WAS967

Any additional on the entrapped parties?

Great name for someone in the fire service! I'll have to check out his book. I've been meaning to expand my knowledge of Hazmat.

I want to know what happens to the bed licenses from both United and St. Agnes. I mean between the two they have more than, what? 300 beds? If I were WPHC, I'd be jumping all over the chance to get more beds. WPHC is literally so swamped, they track patient time in the hospital not by days or hours, but by the MINUTE. Thats nuts. And since DOH hasn't issues any new bed licenses in ages, you won't see the hospitals' capacities expanding any time soon unless they buy some more licenses.

I'll second that. Hey, in Rockland, how come the ambulances and medics aren't dispatched by 44 control?

I tell you, being an Intermediate service is nothing special. Mohegan, YVAC and PCVAC are all EMT-I services and guess how many times I've seen the "I" bag pulled and used. Never. It's a nice thing to have as a "just in case" but you don't need to be an Intermediate service to use skills. Any EMT-I can operate under a Medic if he's willing to let you. And I tell you, haing someone able to drop a line while I'm doing other stuff, if invaluable. But I agree with 585. Adding levels to a house when the lower floors are incomplete will only lead to a building collapse.

How is that sample specific to self dispatch agencies? All comms should be like that. IF a unit calls a status to the Comm center, the comm center should acknoledge and repeat back the status. This is especially important in non-repeated radio systems covering large areas. I work a system where we are spread out over more than 100 square miles (does that sound right x635). If a unit up north calls a signal, it drives me NUTS when the comm center just says "10-4 45Medic-whatever." In the meantime I'm sitting there, unable to hear what they said because I'm miles away, wondering, okay....what is thier status? Some dispatchers echo, some don't. The ones that do, get my kudos.

Okay, I'll bite. Who has a 4500 around here besides Harrison? Or did you actually tech a call with HVAC?

Gives new meaning to "wet dream"

PDT_Armataz_23 For those about to rock, we salute you!

Read the whole Rescue Me discussion and you won't need to ask. :->

There will be a Double Call audit this month at Hudson Valley. Held on the third tuesday (this month thats the 14th i believe), the audit is usually 2 hour audit/cme format starting at 1930 hours. This month will be two hours of audit for those looking to catch up. Also, the next day phelps has thier usual 2 hour ALS/BLS audit.. BLS is at 1900, ALS at 2000.

Like which? I want to take the Hazmat classes and I know those are open to pretty much any agency, not just fire. I could see maybe EVOC classes and the like (I would love to take one of those).

Oh right. I forgot about that. Basically you get credit for demonstrating skills. Beyond that I'm not sure how it works. For those of you who are not aware, WREMAC is working on pushing through new regulations that would require our 3 years worth of CME credits to be in specific areas as opposed to the "fanything goes" format they have now. Not a BAD idea, but not great either. Basically they are following the EXACT format as the state CME based refresher. For those of you who are like me and just don't have the time to track down specific CMEs and would rather just take one quick refresher class each year, this is going to SUCK.

Check out phelps. They usually have one every three months or so. I just finished the one that tested in November. I believe there are plans for a winter/spring class, and I'd be VERY surprised if Jeff didn't run some kind of class during the summer. And they have EMT refreshers regularly as well.

Who was elected captain of CCVAC for next year?

Maybe it's the cost of electricity? Who knows. There are usually a bunch of houses on Westbrook off Fawn Lane that get into the yearly battle of lights. But I think one of the usual houses might have changed hands a while back cause one year I didn't see it with any lights. I'd be bummed if I drove by and didn't see ANY lights up there.

Well, during the height of the fire I think there were four fully staffed rigs at our disposal. PCVAC had all three of thiers manned and CCVAC was standing by in PCVAC headquarters. The biggest problem with ANY rehab is stubborn firefighters. No offense guys, but we're guys. We don't want to sit down and take a break no matter what the weather. God forbid I should try to smack and oxygen mask on someone. Maybe we're afraid we'll look weak, who knows. I know in some of the more organized rehab setups, there are actual rotations specified with mandatory down time dicatated by the CHIEF. Without an order from a department head, it's not like we can go around and say, You....you look tired...sit down and grab some water. In a recent JEMS there were featured some setups that include a huge RV setup for firefighter rehab. Each (wo)man has a medical card that is used to track vitals. The medical director has limits setup as to min/max B/P and HR a person can have during operations. If you spike a high BP or HR, you sit out, no questions. WE had coffee for the guys, which is okay but not great. What does caffiene make you do? Urinate. Little good that does in keeping a person hydrated. I like the sport drink and quaker oats bar/ nutra-grain bar combo. You get crabs, hydration, and decent nutritional support. Yes, rehab is important, but as with many things, we have miles to go before we sleep.

Yeah. The oreos were on sale so I grabbed a few batches. I firgured they would go quick but I knew Salvation Army was on the way so I just grabbed something to tide people over. Mitch said I should give someone the reciept, but you know what, people were out there busting thier butts to fight that thing, it was the least I could do to contribute. After all, nobody got hurt so my job was easy. I was sitting there on the scene to thinking about rehab. Now most people seem to only think of rehab in the summer time, with the heat and all. But it was cold out there that night, and rainy. I'm glad we had at least something warm for people to drink (and lord knows the caffeine probably helped). I would love to see some kind of apparatus that would allow us to fire up a big pot of water on scene (perhaps a large camping gas fired something or other). For those who don't drink coffee (myself included, but I made an exception) hot water for tea, hot cocoa, maybe even some cup a noodles would have been good. But we made due with what we had, and it seemed to work for the most part. Heck, CCVAC, while on standby, had 5 or 6 medium sized coffee pots going to fill up just one of those coffee thermoses. God bless 'em. And let me just send my complements to the Salvation Army again. They make a mean chicken noodle soup. :chew:

I heard rumors that there might be another addition to the fleet of Somers Fire Stations. Could Engine 132's HQ have been annexed at last night's fire? :wink:

Is it still in one piece? :roll: I thought for sure my cat would have destroyed our tree by now, but so far the worse he has done is grab an ornament or two. We have a mat at the base of the tree that is called a "Scat Mat" which zaps him if he steps on it. He knows well now to stay away from it.

I'm working on the christmas spirit. My wife loves christmas and would never be without the spirit. Yes, we have a fake tree, but it's a lot easier than doing real. Especially with a cat running around.

I didn't really come out of nowhere. Laidlaw has been looking to get rid of AMR for years. Despite the recent turn around in profitability, I'd say this has been in the works for a while.