County v. Local Designations?

[10-Buff-4 0]

I have a question. Why do some departments in Westchester still use local designations (e.g. Mount Vernon and White Plains, and to some extent, New Rochelle)?

I take it that some designations also aren't "official" in the County, like "Telesquirt" or "Patrol". Just curious about how that whole system works. Seems a little confusing.

One more question- Who decides which rigs get which designation? The County Fire Commissioner?

Or do Departments "bid" for numbers?

[RWC130 594]

Westchester County Department of Emergency Services

"60-Control" assigns unit ID numbers such as:

FIRE

Engine XX

Ladder XX

Tower Ladder XX

Rescue XX

Tanker XX

Patrol XX

Utility XX

Marine XX

Car XX

Chief and Officer unit ID's are the first 3 numbers of the Fire Department.

Example: Peekskill FD is Dept 234 so the Chief is 2341 and so on.

YOU MUST USE COUNTY ISSUED NUMBERS WHEN ON COUNTY FREQUENCIES.

EMS

BLS Ambulance XX-B1 "B" Basic Life Support

ALS Ambulance XX-A1 "A" Advanced Life Support

ALS Fly Car XX-M1 "M" Medic Fly Car / Advanced Life Support

Chief and Officer unit ID's are the first 2 numbers of the Ambulance Agency

Example: Peekskill VAC is Agency 75 so the Chief or Capt is 7511 and so on.

AGAIN, YOU MUST USE COUNTY ISSUED NUMBERS WHEN ON COUNTY FREQUENCIES.

If a Fire Department would like a specific number like i.e. Engine XX and it's

available DES will be more than happy to assign it to you.

NOTE: White Plains FD recently switched back to using the 60-Control issued radio ID numbers. Good move!

I would guess that you can call a unit whatever you want when you are on your own agency channel however it's smart to stick with one number and that being the county issued ID number to avoid any confusion.

Engine 17 on this channel and Engine 599 on that channel.

Westchester County DES has come a long way with assigning ID numbers.

I can remember back to when..... Ahhhh nevermind. LOL!

Oh, one last thing....

YOU MUST USE COUNTY ISSUED NUMBERS WHEN ON COUNTY FREQUENCIES.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

It can get confusing. I work for an agency that doesn't use their county designations on their frequency and are PD dispatched. Problem is some members/employees also use these same numbers when trying to make requests on county frequencies.

Additionally, with the EMS numbers, RWC is right with the first 2 numbers. However, many agencies used "11" as their captain, "12" as 1st Lieut. and "13" as 2nd lieut. However, back when we switched to the alpha, bravo and medic designations as he graciously explained, the officers were suppose to use 1, 2, 3 as in 75-1, 75-2, 75-3 etc.

[ems-buff 81]

so wait if i were to go M/A on to I-95 and if we were to talk to 60-contorl. Which one would i say 68-Alpha 1 or 68-A1

[RWC130 594]

Some say "A" and some say "Alpha"

Some say "B" and some say "Bravo"

I am sure 60-Control will know who you are.

(I hope) LOL

[x242Steve 1]

The Westchester County Department of Emergency Services, Fire Services Division, recognizes the following apparatus designations, according to their website...

http://www.westchesterny.com/emergserv/app.../validunits.pdf

...there are still Fire Companies in Westchester that are named "Patrol", however the actual apparatus have all been re-designated as a Rescue or a Utility, depending on what equipment they carry.

Edited November 17, 2006 by 242steve

[res6cue 67]

Boy, I sure am glad I'm from Rockland after reading all this confusing stuff. There's basically no doubt whatsoever in Rockland just what type of unit you're talking about with our identifiers!

[Guest alsfirefighter]

I agree rescue. Systems that use a number as a designator so there is no confusion on what apparatus type you are getting is the way to go. But then again, "tradition" gets in the way and it doesn't sound cool.

We have some that can't let go. In Westchester you have engines designated Rescues and all kinds of wacky things departments do to fix their idea or lack of being able to let go of a number or designation.

[res6cue 67]

By the way, I'm not knocking Westchester or anywhere else. If you guys have a system in place you understand and like, more power to you. I'm sure there are plenty of people who have heard Rockland and think we're wacky as well.

It's just that to me, "6-75" makes it pretty easy to figure out that you're getting our 75' ladder. Or "10-99" is one of Nyack's 100 ladders. Or that "6-1500" is one of our 1500 GPM engines. The rest are even easier because they're plain English or easy to figure out acronyms, such as "6-Tower", "6-Rescue" and "6-ATV". Officers start at 1 and go down, so "6-1" is always the Chief of Dept.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Over her, we just use the traditional "Engine 1", "Ladder 7" ect. The problem is though we do not have a county numbering / area numbering system, well since we have no county government or true regional dispatch center. The numbering is different for some towns, mine we gor 1,2,3... Our two neighboring towns start at 10 and work their way up. One town designates in the 30's. Another goes by the first number is the station number and the second is the apparatus number (example Ladder 33, Engine 52, ect.)

We also don't have the same radio system but if I'm on the neighboring town's radio or frequency we simple go "Ansonia Engine 4 to Derby Rescue 18" for communications. A little long but it works.

Once you start going out east, they have a great numbering systems. Valley Shore runs a system where its three section system Department number - Apparatus type number - Unit number. For example 3-7-1 would be Old Saybrook's Ladder 1 or 6-5-3 would be Essex Engine 3 for example.

You go into New London County, each town has a letter designation and a two digit apparatus number. "R" is Ledyard's designation and R-13 is Engine 13 from the Ledyard Fire Company while R-22 id Gayles Ferry Fire Co.' pumper.

Northeast CT is a little different though. Towns in Tolland, Windham and parts of Eastern Hartford and northern New London County use station ID's. For Example, Scotland Fire Department is Station 16. Their apparatus numbers are Engine 116, Tower 116, Rescue 116, Rescue 516 (ambulances are called rescues and use the numbers 5, 6 and 7). It works for them.

[AndyC3J 190]

Middletown units have their own numbers within the city, and are also assigned a county number for mutual aid responses. The FD dispatches itself and has it's own radio frequency, so Engine 1, Truck 3, etc. communicate directly with the dispatcher at Central Firehouse.

For a mutual aid response, say an out of town rescue call, or the Galleria or something, the chief will notify the county that Engine 126 or Truck 132 is enroute.

Orange County's numbers are all three digit, with the first number being the battalion in which that department is located. Given the previous example, Middletown is in Battalion 1. There aren't certain numbers assigned to certain units, like in other areas. The units are just referred to as "Engine XXX, Truck XXX, Tanker XXX, Rescue XXX, etc." Chiefs are just called Car 1, Car 2, etc.