FAST Teams-Requirments

[bigfitz2004 19]

What are requirement for you to join your department FAST Team and Which Departments has FAST teams in Westchester County.

[lad41der 0]

What are requirement for you to join your department FAST Team and Which Departments has FAST teams in Westchester County.

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I am not from Westchester but up here in Dutchess county my department requires FF1,2 FF survival and FAST. We are working on a making a peer review committee So we don't run into having members that are 18 have 6 months in the dept. and know nothing about the fire service. It would be pretty much coming forward to this committee with your accomplishments and being approved or not and the ones that are not recommended will be given ideas of how to improve themselves so they can be part of it. Being a FAST member is a big responsibility not any Joe Schmo firefighter should be a member. It requires vigorous training meaning not just going to the class you need to stay up to date on new building construction, new techniques, etc. My question to a lot of people is you say your FAST but when called to duty can you actually perform. We just conducted a FAST drill the other day having a downed FF in our Mask Confidence course it really takes a lot to get him out. We are a combination department that trains daily and let me tell ya we had two members die(simulated). It was a real eye opener to see what it actually takes to get someone out of a situation. Now granted it was a controlled situation but add the heat smoke and the fact its a brother down now what will you do? If anyone has questions feel free to contact.

Edited May 11, 2007 by lad41der

[Remember585 815]

What are requirement for you to join your department FAST Team and Which Departments has FAST teams in Westchester County.

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Good question, I think it has been asked before.

Departments with a FAST (that I know of):

Ardsley

Bedford Hills

Chappaqua

Croton

Dobbs Ferry

Eastchester

Elmsford

Fairview

Greenville

Hartsdale

Hastings

Irvington

Larchmont

Millwood

Mohegan

Mount Kisco

Mount Vernon

New Rochelle

Sleepy Hollow

Ossining

Peekskill

Pleasantville

Port Chester

Scarsdale

Valhalla

West Harrison

White Plains

Yorktown

VA Montrose

Sadly there is no set standard for FAST training in Westchester. Every Department seems to have their own philosophies and rules pertaining to it. Some Departments don't even have every member trained in the NYS FAST class. What people don't realize is that a FAST must be members with a decent amount of experience, a great amount of training, a strong will and an understanding that the job isn't about saving our own - it's also about keeping them out of trouble. Too many FASTs stand around like a live manger scene at Christmas and don't put forth the effort to be pro-active.

Our Team requires:

- Experience (decided upon by the team on a case by case)

- Essentials & Initial Attack OR Basic & Intermediate OR FF I

- Survival

- FAST

- CPR

- NIMS Compliance / ICS Training

We're still working on the wording of it, but the members are also trained in Rescue Ops / Rescue-Tech Basic, Ladder or Truck Company Ops, AVET and many other classes including building construction and structural collapse training.

We drill once a month as a Team in addition to our Company and Department Drills.

Hope this helps.

Edited May 11, 2007 by Remember585

[Guest x2371]

In Pleasantville our requirements are almost the same as Croton, but we do not require CPR and we also drill once a month besides company and department drills. Also all our FAST members will be trained for use of PSS (FDNY's system) we are still trying to reschuldue the hands on training, due to the last big rain storm that flooded out westchester.

[EMTbravo 312]

Just to note, this issue has been dicsussed numerous times in the recent past.

We urge all members to look to see if their topic exists already and/or is being discussed on this forum BEFORE creating a new thread.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

I would also seriously urge departments to add to their requirements or steer their FAST members towards taking RTB also. There is some good low angle rope/knots and other skills in there that are good to know.