TRUCK6018

Cablevision channel 40 in Northern Westchester

Former Commish Kelly was indead from that area. He was from either Prince George's County or Montgomery County. I don't remember exactly which it was.

I don't think there are any worries now. Talking with alot of the vendors down there, they're pulling out of the NYS Chief's due to lack of attendance. I've heard that there were estimates of 20,000 or so attendies this year. Alot of attendies from NY.

Fire Expo keeps getting bigger and bigger. This year the exibit floor was larger and there seemed to be more lectures. Some of the speakers included Billy Goldfeder and Dr. Harry Carter along with the usual FDNY chiefs: Montagna, Salka, and Dunn just to name a few. All the big name trucks were there including this little gem from Four Guys: http://www.4guysfire.com/delmar.asp Not directly related to Fire Expo was a nice little rescue by the Baltimore City FD which goes to show why you shouldn't get into a hot air ballon while a storm is near: http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/3541615/detail.html

Mid-mounts are an advantage with those who have vertically chalenging apparatus bays.

You didn't actually expect a call at midnight when it was finally decided, did you?

The rescue truck bid was awarded last night to Rescue 1. As previously stated, it will be a walk-around box on a Spartan chassis. It will feature a walk up staircase built into the rear compartment to access the roof compartments.

The current county-wide UHF fireground system will not work with these distances as it's a low power simplex system.

YES!!! With the implemention of the fireground freq's, there is no need for the amount of chatter on 46.260 as there still is.

I can't speak for the others but in Somers we have over 125 personel on the active roles and we rarely get more than 30 or 40 at a parade. Additionally, if there's anything much more than a minor alarm, we bail out of the parade. That's a darn good question! Who does care? It's expecially pathetic when a vehicle has to sign out for any non-emergency function and the dispatch is in the same building. What happened to the telephone? With all the traffic on 46.260, it's rare that non-emergency traffic needs to be on the air. Again, can't speak for the others. We have currently have 6 engines (we're down one), by the end of the year we'll have 7. We can afford to take one out for a parade. If there is a job the engine will respond. Our specialty equiptment (ladder, tanker) only go to local parades. Needless to say, you won't be seeing them Verplanck. All we'll send there is Engine 181 and maybe Engine 182.

Dutchess County, NY, near Poughkeepsie.

????? Who is getting these Mass Decon trailers,how are they set up, and is it going to be an EMS or Fire responsibility? The trailers are currently at WCDES ready to be given out. There is an array of equipment on them as far as monitering and decontamination. They are supposed to be handed out to departments as part of a zone, similar to that of the C&O team. There is more to it then this, but that's the general guideline of the project.

Since the county started holding classes in Katonah, we have had members more interested in taking classes. The only thing the students go to Valhalla for is the live fire evolutions.

U-5 is a 1987 F-350 chassis with a utility body. The vehicle wasn't designated U-5 until 1996 upon placing rescue engine 183 in service. It carries fire police equiptment (baricades, tape, cones). It also carries a portable generater with lights and trash pumps for pump outs. It's also used to shuttle misc equiptment around. It's used for service calls (pump outs, wires down, police assists) where you wouldn't need to tie up a pumper. It's also used to shuttle equiptment if needed. Prior to 1996 the vehicle was designated as QA-1 (quick attack). It was a "state of the art" structural fire supression system that consisted of a 500 pound dry chem tank, 250 gallon water tank and 30 gallon foam tank on a skid unit. Also carried on the vehicle were the hurst tool and air bags.

Let's not confuse any of this with balcony ballerina. 8)

According to the new issue of The Westchester Volunteer, the Antique Fire Apparatus Show and Muster will be held. Saturday, Sepember 25 @ Croton Point Park.

Mutual aid works, and it works well (at least in the northern part of the county). One example I've seen of it being abused was down in the lower part of the county. There was a department down there, that because of finances, only had enough staffing to handle minor alarms. If something significant came in they would call in there neighbors every time. Again, this wasn't due to the fire department but because of the politicians of city it's in. The Rye Brook/Portchester issue is not truely mutual aid. In fact, it's not mutual aid at all. This type of arrangement is automatic aid. With an auto aid agreement there pre-determined inner municipal response to a specific area. In this instance it is Portchester that responds into Rye Brook because of an agreement or (in this case) contract between the two. There are numerous other cases of auto aid in the county including parkway responses or tanker responses. Is any of this taking advantage of the system? I think not. It's nothing more than the individual departments assuring they will have the resources on hand early to handle what is reported. I know I would rather have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.

Oh yes, can't forget about Mahopac. Not just best overall but best firematic colorguard too. =D> Sorry Ed, this is a Westchester message board. But I guess we'll let you slide since you crossed the boarder for the parade. [-( Besides who else would win best overall, unless it was Ossining or Montrose of course. 8)

Don't know if it's the next. Mahopac is July 8th followed by Mt. Kisco on July 9th.

Is 78 hours really that long? Yes, we all have those who say "well, we've done it this way for 100 years, why change now"? But, in my deptartment, probies are required to take either FF I or EMTB to get off probation. EMT is almost twice the length of FF I (140 hours plus hospital time) and there has never been a problem with them. ALS is right, by the time one takes basic, intermediate and haz mat op's, it's shorter (timewise) to take FF I and there's less to worry about as far as needing to register for each class. The biggest problem right now (and it's getting better) is the lack of FF I classes. This would be the problem with any new curriculum until the growing pains get squared away. In general, county will be getting better in giving classes. As soon as the 23 or so new instructors get up to speed there should be more classes being given.

Sounds like it was fixed to me. #-o Other trophies included Millwood for best antique and Contenental Village for best tanker. I had heard rumers that we were supposed to win best tanker untill it was alleged that one of the dump valves "accidentally" opened on a judge. Unfortuanately, I can not confirm or deny these rumors. 8-[

Our minimum requirements are: To start training: -21 years of age -off probation -clean driving record -6 hour National Safety Council Defensive Driving To get qualified on apparatus: -New York State Apparatus Operator (EVOC) or equivilant -a set amount of time driving each vehicle (ten hours). -vehicle checkout by the lieut, capt and chief. These are just to drive, we require additional for specific vehicles, example: Engines - Pump Op's Ladder - Truck Op's

Anyone thinking of attending, it is definate worth the ride, if for nothing else a day trip. If you leave early enough to beat the traffic it shouldn't take much more than an hour to get to.

There was a two week accelerated class that started last week and finishes this week. According the WCDES website, there is also another two week class in July. As with most of the FFI courses given, they are filled quickly. One recommendation given by CC2 is to sign up for DES mailing list: http://list.westchestergov.com/listsubscri...mssubscribe.asp, Then hound your chief to sign you up and don't give up untill the chief gets a confirmed email from DES.

Well, this is what I'm told anyway. Luckily we are finally catching up to the times and implimenting the same as als describes.