M' Ave

It does have a very boxy look, like the larger ESU ESS trucks. Those larger ESU rigs do respond, often even to motor vehicle accidents. I don't know what the response protocol is for them. Sometimes we see them on accidents and sometimes you only see the smaller rigs. The larger units are Mack MR chassis with a single axle rear end. *Note, the current Rig assigned to R1 will be replaced within the next 6 months. I'm sure it's bound for the spare pool.

Sounds right to me. Some stuff I was not aware of. Thanks!

Not sure about Tac Training Support, but I'm sure it's pretty much like it sounds. As for Rescue School, this is the series of classes attended by members who transfer to Squad and Rescue Co's. The vehicle carries training equipment. Why the lights? No they're not intended to respond to emergencies, but that vehicle may very well have served another purpose prior to serving in it's present capacity. They're pretty multi-purpose vehicles.

Pretty much got it! Although this one was purchased by the Manhattan Borough president. The purpose of these units is to make some basic essential skills training more readily available to Co's that are far from "The Rock". Training is generally conducted at "The Rock" at 10am, 1pm and 7pm. If you have to get to "The Rock" from Staten Island or Far Rockaway, ect...you can"t help but hit traffic in at least one direction at any of those times. It's hardly acceptable to have a company O.O.S. for 5 or 6 hours because they spent 2 hours training and the rest sitting on the BQE and the Verizano. That is why they have all of these mobile training units.

The CTU is staffed with a fireman and an officer. The officer does, at this time, set-up a lap-top at the command post for real time images of exposure 3 and the roof. The IC will ask the officer from CTU to direct his fireman, (sometimes 2 firemen) to move and set-up cameras in areas that he feels he needs to see. None of the 3 MSU rigs have a cascade unit. No need. Every rig has 2 cylinders per mask and if a job goes to a 3rd alarm, an MSU rig will show up at the scene and exchange cylinders. Those MSU rigs carry hundreds of them. The 3 MSU rigs spend most of their time making rounds to a firehouse in each battalion that is the depot for mask and O2 cylinders. They bring full cylinders and head back to MSU with the empties. They'll get filled on one of the 4 or 5 filling stations that handle 10 or 12 cylinders at a time. Each company exchanges cylinders at this designated firehouse within the same battalion. We end up exchanging them quite often, mostly because each mask does get turned on and check twice daily, and as soon as the needle reads towards the low end of the green, out it comes.

Looks like great work. Whats the collar around the base of the 4x4? Is that something guys made in house as an anchor point for the strapping?

Is this correct? I think the current truck is Lad. 20. Would they really have Lad. 20 and TL. 20? This numbering system is silly. A truck co. is a truck co. Okay, now a personal note: The subject of consolidation has come up a great deal and the approval of this purchase highlights the importance of consolidation even more. Can the VMFD put a tower ladder to use? Of course they can! Ideally, every community should have both. A lot of community's could have both if their fire department covered several municipalities. There is a Tower Ladder down the road in Harrison, seconds away. There is also a Tower ladder in Larchmont. The Village has several Multiple Dwellings, along with some commercial and light industry. The Tower Ladder is a key tool, but the Dollar-to-Response ratio would be much better if apparatus served a greater area.

Wait....you don't have to live in the city to be on the job, but you have to live in the city in order to take the promotional exam? WHAT!? Never mind the fact that you had 70 days notice that you had to live in the city for a year. This is insane, you've got a great argument for court intervention here! This was clearly cooked up by the most racist organization in Civil Service, The Vulcan Society.

You can't go wrong with the PowerPlus Daylighter. I's simple, bright and takes a beating. One suggestion I'd make, and I stole this idea from someone else. I can't take the credit, it's a great idea; Most box lights come with a shoulder strap. Instead, put a big ring or a biner through the handle and clip BOTH ends of ends of the shoulder strap to that ring. Also, tighten the shoulder stap so that, when you put it over your head, the light stays tucked a little tighter under your arm. This way, it doesn't hang down too far and with the ring and biner, you can easily point the light in every direction. Guys with a lot of experience have always said that a light, a big one, is key on the roof. You need all the light you can get up there. The coat mounted survivor light really does nothing but point at the ground when you're crawling, but it's great for a guy who has the Control position in an engine. When you're in a poorly lit stairwell and you need to hook up to and monitor pressure from the stand-pipe, it's a great light.

I think we've been doing the EBF-4 for a year or more, but this is the first I've heard of it being associated with a location monitoring program and thats wrong.

HAHA, WHAT?!? I've never heard of this! Goes to show you what they think of us firemen in HQ. "Treat them like mushrooms, keep'em in the dark and"....you know the rest. Pilot programs are common and isolated. Some do go city wide, but not all. Management of a Mayday call is something that, in my limited experience, needs a lot of refinement. Radio traffic at a hectic event is overwhelming and Mayday's get stepped on. We do have the EAB (emergency alert button) on our remote mic, but most of the audio that I listen to from fires, the button is not pressed. By the time the Mayday is called, the member in trouble does not think to press this button. How do we ingrain that in someones head? It sounds easy enough, but I've never been in the situation where I was literally burning up and needed to use this device, thank god... How DO we improve the Mayday management system?

First off....I carry too much! My coat is heavy! Left Pocket: Safety Glasses, hose strap, 15' of nylon webbing rolled up and a pair of work gloves Right Pocket: Small vice grips, lineman pliers, shove knife, screw driver with 4 tips and a Channellock 911 cutting plier. (CUTS THROUGH CABLE LIKE BUTTER) On the front of my coat I sewed the sheath of a CRKT survival knife with a 5" blade, half serrated. Easy to grab if hung up in wires and such. A lot of old buildings have cable, internet and phone wires run through the hallway in plastic molding. This molding is high, as in above the doorways. Only a little bit of heat will melt this and bring it down on your head! A good blade or pair of snips is a must! Along these lines of getting caught; you need to keep calm in order to free yourself. Remember the maneuvers with the mask. You should be able to do anything with that mask blind! Taking it off, moving it around, pushing it forward and getting it back on should be second nature.

Money is always an issue for most fire departments and I certainly agree that you could do great things with 8-10,000 dollars. Really, that cost shouldn't eat into your budget, you just have to put it in as a new line for the bean counters. Accountability is essential to the smooth operation of any organization. Every company from a Fortune 500 to the smallest business is audited annually. It's a component of being professional and organized.

When the numbers are broken down, it really looks terrible. Summed up, the FDNY protects 8x the population with 40% of the equipment. You can't get into a literal comparison, because it's apples and oranges, but those numbers certainly call for some sort of review. Response times don't HAVE to suffer either. You don't have to close down each firehouse, but you could reduce the equipment compliment by consolidation. Perhaps rescue companies could be made up of some sort of task force between multiple agencies. Maybe each dept. doesn't need to have a Rear-mount AND a platform. Two neighboring departments could make use of one each and have dual responses. There are many ways to reduce an AMAZING redundancy of apparatus without hindering response times or levels of service. 8, 10, 15+ million dollar firehouses are a completely different story. I think a departments quarters should be nice and offer some comforts and maybe a luxury or two to entice guys to spend more time there. Thats fine. However, when I go to work in a 100+ year old firehouse that is LITERALLY crumbling, it makes you scratch your head at some of these palaces being built. Somehow 50 people (11 at a time) manage to work, eat, train and respond to many thousands of alarms each year out of this small and well worn firehouse. Plenty of volunteer organizations do quite well with comfortable and conservative quarters. If your willingness to participate hangs on how nice your firehouse is, you need to reevaluate your priorities.

While a Quint certainly costs more to purchase than an Engine, it's hardly a noticeable line item on a city budget. The cost of a piece of apparatus can be averaged out over it's 10-15 year lifespan and when you break it down that way, it's pretty cheap. What costs money is men, unfortunately for the bean counters, manpower is the only thing that can effect a rescue or put a fire out. Going to a Quint, as opposed to a traditional Engine/Truck model, saves money while sacrificing capabilities. This isn't to say that Quints are a bad idea. They're appropriate for certain situations, such as a volunteer organization. The piece of apparatus that a company rides in does not define that company. What defines them is the job that they perform at the fire or other emergency. When you have a Quint, you have a rig that's sort of an engine and sort of a ladder, but what will it be when it arrives? Are it's members going to search for survivors and vent or are they going to extinguish the fire? A quint is a way to cut staff thus cutting the budget and create some illusion of continued firefighting capabilities. In reality, you've cut the number of men and exchanged two precise tools for one half-assed hybrid. Your firefighting abilities are considerably hampered and, sadly, the public is non-the-wiser.

Is this a dig? If so, it's not particularly constructive... In fact, there is nothing funny about it, but it raises a real concern. This is not to call into question the dedication of a particular organization's firemen, nor their professionalism and drive. Really, it doesn't need to be discussed in relation to ANY particular fire department. What an MCI such as this might highlight is a need for an MCI response plan that includes multiple agencies......or some kind of consolidation to form a larger agency with the means and necessity for more equipment. I did not respond to this box yesterday, but I was at work and listening. There were an incredible amount of units on the scene to mitigate this disaster. Rescues 3 and 4 operated including, at least Collapse Rescue 3. That's 12 firemen, on top of an entire first alarm assignment. 39 pairs of hands. Add to that a few chief's and their aides, plus ESU and a FAST truck (Which sounds like a good idea to me when you have members working in a large, unstable and overturned bus). Top that off with 10+ EMS units, FDNY RAC 4 with temp. morgue set-up and Haz-Mat 1 to manage the fuel containment. That was all within the first few minutes. Many more followed. I'm sure you can up the tally with a great deal of DOT and Police units. All of these resources and they had their hands full. These are people used to working together with a great deal of equipment at their disposal. More equipment than most Westchester Dept's. (outside of the bigger cities, Yonkers, NR, ect) have. So, what do you do? Who calls for what units and equipment? This seems like a perfect example of a need to utilize some kind of automatic response matrix with multiple F.D., P.D. and EMS agencies with a predetermined I.C. to maintain organization. Clearly, and thankfully, this is an oddball event and no one knows exactly what to expect or how to perfectly handle each incident. However, it would be a good idea to consider what MIGHT be needed so that the proper personnel and apparatus are alerted quickly.

I THINK that the P32 was the only engine providing power in this move. The two BL20's were just idling. GREAT photos!!!!

There are some great photos of this move floating around. Thanks for the heads up!!

I'm not a SOC guy, so my familiarity of how they set-up their rig is pretty minimal. However, before thinking about how they're supposed to get to them, I wonder what their intended use would be. In theory, when Rescue is operating, there are truck co's there with multiple ground ladders that are very accessible. I wonder if they're there as a little extra or to satisfy some requirement. Perhaps there isn't much intent to use them. One other option is that there are fold down steps YET to be mounted. It could be on display with more things to be added later. For example, I don't see an MDT screen in the rear and I'm certain that they will have one.

Good question. There are over 40 rail stations in Westchester, serving hundreds of thousands of commuters with, in excess of 500 trains a day. While the gap is larger than the NYC subway, it's still a gap. This would be some excellent training to see implemented at the County training facility, or perhaps in conjunction with Metro North at the Croton Harmon facility. These cases happen a lot. Not always with a full body, but a fair amount of feet and knees. The space case mentioned above is a priceless tool for this type of emergency.

Nice as it might be...for the SRT-8 money, I'll take a decent Audi or BMW. It's just too expensive for something with a huge engine that doesn't handle THAT great and has a cheapo plastic interior. It's kinda like a roller skate with a big engine. This years model does look much better though.

If you can't pass the CPAT, you should check to see if you have a pulse.

CAREFUL! You might say it was easy....but is it fair to everyone based purely on racial background?!?! Only the results will tell! You're excellent score, a result of studying for a love of the job no doubt, might not mean a THING! If the job wasn't simply handed to enough of the right people, you might be put into the "second class category" of people who tried hard. You silly bunch! I hope everyone finds my anger and frustration to be but, thinly veiled...

Well said. Much as I'd like to see the courts slam the door on the Westboro Church, I agree with the notion that having a jury decide the limits of free speech is a very powerful concept, and a dangerous one. Also noted in the decision of the court are the recent laws passed by 43 states, creating a buffer zone preventing these people from coming within a certain distance of funeral proceedings.

The first of the most recent 75' TL order was rejected by FDNY. It may have included some of the "Aerialscope II" features. I'm not sure what they call the newest rendition that the city will be receiving. Time will tell! As for the jacking system, true! You can't beat it. It's a crane, leaving the rigs suspension completely out of the equation. Having only two outriggers that extend width wise, instead of a more typical 4, makes set-up on tight blocks a bit easier.