velcroMedic1987

Gotta wonder what happened. This isn't the usual MV drama.

Sorry but rectal valium should remain an in-hospital treatment. There's no way I'm doing that, especially on a haz-mat job.

You don't need different radios for all of that. You need VHF-high band (which includes the marine band), UHF, and 700 and/or 800. 3, possibly 4 radios.

Agreed!

Stupid. Just plain stupid. If there's no policy, they didn't do anything wrong. If there is a policy and a photo of turnout gear violates it, well, that's pretty extreme.

Illegal? What law is being broken? Can you describe what conduct is illegal if they do go through with this?

There's a Fallen Firefighters Memorial. That's the hall of fame for the fire service.

Why do you think it came down to a lack of coordination and interagency communications failures? Because everybody does it on their own and has their own little fiefdom.

This is a rerun of the same discussion over the years. Nothing is going to change so long as we have these little empires and emperors running things.

This is nothing new. The county uses budget lines to balance budgets all the time. They have done the same thing in just about every department. Three lines in Public Safety isn't really that much. Of course, Astorino's son in law still has his job there so...

More toys when we can't properly staff apparatus or ambulances in most of the municipalities in Westchester. I doubt it's better elsewhere in the region. Seems like a colossal waste of time and money for little return on the investment.

What's the plan for using that? Can it be trailered elsewhere for mutual aid?

So the town is actually investigating options for EMS. They should be commended for that! Most towns rely on the provider, whether VAC, VFD, commercial, mixed, or whatever, and provide no insight or guidance whatsoever. Let's face it, any municipal service should have oversight, even EMS.

Love the cooperation. Just wondering how they coordinated the effort. Anyone know how they communicated and coordinated?

Funny, when I read this and the accompanying article, I didn't think politics = politicians. I read that as politics = the BS and drama that is internal company/department politics. Perceptions vary.

Of course they are not going to receive the same benefits as a municipal civil-service employee. They will get workers compensation and whatever their agency provides insurance wise. There's never going to be parity between commercial (or volunteer) EMS providers and municipal police/fire. Police/fire LODI/LODD benefits are the result of legislation and collective bargaining agreements negotiated over years of such contracts. Given that they're always trying to cut the benefits for the civil service workers, they're NEVER going to extend that level of coverage to the employee of a private corporation. The responsibility should be on the private service putting their personnel in that situation. If they are not providing their employee with adequate protection, someone should be asking "what are we doing here"? If they want to put a commercial paramedic on a municipal SWAT team, there must be some sort of indemnification for the town/city/village. If there isn't such an agreement, the town attorney or city counsel must not have been consulted. They won't let you borrow a shovel without an agreement and details about liability and indemnification.

If you're looking for a job, CFR isn't going to help much. EMT is really the minimum standard for EMS training in most professions. If you're just looking for additional training to help you in an emergency, CFR isn't bad. It really does depend on what is motivating you to pursue EMS training in the first place and how you'll apply it.

They've been talking about demolishing Ruth Taylor for years so I bet that's a part of it. Where's the money coming for this? Is it tax money - yet again - for the public benefit corporation? Have they paid back the millions of tax dollars that the County gave them during their bailouts over the years?

Puuulleeeasseee! The Journal News articles from the 80's "Where You Live Could Cost Your Life" could be republished today with little change. Except that paramedics will now be sitting with the patient waiting for an ambulance.

When did they buy you hot sticks? I thought they didn't want us messing with them and actually recalled them all?

Date: 020516 Time: 0827 Location: IFO 40 Worth Street, NY Units: 4th Alarm Equivalent plus 10-60 SOC response NYPD Level 1 Mobilization plus division units, ESU, Crime Scene Unit, Traffic Con Edison with Electric, Gas, Steam, Transmission Ops, Emergency response group, emergency management, PublicAffairs, Environment Health and Safety NYCEM NYC Dept of Buildings NYC DEP US Coast Guard Department of Labor OSHA NYC Medical Examiner Description: Approximately 560 foot crawler crane toppled over in windy conditions crushing one car, killing the occupant. FD BC-1 reported all hands shortly after arrival and Division 1 transmitted the 10-60 and 3rd Alarm shortly after arriving. Rescue medics pronounced occupant in crushed vehicle and transported one red tag patient (possibly downgraded to orange). NYPD level 1 mobilization for crowd/traffic control. Multiple street closures in area. Concussion caused rupture to gas main, oil filled 345,000 volt electric feeder, and water main. Gas main shut down and Con Ed working to control feeder leak but it is located under the crane. About 5000 gallons of oil released into manholes and other underground structures. DEP shut down water main controlling the water leak. US Coast Guard has contractors patrolling river to insure oil is not reaching the river. NYC interagency meetings scheduled for tomorrow and mayor will hold another press conference at 1330.

A more timely response with more properly trained personnel is SAFER and will undoubtedly be more effective/efficient. Are you seriously going to base success on the number of burned out hulks in an urban environment? That's absurd! There are plenty of success stories but I've seen plenty of inground pools where houses once stood but I'm not casting stones like that. Is it really $3B annually in NYS or is that the worst possible scenario where there is no use of existing assets or combination departments? If there's a savings of $2.5B in insurance costs does that make it more palatable? Is the cost of apples really comparable to bananas? I agree it is about the money but that's true on both the paid and volunteer side.

Many would argue that it doesn't work consistently in all areas.

But the short term leaders see the shiny new ambulances and don't consider the long term impact of the project.

How about the EMS PROFESSION to be respected rather than abused? It shouldn't matter whether you're collecting a paycheck or volunteering. The system is broken and there is nobody on a high level doing much of anything about it. I HATE when people seek special consideration because they're volunteers. Either be an EMS PROFESSIONAL (paid or not) or rethink your choice of avocation.