PEMO3

Unfortunately these politicians do not realize that the money saved by these types of service cut backs will be easily eclipsed by the award paid out from just one wrongful death suit when the cut back in manpower proves to be a mitigating factor in the loss of life and property. Just curious, how many council members did they lay off to save money.

Barry, it seems you are really up on the ISO info, I have one question. Would an agreement with another district to "share a spare" cover a district as meeting the spare apparatus requirement?

Date: 11-21-2010 Time: 17:25 hrs Location: JFK Airport Frequency: FDNY Citywide, EMS Citywide, NYPD SOD F3 Units Operating: Multiple units enroute Weather Conditions: Clear Description Of Incident: Plane reporting engine fire enroute to JFK for emergency landing w/ 193 souls onboard, currently dumping fuel, FDNY &; EMS standing by. FDNY I/C reporting aircraft has "lost" engine. 25 miles out. Landing Runway 4 17:35 hrs- FDNY I/C reporting plane to be a "heavy 767" 74K of fuels on board and dumping. 17:45 hrs - NYPD Aviation reporting aircraft with 5 min ETA 17:53 hrs - FDNY reporting "Delta 30 heavy" on the ground rolling to a stop. 18:10 hrs - FDNY reporting "delta 30 heavy" landed safely. Fire is out. No injuries reported at this time. Report has it as Delta Flight 30 - New York to Moscow. Flight records show the aircraft is a Boeing 767-300 20:12 hrs - Delta Airlines and FAA are issuing reports that there was never any fire. Reports state that the engine "flamed out" secondary to a bird strike similar to "Miracle on the Hudson" US Airways Flight 1549. Reporters/Writer:PEMO 3

You got to love it!!

Excellent job by all. As previously stated Aviation was the nuts and bolts of this operations that was rather impressive to listen to on the radio. 60 Control did a fantastic job blending information between the victim/caller, aviation and the ground resources. Congratulations to the I/C. Excellent job thinking outside the box to get the resources needed in place to get the job done. This job provided a lot lessons learned on how a difficult job can have a positive outcome when everyone works together and plays nice in the sandbox.

Just curious if this program has worked to reduce overall sick time use. I know a lot of people roll their eyes at the thought of paying for not using time but they fail to realize the savings involved can be quite large. If you look at an 8 hour shift that is covered with an O/T person the actual hourly rate paid is 2.5 hours (1 hr for the S/L and 1.5 for the O/T) and not usually even pay scales as a 20 year members at top pay may cover a 2 year members at base pay where that 1.5 hr rate the 20 yr member earns may actually be 2 times the 2 year members reg rate meaning that leave just cost 3.0x not 2.5x. If you pay the member for not using the time the rate paid becomes 2.0 hours (1 for the hour worked and 1 for the hour paid). Seems like this is actually a win-win scenario but as with everything involving public employees, John Q Public will see it as getting "free money" or a "bonus" and make it a scandal.

This is interesting that as usual it is made to seem anything a public "servant" gets to be a "perk". The US Dept of Labor statistics state that the National Average sick day use for US workers it is about 8.5 days per year. Given this information, the average of 9 days for a high risk occupation that is most likely including compensation cases in its sick leave calculations is not a unusually high amount. It would be interesting if the 9 day figure was padded with compensation days to create an artificially high number since (and someone correct me if I am wrong) NYS Comp pays the employer back for time spent from leave balances on either A/L or S/L once Comp cases are settled. Additionally, studies have shown that "unlimited sick leave" actually reduces the number of sick days taken by employees overall. When employees get for example of 12 sick days a year and 20 annual leave days the employee see it as having 32 available days off. The employee is more prone to use the full 32 days or close to it. Unlimited Sick Leave avoids this "sick leave balance days are days due me" illusion. Some of the major medical centers have taken a different approach to sick time that seems to be a step ahead of the curve. The have created a "bank out policy". Employees are allowed to buy up to 80% of their S/L hours back at a set rate the first week of December creating an incentive to not use their time and collect the cash as a "Christmas Fund". In exchange, the hospital saves by spending less for the same hours and in exchange gets the hours off the books while having the employee at work and boosting moral. What am I thinking though, when was government ever concerned with moral. One last point was this quote, " Schorr also found that some sickly firefighters had healthy overtime earnings. In one case a firefighter with 24 total sick tours plus 10 work-related absences was nonetheless able to work 21 overtime tours to earn an additional $17,000 in overtime." If my calculations are correct, the sick leave amounts to 6-7 weeks of time off for combined comp and s/l. He worked a total of 21 tours over the remaining 45 weeks or 225 days he was at work and this is an issue. Goes to my first point anything a public "servant" gets is a "perk" and they are a crook if they use it.

Something wrong with this picture. Each dog costs the town $2000 per year. If you take into account the dog working 8 hours a day with the officer and even back out 15 days a year for vacation days, the dog would cost the town a total of $1 per hour. Not bad for a partner who can track a suspect through the wood, locate a lost child and search a package without opening it.

Date: 11/4/10 Time: 11:10 hrs Location: WTC Construction Site Frequency: FDNY Citywide Units Operating: FDNY Bat 1, multiple FDNY & PD Weather Conditions: Light Rain Description Of Incident: FDNY Battalion 1 on scene of a breach of the slurry wall that separates the Hudson River from the WTC area with river water through the breach. FDNY requesting OEM to the scene. Reporters/Writer:PEMO3

Use the "ALT" + "PRTSC SYSRQ" keys to print the screen to memory. Then you can paste it into something like a word document with "CTRL" + "V" and even double click it and use the format commands to "CROP" it to just the area you want and size and move it around. Great way to jazz up your pre-plans and reports with professional looking aerial shots.

There is an issue with Pictometry International. The issue comes with ability to keep the imagery up to date and accurate. I will be the first to admit a monumentous task. Pictometry International is the provider of the "bird's eye view" for Bing Maps. A glaring example of out of date data is the image for the Peekskill Middle School at 212 Ringgold Street which has been open an operational for 2 years and in their "2010 Images" it is shown as still in the early stages of construction. While I will agree that this is a valuable tool and aerial imagery is a important piece of information to an IC there is a big difference with the tactics for a fully occupied and operational building (school) and a construction site. It would be valuable if the images had a tag option that showed "last update" for a specific view that way if you were looking at 3 week old data you would weigh it differently than if you were looking at 3 year old images.

Just a question. Where those tracks an abandoned line or where they compromised for benefit of the operation? Does not seem like any other way to attack that exposure except over the tracks. Either way kudos for a job well done when everyone comes home from a job like this.

Seth, count me in. I would be willing to pay a yearly fee. $10 to $15 from each user should cover costs for a year.

I agree, we can't sit back and let this site die. We need to do what we can to help out. Seth, my donation will be in at the end of the month. Come on guys, time for a 10-13 for Seth. Lets get the word out. Make it happen. On a side note, I am up for a membership fee also. I did a quick count of registered members and it looks like there are 11,960 +/- registered users. At $10 each per year, that would far exceed operating expenses.

Cap you said it perfectly. I agree 100%.

Watch live video feed of the Chilean Mine Rescue Operation: http://www.ustream.tv/cbsnews#utm_campaigne=synclickback&source=http://www.emergencystream.com/video_streams/National/CBSNews1_1.html&medium=522594

We have all heard the term before: Let No Good Deed Go Unpunished. This is a group of people that suddenly woke up "homeless" and need to direct their anger at someone and the men with the nice red trucks are the biggest target. In their eyes, whatever happened is all their fault, truth or fiction, they need to blame someone to cope. Not that it makes it right.

No texting while driving. That means he can't read the CIDS info till he is onscene and the vehicle is in park.

This topic actual had piqued my interest about the "Rural Fire Protection Service" in Tennessee. Here is some of the information I have found along the way and have found quite interesting. I am not to proud to say that I have actually changed my position about this particular incident after reading much of the background information on the area and departments and must agree in part with Bnechis and Chris although my sense of duty would have made it hard for me to sit back and watch without acting. Obion County, Tennessee Myths & Facts About Rural Fire Protection Services The Obion County Fire Department - A Presentation Regarding The Establishment And Implementation of a County-Wide Fire Department

From the South Fulton Fire Dept Web Site: Department Facts Member of the West Tennessee and Western Kentucky Mutual Aid Pack, and Automatic Mutual Aid with City of Fulton, Kentucky on all structure fires within the corporate city limits. ISO rating of Class 5 within the City limits. 5 mile radius coverage area under Rural Fire Protection Service. 19 Fire Fighters involved in an ongoing, intense training program.http://www.cityofsouthfulton.org/fire.htm

Washington, DC - International Association of Fire Fighters General President Harold Schaitberger today issued the following statement on the September 29 fire in Obion County, Tennessee: “The decision by the South Fulton Fire Department to allow a family’s home to burn to the ground was incredibly irresponsible. This tragic loss of property was completely avoidable. Because of South Fulton’s pay-to-play policy, fire fighters were ordered to stand and watch a family lose its home. “Everyone deserves fire protection because providing public safety is among a municipality’s highest priorities. “Instead, South Fulton wants to charge citizens outside the city for fire protection. We condemn South Fulton’s ill-advised, unsafe policy. Professional, career fire fighters shouldn’t be forced to check a list before running out the door to see which homeowners have paid up. They get in their trucks and go.” The International Association of Fire Fighters, headquartered in Washington, DC, represents more than 298,000 full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics and is the leading advocate for health and safety of first responders in North America. More information is available at www.iaff.org http://www.iaff.org/Comm/PDFs/SouthFulton.pdf

I guess the point that I fine hard to swallow is that in a country where we can agree to disagree, where in the field of Emergency Services we are supposed to provide assistance regardless of status, race, color, religion, sex or economic standing, where we are supposed to treat first and worry about payment second, that such a system can and does exist. My posts are more out of sheer disbelief in the original information rather than anything else. I guess it just proves that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence, especially if you forget to pay the $75.

I agree that we are putting our morals and value structure on others but additionally , all public servants take an oath of office in which they promise to "serve and protect". I am sure that the oath that these men (& women) took did not qualify that promise by saying only those who are residents of XYZ city or pay their $75 dues.