SageVigiles

I inquired about this to the "Join FDNY" Facebook page and got this in response: To their credit they answered in about an hour. I'm just really curious as to how they are doing this in public schools without city or FDNY knowledge.

Third.

That DOES seem a bit suspicious, doesn't it???

I especially love the description "Crews quickly advanced a hose line" Really? You think so? By all rights this should be a video of a line of duty death. These guys just got really, really lucky.

I don't think Stamford has an ESU unit running out of there, its very rare to see MTAPD ESU in CT except for Homeland Security VIPER details and things of that nature. The Commanding Officer for MTAPD in CT is out of New Haven Union State I believe, a Captain. I've seen MTA ESU there once or twice during the holidays or heightened alert times, but mostly just the Patrol and K9 guys. MTAPD has "precincts" in New Haven Union Station, Bridgeport and Stamford from what I understand. Someone also mentioned Amtrak PD. Amtrak PD has a Special Operations Unit (SOU) in NYC but none in the New England Division that covers CT, MA, RI, NH, VT and ME. If SOU is needed for special details, etc, they would be brought in from New York. They have a decent patrol contingent and a large K9 unit in CT.

I found that last night actually, great source. They a map of every town organized by career, volunteer, on-call, and combination. Thanks for the help gentlemen!

Roger, thanks Joe.

Just out of curiosity, since I'm applying to a lot of jobs up in Eastern MA, does anyone have a list of the communities that have volunteer fire departments in that area, or a website I could go to find out? I tried MA Dept. of Fire Services website and came up empty. Any help would be appreciated.

I must say I've found myself thinking about this very issue. I subscribe to The Secret List, and in the past month I've counted maybe 3 or 4 Firefighter suicides across the country. I think the real question we need to be asking is why are our Brothers and Sisters killing themselves, and what should we be doing about it? Veteran/Police Officer/Firefighter/EMT suicide IS a real issue and we NEED our leadership to start developing some strategies and programs to recognize the warning signs and prevent this sort of thing from happening. It really infuriates me how our society is so hellbent on providing free services to criminals, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, etc but we're not doing enough for those that are doing the right thing and suffering after what they've seen and experienced. Unfortunately I'm not going to be at the Congressional Fire Services Institute conference this year, but if any of you are, I strongly encourage you to bring this up at the roundtable discussions and to the members of the Fire Caucus.

In West Haven EVERY reported smoke/fire incident has automatic aid from one or more of the other districts. How much aid goes is dependent upon the district and occupancy, but its built into our CAD run cards. Interestingly, we do have a few parts of town that get "dual response" in the more classic sense. On one street, one side of the road is Allingtown Fire District in West Haven and the other side is in Orange. We actually had a fire on that street a few years back, since 911 calls came in from both sides of the street to both PSAPs, both departments sent a full first alarm assignment. Needless to say manpower was no issue there, but parking space was.

Thanks man! I figured a combination between the 4-gas and PID would be best but I wanted to see if anyone else knew any good methods. What would you use to determine whether a solid substance was flammable before you ran it through the laser? As for Anniston, I had a great time! For those of you who don't know, the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama is the only place in the country where responders can train with real nerve agents (Sarin and VX.) Best part is its totally free! FEMA sends you a ticket, houses and feeds you for the week, and they even reimburse your baggage fees, parking at the airport and mileage to/from the airport! This was my second time there, I took HAZMAT Technician for CBRNE Incidents back in August of 2011. This time, I took the Hazard Assessment and Response Management (HARM) for CBNRE Incidents Course, you have to take it within 36 months of a successful entry into the COBRA Training Facility. Its basically a 3 day full scale exercise, the only time you spend in the classroom is doing some Just in Time refresher training, but even that is student led. The other cool thing about going this time was that I was in the first class that got to work with live Anthrax and Ricin at CDP. They've been working on a biological program for the past few months and this was the first pilot for students using that program. That was a pretty cool bonus.

Just tried calling and leaving a message. Mailbox full. Well done.

Rest in Peace Matt. To Matt's friends and family and to his co-workers at VAFD-Montrose and the whole crew at Putnam Lake please know you are in my thoughts and prayers. I had the opportunity to work with Matt several times when I was active with Ball Pond FD on mutual aid calls and drills with Put Lake. Every time he was a great firefighter and a generally nice guy. Sad to see him go. I know I can speak for all your Brothers and Sisters up the hill when I say you will be missed. Godspeed Brother.

Maybe this is a stretch, but wouldn't this cover fire, police and EMS personnel?

That's it, you win.

After reading this I just had to say something. Posted this on my facebook wall, feel free to re-post.

What federal law are you citing? Our department is combination, but technically the volunteers are a separate organization and we have our own Chief of Department, so assuming what you are saying is true, that might be how we got by that.

We don't have mutual aid members. We accepted a member in Allingtown (West Haven, CT) who was on a student visa from Hong Kong. He took Fire 1 and the other certifications required to become interior. He's since graduated and has a work visa and is still an active member, only difference is he's no longer a "UNH-Member" in our roster.

Interesting question: Short answer, IMO it SHOULD be up to the IC, Safety Officer, Ops Section Chief and Decon Branch/Group Director or Unit Supervisor. If you have a real HAZMAT you shouldn't be operating offensively unless decontamination is set up. If Decon is set up you should have a set doffing procedure for personnel exiting the hot zone that has been communicated to all personnel, and should therefore be leaving that gear in the decon area after being decontaminated and doffing that PPE. Usually spent PPE ends up in an overpack drum or something similar. Now, since its turnout gear and WAY more expensive than most HAZMAT suits, that brings up a serious issue, since we now have personnel with no gear to respond with (assuming your department is like mine and does not have backup-gear for each individual.) I don't have a great answer for you as for what my HM Team's procedure is, but now I'm kind of determined to find out. But realistically, turnout gear that is potentially contaminated should not be leaving the scene. I'm not in any rush to drag that crap home with me. In CT at least, any equipment we use up at a HAZMAT incident is reimbursed through Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection and they go after the responsible party who spilled the product to reimburse the state. I've never had to deal with contaminated turnout gear, so I'm not entirely sure how fast that check gets cut from DEEP, but theoretically that's how its supposed to work.

West Haven Center District's volunteers have "Truck" 26, which carries an extended complement of ground ladders. I believe it is classified as a "City Service Truck." When WHFD's career division Truck 22 is out of service, they use T26 in place and have an added aerial from one of the other two districts cover for any box with reported smoke or fire.

I was down in Anniston last week for a CBRNE course and we used a couple of Raman technology meters (FirstDefender, TruDefender) a LOT. Not sure what those of you in the NY/NJ area have for metering equipment on your HAZMAT teams. I know from being able to play around with these devices that they are AMAZING at figuring out an unknown substance, with a few exceptions (darkly colored materials, etc) but the downside is they are generally unfriendly to flammable materials. I was also told to stand a few feet away from them when they are operating in case something flammable gets hit that you weren't expecting. Two Questions, both of which may be considered dumb questions, but I would like to see what other people think. 1. Whats the preferred method of determining whether or not the substance you're dealing with is flammable? What immediately comes to mind is the MiniRae or another type of PID, but are there others that you use? 2. The First Defender, when pointing it direct at a substance as opposed to using the sample vials, do you prefer to prop it up with something so that you can stand back?

Is it still housed with 20 Truck or is it out of SOC HQ now?

Congratulations Justin! Glad to see Ball Pond in the news! Best of luck and stay safe!

I was never actually shown the NFPA document that said it, but Wallingford goes off of a 10 year replacement. No PPE can be in service for interior firefighting beyond that point. (EMS-only members can grab an expired coat for warmth if they so choose, but usually the Explorers get the OOS gear for their training regimen.)

Perp is a Latin Kings member, during the "perp walk" he was chanting the usual nonsense to his fellow dirtbags.