mstrang1

Yes I did. I should have proof read my comment.

Haven't movies taught you that robots can have emotions too? Number 9 is alive!

The cost varies by company. The citizens get a mix of volunteer, career(SFRD), Paid Drivers (LRFCo). Volunteers are called for every incident. Depending on which company, the number of responders and the training of those individuals is questionable. Their is a mixture of levels of service. One of my stated issues is that I, as a career firefighter, do not know the level of training of the volunteers responding alongside me. The City (or the Union) has asked for training records from volunteer companies, and I believe they have never received them. If I am wrong, I apologize.

I have worked as a career FF in a split house(E7/Springdale FC) and a career engine operating in a volunteer district (E9 in TORFD district) and have found, for the most part, operations run smoothly. Yes, sometimes egos (on both sides)get in the way, but oftentimes this is due to training/operational/communication differences. As I have stated several times before, I have worked at incidents with volunteers with nary a hitch. I also have worked at scenes with no volunteer presence. I see you just recently joined this forum. Go back through the over 1700 posts in this thread and you will find examples of departments working well together and the opposite. You will find lawsuits brought against the city and the union. You will see injunctions. You will see threats and police reports. It is a big mess. At the operational level, things (mostly) run smoothly. I, and many of my Union Brothers, do not want the Volunteers gone. Yes, some may. Some Volunteers want the Career guys gone. Some think that the Career guys are needed. No one ever said officially (or unofficially, for that matter) that they want the volunteers gone. I am going to show up for work every day and respond every time I am called. If volunteers respond to those same calls, great. More bodies means more work can get done faster and more efficiently. As a firefighter at Engine 9, I realize that a volunteer will (hopefully) be driving T68 to give me water. I also realize that LDH1 is being driven by a Career Firefighter to attain that same goal. I do not care if the water coming out of the nozzle is provided by TORFD, LRFCo, SFRD, volunteer, paid, whoever. I just want water on that fire.

Damn, I thought Bobby V would have been perfect for the job!

Nfd- In addition to the 9 engines in Stamford, Long Ridge runs out of two stations and covers a huge response area. Even from engine 9, which is about a half mile south of the parkway, we have response times of over 10 minutes to the northern parts of the district.

Or at least get a wheel chock under the tire!

The video may be old, I don't know, but it was just posted September 11, 2011. It is kind of odd that one of the videos suggested for viewing after watching this one is of that same departments chiefs showing a bailout simulator that they built for training on this very technique.

Remember when you are dealing with close tolerances like this, that the height of an engine with a tank full of water is less than an empty tank. Tools and hose also weigh a significant amount and can affect ride height. I was driving the old Pierce Snorkl at work once and changed over back to E7 in quarters. It cleared the door fully loaded, but once it was empty of equipment, rubbed the door on the way out. Luckily, the ramp at E7 is flat, otherwise it could have been pretty bad. Also, be careful of ice and snow buildup on the ramp, any buildup will knock out any extra room for clearance you have.

Another issue with volunteers bring their POV to a call is clogging up a fire scene. I'm sure more senior volunteers know to park out of the way, but younger, less senior guys may park in a very inconvenient spot. Of course, as CTFF said, accountability is key as well. In addition, when the career guys worked in the volunteer stations, they were theoretically employees of said volunteer company. Now they are not employed by them anymore, nor are they even stationed in the same building. Believe me, that trailer and a spare room at 684 are not optimal fire station spaces. We are not the ones keeping us out of TOR 1 and 2. I try to work as well as I can with the volunteers that work in the same district as me. As I have said in the past, do your job, be accountable, be professional and everything will be okay. Another suggestion that has been brought up in the past is some way for me to know the level of training of who is coming into that fire with me and my crew. Whether it be a different color helmet plaque, a mark on your jacket, etc.

The different tax rates are not only based on fire protection, but also, sewers, garbage pickup, water, etc. The northern part of the city has no garbage pickup, sewers, public water, etc, so the tax rate there is different. Fire protection is also different, but is only a small part of the reason for differences in mill rates. Getting water mains and sewer lines to the entire city would be a fantastic thing, but an enormous logistical and financial responsibility, as you could imagine.

Either someone messed up, or someone is lying. The mayor say in one sentence that no changes will happen for two years. "Pavia said any changes made to the city's fire service won't be enacted for two years." Within 2 sentences, it is being said that the contract takes effect on July 1, 2012. "The five-year contract would take effect on July 1, 2012." That is less than one year away! Which is it?

While down in Washington DC a few weeks ago, sat at a red light looking at this storefront. I do not know if the building is attached to the B or D side building, or if it gets wider behind either neighboring building. Besides the obvious issues of rear access associated with attached commercial occupancies, what issues present themselves with a fire at a building like this?

I agree with those that say to get a degree outside of Fire/EMS. The burnout rate in EMS seems pretty high, and a backup plan is always needed. This was discussed in another thread, entitled "should a degree be needed for FD/PD. I'll say the same thing here that I did there, what happens if you get two years on the job and have to go out on disability? What will you do the rest of your life? Think about this analogy. Football players work there butts off to get into the NFL. The average NFL career is 2.5 years or something like that(unless you're Brett Favre). SO you are 26 years old with 2 busted knees and a trick back. Now what?

http://www.emtbravo.net/index.php/topic/43158-brooklyn-fatal-electrocution-9-14-2011/page__pid__246353#entry246353 This is the link to the Brooklyn Fatal Electrocution. Take note that the victim was a Verizon employee. Even though Utility workers are professional and are usually very good at what they do, bad things sometimes happen to even them. Nobody, especially untrained (in utility services) firefighters have any place being anywhere near those wires, no matter, phone cable, electric.

In addition, just prior to me taking the photo, the door was open, so it is not just a facade to cover the alleyway. There is an actual building there. It may be an extension of the D side store, but I was not able to tell from the car.

Bnechis- As I am sure you are aware, but others may not, the Brown Plan has engine companies in TOR, Springdale and Long Ridge houses, and assumes that the volunteers will be available to perform "ancillary functions. In most of these districts, the "ancillary" functions (water supply being the biggie) are actually more important than anything. Currently, on a report of a working fire in the northern districts, the call gets 3 city engines, a city truck, the city rescue, and the city DC, in addition to the volunteer or (lightly) staffed LRFCo units. Under the new system, the call will get a lot less manpower. Unless, of course, they call SFRD in on mutual aid. As was discussed at one point, it was pointed out the volunteers should combine and have each company specialize in one area that they are currently equipped to handle (Belltown truck work, TOR rescue work, LRFCo tanker ops, etc.). This was denied by the volunteer "leaders" because they felt that as a volunteer they would not be able to do engine work, which apparently is the only aspect of firefighting worth doing. As I had pointed out, maybe 30 pages ago, career guys hold those "ancillary" roles like truck and rescue work, in higher regard, held for senior members. One area that TOR seems to need improvement on, and I assume it is a driver issue, is responding with the right apparatus. In non hydrant areas, that tanker should be the first thing out of the door, not Rescue 66.

Code Brown! Code Brown!

Alpine, as your profile indicates only that you are a volunteer firefighter in Fairfield County, I am not sure if you are a volunteer with TOR or another of the Big 5/4/3, or another area of Fairfield. That being said, I am a firefighter on Engine 9 in Stamford. Every shift I have, I am obligated to go on the calls received during that time period. Sometimes we get a filled out volunteer response, sometimes 2 guys, sometimes zero. I have been on plenty of calls during the evening/late night hours with zero turnout from volunteers, exactly the time when A) you claim that there are volunteers aplenty, there would be (under the proposed "plan") 1 less person on staff and C) incidents during this time naturally need more manpower. In addition, I have never seen the Chief of TOR on ANY call, and have seen Matt Maounis maybe 2 or 3 times in the past 2 months. I realize there are LTs responding, but otherwise, who is in charge of the crew? It seems that the career officer is expected to act in this regard, which we are mostly happy to do, except we, the career officers, do not know the abilities/training/crew strength of the volunteers responding in. In regards to the cost, it seems to me that even if SFRD has to open two new engine companies for LRFCo, which the Brown Plan does not indicate, I do not think 2 engine companies will cost 8 million dollars. Also, as I was looking at the agreement, I noticed that for firefighters to be hired, they only need to be certified as EMR (the old MRT)and have two years to become an EMT. This means that there can possibly be a diminished level of care for up to two years in these districts.

...unlike the guy with the Halligan and no SCBA

Alpine- what you ignore is the fact that currently, a' "single engine call" (wires down, EMS, etc) in ToRFD actually get 3 career staff (E8 or 9) and whatever volunteers show up. Under the proposed "upgrade", that same call will get 2 career firefighters and whatever volunteers show up. That is 1/3 less staff than Engine 8 or 9, and 1/2 the staff of the rest of the city units. Guess what? That "upgrade" will only cost the residents of the fire district (NOT taxpayers), at minimum, and additional 8 MILLION DOLLARS. If I was resident of this fire district, I would not be worrying about the "major" incidents like storms, fires, and MVAs, those are "good" calls. I'd be worried if I was the diff breather at 6am on Christmas morning. Or the asthmatic at 2pm on a weekday during the school year. THAT is the 15 percent that I am worried about. You say only 15 percent of the calls need manpower beyond the career engine. How do you know which call will be one of that 15%? Do you wait for the career (either SFRD or the proposed SVFD) staff to get on scene and realize they need more help for people to come out of the woodwork? In regards to writing an article that skews the facts, I seem to remember a letter to the editor of the Advocate from Matt Maounis slamming the union for our 24 hour work schedule, our pay, our vacation time, etc. Was it not the same Matt Maounis who enacted the 24 work schedule in TORFD (the first in the city)and signed off on firefighters in TORFD getting Lieutenants pay or Fire Marshall pay? Or the same Matt Maounis who said he needed more career staff when they were TORFD career guys, but now can handle it with only 2? Talk about someone ignoring and skewing facts...

We had a GM rep come to work to "talk to us about the safety aspects of GM hybrids" and they told us that every accessory used will hamper mileage. That means if it is raining and you have the wipers and headlights on, you have to plan on running out of juice way before you planned on it. Same goes for radios, warning lights, sirens, etc.

So because Michigan does not require a college degree to apply, you feel that you should have one? Just because a state has certain requirements, or lack thereof, does not make it right. On my first day in the CT State Fire Academy, they told us, "the state of CT requires 10 weeks (at the time) of training to be a firefighter and 16 weeks of training to be a licensed hair stylist." Let that sink in for a second, and then tell me states have their priorities set. Also, while I am not a moderator on the board, please use spell check and check for grammar. Proper grammar and spelling help credibility immensely. Bad grammar and spelling in forums and texts and emails seep into everyday life and soon enough you are making mistakes on job applications.

Upon reading this a second time and expanding on Wraftery had said in his post, I have a few things to add to my prior post. As a fire officer, you do need medical, teaching and engineering backgrounds to do your job proficiently. Not at the level of a professional teacher, Dr, architect, etc, but a knowledge of these areas is essential. Medical training you get on the job as an EMT (or Paramedic) if your job requires it. A background or further knowledge is important, especially if you are going top be training others in this area. Medical knowledge is also useful in the areas of rehab, RIT, etc. Teaching is also essential. As a company officer, you are expected, in most departments, to handle company level training. This can be a single company or multiple companies. The people you are attempting to train may have been on the job before you were born, may be probies, or may be your equal. You must be able to handle many different styles of teaching. Engineering comes in handy in many ways as well. Structural engineering comes into play when assessing the stability of a building on fire or other duress. You should be able to handle basic ideas of civil and electrical engineering as well. So as a fire officer, you are playing the role of pseudo- doctor, teacher and engineer. Plus a million different roles, like secretary, human resources officer, referee, mechanic, public information officer, etc.

Maybe I'm using my college education here, but why is it okay for private companies and the federal government to require some kind of further education, but municipalities are discriminating against certain individuals or groups if they require a degree? Why are cities so special? I like the graduated post HS requirements of NRPD. In response to your last point, those with law degrees are the smart ones...