Grasslands Fire Brigade New Utility 3

[x635 4,066]

Westchester County Department Of Emergency Services

Grasslands Fire Brigade (Westchester County Medical Center Campus)

Utility 3

2008 Chevrolet C7500/Reading

I believe this replaces a 198? Chevrolet Van.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

What is this rigs primary use?

[Bnechis 3,961]

What is this rigs primary use?

They bought it so Seth could take a pic and post it here.......

[RPM3311 3]

what exactly is this fire brigade?

[DES630 10]

They bought it so Seth could take a pic and post it here.......

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

One of my WARDS was part of the fire brigade 1968 till around 1980!

[JohnnyOV 2]

What is this rigs primary use?

I'd be interested to know as well

[WCDES-FTA 6]

It is designated Utilty-3, primary use is a vehicle for the Grasslands Fire Brigade, it replaced a 1980's chevy van as well as MA-2, a 1977 Dodge/Pierce mini-attack. it is a twin to Utility-76, except for color. U-76 primarily is a tow vehicle, for the various trailers that DES has, as well as a equipment carrier. U-3, when not being used by the brigade, is used as a transport vehicle as well, for trailers and equipment. And no, that is no a Q on the front, it's a Q cover over an electric unit.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

Oh, I see. When is it going to go in service?

[americanpolice 24]

i dont understand the need for this. why doesnt valhalla fire just cover this area?

[NYMedic37 22]

I know I won't win any popularity contests here but with Westchester County being the highest taxed county in the entire United States, was this utility really needed? Actually, does WC-DES need any fire apparatus at all? There's plenty of municipal FD's out there. It seems to be a waste of tax payer dollars.

[gpdexplorer 46]

Doesnt the WCDES Engine also roll when the fire brigade goes out? Also don't they roll during office hours only? After that Valhalla and Hawthorne respond to the Grasslands Campus?

[SteveOFD 176]

While at the WCFTC last night, I noticed a brand new International (it still had the temporary inspection sticker on it) mid-size flat bed truck parked near U76. This flat bed has the Westchestergov emblem on the doors. Does anyone know if this will be assigned to DES or some other County Department?

[ex-commish 490]

Doesnt the WCDES Engine also roll when the fire brigade goes out? Also don't they roll during office hours only? After that Valhalla and Hawthorne respond to the Grasslands Campus?

Valhalla and Hawthorne respond to the reservation after 3:30 pm untill I believe it is 8:00am and also all weekend.

[x635 4,066]

They bought it so Seth could take a pic and post it here.......

LMAO! Now if only New Rochelle was kind enough to buy a tiller and foam unit for the same purposes......

I know Utility 3 (van) used to carry the SCBA's and firefighting tools for the brigade before they got the engine and ladder.....

I agree with the notion of an insane amount of redundancy in Westchester County. My understanding that the brigade was there orginally because of the increase in population of the area during the weekdays. With Valhalla and Hawthorne both having very busy coverage areas, and like most departments, dwindling daytime manpower, having a fire brigade for a campus with some very diverse hazards is not a bad thing at all.

(Some examples of the hazards on the reservation: Level I Trauma Center Hospital, Childrens Hospital, Jail, Nursing Home, Clinics, Medical College with medical research facilities, water filtration plant, homeless shelter, juvenille detention facility, automotive repair shop, commercial laundry facility, steam tunnels, residential housing, fire training center, police training center, heliport, radio transmission tower, power substation, infastructure.....and all the people that come along with these types of facilities)

When Pat Kelly was commisioner, there was even talk of making it a 24/7 career department. Personally, I feel, especially if we have County Police, then DES should have career firefighters to man their special operations endeavors, supplemented by volunteers. Make their primary coverage area the reservation during their downtime.

With the way Westchester works, they have to spend this money (some of which is grants) or else the County reduces funding. It's just too bad they couldn't increase dispatcher's salaries with all this found money.........

[WCDES-FTA 6]

I will attempt to answer some if not all questions. The brigade runs from 08:00 to 15:30, Monday to Friday-except holidays. It is made up of 22 members, the majority of which are interior firefighters. It runs with U-3, E-8, as well as the apparatus that are assigned to the FTC, E-7 & L-7. From 15:30 till 08:00, the campus is covered by Valhalla and Hawthorne.

DES, is composed of 4 divisions, Fire, EMS, OEM and 60 Control. DES runs the county fire training center. The ladder and engine at the training center are for use by the various classes run there as well as for the career academy. Having the 2 rigs there, also makes a little easier on the instructors. If, for whatever reason, a requested rig dosen't show, they have those 2 rigs to use. Plus, having the ladder, a 105' stick, adds variety to a county populated by tower ladders.

U-3 and U-76, have been in service since June of this year. The flatbed is a Freightliner M-2, not International. The use of that rig is to be determined.

[Guest]

Instead of buying all of these new vehicles that sit far more than they run, maybe the money should be spent to continue making upgrades in the training yard; Like the Class A tax payer that was just cut from the budget. That way the money is being spent on something every Fire Department in the county could take advantage of to better train their firefighters.

[gpdexplorer 46]

WCDES - Grasslands Fire Brigade

[Goose 188]

complete waste of my money.

[27east 19]

complete waste of my money.

Just like the County Government.

[ny10570 745]

You can't compare County PD to the fire brigade. While they may be a redundancy that could be replaced by state troopers they do cover a substantial amount of property and roadway as well as specialty units like aviation, K9, and SWAT. If I'm not mistaken county Haz-Mat and collapse rescue are both covered by volunteers.

[SteveOFD 176]

While at the WCFTC last night, I noticed a brand new International (it still had the temporary inspection sticker on it) mid-size flat bed truck parked near U76. This flat bed has the Westchestergov emblem on the doors. Does anyone know if this will be assigned to DES or some other County Department?

Yesterday, I saw this truck parked over at Department of Public Safety at Hawthorne (County PD HQ). This may be replacing their tow truck.