61MACKBR1

As well run an operation as Empress Ambulance is and has been, it would a make perfect sense to have NRFD bring back Ambulance Service/EMS Support within the fold of the New Rochelle Fire Department. As was mentioned before, Ambulances covering the City of New Rochelle have been quartered in Station 1 and Station 3 for decades. Look at the possibility of by having EMS directly under the NRFD, could allow NRFD EMS/Ambulance Personnel, to be able to utilize NRFD Rescue 4, when needed, without having to take Ladder 11 out of service. My hope, as well, was that cities like New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, White Plains and even, yes, the City of Yonkers, to eventually bring EMS Services into the cities Fire Department Fold. Word is that the New Mayor of the City of Mount Vernon was looking at the possibility of running EMS Services thru the FDMV. Now with open discussions about NRFD taking on EMS Services, and who knows what Commissioner David Chong might be thinking on the same front, well who knows what the possibilities are. Maybe Barry can add his thoughts and comments to this subject

Yonkers FD is rumored to be working on the specifications for a replacement to their 2007 American LaFrance Tandem Axel Rescue Truck. With the fact that Yonkers has been taking on Ferrara's for their recent apparatus acquisitions, one has to be interested in knowing whether or not Yonkers FD will look at who FDNY goes with as far as their New Rescue 1 rig is concerned.

Yonkers FD has 4 more Ferrara Ultra Pumpers on order (thru Neville Fire Apparatus), to replace 4 of the aging ALF Pumpers currently in service (not exactly sure, but most likely Engines 308, 306, 312, and 310), along with 1 additional Ferrara Inferno 85' Mid Mount Tower Ladder (to replace the current 2008 ALF Mid-Mount Tower Ladder 75) and 1 New Ferrara Inferno 100' Rear Mount Ladder Truck (to replace the current 2007 HME/Smeal 100' Rearmount Ladder 74)

At the Old Station 8 (Carriage House) that was located just north of their current quarters, along Warburton Avenue (This building was torn down about 2 years ago or so).

Yes, I have also heard that there are issues with the Volunteer FF's in Eastchester, with allot of 'Smoke' (excuse the pun) coming from within the Eastchester Board of Fire Commissioners concerning the Volunteers. Would be nice for these 2 factions (Volunteers and the EBOFC) within the Eastchester Fire Department, to be able to resolve their issues/disputes, to allow for the Volunteer Side of the Department, to once again, 'compliment' the Paid Side of the Department (as it was years ago), and then, possibly, the FDMV (Mount Vernon) could learn a thing or two on how to utilize a Volunteer Staff to suppliment the Paid Staff (instead of always calling on Mutual Aid). Watching Winters and Lore go at it, each and every Board Meeting, on TV, is like watching a WWE Championship Wrestling Match - LOL : )

Based upon the assignment of FDMV units at yesterdays' multiple alarm fire in the City of Mount Vernon, am I correct in reading that the FDMV is currently only running the following units as front line apparatus: Engine 3 Engine 4 Engine 5 Engine 6 Ladder 1 Ladder 3 And that Rescue 1 is only manned by Engine 5/Ladder 3 staffing out of the Fulton Avenue Fire Station, on an "As Needed Basis" (which would put either Engine 5 or Ladder 3 out of service, should Rescue 1 be needed)? And that Engine 2 and Ladder 2 are no longer part of the Front Line staffing (only manned by recalled personnel in the case of a major fire in the City of Mount Vernon. If this is the case, for a city, whose infrastructure is as 'Old' as the City of Mount Vernon's is, and whose population is as large as it is, this is truly INSANE !!!

Far cry from the 1970 levels of the FDMV (that Chief Campbell, I am sure could comment on): Front Line: Engine 1 Engine 2 Engine 3 Engine 4 Engine 5 Engine 6 Snorkel 1 Truck 2 Truck 3 Rescue 1 Ambulance 1 Foam 1 (used Engine 5 personnel to man in case it was needed) Spare Engine 7 Spare Truck 4 Rescue 1

YFD Engine Company 4 (1968 Mack C Pumper) and Engine Company 3 (1967 Mack C Pumper [former Engine Company 1])

The "SMART MOVE" would be to do what a very large percentage of COUNTIES do throughout this country. And that is to have a COUNTY RUN EMS and FIRE SERVICE (Consolidated) and everything run by the County, with the Operations 100% controlled out of Valhalla (60 Control) and the heck with all of the City/Town/Village Run Fire and EMS Services. Until such time as everyone in Westchester County wakes up and realizes that the HOME RUN and BACK ROOM POLITICS (tied to individual UNIONS) are causing 99.99% of the headaches in each and every municipality here in Westchester County, all of this "Yo-Yo'ing" of quality of service, complaints about Mutual Aid and other nonsense, will continue to happen. ONE SYSTEM, ONE OPERATION, ONE EMERGENCY SERVICE OPERATION (County Run), ONE SET OF UNIFORM TRAINING REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL FIREFIGHTERS, EMT's and PARAMEDICS, AND ONE COUNTY RUN OPERATION (with one 'set' of Officers and Command Personnel, overseeing all Fire and EMS Operations throughout the County) Until then, this county will continue to be in CHAOS

No "Dog Fight" as you call it LTNRFD, just simply pointing out, as professionally as "STAT213" did with his response, that it make all the sense in the world to have a Consolidated County Run Fire and EMT Service, just like other MAJOR (and Populated) Counties throughout the United States have successfully in place today, that has saved taxpayers a tremendous amounts of money annually (Look at Montgomery County Maryland and Gwinnett County Georgia, for 2 examples that have worked perfectly, if you, as you have 'Personally" asked for, as examples for you to use as a guideline to see how others have done it successfully). It is simply a "Political" battle between politicians who continue to fight to save the "Good Old System" that has been broken for over 100 years, because they don't want to upset certain groups that could impact their political position within their local municipality; as well as Unions, who rather keep 100% controls over their small piece of the pie, rather than having a UNIFIED COUNTY PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION UNION, who would have more to gain, by having a larger SINGLE group to ensure equal rights and a single negotiated contract, which would benefit the firefighters individually more than what they have today (but these local Union Leaders are fearful that if there is only 1 single union, that these Union Leaders would lose their jobs (because you would only need to have 1 head of the County Professional Firefighters Union and 1 head of the County Professional Firefighters Officers Union). Again, no "DOG FIGHT" or personal agenda on my part, just making my opinion on what makes sense to do (Take all of the Egos and Politics out of the issues)

Very smart move by the City of Yonkers (similar in nature to what New Rochelle is doing). With American LaFrance spare parts becoming less and less 'readily available' keeping ALF units as "Front Line Pieces of Apparatus" is not a wise move for departments currently running with them. Thus, it is a very smart move on the part of the YFD to utilize the HGAC Cooperative Purchasing Contract to begin to replace the Front Line ALF Units with these Ferrara Rigs (with essentially the Pumpers being Ferrara Manufactured apparatus, using the Seagrave Specifications and the Ladder/Tower Ladders essentially being manufactured by Ferrara using the Smeal Specificiations). I would suspect (but maybe wrong) that the specifications that YFD could be currently drawing up for their New Rescue 1, would be identical to the one the FDNY used for the Purchase of the 5 Heavy Duty Rescue Units (R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5) that were built and delivered by Ferrara.

Until the New York State "Home Rule" is totally abolished (and we all know that the UNIONS will 'Never' allow this to happen), the concept of either a Regional or Consolidated Fire Service in the County of Westcehster will NOT happen and this MADNESS of a CRIPPLED Mutual Aid System (specifically tied to the City of Mount Vernon) will continue to happen

YFD awarded Ferrara Fire Apparatus (under the HGAC, Houston Galveston Area Cooperative) to not only replace the Current Smeal Rearmount Ladder 74, with a New Ferrara 100ft. Rearmount, but they are also going with Ferrara Fire Apparatus to replace the current 2009 ALF Midmount Tower Ladder 75. Now with the first 2 Ferrara Ultra Pumpers going to Engine 303 and 304, along with the New Ferrara Tower Ladder 71, and with 4 more Ferrara Ultra Pumpers being built for Yonkers (probably to replace Engine 307, 308, 310, and 312), I guess that Yonkers likes what they are getting (so far) from Ferrara.

YFD awarded Ferrara Fire Apparatus (under the HGAC, Houston Galveston Area Cooperative) to not only replace the Current Smeal Rearmount Ladder 74, with a New Ferrara 100ft. Rearmount, but they are also going with Ferrara Fire Apparatus to replace the current 2009 ALF Midmount Tower Ladder 75. Now with the first 2 Ferrara Ultra Pumpers going to Engine 303 and 304, and with 4 more Ferrara Ultra Pumpers being built for Yonkers (probably to replace Engine 307, 308, 310, and 312), I guess that Yonkers likes what they are getting (so far) from Ferrara.

Really simply solution to all of this. At the next public meeting of the Eastchester FD Board of Fire Commissioners, Commissioner Winters needs to advise the Board Member Commissioner Lore, who apparently is the individual on the board who is the Board Liaison to the Eastchester FD Volunteers, that he must provide "At The Next Scheduled Public Meeting" the complete listing of Active Eastchester FD Volunteer Firefighters and the list of those who are no longer active Eastchester FD Volunteer Firefighters. No need to have senseless debate over whether or not Commissioner Winters needs to attend the Monthly Eastchester Volunteer FD Meetings, which we can all tell from the countless number of Monthly Meetings of the EFD Board of Fire Commissioners, that Commissioner Winters has no interest in attending (and we can all tell that Mr. Winters would like nothing more than to abolish the Volunteer Department). However, Commissioner Lore needs to "Step Up" his game and provide to the township, once and for all, the listing of "Active" Volunteer Firefighters in the Town and what duties that they perform on a regular basis. Otherwise not to do this, only feeds Mr. Winters' speculation that the EFD Volunteer Department, is nothing but a "Good Old Boys Club" (everyone certainly knows that Commissioner Lore doesn't want to open any emails from Mr. Winters either). This is not to say that there isn't an active EFD Volunteer Fire Department. There well may be. It just that the public has a right to know who are active members, who are not active members and what function to they perform. Just put the Officers of the Volunteer Department in the same room as the Eastchester Board of Fire Commissioners and Chief Grogan, televise it to the public, and don't let anyone out of the room until this matter has been resolved. Both parties need to be PREPARED with all required documentation and historical records (no baloney about I didn't bring it with me crap).If the Volunteer Department Officers get their nose bent out of shape, then so sorry. On the other side, if Commissioner Winters and Commissioner Napolitano and Chief Grogan get their pants in a uproar, and don't have a logical response to the other side, then so be it as well. (For one, I just can't see either Commissioner Lore, or to that fact Commissioner Winters or Commissioner Napolitano climbing up to the top of the training tower at the County Training Facility, with a full pack on, anytime soon, without keeling over and needed the Eastchester Volunteer Ambulance Squad to given them all some much needed oxygen. so forget either one of those 3 being able to complete any of the required training needed to perform the duties of a Fire Patrol. I think that the public needs to get this CRAP ironed out now rather than allowing it to linger on for months on end. ENOUGH ALREADY !!! Seems like Eastchester VOLUNTEER Fire Department is generating a lot of heat at the Commissioners meeting. I didn't know they still existed. But, according to the heated discussion towards the end of this meeting, they do and they've been "stonewalling" the Commissioners and have not responded to requests for information, including financials, "30-40 times now". This district has so many problems it seems.

SIMPLE AND SOUND ANSWER TO ALL OF THIS - CREATE AND ESTABLISH A "COUNTY RUN FIRE DEPARTMENT" THAT IS MANNED BY CAREER (AND STATE CERTIFIED TRAINED) FIREFIGHTERS. THIS WAY, IF YOU HAVE A MAJOR FIRE, BE IT IN YONKERS, MOUNT VERNON, NEW ROCHELLE, WHITE PLAINS, LARCHMONT, DOBBS FERRY, ARDSLEY, NORTH SALEM, YORKTOWN, OR PEEKSKILL, YOU WOULD ALWAYS HAVE A CAREER 'COUNTY' FIRE COMPANY WHO COULD/WOULD FILL IN. THERE WOULD BE NO SUCH THING AS 'MUTUAL AID' AS WITH THE COUNTY RUNNING THE ENTIRE FIRE SERVICES, THEY WOULD BE REQUIRED TO GO AND HELP

Actually, after only 30 days at Station 8, YFD decided to move Rescue 1 to Station 7 on CPA (probably, because it was a more 'Centralized' location for dispatch across the entire city, from Yonkers Fire Stations with 2 bays, and 1 of which is not currently primarily used.

Happy Birthday Seth !

Apparently, according to press release (see below) the FDMV closed the Fulton Avenue Station today due to budgetary reasons. Until consolidation of emergency services becomes a reality within the entire County of Westchester, you are going to see more of this and you will also see departments like Yonkers, Eastchester and New Rochelle simply refuse to go into Mount Vernon, thus risking lives and property, because of Mount Vernon's refusal to "See The Light" inShare Click to view this email in a browser CITY COUNCIL ONE ROOSEVELT SQUARE, ROOM 104 MOUNT VERNON, NY 10550 (914) 665-2352 · FAX (914) 668-6044 www.cmvny.com PRESS RELEASE RICHARD THOMAS Legislation & Public Works Chairman CITY COUNCILMAN CITY HALL MOUNT VERNON, NY 10550 (914) 297-7868 richthomasmv@gmail.com MT. VERNON MUST STOP PLAYING WITH FIRE “Thousands of lives are in danger while Fulton Avenue Fire House closed. The matter is serious and the administration must prioritize public safety,” said Thomas FOR RELEASE ON Tuesday, July 14, 2015 MOUNT VERNON, NY (Tuesday, July 14, 2015): Approximately 70,000 people live in Mt. Vernon and the City has four (4) fire stations, of which one – Oak Street Fire House – is significantly undermanned and the other – Fulton Avenue Station – is now closed. Each fire house serves roughly 17,500 people and with two in full operation that means each fire station must cover 35,000 people. Since 1996, the City of Mt. Vernon has been known to abuse Westchester County’s mutual aid system for fire assistance. The latest closure of the Fulton Fire House is the latest smack in the face to emergency service personnel and threat to the safety of the citizens of Mt. Vernon. In response to the continued disregard for life and property by Ernest Davis’ administration and financial game of charades being played by the City’s Finance Department, Councilman Richard Thomas issued the following statement: “With temperatures rising and sweltering humidity, more and more people will turn on their air conditioner to escape summer’s blistering heat. For our elderly, children, and sick, staying in a cooler environment could be a matter of life and death. At a time like this, it is unconscionable for the City of Mt. Vernon to have a fire house closed and others significantly understaffed,” said Thomas. According to financial records from the New York State Comptroller’s Office, it appears that Mt. Vernon paid over $1,000,000 (out of budget codes H34102 and A34102) as repayment for mutual aid services in 2014 alone. Records show that New Rochelle and White Plains spent between $180,000 and $240,000 for similar services. “Mt. Vernon’s expenses are true outliers in this equation and make very little sense,” said Thomas. He added, “More alarming is that the salary line for Fire Department (A34101) has approximately $13,825,921, enough to hire an adequate amount of fire fighters, yet the Department remains woefully understaffed with rampant equipment failures and, now, station closures,” Thomas stated. When double checking the salary appropriation against the amount listed on the City’s website, in the Annual 2015 Budget Assessment (see page 38), it shows that the “salary & wages” line for the Fire Department was $13,416,863 for 2014, which is approximately $400,000 less than the amount provided to the State Comptroller’s office. “This is exactly why greater transparency is desperately needed in Mt. Vernon,” said Thomas. “We must reconcile these numbers and put an end to the ‘game of charades’ being played by both Ernest Davis and Maureen Walker. For years they have concealed important information that they are obligated share with the public. The lack of transparency enables high taxes, results in waste, and discourages accountability. Thankfully State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has resources available to assist because at this rate we can never have an honest discussion about what is going on with Mt. Vernon’s finances.” “With respect to the closed fire house, the tenuous situation demonstrates the negligence of city leadership and continued disregard for life, property, and safety. We should be very concerned about the safety of Mt. Vernon’s fire fighters as well as other responding emergency service personnel. This is not a money problem, this is a leadership problem,” he said. “The bottom line is Mt. Vernon must stop playing with fire. People have died as a result of fires, and having a station closed in the midst of summer heightens the need to reopen the Fulton Fire House without delay,” said Thomas. “As the budget season approaches, it is my hope that city officials come together and focus on crafting an action plan to better protect the public from fire, violence, and other threats to safety,” he concluded. # # # PICTURE OF CLOSED FIRE HOUSE SIGN FAR BELOW Councilman Thomas is available for further comment at 917-703-4564 or via Skype or Google Hangout as arranged. Please contact Councilman Thomas for a copy of the Excel spreadsheet with the financial data mentioned above. Note that the information was sourced from the New York State Comptroller’s Open Book database here. LINK:http://wwe2.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/LocalGov/LocalGovIntro.cfm Follow Rich Thomas on FACEBOOK TWITTER INSTAGRAM

Any updates on when the Yonkers Fire Department is expected to take delivery of their 3 New Ferrara Fire Apparatus rigs (2 - Ferrara Ultra Pumpers and 1 - Ferrara Inferno Tower Ladder) that will for Engines 303 and 313 as well as for Tower Ladder 71)? Will all 3 rigs be delivered to the City of Yonkers for inspection, review, driver training, and ultimately to be placed into service, all at the same time, or will they be delivered in phases by Ferrara?

Like Lad45der said above, i suspect, despite how much history is within this building, that the cost to renovate and repair the building 100% (and not just a "Patch Job", which makes no sense at all) will be far greater than to tear it down and build a new Fire Headquarters (Station 1). I am sure that given the emotions of the late Patrick Joyce having worked out of this building, as part of Rescue 1 and the memory of FF Joyce being memorialized within this building, will play heavily in the hearts of those attending the rally this evening. But, I feel that it will eventually come down to what will make more financial sense to the city. (Some might say that there was historical sentiments and reasoning why the city should not have condemned and closed Station 2 on Vineyard Avenue back in the 1980's or when they condemned and closed the Old Station 8 on Warburton Avenue back in the 1970's, or when they condemned and closed Station 3 on Riverdale Avenue back in the late 1960's, but I presume that it made sense financially to build new firehouses for Station 3 and Station 8 rather than renovate the existing structures). Sadly, all of these years of neglect by the City's Building Department, has resulted in what everyone is facing today. If the City had allocated funding, as far back as the late 1970's to help preserve this grand old building, then we would not be in the position that the city is in today.

Another argument for a complete consolidation of all Emergency Services (Fire and EMS [and eventually Police]) into 1 "Consolidated and Unified" Westchester County Department of Emergency Services Operation (Thus, as I have posted countless times on EMTBRAVO.net, you would be able to ensure ample coverage, elliminate redundancy and waste, and get rid of all of the buracratic political red tape. I just would take a few prominent individuals within both the County and the State of New York to have the "balls" to say enough with the HOME RULE, enough with Union Interference, and enough with Local Municipality Political Holdings and Egos.

But instead of using city property taxes to pay for the Fire Services, one would use County Taxes paid for the Fire Services. So your City Property Taxes would go down but your County Taxes would go up. It essentially would balance itself out in the long term

Yes, you could say "Why would a city like Yonkers want to help support a County-Wide Consolidated Department, when they already have a terrific department that does a great job in handling issues within its city. BUT, the concept of a Consolidated County-Wide Department would be that cities like Yonkers, While Plains and New Rochelle, who all have self supporting departments, would have to give resources into the County Department to help support other areas of the county, that don't have the Apparatus/Manpower that others have. If you say consolidated all of the departments and had a Structure Fire in Mount Vernon that could be responded to by not only the current FDMV Companies, but "without issue" Station 13 in Yonkers and Station 2 in New Rochelle, so that enough manpower was used to fight the fire. Then, by mandate of the county, other department rigs could be used to cover the stations in Mount Vernon, without issue, while the structure fire was fought. Hastings would now come to Yonkers. Scarsdale to Eastchester. Larchmont to New Rochelle, North White Plains to White Plains. Etc. Etc Etc, as dictated by the County Fire Commissioner/County Chiefs. They would no longer be any issue with regards to Mutual Aid, because it would all be under 1 "Consolidated" Countywide Fire District (PS - All of the Spare/Reservce Equipment/Apparatus that Yonkers currenlty has would be enveloped by the County and placed strategically throughout the county, as would any others current departments spare/reserve apparatus. AND as for Special Operations Apparatus, that too would be strategically placed throughout the county to support any/all needs that any location throughout the county would have, without and current Fire Department having issue doing so) BUT - To get all of this to work and have it in place would require a tremendous amount of work as I mentioned earlier on. Could it work? Yes, Will It Happen? I doubt it. Just my two cents and I don't believe that you will see this in our lifetimes.

We can debate manpower questions until the cows come home. In my opinion, like what has been done successfully in other "Counties" throughout the United States, if Westchester County could finally come up with an agreed upon "Consolidation Plan" resources, equipment and manpower could be allocated and made available for the entire county to use. HOWEVER, to make this a reality, a number of large hurdles (or buildings) needs to be address, such as: 1) The ellimination of the "HOME RULE" that currently exists throughout New York State (which is probably the # 1 hurdle to overcome) 2) "REQUIRING" that every firefighter in the county are trained and have the SAME FIREFIGHTER CERTIFICATIONS that are required, regardless of whether or not they are currently a Paid FF or a Volunteer FF 3) Ensuring that every aspect of this CONSOLIDATED DEPARTMENT meetings all ISO/NFPA/OSHA requirements to the letter (No Exceptions) 4 Realize that with any Consolidation Plan, while the number of firefighters most likely will not change, the number of chiefs most likely will be reduced (you most likely will not need as many chiefs/assistant chiefs to run a County-Wide Consolidated Program (thus dealing with the Officers Union in each respective current jurisdiction, which will be another major hurdle to overcome) 5) Dealing with all of the Local Politicians, who like to have control over every little aspect of their respective communities 6) Dealing with the UNIONS which will be the final and last major hurdle to over come. Can it happen? Yes. Will it happen in our lifetime? Probably Not