Rye Mayor: FD Needs Restructuring

[FireMedic049 597]

But see I don't know if that is acceptable though. I've kind of mentioned it before in other posts regarding mutual aid. If you consider yourself a "city", then you should have adequate staffing regardless. We don't "consider [ourselves] a 'city'", we ARE a city (3rd Class) under the state classifications for municipalities however, we are a small city (5 sq miles). I agree that we should have adequate staffing regardless, but the same can be said for ANY fire department. Although not optimally staffed, our on-duty staffing is adequate for 90% of our calls and we can adequately cover some other calls with our off-duty personnel added in.

We used to handle most of our working fires by ourselves and although we could and still can bring most of them under control with our own personnel, we lacked adequate numbers on average to also provide our own RIT on these calls or have sufficient personnel available should something happen to one of our own. So, we're working with the neighbors more often now to address that need and it's working quite well.

Although we technically receive mutual aid more often than we give it, we only request it a few dozen times a year and are more than willing to provide more than we do currently. We don't do more because most of the neighbors are reluctant to call us, but that's a different conversation.

It's not fair to other communities that places like these rely on them to send their fire companies over to fight fire for hours, when the same thing could happen in their town and then who is left to fight it there? Not necessarily. In my area, most departments are not large enough to adequately provide all of the personnel and equipment needed for every call. In some cases, they don't have the calls to justify owning certain specialized equipment. As such, fire protection is provided in a quasi-regionalized approach. The departments aren't formally organized in a true regional basis, but units from multiple communities typically respond to most incidents, particularly those with high resource needs.

In a large city each fire station has limited resources and units/personnel from multiple stations are sent to incidents to work collectively. The main difference between this and what the area departments are doing is that the units in the city are all from the same department, but the others are not.

Part of this "regionalized" approach is that these departments are running on each other's calls and essentially sharing the burden to provide service. When units from the non-hosting community are tied up on a call in another community, other units available units in the area cover those area's calls, just liked they'd do if those units were tied up on their own call. In some cases, they relocate units into the "stripped" areas. In some cases, they just respond from their own stations since it's an urban area and many communities are somewhat small and close to each other.

If you call yourself a "paid" department, then you should have the right staffing and right equipment to get the job done. The need to have the right staffing and equipment is not something exclusive to paid departments. BTW, a "'paid' department" is not something you just call yourself, it's something that you are.

Nothing against the paid departments and nothing wrong with them being supplemented by volunteers. But, these municipalities got to realize that you can't rely on that all the time. As volunteers, we do our best to be around 24/7, but that's not always possible when we are working our own jobs and taking care of our families. Either fully staff and fund these departments or watch the s*** hit the fan and lose money through lawsuits, plain and simple. I agree with what is likely your point, but this isn't actually a paid/volunteer issue. In general, a municipality shouldn't shift their fire protection burden onto the fire departments/citizens of other municipalities regardless of the pay status of those departments. However, when an equitable regionalized approach is used as I described above, relying on neighboring departments can be a reasonable thing.

Now, there are more problematic situations like when a community reduces their department's capability below what is reasonably needed for their community rather than take the steps necessary to adequately provide for that need on their own or like what appears to be going on in Mt. Vernon where they have the reasonable ability to do some things themselves, but the administration is purposely not utilizing off-duty personnel in order to avoid the expense that comes with that and is pushing that burden onto other communities.

[HalfVolley 11]

Can Rye FD volunteers drive the apparatus?

[FF1990 0]

I've been reading the various posts for years about communities and how much they should spend to provide full protection and all the various members piping in with the money doesn't matter when lives are at stake but in reality that is how everything is based. To me, emergency services is basically an insurance policy against the bad things that happen in life. The more you pay, the better the response you will get for something that may never occur and this includes Fire, EMS, and police. Each community has to decide how much insurance they want. Unfortunately most don't want to pay for it until that day when something goes terrible wrong. Just as you are all doing in your personal lives and the decisions you make everyday. Based on your arguments above you all have the maximum insurance. You have a 10 million dollar life insurance policy so your family is covered if you die. When you talk to your insurance agent on your house coverage you tell him to add flood, earthquake, terrorism, and Hurricane insurance because hey you never know. There is that minor chance Westchester may get a 7.0 earthquake so I need it. Your auto insurance has a 5 million dollar liability limit in case you get sued. You take the highest level health insurance plan offered by your employer and if the plan isn't so great, you go out and buy supplemental insurance. But I bet none of you do. It would cost a fortune. You are just like me who says wow that is to much money. I don't have an extra $10K a year for all that. I want to spend it on other things. No one is going to get sick in my family this year so I will roll the dice. And this year it worked for me but it may not have. Just like in Rye. How much do you want to spend for those 12 structure fires a year where, I am not 100% sure of this, but I don't think anyone died or was seriously injured. Don't agree that life should be this way but it is. All you can do is keep up the fight for those few precious resources and as soon as you get them, another faction will scream and yell that you are taking their money for that item we can't live without.

[nfd2004 750]

This is also true of our military. We all get what we pay for. Should we let each individual pay for and make that decision for themselves ? Or is it to all our advantage to pay for the best protection, that will benefit all of us. And just like that 7.0 earthquake in Westchester, is it possible to have the same odds as a War involving the Westchester area ? Yet without question, we all pay for the BEST Protection we can get.

Yes, paying for the fire service is a roll of the dice. But if the number just happens to come up and affect our own family members, our friends, then we may ask why didn't we get that better policy. For years I paid for medical insurance. Never had to use it. Yet I paid for the best I could get. Then one day it came. I spent two days in the hospital that cost the insurance company $22,000. Just a few years prior to that I spent 16 days in the hospital due to an illness that those highly skilled, high paid doctors corrected for me. I have no idea what that hospital stay cost. But I sure am glad I had good insurance.

When there is a fire in a house or apartment, the most important factor is time and manpower. Getting there quickly with enough help to do the job. For firefighters, especially ones that have been around for awhile, they understand that. But for Mr or Mrs Citizen, they just don't understand it as well. Sometimes, the F.D. experts in the field have to think for them. Why spend a dime on fire protection. Why waste all that money on something we may never even use. There was a time when I didn't use my medical insurance either. I thought why should I pay for it. But I sure am glad I did.

We pay for education and the school system. We all pay the same in our own cities and towns. I never had any children so why should I pay for yours to go to school when I don't have any. Why don't you pay instead.

I think you can catch my drift here. In a perfect world none of us would have to pay for anything. Fires happen whether its one a year or one every 10 years. I guess it's okay as long as it's not my house. But if it was, I'd want the best to put that fire out and just maybe save my life in doing so.

I hope our military doesn't have to fight another war ever. And I'm willing to pay for that. The same way I'm willing to pay for our fire fighters whether they fight another fire or not.

Edited February 2, 2016 by nfd2004

[MELILLO719 30]

How come Engine 59 relocates every night?

Engine 59 relocates every night due to a contract with the Village Of Rye Brook... RBFD only work 7am to 7pm..... So at 7pm PC sends a career engine up to cover the district... and you are also getting two additional volunteer engines a ladder and rescue from PC just like we send during daytime hours....