SageVigiles

I believe it has been delivered. Agreed with Izzy, The Deuce is an institution in Western CT, she'll be missed.

Here's what I've found for deployed assets from today's FEMA Daily Operations Briefing: FEMA Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMAT) National IMAT-White (Central) Regional Region IV-Team 1 FEMA Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Task Forces Nebraska Task Force 1 Tennessee Task Force 1 Texas Task Force 1 Some other teams are deployed to other Midwestern states and probably supporting the operations there, but that's what's physically going to Oklahoma. I'm sure there's a ton of regional/state non-FEMA USAR TFs and IMTs as well, but that's not as easy to track.

Rest in Peace Firefighter Wilson. Thoughts and prayers going out to his family, friends and fellow Dallas Firefighters. This has been a tough couple weeks for Texas.

HRT is arguably the best law enforcement tactical unit there is... A great loss to the FBI for sure, but also to the country as a whole, this was the unit that took down the surviving suspect from the Boston bombings. Rest in Peace Agents.

Governor Malloy will be providing an update this afternoon on the state of the rail system. Going to be a helluva day for commuters tomorrow. My professional advice if you live in Southern CT and are trying to get to NYC tomorrow? Fugggetaboutit.

Thoughts and prayers to all involved. Hoping for a full and speedy recovery.

Date: 5/17/13 Time: Approximately 1830 Hours Incident Type: Train Derailment Location: Metro North Lines near Commerce Drive in Bridgeport Units: Bridgeport FD, AMR, MTA Police, Bridgeport PD, Fairfield FD, MTA FD Frequency: Weather Conditions: Clear Reporters: SageVigiles Description: Sounds like 1 Metro-North train derailed and struck a second on the opposite track. Mass Casualty declared, 2 triage points set up. Command (Batt 2) just gave an update, all but 2 patients removed at this time, triage ongoing. MTA has shut down the power, still wires burning over the trains. BFD Car 1 and Deputy 2 en route. 1901: Command recalling the alarm, all patients removed and undergoing triage/transport. Leaving 1 and 1 on scene to assist MTA and EMS.

This topic has gotten kind of off track, but just in reference to some of the statements made: Texas DOES have a fire code, the State Fire Marshals Office uses NFPA 101, the Life Safety Code. http://www.tdi.texas.gov/fire/fmfsi.html To be fair, the State of Connecticut doesn't allow municipalities to create their own Fire Codes either, so that's hardly a fair argument to make. OSHA and EPA laws and regulations exist no matter what state you're in, so to say that there's NO regulation in Texas isn't entirely accurate, they're held to the same federal standards that any other regulated industry is. Also if I recall correctly, this company WAS fined for a violation by Texas' environmental enforcement agency previously, so its not as if nobody is out there enforcing the law.

I was waiting for the Ex-Cap to chime in! Looks like you helped build a pretty good unit there Brother!

Nice job, hats off to Explorer Keenan! Greenburgh did exceptionally well during the Stations Day Competition in Meriden a few weeks back. Their program is definitely one of the better ones in the area, this could certainly explain why.

After a thorough Risk vs. Benefit analysis... get the hell out of my way, I'm climbing that tree...

It would also make a difference (to me anyway) whether he showed up at all. I can understand the CoD showing up and not taking command for the reasons previously mentioned, simply serving in an advisory/support role to assist the Incident Commander, but for a Chief of a major urban fire department to not respond to the scene (or, perhaps more appropriately, to the EOC) during what is obviously a significant terrorist incident is a different story entirely. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Correction, I see now that he did get to the scene.

Or how about we all use the NFPA 1001 standard that's generally accepted by the entire country?

I'd totally wear a "Terrorist Basher" T-Shirt. If our society has degraded to the point where that is considered an insult, then I must have missed something... Last I checked terrorist bashing was something all of us in public safety were supposed to be working towards, but hey, to each their own I guess.

Amtrak isn't going to take traffic off 95 until their fares are reasonable and can compete with the cost of driving.

Hoping somebody on here can help me out. I'm in the market for a scanner. It doesn't need to be digital or trunking, since the agencies I'm most interested in listening to do not use those features. I would, however, like something narrowband compliant with the 2.5mHz step increases. I'd also like something that I might be able to hook up to a desktop to run my own scanner feed, since all the ones for my departments aren't available on radio reference anymore. Suggestions?

Should have been buried at sea with Osama Bin Fishfood, but that's just my opinion.

Just curious, in about how much of the NE Corridor are they actually permitted to go 125MPH? Max speed and permitted speed can be quite different in some areas. How does this train compare to the Acela?

Challenge accepted, good Sir.

SFRS... am I the only one that sees a resemblance?

Of course you'll need senior leadership to take care of other things, but I'd honestly welcome a robust Training Division that ensures training is uniformly provided among every member in the region. That would actually be fantastic. Think of what could get accomplished if all these Chiefs and Assistants had specific areas responsibility and weren't getting pulled in 13 different directions at once to put out "administrative fires." If we're all working in a concerted effort instead of competing for resources, I don't see how that could be bad.

Wow, that's an odd one. I thought this was going to be an article from The Onion or something. In a completely sarcastic note, I think I can amateur-diagnose a LOT of people with this condition.

Date: 5/7/13 Time: Approx 0800 Incident Type: Structure Fire Location: 11 Stillman Ave Units: Career Department: Car 1 (Chief - IC), Car 2 (Asst. Chief), Car 30 (D/C - Shift Commander), E21, E22, E23, E24, E26, T1 Volunteers: E5 (Wooster Hose?), Squad 7 (Water Witch), E10 (Germantown), Tanker 11 (Beaver Brook), Fire Police, E13, Canteen 13 (Miry Brook) Danbury Hospital EMS: A2 (2nd Due Ambulance), A4 (3rd Due Ambulance), Medic 1 (EMS Supervisor) Mutual Aid: Bethel Tower 1 (Standby at DFD HQ) Brookfield Engine 4 (Covering E23 Quarters) Ridgefield Engine 1 (Covering E26 Quarters) New Fairfield (Standby in their quarters) Weather Conditions: Clear Description: Structure fire, believe this is a 2nd Alarm though I caught it late so I've missed a lot of units. Water supply issues due to low pressure area for Water Dept., hence the tankers so close to downtown. Didn't catch the first due Ambulance, but A2 went ALS to Danbury Hospital with 1 patient. 0833 - Special call addl. Engine Company, IC states "still in fire attack mode." E24 assigned by Headquarters. 0838 - Command to HQ: Abandoning Fire Attack, going defensive, evac tones sounded. Requesting 2 additional engines, 1 career, 1 volunteer. E26 and E10 (Germantown VFD) assigned. All volunteer companies tones to staff stations, call HQ when manned. A2 requested back to the scene Priority 1. 0844 - Rescue 1 (I have no idea who this is, unless they renamed the Squad) and Car 34 (ordered-in Deputy Chief?) en route to Headquarters. 0845 - ***Command requesting 4th Alarm Assignment.*** 0852 - Retone for volunteer companies to staff stations. City operating on 4th Alarm assignment. Engines 10 (Germantown) and 13 (Miry Brook) responding but I didn't get times. 0855 - Mutual Aid Tower Ladder (Bethel Tower 1) at Headquarters for standby. 0901 - Command reporting limited offensive operations beginning. 0908 - Brookfield Engine 4 en route to cover Engine 23's Quarters. Danbury Engine 3 (Independent) en route to cover HQ. New Fairfield has also been put on standby in their own quarters. Ridgefield Engine 1 en route to cover E26's Quarters. 0931 - Command placing fire Under Control.

You'll never hear me argue against consolidating/regionalizing fire services, but a federal agency dedicated to general policing is prohibited by the Constitution, if I'm not mistaken, under the 10th Amendment. I also wouldn't argue for a national fire service because as of late it seems like there's not much the federal government does well, but County/Regional departments are a no-brainer to me. There's no reason NOT to regionalize fire services, we'd be providing a much more uniform service across a larger service area and population and make better use of the limited resources we have at our disposal. The ironic thing is all the people who want to retain their "turf" don't realize that in most regional fire service models (IE: PG County, Baltimore County, etc) you're MORE likely to get sent to jobs way outside your first due, and your company retains its individual identity and Officers, albiet with some more stringent requirements on training/certification... but alas, here we are.

But by that logic doesn't that mean Police Officers in rural areas shouldn't be wearing vests that aren't Level III or have III/IV plates? The point I'm trying to make is that its not unreasonable that an EMT could get into a situation that takes a turn for the worse.