River Emergencies - What have we done?

[JFLYNN 681]

Well I didn't mean ruffle any feathers but I just call em like I see them. Historically, any major, water borne emergency in Southern Westchester you have either the NYPD responding with their helicopters and esu guys or you have some FDNY/NYPD marine company going up there as well.

Several incidents that immediately come to mind are the car into the Sprain Brook Reservoir (NYPD divers) the overturned vehicle into the Bronx River (divers, helicopter and NYPD ESU/FDNY units) and the small plane that touched down in the Hudson a few years ago (again NYPD helicopter, diver, NYPD/FDNY marine response). All incidents in which either the NYPD/FDNY or both responded with manpower and resources not found in Southern Westchester.

Standing on shore with a pair of binoculars watching those guys "do the backstroke" wasn't gonna get them out of the water.

If I'm wrong please correct me and enlighten me as to what sort of response is in place for these sort of emergencies.

Bull (great name by the way),

No feathers ruffled here but thanks for your concern. Your original post I thought was rather trite and simplistic thinking. And, oh yeah, maybe disrespectful. There are approximately 40,000 Cops in NYC AND 11,000 Firefighters, right? You, a junior Firefighter, find it fitting to continually ctiticize experienced, senior Fire Service Professionals who are forced to manage with much less. You make assumptions about what our mindset is. Your statement would be similar to me saying, why in the heck doesn't FDNY have their own helicopter??? How in the world are the Police in NYC in charge of Haz Mat and not the Fire Department????? Why are Cops crawling all over every trench rescue and building collapse in NYC and basically conducting separate operations from Fire Department ops in the same space? This must be the FDNY Chiefs fault, right?? Of course it's not the FDNY Chiefs fault little brother...The FDNY Chiefs have complained about these things for years but have not have had the support of the politicians so it is what is is.

In Westchester we have limited resources. Particularly in Yonkers, with the close proximity to NYC, for low frequency- high intensity events such as you have mentioned above, the logical choice is to call on your brothers who we are lucky to have available to us with their expertise and equipment. It would be ideal if we had all these resources available to us within our own departments, but we don't, which is why many of us have been working hard at consolidation / regionalization plans so we won't be FORCED to call on our wonderful brothers to the South.

Fortunately, though, for the most part, when we have had to call on NYC, the attitude we have experienced has been far more gracious and professional than the attitude you have repeatedly comported yourself with on this forum.