SageVigiles

Not a good day for a job, just ask Bridgeport.

I heard a great discussion about this on the radio this morning. I think its GREAT that the fund for her vacation is over $300,000.00, she definitely deserves it. But is that the point? Throw money at it and all the sudden she's fine? Or are we as a society going to stand up and say "this is WRONG" and do something about it. These kids do need to be held accountable, as do their parents.

Agreed. Obviously I don't begrudge a department for holding some social events for its members, that's good for morale. But I do have a BIG problem, with a department that spends money on wetdowns, parties, etc. But won't pay for any training beyond Fire 1 and the other basic required certifications. Not that I'm saying Irvington does this, but I know a few departments that do.

I. Love. Texas. If this happened in New England (New Hampshire probably notwithstanding) the father would have been charged with Capital Felony Murder, Ben and Jerry's would have come out with a new flavor of ice cream to benefit the family of the scumbag rapist and Al Sharpton would be claiming it was a racist atrocity perpetrated against an innocent, defenseless minority. In Texas, the dirtbag gets dead, the father gets to continue taking care of his family and trying to piece together the lost innocence of his child with the support of a caring community that takes care of its own.

Does anyone know how to request hard copies of documents such as the CPG 101 from FEMA? I have an electronic copy but I'd like to be able to highlight, make notes in the margins, etc. Any help would be appreciated.

Fortunately all the dorms are sprinklered and alarmed, and the Fire Science program at the school have developed a really aggressive training program for the Residential Life staff in fire prevention. RA's do monthly inspection in the rooms as well to make sure FP systems are not tampered with and smoke detectors are still operational, as well as checking to make sure the students don't have any "banned" items that create a high fire risk. They also do a lot of fire education for the general campus population as well so we have that working in our favor at least. The one thing we've had happen is in one of the newer buildings, there is a kitchen for a small dining hall on the ground floor. Grease built up in the ductwork and charged the whole place with smoke. Not much fire, but there definitely could have been. Fortunately there is no doorway from the dining hall to the residential section of the building so when the duct dampers activated there was negligible smoke in the rest of the building. Not saying its not going to happen, it will eventually, but when it does the deck is stacked in our favor to make our lives easier.

Compared to NYC its definitely not a "high-rise" but I live in CT, very few buildings more than 4-5 stories. Nothing tall enough for wind to be a serious factor, etc. The building that pops into my mind within our first due is 8 stories. We have a few 4-5 story buildings at the University that we go to for smells and bells or the occasional kitchen fire, but nothing huge. Lots of commercial storefronts along the Post Road, some industrial/storage facilities tucked away. But probably over 85% of our district is 3 family balloon frame houses. I just don't think we practice standpipe operations enough.

Both my active departments are combination, so yes, they could probably get enough certified manpower on scene in short order. Speaking from West Haven we'd get mutual aid from Milford and New Haven in, in Wallingford we'd get North Haven, Hamden and Meriden. Do we train enough for high rise fires? No. We focus most of our training on 3 Woods, which is our bread and butter, we do a couple of high-rise drills a year but not enough for me to say with any confidence that I'm proficient. 24 ambulances depends on what AMR has available, but if you needed them CMED would pull from other companies as well, and you'd get an MCI unit or 2. Would also depend if you needed 24 ALS trucks or BLS. Middle of winter in a snowstorm this could be a different story, would certainly lengthen our response time and effect our truck company operations. I'm still making up a training plan for one of my departments, but we have a high-rise housing authority building in our first due, so rest assured that's going to be reflected in my plan.

Rest in Peace Brothers. 5 years goes by quickly, I was still VERY new in the fire service when this happened, I think I had just finished FF1. Remember their sacrifice and, more importantly, LEARN from it.

Oh wow, didn't realize it was that big of a community.

Six ambulance corps for one town? How big is Ramapo?

As opposed to a legal pot farm??? Haha. Nice job by YPD.

Chief, thought we lost the long front bumper, good to see its still there!

Truck is finished (except for a few more decals) and to be delivered VERY soon. Ball Pond is having their meeting tonight, if Chief O'Toole doesn't come on to update I'll ask him for more info tomorrow and post it.

I know its a bit of a hike for most people on here, but if you're interested, Chief Norwood is a very well renowned instructor across the country, he gets published in the trade journals fairly often, we're lucky to have him in our area to teach classes like this.

I'd imagine your PDs monitor the Marine Emergency channel, which is how they hear about the calls early enough to make a save. If you did a regional team you'd have to wait for the call to come into your dispatch center, have the dispatcher tone it, have all the personnel respond to a particular location and THEN proceed to get out to the call. That's a lot of lag time. Having worked a LOT of drowning calls at Squantz Pond in New Fairfield, the patient is usually under for 5+ minutes before anyone even notices there's an issue. Add our dispatch, turnout and response time in NF and your patient isn't in very good shape. That's why we have Environmental Conservation Officers on the lake already, they can get something started while we are mobilizing. You see yacht clubs, etc sending personnel out to search because that's standard protocol for a marine emergency. If you ever listen to the Marine Emergency channel, you'll hear Coast Guard calling out alerts to all vessels that can provide assistance. Because they know by the time the FD or PD get out and start their search, it can be too late. Again, the county "team" concept isn't necessarily the best for water rescue. If your department has shoreline, its your responsibility to have a capability to deal with water emergencies. You aren't going to have time to wait for other departments to come in and help. Its usually not like other types of rescue where the patient can be trapped but still stable. If someone's drowning they need immediate attention, there's no time for staging, waiting for a technical rescue team, etc. Reach, row, throw, go. And do it quickly.

Interesting. Thanks for the info guys, didn't realize things were done so differently in NY. Here's a quick rundown of how it runs in CT: Local Fire Marshals are responsible by statute to determine Origin and Cause of all fires, inspect properties, etc. The State administers pre-certification exams for the following Fire Officials: 1. Fire Marshal 2. Deputy Fire Marshal 3. Fire Inspector 4. Fire Safety Code Inspector 5. Hazardous Materials Inspector 6. Fire Investigator A candidate is only PRE-Certified until a town accepts them as a FM, DFM, etc. Only when they are hired by a town can they be a Connecticut Certified (insert title here.) I believe Deputy Fire Marshals and Fire Marshals take ALL of those certifications as modules, and can only be pre-certified as a FM or DFM after passing all the others. That being said, there are also 2 other Fire Investigation certifications out there, Certified Fire Investigator (this is the REALLY long one that involves court time, etc) and Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator. Neither of which are "state certified" courses, they are professional certifications. The only difference is CFI's can testify as expert witnesses in federal court, if I recall correctly. As far as the state goes, the State Fire Marshal is appointed by the Governor and is responsible for enforcing the CT State Fire and Life Safety Code, usually this individual comes from the Fire Service. He oversees various units, but the one we normally deal with is the State Police's Fire Marshals. They are State Troopers detailed to assist in investigations, some of which are K9 handlers. In addition the State Police assigned to the Fire Marshal also do inspections of carnival rides, etc. I'd imagine working with the ATF is the same in CT as it is in NY.

My mistake, the point was FDNY can make arrests and has guns, we don't have too many Peace Officers in CT so I'm not 100% familiar with the term. So basically what you're saying is many towns in NY don't even have a Fire Marshal. My followup question is who does Certificates of Occupancy, plan review, etc as it relates to fire safety. The Building Dept? You mentioned the local FD, I can't imagine local volunteer (and probably even some career) fire departments are trained or qualified to do that in-depth of an inspection. Does NY State have any certification process for Fire officials who have inspection duties? How about investigators?

I was just wondering how Fire Marshal duties are split up in NY State (not NYC, I know they run a totally different program where the FMs are all Peace Officers) From the sounds of it you have county Fire Investigation Teams with State backup for K9s, etc. I almost never hear any Putnam/Westchester County units call for their local Fire Marshal at a structure fire, whereas in CT that's one of the first notifications we make when we have a working fire. In CT the Local Fire Marshal has the authority to inspect, issue COs, investigate fires, etc. The State Fire Marshal's Office and CSP Fire Marshal Unit will come in to assist if requested, ATF as well if you really need the help. We don't have county (what we call regional) Fire Investigation Teams here, so I'm just wondering how you guys do things on that side of the line. Just curious, depending on answers I'll have follow up questions, fair warning... haha.

I got an answer back from a Deputy Fire Marshal in CT.

Tribal PD/FD are separate from Foxwoods FD/PD? Or am I confusing you guys with Mohegan?

The diagram says the multiple layers of wood add strength under fire conditions, which from a fire science standpoint makes sense. Personally I wonder what effect will the heating have on the glue that holds the panels together? The panels get put together with metal brackets and screws, but will contractors try to cheat there and use cheaper screws? Will some form of oversized gusset plate get approved to use as an alternative? The idea of a wooden high-rise building just doesn't sit right with me.

Thanks Cap, I'm going to post this in a few places as an FYI. Anybody in the Fire Marshal world see anything like this coming down the pike?

Rest in Peace Brother.