Why aren't we utilizing our neighbors/resources?

[Guest]

This has been on my mind for awile.. We have so many resources in this county. Every dept. has there engines, trucks, rescues etc. But there are some hidden resources that aren't being used. Let's just talk about in the northern part of this county, for instance the Croton area. This area has a dept. neighboring them that has a full time staffed FD that has a specialty vehicle "Call name Haz Mat 33". This vehicle was purchased in the aftermath of the Sept. 11th attacks. The vehicle has equipment for detection, decon, small incidents and mass incidents. It has tremendous capabilities, and can respond at anytime. Just a brief description of the Montrose VAFD that this vehicle is run by: Staffed by firefighters who are Emt's, Haz- mat background if not Haz mat tech's, trained in confine space rescues etc. Why not use them?Yes they are career but we all have to pay the bills, and some of them are like us, volunteer on the outside. Even if you need a representative, utilize them. Also, keep in mind of the other resources this county has..Use them!!!

[mfc2257 464]

I often complained about some of the same things. When I became Lt. and eventually Capt. in Millwood I was very frustrated about who we were calling for tankers after 10 and 14 (Croton & Yorktown for the down county crew reading this).

Finally, after some of the nay sayers moved out of office, the current Chief took a look at the argument that I was making for Pocantico and Continental Village to be added to our box. They both have great rigs with easy shots to our west end via route 9. In addition, Engine 188 was added even before Tanker 16 was purchased by Somers. Now, depending on where the fire is, there is a more specific response. On the extreme west end, 10, 11, 12, 14 & Millwood T-15 should be called.... OR closer to the center of the district the response should look more like 5, 6, 14, Millwood T-15, T-16.

Same goes true for FAST teams, and special calls. There is nothing more frustrating than listening to a really hairy job going on over the radio and hearing a chief make a call for a piece of apparatus 2 or more towns away when an equally sufficient piece of apparatus is sitting idle in a station inbetween (no to mention that 10 guys from that station heard the fire was a big one and they drove to the fire house, have their gear sitting next to the truck and already checked the map book to see how to get to the scene)

I digress... Once some people lose their egos and stop letting politics (which really means "anything that gets in the way of making the most logical decision") and other factors drive their decisions, Westchester will see a major improvement in what is already a successful mutual aid system.

As far as using the VA hospital rig, that's a great idea and probably overlooked too often.

[WAS967 97]

You guys actually would pull a Cont. Village until all the way down to Millwood? Wow. Talk about a response time.

[BFD1054 1,552]

Totally agreed, nice post's guys. 1191stdue, nice thread to start.

There are plenty of underused resources in the county, the Montrose VAFD being one of them. In Buchanan, we have used the VAFD in the past for several incidents. We have used them for a RITeam, Haz-Mat & even engine coverage/stand-by. However, in our case it helps that their Assist. Chief is one of our ex-Chiefs, one other FF is our ex-Chief & a third VAFD FF is our current Assist. Chief lol. But as stated, these guys are highly trained in all aspects of fire & rescue. They are at least EMT-B's & are all highly trained in Haz-Mat, Confined space, search/rescue & everything in between.

Another underused rig in the County (in my own opinion), is Buchanan Utility-12 (Cascade). This rig has a 4-bottle system capable of filling 2 bottles at once in probably less than a minute. It also has its own compressor so we can't run out of air. It has the capability to fill all kinds of SCBA's, Scuba bottles & can fill other cascade rigs, as well as tower-ladders. It also has low-pressure lines that can be used for confined-space operations. There are a few scatered cascade rigs in the County, but unfortunately many of them can & will run out of air (and we have been called in to fill them at scenes). We will go anywhere that we are called. The rig has seating for (3) members & once it has a crew, it responds. If a Chief responds, he may take 2 or 3 additional FF's in his vehicle to assist on the scene, depending how big of an incident it is. It is a great specialty rig, but goes unused. We go to Peekskill alot, the Tri-Village (Buchanan, Montrose & Verplanck) of course & Croton, Ossining & Mohegan once in awhile. Like i said, its a great rig & anyone who has seen its capabilities will vouch for that. Another nice thing is that it is just a cascade rig, so its not like we'll be down a rescue or anything while U-12 goes m/a. Hell, we brought it up to our FAST class at Camp Smith. The instructors liked it soo much that they took pictures & were going to show it as part of a "specialty apparatus" lecture that they put on.

Another thing to take into account when utilizing m/a for larger incidents, is the number of rigs that a department has. For instance, departments like Mohegan, Ossining & Elmsford have multiple aerial rigs. If you need a Truck company, you could call one of those depts. When you do that, you won't leave that district sripped of a ladder & furthermore, you won't have to call in additional m/a to cover that house! Same goes for engines. Departments like Peekskill, Mohegan, Yorktown, Ossining & Somers all have multiple engines that can be called without comprimising that districts fire coverage.

Anyway, just wanted to add my two cents, thought this was an excellent thread to start!

There is plenty of other under used equipment in this area as well, hopefully we hear of some on this thread!

[mfc2257 464]

The reason why Conti Village is considered over other alternatives is the types of roads that lead to the West End of the Millwood Fire District. CV has a straight shot down 9 and can access the West End from the back side of Glendale or Rt134. On the other hand to bring T5, 6 or 16 to the far West End requires them to come down 100, through the twisties on the East Side of Rt134 and then to navigate Allapartus. CV is a longer drive, but 85% of it is at 70mph.

The flip side of that is on the East Side of Millwood's non-hydrant area, it's faster and more simple to have Tankers 5,6 and 16 on the box.... And they are accustom to working together.... That was the logic behind changing who to call.

To my knowledge they haven't been called to a fire yet since adding them to the box.

[Tanker 10eng 140]

you mean 55 mph ???? right

[Guest]

Of coarse 55MPH...So how's Tanker 10!!! Remember, you can drive anyday, if it comes back.

[mfc2257 464]

Right !