commonsensejake

FF1, I want to thank you for your view on things. Until you walk in the shoes of the incident commander you really don't have a clue about the initial size up and consultations that were occurring during the incident in question. Your view on dispatch and consolidation is not far off, but very naive. Dispatchers don't decide who responds to any given jurisdiction. They follow the CAD or pre-established policies for the departments they serve. There is at least one validated consolidation study available (south of RT 287), however until home rule in NYS is abolished nothing will change. There is a Westchester County Special Operations Task Force that involves 12 career departments, and Hartsdale is one of those member agencies. E170 is an asset that is assigned to Squad 6 and is normally staffed with no less than three hazmat techs. E170 was sent as a single resource of a larger task force unit and being staffed with four techs could operate safely and as an asset for the IC. A single member in a command car might have been considered, but obviously the HFD command staff didn't agree. Mutual aid in the Town of Greenburgh occurs so that adequate personnel arrive on the scene in a timely manner and have the ability to go to work without delay. If you need more information why not ask the fire chief's directly. Their emails and phone numbers are published.

FACT: Science beats tradition when it comes to extinguishment. http://firechief.com/suppression/foam/benefits-class-a-foam-200907/ http://firechief.com/suppression/foam/firefighting_bubbles_beat_water/ Boston showed great results, however they had retrofitted older rigs and had major maintenance issues. As long as there is a failure of the large metropolitan fire agency located on the East Coast (serving 5 boros) to recognize the benefits of this method of extinguishment it will continue to flounder in regard to acceptance. Once a member of that agency sees the light and does a program on it at FDIC or another big venue it will look like the second coming of the savior.

Should have left them in the woods for the night. It was not raining, snowing, hailing, freezing, etc. How much did that little trip cost the taxpayers because citidiots failed to leave the woods before dark? Someone's failure to exercise good judgment should not be cause for an emergency services response when there is not injury or risk of injury.

The Westchester County Chief's Academy is $4000 for Spring 2011 and is 16 weeks long (includes CFR).

Anyone who purchases a modern piece of fire apparatus and does not include a foam injection system has done the community they protect a great disservice. There is no excuse for not having class A foam on almost every fire. The use of modern foam systems requires the MTO to know how to operate a toggle switch. Use of Class A in highrise/standpipe applications is discouraged due to the possibility of cross contamination of potable water. As far as CAFS - go look at the Science before you discuss it further - it works everywhere outside of the Northeast. The Palmdale, CA study conducted with NIST should be required reading. The utilization of CAFS in highrise/standpipe applications can only occur if the OS&Y to the standpipe is closed and CAFS is pumped to the siamese. The vast majority of the personnel at FDNY don't have a clue what the letters C.A.F.S. stand for - regardless of rank. Hope this helps.

Too bad the class was not offered to PFD's immediate neighbors (increase the potential manpower pool). Nice to know at least the equipment exists in Putnam County.