TRUCK6018

This is nothing new folks! Combustible items capable of giving off hydrogen cyanide include: Foam in modern day furniture/bedding/pillows The plastics that many household items are composed of Foam in automobile seats Fiberglass body panels in many automobiles Moral of the story: Wear your PPE! Turnouts, SCBA, gloves at all fires. You don't know what's burning until it's too late. When you think the fire is out is not the time to take off your SCBA. As the article said, even smoldering, these deadly gases are still produced. Be safe!

As Izzy said, there is a distinct difference. Districts are governing bodies where departments are chartered organizations. Chiefs of district controlled departments are elected by the district. The department can recommend an individual by nomination. A district can go with it or pick someone else. Districts can even go as far as hiring an outsider to be chief. Fire districts will own the equipment (apparatus) and structures. In cases where the department owns a fire house, the district will likely pay rent to store the vehicles. Fire district can also shut out the incorporated fire department and start from scratch if they choose. There is case law of it happening and nothing can be done by the department to stop them. At that point, the department would be nothing more than a social club. In the areas where there is no district, the town has a fire protection district. In this situation the town contracts with the department to provide fire protection. The fire department will own the structures and equipment. At the end of a contract, the town can go look else where for fire protection.

I have to disagree with you. While the truck may be good once you get to the fire, it's what happens to and from that's the problem. All fire apparatus at this point is recommended to meet NFPA's 1901's 1991 edition standards. This revision of the standard made major changes in fire apparatus safety. Some are: Enclosed cabs Reflective striping Audible warning devices mounted in front of the driver Slow close valves Axel and GVW weight standards ABS and auxiliary braking systems Third party testing mandatory for aerial devices Annex "D" also recommends all apparatus built prior to 1979 be removed from active and reserve service as they are obsolete! While NFPA standards are only recommendations, it is something to take a serious look at. The most recent edition of 1901 (2003) has a new part, Annex "D". This goes into detail when a rig should be replaced vs refurbished. Annex "D" also recommends all apparatus built prior to 1979 be removed from active and reserve service as they are obsolete! This is a position that I'm surprised Cassidy didn't take in his press release.

This is (or should) be done now. When it time comes to make a purchase, a permissive referendum is required to be filed. It spells out what is being purchased with a dollor amount and where the money is coming from. These are posted in the legal ads of the newspaper of choice as defined at the districts annual organizational meeting. Should "the public" choose to challenge the permissive referendum, then the purchase must go to public vote.

It would have to affect all of New York. It would be difficult to justify these measures to only two counties but not the rest of the state. The bottom line is the districts that take advantage of their autonomous status need a wake up call! Audits and ethics are a great place to start. These districts should be held accountable for their spending and contractual agreements. I do believe changing the capital reserve funding laws would hurt those district that do the right thing. To put the formation of these funds to public vote could hurt long term plans for apparatus replacement. Further more, it could lead to districts floating bonds that would otherwise have the money stashed away. There already are accountability measures in this area: 1) Districts must post a permissive referendum in the legal ads to spend money from a capital reserve fund. This specifies a dollar cap and what it's going to be used for. 2) The purchases must go through a bidding process. Ultimately, the few lawmakers (those on Long Island) that are pushing for these changes will have to convince their counterparts representing the rest of the state. It should be interesting to see what bills survive and what ones get trashed.

That may or may not happen. Example, if one of the larger towns (one that all but has a fly car just for that town) that participated chose to withdraw, the whole consortium would be stirred up as it may not be justified to have as many fly cars doing fewer runs.

All monies collected by 501©(3) charities are supposed to be reported to the IRS and the state regardless of the method that they are collected. These ways include (but are not limited to) fund raisers, annual fund drives, or boot drives. For those who bought a ticket for a for a fund raising dinner. The face amount on the ticket is not the amount that can be deducted from the donors taxes. Only the net profit to the charity can be claimed. Example: If a charity charges $50 for a sit down fund raising dinner, and the goods received (food/beverage) equaled $30, the amount deductible is only $20. There are stipulations in the tax code as to how the monies are spent.

Donations to 501©(3) corporations need to be reported. Fire districts can not accept donations as they are municipal (taxing) entities. This is the confusion within some areas. The XYZ Fire District will be responsible for fire protection in a certain area. Since the District doesn't hire firefighters, they utilize the services of the XYZ Volunteer Fire Department Inc. which is a 501©(3) charitable organization under the IRS tax code. Speaking of tax codes. Up until the last several years it was common for individuals to donate their old car to the local fire department for training purposes and write it off their taxes. The donor used to be able to write off the book value of the vehicle. This is no longer the case. Now the write off amount is what the vehicle is sold off for by the charity.

The showroom and the shop are only a few miles from one another. Going from I-84 you'll pass the showroom first on the left. Then the shop a few miles further on the right.

Because this was a prank the consequences should be less severe? The bottom line is this individual did something that cost another human being her life. Prank or not, you play, you pay. Ignorance is not an excuse. After all, several years ago another life was lost in Lairdsville for similar stupidity. The individual in charge of that cluster is in the same place, prison.

I can't agree with you more! In my opinion, OCC, is overrated! They don't build bikes. They assemble the pieces, that's it! The most they build is their own custom sissy bar and handle bars and occasionally the rims. Some of the better bike builders include: the popular Jesse James, the late Indian Larry, Roger Bourget, and Billy Lane. There are several others out there, too numerous to mention but equally talented.

Forgive me for saying that this is not a size up. All that simply tells you is building (exterior) construction. There are two recommended acronyms for sizing up a job. First is for the first arriving apparatus: BELOW Building Extent and location of fire Life hazard Occupancy Water supply These are the important things to give a general idea of what's in store and get the gears turning to start a plan. After the IC arrives then he can preform a more detailed size up: COAL WAS WEALTH Construction Occupancy Apparatus and staffing Life Hazard Water Supply Auxiliary applainces (sprinklers/standpipes) Street conditions Weather Exposures Area Location and extent of fire Time of day Height

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I vaguely remember the first time this pic made the rounds. If memory serves, this is an USAR team rig. More specificly The Orange County Task Force 5 USAR Team (FEMA).

Whether a given fire department is career, combination or volunteer has no bearing in how the operational expenses are acquired. Its how the department or district is governed under state law. The two most common types of fire agencies are fire districts and fire protection districts. Fire Districts bring in money via taxes. Fire districts being autonomous bodies, submit its budget to the town and the taxes get levied appropriately. Fire Protection Districts bring in money from the towns they serve by contract. They submit a proposal to the town and the town board votes to "hire" the agency for the term outlined. The town then levies taxes appropriately. The major difference between fire districts and fire protection districts are the governing bodies. Fire districts have publicly elected commissioners. There are no requirements for knowledge of the fire departments operations. The get elected just as a town supervisor would by the registered voters of the town. Fire protection districts commissioners (or directors) are members of the department, elected from within the department. They are elected based on that departments bylaws. Other ways money is obtained is through grants. There are grants given on both the state and federal level. More often than not, a grant has to be ear marked for a specific purchase. Most cities (New York, Yonkers, New Rochelle, etc) have appointed fire commissioners who are chosen by the mayor of the city. The moneys for the operations of those departments are levied though taxes.

As stated, the photos are courtesy of Prince Georges County (Maryland) Fire Departments. The most noticeable FD in the slide show is Kentland. As "cool" as the slide show might have been (as a whole), the first group of slides were anything but. There's not a darn thing cool about a LODD (or any death for that matter). The coolest thing is when everyone does their job and goes home. Let's be safe out there.

Here's a link to the story with the police report: Fire Chief Caught On The Lamb Links 3 through 8 are the actual report.

Camp LaGuardia in Chester, NY is a Volunteers of America (VOA) facility much like the one in Yorktown on Route 202 near the across from Mohansic Ave (can't think of the name off the top of my head). I'm sure anyone from Yorktown PD or Mohegan FD/VAC can tell us how much business is generated from there.

This issue has nothing to do with career vs volunteer! If you think it is, it's just another excuse of a volunteer firefighter telling his chief "you can make me do that". Well, the answer is simple. You can be made to do it! If you don't want to follow the rules, the door's over there ---->. This issue has alot to do about two things: First and formost safety. If OSHA says no good, it's no good. Like it or not. If you chief says no good, no good. Fire doesn't take preferance with career or volunteers. Being a volunteer only means you don't get a paycheck. Second, professionalism. Again, career and volunteer doesn't mean a hill of beans. As firefighters, emt's, whatever, you're dealing with the public. Mrs Jones calls the FD for a problem, you're expected to act professional, look professional and act courtious. The publie don't give a darn if your career or volunteer. They want help. What if the XYZ Volunteer Fire Department allowed you to wear a beard and the whole department chose to do so? I guess there would be no interior attacks there. No primary searches. No nothing. Let's just let the fire burn it's self out then sort through the remains and hope you find survivors. There is only one fire department (brigade) I know of that might be able to get away with the beard issue because they are truely the "bearded ones". This is in the Kiryas Joel village located in Monroe, NY (Orange County). Kiryas Joel firefighters Kiryas Joel Emergency Services

There's only three rigs there I don't see functional for firefighting. The monster truck, jet truck and hot run. Those are clearly show vehicles. Something for some of the LI dept's. One of my favorites is the Broward County rig. 4800GPM!!!! Now all you need is a water source to supply that.

Mohegan Fire's Engine 250 was formally TS-3 prior to the county re designations. LTI used make the telesquirt until bought out by American LaFrance. Now ALF is the manufacturer of the telesquirt.

Westchester's hazmat truck, Hazmat 1: Additionally, Yonkers runs Hazmat 2 and Montrose VA runs Hazmat 3. Along with those, there are also numerous "squads" set up in the county that carry monitoring and decon equipment. There is no Westchester County coordinator but his official title is Westchester Department of Emergency Services Commissioner. Commissioner Sutton (Car 1) and Deputy Commissioner Jackson (Car 2) both have county issued unmarked sedans. The battalion coordinators do not have issued vehicles.

While I agree with what you say to a point, we all know how biased the media can be. Again, this is just one side of the story. The general public doesn't know or understand everything that happens when fire departments operate. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend the fire department at question. However, I believe in seeing all the facts before passing judgement.

You forgot one important individual (and probably my favorite character) in the show, Silvio Dante. None other than Stevie Van Zant AKA Little Steven of E. Street Band fame amongst other ventures. He is also the producer of Sirius Satellite Radio's Channel 25, Underground Garage.

I wasn't too smart of the video camera toting fool to film the cars and license plates.

It appears by the comments that ensue from this discussion is there were members of this board at this fire. The first comment said the fire department checked and made sure the fire was out. The second comment said the department failed to address the problem. The only thing the article said regarding the FD's actions the first time is: Note, this is a statement from the homeowner, not from any PIO, officer or member of the Shively Fire Department. The statement says the outlet was "examined". It does not say to what level. I don't think it is proper to speculate regarding this tragic and controversial issue. In time, hopefully, a statement will be made public regarding the outcome of the investigation. Until then, lets not point fingers. While this time it involves a department over a thousand miles away, the next time it may be closer to home.