you b**** and moan and whine about how bad all dispatchers are. Just remember rarely if ever are dispatchers involved in the hiring process. I know I was interviewed by two Police Captains and a Deputy Fire Chief and an Assistant Fire Chief, of the four I only interacted with one at work and he was rather quickly transferred out of dispatch. Even now almost 30 years later there is rarely more than 1 dispatcher involved in my agency and they are outnumbered by the others so they have little to any real input. As for Ride Alongs, I am not sure they matter much, as the nature of all emergency services jobs are so unpredictable. There is no promise of getting that good call (or that bad one) at any time either by phone or in the station or patrol car. There is no real way to expose each other to the intricacies of the other positions. We can try our best but it just might not happen. The best description I ever heard of this type of work was long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. I am glad Chief Goldfeder wrote this, but I can assure you he is the exception to the rule. Although I have never had the chance to meet him, I suspect this is a recent revelation to him and not an opinion he held throughout his career.

Paid Driver is a historical term, nothing more nothing less. Nobody really thinks teamsters still work with horses do they?

I was involved in a similar effort here in Stamford. We had our training records all on paper and they were based on each drill. So it would have been very difficult to look up any individual members training for a given period. However we had already started computerizing training records for that year. So I had the joy of doing the data entry for several years of drills and getting them into the computer. This was all done using the same software we were already using for NFIRS reports. Through this I found we could actually log meetings and other non firefighting activity. It allowed us the ability of managing these records for multiple projects. We could keep track of voting status, we could keep track of total activity (to see who the slackers really were). I saw the ability to look up an individual members record as a bonus, although from what I remember all ISO wanted was total training hours. I don't remember even giving them a department average. I know this helped out 2 members who were members elsewhere and were missing some training from the other department. I was able to work with the training officer in the other department and show participation in enough drills in key subjects to let them remain active in both departments. Computerizing the drill reports also made them much more secure, as our old method was a note book in the watch desk with paper reports. In theory (I have heard stories) a member could open the book and circle their name on past drills to fake attendance. One thing I found odd was that Norwich is being rated as a city. If I remember correctly, in Stamford we all got our own ratings per department. I remember going through an appeal and going from a 5 to a 4. I seem to remember one department going from a 4 to a 3 but it has been a while. I know one department missed an upgrade due to a funding issue with a tanker, which lead to even more local bad blood.

Awesome show of brotherhood.

NIce car. I would have liked to see their patch as the door decal, but that is because I think they have one of the best patches around. Gotta love Currier & Ives.

Closest available unit is a great idea in theory. It does take some getting used to. We are using a new CAD system that includes GPS on all the rigs. It is great for realizing a rig is on the road for some sort of detail and may be closer than the first due. However it has been set up with speed limits on the roads and picks the closest unit by projected response times. So it may pick a unit further away if the probable route is on a faster road. This is causing lots of grumbling from the one agency that lobbied hard for closest unit response yet still routinely complains about zones when a closer unit is sent. Just before we went live, there was an article about a similar system in Maryland that switched to closest unit over district lines. On a reported structure fire, a station was sent first due that on the old run cards was 3rd due. No issues I know of with response time, but strong complaints from the formerly 1st & 2nd due stations. So there will always be questions. As for Commercial EMS, they may be closer due to the lack of a primary district. In Stamford we have a commercial service with a station here. Then because of the hospital we have numerous neighboring towns here al the time. So the closest unit could be just about anyone. Although these units are not tied into our GPS, they do check in with Southwest CMED who we call for mutual aid, and they send a unit that they see as closest based on the call.

At one point even mutual aid between neighboring volunteer departments required a formal agreement. When I started in dispatch we had copies of the agreements signed by a judge of the Fairfield County court (before the state took over the courts in the 1960's) between each of the fire districts in town. Not sure why we needed copies of them in dispatch but we had them. By the time I was an officer in a VFD we used to work most of this stuff out over the phone and just send a memo to dispatch, usually only with a signature from one department.