Atv300

Yeah Willy even those cold winter nights. Just something about being on that step with the wind (and rain and snow and dirt and dust) in your face. We used to get geared up on that back step too. One guy holding on to the cross bar, arms spread wide, while the other stood in between his arms donning his turnouts, and then they switched...and thoise turnouts btw were handed down to the backsteppers by another guy up in the hosebed....all while in motion.  Ahhh yeah the good ole days of being young.  My God the safety Nazis would have a stroke if they ever saw it....  Honestly though like just about everything else in our business, barring the unexpected and things beyond our control, if you did what you were taught you'd be just fine...as all of us were. I guess it's more nostalgia than anything else, FFs are much better off today in term of road safety and rehab, but it still was one hell of a ride and I'm glad I got to partake in it.
 
Got to agree with your second point here...money would be put to better use donating to ffcancer.org or another FF aid charity.

You wear the pack on your back but if you're on air for this again you're a yard breather and are less of a ff then the exterior driver who has got tools out ready and ladders thrown to windows. But I forget there's no such thing as a need for support personnel everyone should be able to go interior so when guys get injured or they can't go interior they should be thrown out with the rest of the rejected that cannot be interior. Even though when properly cleared many of these categories can play a vital role in the outcome of a fire. We don't need anyone who can't be interior so we'll also have to start limiting age due to the number of 40 plus year old interior guy's dying from heart attacks. So with the age cut off those guy's on the job well oh well you can't be a driver because you don't belong interior so thanks for being here 20yrs have a nice day don't have to go home but can't stay here.
Yes the requirements for some one becoming and staying interior needed updating. Just remember there are probably more exterior/support personnel are and were regular firefighters before they had to hang up there scba the way some make it sound they are not firefighters. It was added about hospitals you're right not everyone is called a Dr but they are all health care workers. Just like not everyone in the fire service is an interior or wildland or whatever but we are all firefighters! So get off you're high horse find real solutions for all of the fire service and the community's better requirements for every position in the fire service don't just write off the exterior like I said before a lot of them can't be interior anymore.

You wear the pack on your back but if you're on air for this again you're a yard breather and are less of a ff then the exterior driver who has got tools out ready and ladders thrown to windows. But I forget there's no such thing as a need for support personnel everyone should be able to go interior so when guys get injured or they can't go interior they should be thrown out with the rest of the rejected that cannot be interior. Even though when properly cleared many of these categories can play a vital role in the outcome of a fire. We don't need anyone who can't be interior so we'll also have to start limiting age due to the number of 40 plus year old interior guy's dying from heart attacks. So with the age cut off those guy's on the job well oh well you can't be a driver because you don't belong interior so thanks for being here 20yrs have a nice day don't have to go home but can't stay here.
Yes the requirements for some one becoming and staying interior needed updating. Just remember there are probably more exterior/support personnel are and were regular firefighters before they had to hang up there scba the way some make it sound they are not firefighters. It was added about hospitals you're right not everyone is called a Dr but they are all health care workers. Just like not everyone in the fire service is an interior or wildland or whatever but we are all firefighters! So get off you're high horse find real solutions for all of the fire service and the community's better requirements for every position in the fire service don't just write off the exterior like I said before a lot of them can't be interior anymore.

You wear the pack on your back but if you're on air for this again you're a yard breather and are less of a ff then the exterior driver who has got tools out ready and ladders thrown to windows. But I forget there's no such thing as a need for support personnel everyone should be able to go interior so when guys get injured or they can't go interior they should be thrown out with the rest of the rejected that cannot be interior. Even though when properly cleared many of these categories can play a vital role in the outcome of a fire. We don't need anyone who can't be interior so we'll also have to start limiting age due to the number of 40 plus year old interior guy's dying from heart attacks. So with the age cut off those guy's on the job well oh well you can't be a driver because you don't belong interior so thanks for being here 20yrs have a nice day don't have to go home but can't stay here.
Yes the requirements for some one becoming and staying interior needed updating. Just remember there are probably more exterior/support personnel are and were regular firefighters before they had to hang up there scba the way some make it sound they are not firefighters. It was added about hospitals you're right not everyone is called a Dr but they are all health care workers. Just like not everyone in the fire service is an interior or wildland or whatever but we are all firefighters! So get off you're high horse find real solutions for all of the fire service and the community's better requirements for every position in the fire service don't just write off the exterior like I said before a lot of them can't be interior anymore.

Search the "Want Ads?" J/K

J.H. Ketcham Hose Co. Dutchess county is about to go for final inspection on the first of two new rigs. First is a new E-One emax stainless steel body 1500 pump 1000 tank 30 foam. The second will be a commercial cab E-ONE engine/tanker 1500 pump 1800 tank. When the EMAX comes through on final delivery I will post some pictures as well as some more specs. Sneak peak at the eight man cab before the body gets mounted at E-one's Hamburg new york plant. Picture was sent form the ny plant when the chassis was delivered from Florida.

I'm still confused. How is 585 the a*hole? Especially if you agree with the majority of what he says? You do realize he is a chief officer in his department, right? So, again....please elaborate.

Interesting topic, with I'm sure many opinions.
1. Up this way, 99% of the FD's are volunteer and they tend to call M/A to the scene mostly, with a few calling for station coverage. Oddly, our career crews get requested to at least two FD's for station coverage, while these stations sit empty 90% of the time (all POC). It doesn't seem to be all that sensible to call in station coverage if the station is typically unmanned unless due to the incident the nearest units are significantly further away? If you need more units for staging, then ask for units to stage, but as covering assignments to FD's that are running less than 100 calls a year?
On the other end of the spectrum, we request M/A for covering units whenever we have a third alarm or greater, and quite often the covering units are sent on other runs.
2. Units do not run lights and sirens to covering or staging assignments.
3. We have no apparatus so vital to us that we keep it at "home" but we do ensure we have primary EMS and fire apparatus to respond to other calls for service, so the station is typically covered (excluding ladder service due to the scarce aerial resources in our area 3 total!)

UGH!
Looks like a once nice truck crashed through a bad episode of Baywatch and then a JC Whitney catalog!
Y U C K !

Being a former volunteer firefighter and a career firefighter for the last 23 years (an officer for the last 15), here is my take on it:
Being career does not make you any better than being volunteer. I know some volunteer departments in my old hometown (Dutchess County NY) where everyone is well certified and competent, and they show up very rapidly when the tones go off. Heck, some of those guys are better trained than the people I currently work with.
It all has to do with the following and applies to both volunteer and career departments:
Leadership -- if the department's leadership does not make sure that there is a means to get their membership trained and encourages it, the department will never be functional.
Membership -- if you can't get enough people to adequately staff the vehicles when called, then the department will not be functional.
Political Support -- if you can't get the support of your commissioners or supervising governmental entity, the department will not be functional.
Fire Prevention -- if the department or municipality doesn't take fire prevention seriously and does not have a good inspection program in place where property owners are held accountable, there will be fire safety issues.
I've seen terrible volunteer departments and I've seen terrible career departments. I've also seen great career departments and volunteer departments that would put most career departments to shame. I really don't think it has anything to do with volunteer vs. career as a whole, but the specific area in NJ.
I've seen many departments here in Florida go from volunteer to career and shut down/disband firehouses completely so they could pay the staff of 2 firefighters on an engine for each of the other stations covering a larger area. Yes, you have 100% assurance a unit will respond immediately, but you have less units and longer response times in those areas where the fire stations were shut down.
This is just my 2 cents.

I LOVE IT! I am a big E-One fan, and a bigger "truck" fan, so this is a nice fit.
We also run a 2006 HP75, and while it is nice, we are certainly handicapped by the shortfall of the "just" 75' stick. As I have mentioned in the past, even though the majority of our fires are in SFD, the setback from the road is what kills us. That extra 25 feet would come in handy on more than 1 fire that I can immediatly recall.

DF_Hose_Co._flyer_2013.pdf

Whether responding to a pt with burns or a pt with meningitis, had proper BSI been used (gloves, apron, shield, mask) by the responding company this would not have been an issue.
BSI is for our protection as much as it is for our pts.
We need to be protected from the meningitis pt and a burn pt needs to be protect from us, however both calls require the same BSI.

But doesn't it only matter that you are qualified in what task you are doing that came into question.
For example, in an extrication, if the people operating are AVET + Rescue Tech certified. Does it matter if they are FF1, FF2, or any other suppression cert?

It ain't about the height.....it's the REACH.
And with a majority of SFD's in the suburbs and rural districts being set back from the roadway, even 75' is too short, as my department has seen all too often.

I think the most commonly used thing on our rigs is the pen for the reports...

I can see good uses for a booster reel on a rig but as many have posted the good points are matched and surpassed by a trash line or even the first fifty feet of an attack line. The boosters pit falls out way the small amount of negative of using a regular inch and three quarter for one sole reason the human factor you cannot guarantee everyone will not take the easy way out at the wrong time.
Sorry for using your post but this is the main reason why boosters are a bad idea they can create bad habits. I am not going into all the details unless someone needs them think of this propane expands 270 times from a liquid to a gas so it really dose not take much to create a large problem even a twenty pound cylinder can kill a lot of people in short order most twenty pound tanks have around 4 gallons of liquid do the math it becomes a large issue in a hurry. It wasn't to long ago just over the state line from my area where a building was destroyed by a leaking forklift tank and most of them are only ten more pounds (1-2gal liquid) then a regular BBQ grill. http://www.newmilfordspectrum.com/news/article/Propane-explosion-razes-Gaylordsville-439432.php
Everyone just needs to think and be safe no matter what the department has or there polices are. We are all here for the same dam thing get home safe.

I can see good uses for a booster reel on a rig but as many have posted the good points are matched and surpassed by a trash line or even the first fifty feet of an attack line. The boosters pit falls out way the small amount of negative of using a regular inch and three quarter for one sole reason the human factor you cannot guarantee everyone will not take the easy way out at the wrong time.
Sorry for using your post but this is the main reason why boosters are a bad idea they can create bad habits. I am not going into all the details unless someone needs them think of this propane expands 270 times from a liquid to a gas so it really dose not take much to create a large problem even a twenty pound cylinder can kill a lot of people in short order most twenty pound tanks have around 4 gallons of liquid do the math it becomes a large issue in a hurry. It wasn't to long ago just over the state line from my area where a building was destroyed by a leaking forklift tank and most of them are only ten more pounds (1-2gal liquid) then a regular BBQ grill. http://www.newmilfordspectrum.com/news/article/Propane-explosion-razes-Gaylordsville-439432.php
Everyone just needs to think and be safe no matter what the department has or there polices are. We are all here for the same dam thing get home safe.

OK...so we all know the NFPA REALLY means, Not For Practical Application....but I have a question, and it may be common knowledge, but I dont know..
We go out and spend $$$ to make our gear NFPA compliant...throw "good" gear away after 10 years...ditch our salty helmets that have been with some for a career....spend money to put pretty chevrons on the apparatus...bail out kits....helmet carriers in cabs, and the list goes on and on...
We question "Why?"....and our Chiefs say "becasue the NFPA says so...."
So answer me this - why can SO many towns and cities completely ignore the NFPA manning standards? What IS the minimum staffing per rig per NFPA?
Why are we still sending career jobs out with three, two, and even ONE guy on a rig?
And it's not just the small jobs like Middletown, Kingston, and Beacon - but larger, very urban cities like Reading, Pa that see alot of fire duty. Reading, last I knew, had 2 men per apparatus...that means thier Ladders 1, 2 (reserve), and 3, roll out with a driver and a tillerman! How scary is that?
Why is this overlooked, but other, IMO trivial regs enforced without hesitation?

I find them distracting. Another thing to look at when backing up.
But I guess if you're alone and backing up, it helps you survey what's there. And since many accidents occur while backing up, this may be a help for that. It's not a replacement for apparatus handling skills, spotters, or mirrors. Camera or not, larger apparatus should never be backed up alone, and drivers should know the size of their vehicle and "pre plan" prior the backing up.
Personally, I prefer sensors that beep when you near an object, I think New Rochelle E-21 has this.

I am going down to LI with another Task Force from Dutchess County at 0600 tomorrow

I know. Just felt it needed a response because too many comments have said it can not be done.

I just finished my refresher HazMat First Responder Ops. class Tuesday night. One of the things suggested for evacuations is if a person refuses to leave the area, provide him/her with a permanent magic marker to write their name, social security number, and a contact number on their body. This way when the body is recovered the appropriate people can be notified.

Bahhhh......masks are positive pressure...

Title should read, "Cop saves his, and partners lives after threat by criminal".........