Yonkers Firefighters Battle Cold, Ice, Two Multi-Alarm fires

[FirNaTine 370]

So FDNY ONLY does Reverse Lay? Just because they don't call it forward lay (in line pumping) does not mean it the only way they do it. We do both forward and reverse and have been doing it since we had 5 man engines, So its clearly not for job security.

If you only need one or 2 lines the reverse lay works just fine, but once you need more, you end up having to do massive hand stretches to do. Something that works well only if you have a number of engine companies with lots of manpower on each.

Many depts. that do reverse lays are getting 250-300 gpm out of their 1,500gpm pumps, not very efficient.

Earlier this year I went mutual aid to a scene that started as a house fire, but quickly spread to both exposure 2 & 4. The homes were in the middle of a long narrow street. The dept. did two 500 foot reverse lays out from the scene to the hydrants at the next corner (one to one corner, the other to the intersection in the opposite direction). The positioned 2 ladders in front of the buildings. This worked great when they need 900gpm from a couple of hand lines. Because they always do reverse they did not use the hydrant directly across the street (it would have required a 50' back stretch). Once they needed to boost the flow by 2,000 gpm (with 2 ladder pipes) they had no way to do it. The IC asked me to establish a water source. We found the next closest hydrant on the block behind the fire block, forwarded laid 200 ft of 5in LDH, then hand back stretch 600-700 ft up over a 6' wall, thru two yards (luckily the fence had been knocked down in a storm), then up the block to the ladder that was in front of the non used hydrant. 1,300 -1,500gpm to the ladder pipes.

Wow so 1 fire in the last 40+ years had an issue with hydrant "gremlins" well that's a good reason to stop using our pumpers to maximum ability.

To each is own. If it works great for you then keep with it. As far as the hydrant not being used across the street your absolutely right. No excuse for that that's a no brainer. Gotta be able to adapt to the situation at hand and yes your right if your hose beds are set up correctly you can do both. Wow, I can't believe we actually agreed on something Capt.. Lets leave it at that.

[antiquefirelt 994]

First of all Im not, nor did I ever advocate reducing manning or close companies . In fact I really don't know where that notion ever came from?.

Sorry, I wanted to be clear that when I stated 4 was better than 3, that if that 4th man had to come from shutting down houses, I'd question it. Wasn't trying to imply that was your sentiment, quite the opposite in fact, I had the idea from your original post or second post that you thought to get a fourth man you'd end up losing other companies.

Again, my comments were in response to your few lines about seeing 3 man companies do as well as four. My issue is that we continually see Fire Chiefs and Commissioners sanction drastic manpower reductions while stating public safety will not be affected. In my mind anything that furthers these lies are a true injustice to the rest of the fire service. While many FD's routinely do outstanding work with crap staffing, we need to continually beat the drum for more staff to ensure the safety of our members and the public we serve.

[lad12derff 283]

Nice work Yonkers in working these 2 jobs the same day under really bad conditions.

Sorry did I just go off topic here?