ems-buff

Does the State have to declare an state of emergency inorder for FEMA aid to be requested?

I work there so maybe I can answer your questions. I was a NY EMT when I started there. You can work as a NY EMT for only six months. You MUST get your NJ EMT in that time frame. It was just a matter of taking a "core 13" class. The BLS trucks are double EMT, 911 only in either type 1 or type 3 vehicles. We are phasing out the type 1's. A EMT will start per-diem. After about a year, you will usually be offered full time if any spots are open. The pay now is $17.94hr days and $19.94hr nights. You will earn your money as you will do 12-15 jobs in a 12 hour shift. When you become full time, they have a rotating schedule. It is 2 on, 2 off, 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, etc.. Basically you work every other weekend, three day work weeks, with the fourth week you work four days. There are only 12 hour shifts. There are no stations. You are posted (unless we are backed up with jobs), but you are constantly working. It is a state job with the state PERS pension. Info can be found here at www.uh-ems.org. There is also a link for the HR dept on the page under the "general information" tab. There are no paper resumes accepted, and you can only apply if openings are listed on the HR website. Good luck! It is a great place to get experience. Don't come here only looking at the money. People have quit during the orientation ride-along saying it is not for them, or it is just to busy for them! You can PM me if you have any other questions. Also listen to 155.4000 on a scanner to hear how the system is run.

Congratulations on the new addition it looks great! PVAC does an excellent job with rehab and is a very proactive agency. Keep up the good work!

I am not commenting on or critiquing the Asbury park fire since we do not know with certainty what actually happened yet. However...you are completely wrong regarding vertical ventilation...this should be accomplished as rapidly as possible regardless of hoseline positioning with one or two specific, rare exceptions which I will not go into here...PLEASE, do not make posts about such a critical life or death subject in such a self confident, matter of fact manner unless you know what you are talking about.....we have such limited fire duty these days and there are those who will apply what they learn on this forum on the fireground...
As far as your comments regarding horizontal ventilation, your guidelines are overly simplistic, and again, may cause more harm than good to those reading this if they decide to take it as gospel....when I have time I will post some correct information on horizontal ventilation unless (hopefully) someone beats me to it....
Please don't take this personal...I'm sure you mean well, but when such clearly incorrect information is posted about what is such a basic and important procedure on the fireground, it is essential that it be rebutted as quickly as possible and the correct information put forward...

Agreed, but rather then us question whether there was one in place since we cannot see what was occurring inside, we should let the investigation determine that.
Regardless of what happened with these brothers, we should remind everyone that for venting, you must communicate with the engine company and IC to request that ventilation begin and notify its about to occur. This is operational procedures taught at the lowest level of any firefighting class. Windows generally shouldn't be taken without a charged hose line in place and ready for water to flow. As seen here, the moment the windows were vented, the smoke when from gray, low density/wispy under no pressure to thick, black smoke under a lot of pressure, then flashed almost instantaneously.
Along those lines as well, we must also make sure that ventilation is occurring in the right place. Vertical ventilation should occur directly above the seat of the fire as possible, and horizontal should generally only be used in rooms currently involved in fire. Doing anything besides that runs the risk of pulling the heat and flames to the new vent hole and spreading the fire.

What about an under appreciated, under paid and compensated, paramedic that needs to work 3 jobs to survive?

Mayor bloomberg I didn't realize you had a emtbravo account.

In the last few hours of this year I want to take a moment to remember the 162 Police Officers that gave their lives in the line of duty this year. These brave and selfless men and women are my heroes and at Midnight tonight when we welcome the new year, these officers and their families will be in the forefront of my mind. You have my love, honor, admiration and respect my brothers and sisters and I thank you for your service and sacrafice. God Bless You

We received a post- arrest the other night in the local ER. She (a dialysis pt who missed her rx due to the winter storm) called 911 saying she couldn't breathe and "was probably having a heart attack." 2 minutes later PD broke down her door and found her asystolic-- started CPR. 2 more minutes later ALS arrived and loaded a few rounds of Epi and Atropine into her. Got a pulse. Gave 1 more of Epi and 1 more of Atropine. Scrambled her to me in the local ER with a pulse of 40 (mostly ectopic, med-based beats). We immediatley began the hypothermia protocol (AKA Code Cool).
Fast forward: 2 days.
She was warmed back up in our ICU from 93 degrees to 98 degrees and was extubated the day after. 2 days later she was extubated and asked ME, the one who received her and wrote her off as non-viable, ""What the Hell was I thinking bothering you people with my medical problems??? I'm so sorry I bothered you all!"
WE broke her ribs, tore her lip tubing her, and jammed lines and tubes all over the place in her tiny body, and she's apologizing to ME. This is why I do this. Beyond words. Seriously. There's so rarely a save post-arrest, and if the person survives, he/she rarely comes out of it as much more than a plant on a window sill. And she thanked ME.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, all. NEVER forget why you do what you do and NEVER assume your efforts are fruitless. This woman was proof to me to always the assume the outcome is going to be a GOOD ONE.

Good for the County Exec. As more info is available to the public, the better we can justify our operation or request additional resources.
That discusion is critical to service improvment. The problem is the info released is not enough to make for good discusion.
What is need is the following times:
Processing time (time to answer 911, transfer & or dispatch) + Turnout Time (time from dispatch till apparatus is on the road) + Response time (drive time) = total response time.
In addition the response time needs to indicate how many trained responders arrived with the 1st unit (and its onscene time) plus the total number of responders and apparatus that arrived in the remaining initial response and there onscene time.
Examples of why this is needed:
Your 1st due engine arrives with 1 FF in 4 minutes, but the remaining 3ff's take 15 minutes.
2 eng and a ladder arrive in 7 minutes with 4FF's
30 trained members arrive in 10 minutes, with long drive distances.
With just a list of total times how can anyone figure out if the problem is not enough members, not enough who can get the rigs or long distances because of rural area.
If a VFD with a single station "in town" but 20-50 road miles to cover in the outlying area maintains an intown response under 6 minutes, but outlying takes 20 minutes. This depts doing very well, but it may not look it.
They should, maybe that would force some depts to get their heads out of the sand. Since most depts do not accuratly document the times (as listed above) most do not know. Also average times are not considered the standard, fractile times are. The problem with an average time is if your average is 4 minutes that sounds very good, but that could mean on your last 20 calls; 19 took 3 minutes and 1 took 25, now if all the 3 minute calls were for automatic alarms and the 25 minute one was for a child trapped, you see why averages dont tell the real picture.
Its a great start. If you are afraid of the public knowing this info, then you are no longer serving the public. They have a right to know.

Friday, December 17. 2010 a firefighting family legacy comes to an end. Eastchester Firefighter Joseph Iamonico is doing his last tour of duty. After 27 years of dedicated service to the Town of Eastchster, Villages of Tuckahoe, and Bronxville, working for the fire dept., he shall be retired. His grandfather was one of the first career firefighters for the city of Mt. Vernon. His father and his brother worked for decades for Eastchester FD as well. All combined, it's roughly two centuries of public service from one family. That's simply amazing. Joe, want to wish you the best in your retirement, joining your brother Robert. Any time I worked the tour with you, I always had supreme confidence that the man behind the wheel of 2102 could and would take care of business. And now it's time for you to move on. God Bless, enjoy your well deserved retirement, and thank you for all the extra effort you put in to the Association as well. KBR-359 signing off....

Great topic!
In addition to the lack of initial size-ups, there's been a drought when it comes to progress reports as well. One incident I listened to recenty, the FD was on scene for roughly one hour, and I never heard anything. As a dispatcher, we like to know what's happening, and the info that the IC can relay can be entered into your event's comments in case you ever need to refer to them on a report.
As a Chief, I try to give a brief report on arrival, and provide updates as necessary. Last week, while waiting for several hours for a certain utility company to show up to an incident, I made requests every 20-30 minutes to have on record for the whereabouts of this utility. The 60 Control dispatchers were good about entering this info which came in handy when I completed the report.
I've also been a big fan of the size-ups and progress reports so your responding members know what's going on, whether they need to go to the scene or crew a rig, etc.
Hopefully this discussion prompts some more Incident Commanders to speak up and let people know what's going on.

I am increasingly disgusted with the way the media is portraying this guy as the victim in this case. The victims are the cops who were involved, end of story.
As for these so called " minority law enforcement groups" who are so concerned with this case, the majority of them are corrections officers who have no clue what it's like to be a street cop. They should be embarassed to have held that press conference and said the anti cop things that they said. It's funny how they come out of the wood work when a cop shoots someone but when gang members are killing each other and people are getting robbed, beaten, raped, burglarized and shot each and every day, they say nothing. These jerks are opportunists and nothing more. Everyone ran to back up this guys family and his friends version of what happened and now that his BAC is back at a .13 everyone is quieting down a bit. It kind of reminds me of the tawana brawley case all those years ago... everyone ran to her defense and just like the witnesses in this case, she was a LIAR.
I pray that our brothers are doing well as they try to come to terms with the actions that they were forced to take. These cops made the right decisions and did an outstanding job given the circumstances. Just think, you have a large crowd and an out of control drunk driver, if the officer didn't take the action he did, imagine what the outcome could have been if the car sped into the crowd. This cop not only did the right thing, he is a hero in my book.

Gald to see Jim Arena got the postion and that 60 control can still provide cross streets and hydrant locations! lol Congrats to all and good luck

Seems like every time that I go for an EMT refresher they change CPR.

Good point... While I, and the rest of the staff don't understand what the actual issue is, and would like to ask PEDSTRUK, to please respond so that we can fix this issue..
Also regardless of what PEDSTRUK's issues are with this sites IA's, or the site itself. I would like to say thank you to all the members on here, who are dedicated, and devoted to making our IA section what it is today. It is one of the most viewed thread on our forum. Also our members are so dedicated to it. Even PAID sites copy ours IA just to get the facts straight.. That should tell you all something about EMTbravo, as a site, and a emergency services community.. We are the best, cause we have the best... Thank you to the membership..You make this site what it is.. We as staff are here, just to smooth things along...

Actually, my understanding is that one of the major reasons that Seth created EMTBravo was to create an information exchange amongst emergency service providers in Westchester County. In fact he and I used to talk extensively back then. There are a number of other members of this site that have been here since the beginning, and I am sure they remember that. There were lists of resources, etc. And one of the goals I believe was to allow people to ask questions, and those with definitive "inside" answers to provide the information. A company website may list employment opportunities on its home page, however that may not have been updated or may be a permanent stance so that they are always ready to hire people when needed. This forum gives you the ability to ask a possible insider. The answer may not always be provided in the public forum, however there are ways for someone to answer the question correctly without everyone including their boss avail to reading so. There are Empress supervisors and employees that visit this forum and may be able to provide insight, whether it be a posting in this thread or a quick direct message giving the person appropriate and necessary information. As Seth said, we have seen Empress go from glory to purgatory and back to glory over the years. I worked there, and although there were times I hated it, there were times I loved it. Many of the guys I go out with now-a-days all worked there at some point. We have all moved on, it is considered a stepping stone, but we all talk about our times at Empress. Well, not all of us have moved on...sorry Rich...lol I give them credit because it is hard to run a profit service while serving the poverty stricken...which barring Y-town and the upper east side of Yonkers, that is the majority!~

There are alot of old ex-Empress EMS employees on here. If you speak to any one of them, They will tell you the same thing I will. I have been there since 2006, in my 4 years here. I have learned more here at Empress, then any other place, I have been. Every company has it's ups. and downs. Empress is no exception, but if you want to work for the most professional, well respected company in Westchester County. Then come here. All I can say is bring your A- game, because you will get it all. Trauma's at lest once a shift, Medical calls, that will test your skills. Knowledgeable partners that have been around the block a few times, and are willing to teach you. If you come over.. All I can say is welcome to the family.

There are alot of old ex-Empress EMS employees on here. If you speak to any one of them, They will tell you the same thing I will. I have been there since 2006, in my 4 years here. I have learned more here at Empress, then any other place, I have been. Every company has it's ups. and downs. Empress is no exception, but if you want to work for the most professional, well respected company in Westchester County. Then come here. All I can say is bring your A- game, because you will get it all. Trauma's at lest once a shift, Medical calls, that will test your skills. Knowledgeable partners that have been around the block a few times, and are willing to teach you. If you come over.. All I can say is welcome to the family.

Here are some pictures on a recent brush fire Hawthorne had. Some backround of the incident. A primary wire broke, cause sparks, witch lit brush along 9-A. This incident was incressingly diffcult due to the fact, units had to wait to have power cut off to fully attack the fire.
Unit's opperating.
C-2191
C-2192
C-2193
E-155
L-56
U-41
U-15
63-B1
63-B2
These picture were taken with a camera phone so please forgive me for some small or poorly visable shots.

Here are some pictures on a recent brush fire Hawthorne had. Some backround of the incident. A primary wire broke, cause sparks, witch lit brush along 9-A. This incident was incressingly diffcult due to the fact, units had to wait to have power cut off to fully attack the fire.
Unit's opperating.
C-2191
C-2192
C-2193
E-155
L-56
U-41
U-15
63-B1
63-B2
These picture were taken with a camera phone so please forgive me for some small or poorly visable shots.

Date: 12/24/2009
Time: 2330hrs
Location: 27 Farragut Ave (Hastings High School)
Frequency: 46.26, FIRE-14, 156.000
Units Operating: 2181 CMD ,E44,E45,E46 L22, 2091, TL23, E48, BAT18, E165
Weather Conditions: Clear and cold
Description Of Incident: Working fire in a room within the High School
Reporters:
Writer: DFFD227
2330hrs - HFD dispatched to above address for activated alarm.
2333hrs - Units on scene reports heavy smoke, 10-75 , Req FASTeam from Ardlsey FD
2340hrs- DFFD TL23 and E48 Req to stand by at L22 HQ.
0040hrs- Fire under control, DFFD units being released.

I didn't get a Harrumph out of that guy!

They are full of Solid Waste!!!!!!

Favorite: E one
Least: Can't say I have one. Even despite the major issues experienced with the Pierce apparatus he had in our department.