Mutual Aid Departments Needs

[CG206 29]

When planning the purchase of a new apparatus, should the type/set up of the purchasing department's rig be influenced by a neighboring department's needs along with the needs of the individual department? Ex....buying a tower ladder, when the neighboring dept's type of Truck is a straight stick, and either type of truck (straight or tower) purchased is feasible for the individual FD's needs.

[TRUCK6018 50]

Case in point:

The Town of Mount Pleasant which consists of Pleasantville, Thornwood, Hawthorne and Valhalla Fire Dept's. Each has a tower ladder. I'm sure they all have their reasons for having a tower. With out getting into the straight stick vs tower battle, I don't understand the logic when there might be circumstances that you want that stick and there are none to be found in the immediate area.

We're going to be getting a rescue truck soon. I've heard many opinions that a cascade should be on there. Would we use it if we had it, yes. Is it justified when 5 of your mutual aid departments have one and chances are one of them will be there if there's on incident that large? I'd say no free up that room for other equiptment, something that you might be able to give back to your mutual aid depts.

[HFD23 37]

i could not agree more that when purchasing a rig a department should look to its neighbors and take into account weither or not the neighboring department has a cascade sytem or a tower vs a stick. here in Hartsdale prior to 1994 we operatered ladder 47 which was a early 1950's American lafrance mid mount straight stick, and yes we had 2 of them With ladder 46 being a spare, keep in mind though there was only equipment to equip 1 thus the 2nd couldn't really be given though at a defensive or prolongedperation such as the multi alarm 68 East in 1993. but as hartsdale looked to replace these 2 rigs, the choice was made to go with a tower ladder after seein how well yonkers TL-75 operated at 68 east hartsdale as well as i believe was tower ladder 23 (dobbs Ferry). So we looked to our neighbors, greenville had converted from the mack tower ladder 4 to a stick just prior to 68east. and Fairview was operting the old ladder 1 a 100ft stick. thus the decession was a 2nd alarm gave u a eng from FFD and a stick with Ladder 4 so a tower ladder in the middle of the tri-district was deemed to be necessary.

looking back i think this was a great decession by hartsdale, the tower has given alot at alarms, espically last night, it proviedes easy means to the roof with a load of equipment rather then being forced to climb sticks or ground ladders. further more one may wonder how other districts view looking to their neighbors with Fairview having just purchased a KME mid mount 100ft tower ladder, this still gives us ladder 4 with a straight stick. but don't be surprized if your see hartsdale with a worker and find TL-15, emlsfords TL and ladder 4 operating thinking to the next alarm options are White plains or Scarsdale both normally send towers Being WPFD TL-6, Or TL29 SFD, given a stick could be requested form WP i find most often TL-6 responseds cause Station 2 is so close to the edge of the district. the leaves me to wonder if the rumors of replacing Tl-15 with a stick may come true when it is deamed to need replacing. the facts are your neighbors rigs and whats on them are just as important as what your own are and contain on them.

[Guest DG795]

I absolutely feel that a dept's mutual aid should affect what it buys...It would be very nice if commissioners (or board of directors, whatever you call them) actually had some sitdowns with commish's from other towns to go over what each is planning for the future, Perhaps several dept's could reap the benefits of organizing to purchase/upgrade of equipment (i.e. If one department gets a HAZMAT decon setup, and another gets a cascade system, both can use the others if neccessary). It all goes towards a more unified county system...We are like 54 Indian tribes, with our own Chiefs, individual procedures, and ideas for the future, trying to accomplish a task on a "tribal" level.....Now if we were one big tribe this would be a lot more efficient...Im NOT promoting a "Westchester County FD" but I believe we could all work together in a unified system, and keep or individualities as depts.

[x635 4,066]

Some great points here.

I feel that when designing apparatus, compatibility with other districts equipment and facilites should be taken into account.

Money is also an issue. If people could learn to share more, could we ideally cut down on the duplication of services, which would save a great deal of money that could be invested in new types of training, new tools, gear, etc. It seems like everybody has the need to have one "of their own"....not neccarily a bad thing in all cases.

IMHO, There's ALOT of duplication of service and apparatus in Westchester. By creating more centralized resource and real task force type of systems, we could save ourselves alot of money that could be invested elsewhere.

Rescues are not only as Rescues, but as versatile incident support vehicles that are useful at many incidents. I feel that every department should have one, at least a light rescue.

Ladders, however, are quite pricey and expensive to maintain. Tower ladders more so. Does every department need a TL? Do you use a daisycutter to kill a mouse? Simplicity,effiecieny, and cost need to be considered.