velcroMedic1987

So many unanswered questions about this tragedy. First and foremost my condolences to the family of the victim and the agency suffering through this loss. Trying to learn from the incident may be valuable to others in the future so I have the following thoughts- and we probably don't have any answers relating to the Arkansas shooting but may be able to discuss it generally. Where was the wife and why didn't she warn Adams that there was a gun in the room? Why don't we wear uniforms to properly identify us? Being a volunteer is not an excuse and, as evidenced by this incident, it can have tragic results. How can we prevent something like this from happening again in the future? The person who shot Adams has been arrested and charged with manslaughter too.

IT'S WINTER IN THE NORTHEAST!!! IT'S GOING TO SNOW!!! Everybody needs to get over it and stop buying all the toilet paper!!!

Please don't ever come to treat me or my family with that attitude. "EDP" calls can be drug related, diabetic emergencies, and even if "just" a mental illness they deserve the same level of care as anyone else. To dismiss a call based on dispatch information is very irresponsible.

Are we really going to start talking politics here? Aren't there enough other forums covering this nonsense?

I would love to see a "summit" of all the EMS agencies in the county where the system is discussed and opportunities for improvement are discussed and a long-term plan for an EMS System in Westchester County is discussed. We are so badly compartmentalized that this has never happened.

Affiliated and NY Ambulance were offshoots of an ambulette company. There weren't EMS professionals running it and their focus was solely on one thing... $$$$. Affiliated came in and low bid the contracts taking both NR and MV until they screwed things up badly enough that they lost them in both cases to Empress, IIRC. I believe NR fell first and MV followed. Ironically the owners were ultimately convicted of fraud and the entire Schiowitz empire crumbled. EMS in the 80's was far different than it is today. The only jobs (outside the city) were with privates and you just endured the trials and tribulations of contract time. Before the current model, Yonkers went through the same thing. I believe it went hospitals, Yonkers VAC (BLS with ALS provided by Yonkers PD paramedics on "e-rigs" or precursor to fly-cars), AA, Abbey Richmond, Empress but there may have been another round of rotations back then. Amazing how the memory fades with age. YPD continued providing paramedic services for quite some time, I'm not exactly sure when they stopped.

Tremendous corporate overhead in some cases. Over extension is another big flaw of these companies that grow like weeds for a while then die out when they can't sustain it. They proclaim that they can do the service for $5.00 but that doesn't tell the customer (town/village/city/district) that the actual cost is $25 and they're subsidizing it with funds from other places. It's a giant house of cards and when it fails, it fails big.

It could be done. It may not be easy but it's possible. EMS is even more fragmented and disorganized than the fire service. If agencies are having a hard time getting out the door, working together could be a good option. There are also fewer laws and regulations in the way for merging or consolidating EMS agencies than there are for fire departments.

Used to be the standing joke back in the day that medics wore Velcro patches because the companies changed in the cities so often. Sometimes it was a change for the better. Sometimes it was just a change. All in all it's not that big a deal. Let's see who we had in the cities... AA Abbey Richmond Affiliated Empress TransCare Who else am I missing?

What's "normally in a sanctioned manner" mean?

Why should they respond to fire calls with lights or sirens? They're not a fire department. Don't they teach us to mitigate most hazards or at least operate safely until they get there?

They've done a lot of training for local agencies and explain this quite well in their class. If a complaint to Con Ed meets certain criteria (multiple calls, sensitive location, symptoms, etc.), they automatically notify the local FD and simultaneously dispatch their crews. Following the fatal explosion in NYC a couple years ago the State has mandated even more notifications to the local FD. The PSC also requires a response by the utility within 60 minutes to most complaints (there might be some complaints that require a 30 minute response but I don't remember the criteria) so they don't respond as quickly as an FD does.

I'm not sure that home rule or unions are the problem or would alter the situation if they were different. The problem is no standards! Quite frankly there are a lot of so-called career departments operating every day with no regard for staffing standards so the lack of standards is not strictly a volunteer issue.

Take nothing for granted and always fully assess your surroundings!!!

Yonkers Mask Service Unit

Dragged 50 feet but thanks to Mt. Pleasant's past experience with an officer being hit by a car and the current climate toward law enforcement, they didn't respond to this use of deadly force with deadly force. Speedy recovery!

You started this with "I think". Everyone has an opinion. The community is up in arms because they've been paying taxes for fire service and they've been building a cash cow that allowed someone to allegedly abscond with 5 MILLION dollars. What is the annual budget of the department? How much "reserve" do they need? What is their financial PLAN? Do they have a plan? The taxpayers who paid for all this are understandably upset. Demanding accountability before spending millions more is not unreasonable. The investigation and accounting will not take long at which point they can reassess the needs of the department and plan accordingly. To use your line... "I think" it is safe to assume that there won't be a $5M reserve there in the future. Makes us all look bad and is a travesty!

But you could. Nothing says you need your own custom turnout gear. As for the masks, you are not fitted with a custom mask. You wear the size mask that fits you. S M-L or XL. Nothing special about it and at 300 bucks a pop, that's big bucks to some departments with lots of members.

It's a disgrace and the city should be ashamed of itself. Newburgh is already understaffed and this is only going to make it worse. To expect the feds to continue funding their fire department staffing forever is ludicrous. It was an infusion, a shot in the arm, it wasn't forever. I hope the displaced FF get jobs elsewhere ASAP!

This deal will not prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the middle east and it will not change the centuries of hatred, venom, vitriol and violence in the region. 100 Billion dollars would do wonders to the infrastructure right here in the US or our homeless problem rather than sending it to a country that has traditionally not been an ally of ours.

When are we going to acknowledge that the system is broken? Fire and EMS in Westchester is a collection of varying agencies but we have no system. The Yorktown fire station construction 1500 feet from an existing fire station in another district and this situation with the mutual aid effectively shutting down a department highlights just how screwed up we are. And EMS is no better off. The patchwork of different agencies all doing different things at different levels with varying success shows that we really haven't changed all that much since the 80's when the Journal News published their "where you live could cost your life" series of articles.

That's the 64,000 question. We still have no system - in fire or EMS - and we have inadequate career departments, inadequate volunteer departments, and other problems. But without anyone in charge (of anything) admitting we have a problem we are still stuck with the same rut spinning our wheels.

There are tons of other threads on this subject of but I think it does boil down to that. There's two disparate classes of training in NYS and absolutely no requirement for the volunteer sector to comply with it so there is no guarantee you're getting apples when you order apples. When a truck of oranges shows up what are you supposed to do?

Thanks for the clarification!

Not defending the politicians at all but isn't someone who develops a 9/11 illness covered by disability in their agency? Same as any other LOD illness or injury?