Beekman

Who would have thought, a hockey game broke out at a fight.

As of Monday, November 5, 2012 a crew from the Montrose and Castle Point VA FD's were deployed under the OFPC EOC requests. The crew of 5 Hazardous Material Technician's (split between both dept's to ensure adequate station coverage), deployed this am at 0600hrs for the Nassau County staging area. As of right now, the assignment is for DECON Operations for other Hazardous Materials Teams operating in the effected area's. At this time, both campuses are maintaining staffing without compromising normalcy at both campuses. Be safe and the VAFD's from CPFD/Montrose are glad to be able to assist in this time of need.
AC Ferguson: Montrose VAFD
"Protecting Those Who Served"

I agree 100 % with Barry on this. I believe that we need to show the public and hte politicians the benefit of this. This needs to be made a regional effort to overcome the trades. This can't be handled one municipality at a time as then the local laws are to hard to get approved in Albany. This has been seen when municiplaities have passed their own sprinkler ordinances just to get overturned as being to restrictive and not in line with the state building code. This effort needs to be made at actually changing the State building code, to mandate residential sprinklers and other appropriate protection measures.

I guess I'd file this under the topic of WTF?
Although the article is poorly written, it appears that since the NYSTA is required to issued refunds, you now have to pay (?). I guess they can't refund what you don't pay instead of just not charging you in the first place.
If you have to stop and pay on the way to a call, try not shutting off the siren while you're waiting for your change.
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2012/June/19/emer_Thruway_tolls-19Jun12.html

There goes any thoughts I had of doing it...

Apparently the whole world has something scheduled this weekend, Some many choices, so little time.

Members,
Bury the hatchet.
Career vs. Volunteer. Police vs. Firefighters.
It's disgusting. Our jobs, volunteers or career, police officers or firefighters we are in it to serve the public. It's not always a perfect world, and there is always going to be politics, disagreements, etc. However, we all should be looking at it like this. How can we work TOGETHER to improve things in this moment of time?
It's NOT about us, it's about the public who depends on us to serve and protect them with the highest level of service possible. If, you, gosh forbid, got into a car accident and were pinned and in needed medical attention ASAP, wouldn't you want someone to get you out of there as soon as possible? We all drive through volunteer and career districts in the course of our days. Would it matter to you who responded at that moment? If you're complaining about the training of volunteers, do something about it. Sign up as an instructor. Figure out how you can help. And vice versa. It could be you that needs them.
If you're a volunteer, who cares what career firefighters think of your agency? If you're confident in the service you provide, there should be no reason to have to "defend" yourselves. There are issues between the two, but if you really look at it, a lot of the problems are very similar. We bellyache about volunteer daytime staffing. However, there are career departments that dont have any better staffing anytime. Can we all put aside egos to work together to solve the problems?
As far as Cops vs Firefighters, we work together and depend on one another. When we have a possibly violent situation, Fire and EMS stage, and Cops go in and risk their lives to make sure it is safe for firefighters and EMS to go in. They have our back. If that cop, gosh forbid, is to get shot, that Cop depends on Firefighters and EMS to save their lives. We have their back.
Those of us who are truly in it to help fellow citizens are sick of it. Open your ears, and learn from one another. You may just learn something simply by listening.
There can be respectful and producitve discussions regarding the issues, but by trashing one another, we only create anonymosity and more problems. This site will NOT tolerate it, and the staff is working on a specific set of rules and action/solution plans to address these threads, members, and posts.
My opinion represents my guiding views as the founder of this site and the Executive Director. I have many other administrative duties as well to keep this site online. I typically don't get involved with the various daily thread, post, or member issues which are handled independently by the staff, which takes a tremendous stressfull burden off my shoulders and are the reason why the site is still online..
The staff of this site volunteer their time to work together as a team to run this site, on a 24/7 basis.. I have full trust in them, and are an excellent team who have a tremendous workload which many members don't see or appreciate. Our staff consists of carefully handpicked active or retired Police Officers, Career and Volunteer Firefighters and EMS personel, Emergency Communications staff, EOC personel, and many other backgrounds. They understand and can relate to all the members and situations.They have accomplished many great things, and this site wouldn't be what it is without them.
Don't waste their time by making them have to "referee". And how can you accomplish this? Respect on another, and bury the hatchet already.
Seth G.
seth@emtbravo.com

I have had a Trooper grab a handline and knock down fire over my head as I entered a building for a search once...you won't hear me talk trash about Troopers with hoselines....

I honestly don't even understand why we are discussing this topic. I didn't join the fire service to get a "free ride" anywhere and I sure as hell hope that others don't either. But we all know that somewhere down the line someone will be nice enough to not take no thanks as an answer, when that happens x129K said it best.

Long Island man charged with arson in Tamarack fire
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2012/April/10/Muckenhaupt_Tamfire_arr-10Apr12.html
ELLENVILLE – A Nassau County man was arrested Monday and charged with starting the fire that burned down the old Tamarack property in Greenfield Park.
Lance Muckenhaupt, 56, of 119 Windsor Gate Drive in New Hyde Park was charged with two felony counts of arson as well as other charges in connection with the fire that destroyed or damaged over 30 buildings and over 50 acres of woodland....

The Shirt Looks Good, The guy in the picture Not So Much lol jk.

$3500 to draw up a map and plan???? How about having the Pleasant Valley Fire District assume the contract since they are Pleasant Valley's experts when it comes to Fire and EMS in Pleasant Valley?

I give Mohegan VAC tremendous credit. To go from 100% volunteer to having a paid crew is a huge step that most departments won't take even though they need to.
Regarding the employees vs contractors, consider this. Someone from Mohegan VAC just pays a bill (if there is one) once a month to Empress and then the Chief/Captain handles any issues that may come up. If you direct hire employees, you have a fixed number of employees, whereas Empress can pull any of their employees to fill in shifts at Mohegan VAC and you are also not dealing with the whole human resources aspect of the paid crews (vacation and sick coverage, benefits, training, certifications, terminations, hirings, physicals, immunizations, etc.)
Beekman pays a bill once a month and TransCare handles everything else. I don't need any more headaches and I'm sure Mohegan VAC doesn't either.

01-05-0018 Firefighter Assist and Search Team (FAST)
The firefighter as a member of a FAST operation will identify the tools and staffing requirements for a FAST operation; develop a rescue plan for a missing, lost, or trapped firefighter; demonstrate rope search techniques; and demonstrate removing a firefighter/victim up a stairwell, up or down through a hole in a floor/roof, moving a downed firefighter out of a window, and lowering a firefighter down a ladder. This course requires students to perform a number of practical evolutions with self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA).
Designed For:Fire service personnelCourse Length:16 hours

Correct me if I'm wrong but Westchester was the first to attach Firefighter Survival to the end of the Firefighter 1 classes. Dutchess started incorporating the class into FF1 last year. East Fishkill was gracious enough to host a Firefighter Survival class in November of 2008 and they had to send a ton of people away because the class was way over the max.
In the next two months, Dutchess will add waiting lists to its online training registration website and CC-9 will truly have an idea how many Dutchess firefighters still need Survival. Then they can tackle the FAST class issue.
Should every firefighter have FAST? Absolutely. You just need to remember that your firefighters will need to practice those skill regularly. Taking the class 4 years ago and not practicing the skills should not qualify you as a FAS team member.
FF2 touches upon some of the FAS skills but firefighters should take the full FAST class.