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Rest in Peace Brother. Your time on this earth was way too short. Prayers to his family and his NRFD family.

You know, I looked at the tag Seth put on his post; "Haters are my motivators." Had to think about that one for a while. Then I remembered something. A Facebook Group. "I Hate EMTBravo." Had to look and saw the page had 169 "likes."

I wonder how those people feel now. If they feel anything at all that is.

I wonder what motivates people to hate. You think those people who took a Facebook page and turned it into a page of hate, you think that didn't hurt Seth? For the "sin" of having created a space for all of us to convene and talk about the jobs we have/had?

There should be no room in emergency services for hate. We're all supposed to be in the service of the people. Common cause.

Now that we can all see what the man has been through, I hope a lot of those haters are doing some soul searching. And regretting.

Just think about all the bases that have disappeared over the years;

ME - Dow AFB, Houlton AAF, Presque Isle AFB, Loring AFB, Brunswick NAS, Winter Harbor NS, Columbia AFS and a bunch of other radar stations in Maine. NH had Grenier & Pease AFB. MA had Bos Navy Yard, Otis AFB/ANGB, Devens, Moore AAF, CGAS Salem, S. Weymouth & Squantam NRAS, B52's at Westover, dozens of Coastal Artillery Forts, 13 Nike Missle Bases and an equal number of Radar Stations, AA sites, WW2 Army Airfields, Naval Auxiliary Airfields, etc. Rhode Island had the largest master jet base with Quonset and the Aux field in Charlestown, Destroyers, PT Boats, & Forts all over Narraganset bay. Now - a few token ANG & ARNG bases.

Sure. We outsourced them. We're all over the world now.

I think our Chief from Maine, antiquefirelt will be able to give plenty of info on this one.

"Outstanding."

sfrd18 got it. Good man.

Never Forget.

And herein lies the heart of my concerns:

"The new system contemplates a partnership between career and volunteer fire services," Sandak said. "If you have a true partnership, as issues come up -- and there will be issues, I'm not denying that -- they'll look for solutions."

The Charter Commission had the chance to build a fire service "inclusive of the volunteer service that exists" by granting all involved parties representation, including the public who has to pay for and live with it. Instead they chose to base all of our futures, career, volunteer and that same public alike, on an IF...and it's a very big if at that. Now it will fall to the public to decide if that IF is one they are willing to accept for Stamford.

I think it's ludicrous and the height of hubris to believe that 30 years of trouble will be swept away with the sunrise come November 7th and that a "true partnership" will be the result. History has clearly shown there's very little in the way of a foundation for that to happen readily. So then what? Who will "look for solutions"? Who will be a part of that process? Who will decide those solutions? The hard truth is both "sides" have firmly entrenched and powerful factions which brought us here, either one of which could be the real "winners". They won't disappear come that first Wednesday in November and it may very well be them who decides our collective future... and that prospect is one that should send a shudder down any reasonable persons spine. Better to have mandated that partnership, inclusive of the public we serve, through the Charter, thus guaranteeing it will exist and a true combining..a "true partnership" of the services could take place.

We shall see

Eesh. Maybe you should call Bobby Valentine back again. lol (j/k by the way)

You have to consider that the people that Law Enforcement frequently have to chase down are driving vehicles with a lot of horse power. Criminals don't necessarily care about fuel mileage. Consider the new Chevy Camaros, Dodge Challengers, Vipers and Corvettes for starters.

Back in '83-'86 when I worked in the Eastchester PD shop, we had Plymouth Gran(d) Furys, and the '80's version of Chevy Caprice. Space was not an issue for the officers. And the cars certainly had the horsepower.

Today, the Police Package Chevy Tahoe that I've seen many State Troopers on the Interstates up and down the East Coast using, seems to be THE premo vehicle for LE use. Space certainly isn't an issue. It's got the horsepower, and the safety factor for a Tahoe has got to be pretty high. Remember when John Corzine's Chevy Suburban crashed in Jersey? If he had been wearing his seatbelt, he probably wouldn't have been injured, and they were haulin' when they crashed.

These new Impalas; front wheel drive, six cylinder....NOt appropriate for RMP work in my "used to work in the shop" opinion. the Chargers? Look cool as heck, but I can't imagine they have enough room inside. The Crown Vic? Probably the best car Ford ever built for police, except for that "slight" defect of the bolt-gas tank that ended up having some very tragic results.

I understand what the OP was thinking; you know, how can municipalities save money without hurting the work force. But smaller, less powerful cars cannot be the answer, unless they require all criminals to drive Vespas, Prius's and such! lol

Stay safe our Brothers/Sisters on The Thin Blue Line. And thanks for all the informative posts, grumpy, INIT, et al.

"Outstanding."

Un accident très tragique. Reposez en paix.

A very tragic accident. Rest in Peace.

Contact Chief Raftery (wraftery here on Bravo). He's in Virginia and I believe his son is a firefighter in Virginia. He is very knowledgeable and one of the best sources of information we have here on the site.

Looks like that's the new HM-1 that was posted about earlier.

Also the Brothers of the Marine Unit couldn't have known they'd shortly be seeing some action, as the south Street Seaport pier caught fire yesterday and went to 3 Alarms. From what I read in the news it sounds like they did a great job in getting that fire under control fairly quickly.

It may be have been Firefighter Appreciation Day at the Intrepid, but every single day is Firefighter Appreciation Day in my book.

Seth,

I don't know what to say. I want to hit the rep button but it says "like." There's nothing to like about what you have been going through. It's kind of stunning to read all of this. I'm very sorry to read that you've been through so much pain and freakin agony.

You're going to be on my mind and in my prayers.

Never give up Brother. You'll have a lot of support going forward.

God Bless.

Thanks for the promotion Mack.

BARRY - I believe that we all know that Yonkers (years ago) has told Mount Vernon NOT to place Yonkers on their Mutual Aid list as Yonkers would not come to "the Vern" just to sit in a Fire House and cover, because of Mount Vernon's recent history of staffing and manpower issues (This has been commented on by many people from within YFD on EMTBravo.net for years). This is nothing new

And you know what? Yonkers was right then and they're right now. Mutual aid has been taken advantage of for years, and Yonkers, because they actually do thing RIGHT, have the proper staffing that other municipalities who have been pussyfooting around and playing games with manpower forever, was taken advantage of. Good for them for doing what they should; be responsible for and available to help the people of the city that pay their salaries.

The only way these problems are ever going to get fixed is for the powers that be to open their eyes, dust off the consolidation study that the firefighters themselves came up with as a solution to address the shortcomings in the system as it exists now, and has existed for too long.

Arguing about mutual aid is old.

Heard it through the grapevine, he's fine. Just needed a break. No worries fellas.

May be a stupid question, but what is the red smoke about?

Take a look at the red paint on the eves. Red paint, red smoke. lol

Have a great day.

Seems like the whole administrative staff has gone on vacation or something.

Not sure about this, maybe a NYC Brother can help us out. The Haz-Mat protocols in the city; does NYPD play a bigger role in that now when compared to say before 9/11? Did the "normal" response protocols for Haz-Mat change in the wake of that, and would that explain the fairly low number of runs for HM-1?

Maybe this has been discussed before, and I missed it.

Safe ops with the new rig, members of HM-1.

Folsom Billing Blues.

That is fantastic! Best of luck to the new recruits. BFD has just gained some extremely well deserving "probies."

This should happen more across the country.

Yes indeed, Rest in Peace Commissioner.

As I approach my 24 yr anniversary with FDMV I honestly feel that manning will be the same issue well after I retire, fire Chiefs/union leaders in the past and present know that we are well understaffed. Politics as usual here. Does the dept reduce the apparatus from 4 engines,3 trucks, Res 1(in and out of service) down to 2 engines,1 truck and man the rigs with 3 or 4 firefighters and an officer to properly man the rigs? Last year I was individually assigned to eng 4 on the west side and many times we ran with 3 firefighters and an officer. What a difference 1 additional member made on that rig. Because of staffing during peak vacation time it was reduced to a 2 man eng co. and it was the same old story. Great department with politicians ruling the helm!

I mentioned ISO ratings in my prior post. Reducing the number of apparatus to more effectively utilize existing manpower makes great sense, but might be hampered by the ISO.

Maybe you could obtain a copy of the consultant's report Eastchester had done, where they actually did reduce the number of rigs to increase the staffing on those they left in service.

Also Chief Dunn's study of how the removal of the FIFTH man of an engine company significantly reduces the effectiveness of that company, is widely available.

Thank you for your reply INIT915.

Haven't seen him around lately. Hope everything's okay with our Brother and Leader of the Board.

Industry standard is typically not a cause for action. Rather, collective bargaining agreements are the proper avenue, at which point a PERB or similar complaint can be made, or if need be an Article 78 hearing.

If CBA's don't dictate staffing, there is no such thing as "minimum" in the legal sense. Rather, the "minimum" is whatever the city says it is.

Would you mind explaining how an Article 78 hearing would be an appropriate avenue to pursue a "staffing issue"?

I think most of us understand that if a CBA contains no minimum staffing clause, the employees have no power to pursue staffing issues.

However, if a disaster were to occur, such as a loss of life within the "protected" population, or the death of employees that the municipality has an implied duty to adequately protect due to the past practice of providing said protection to the populace and employing personnel to provide that protection, the liability would fall squarely upon that municipality would it not?

Therefore reducing staffing to "substandard levels" as defined by the industry standard NFPA 1710 of what "safe staffing" should be is the game of Russian Roulette that a municipality plays when they take rigs out of service and reduce manpower, thereby dropping below even what their ISO rating is based upon, which would be another avenue of legal pursuit in the event of catastrophe.

Of course the municipality is gambling that event won't occur. However they frequently do.

If I was a fire commander in charge of employees safety in said municipality, and was dictated to that my staffing was going below the ISO rating of where it should be, was going below the implied level of protection that past practice from municipality has formed my judgments as to what the employees under my command are safely capable of performing reasonably, I'd have to adjust the game plan as to what my subordinates could subsequently do for THEIR safety.

Unfortunately the ultimate losers are the potentially dead citizens who went to bed thinking their city was providing them a safety net in the event of emergency.

Just my opinion Officer.