KCRD

After you vote, hit the red "vote for a firehouse now" on upper left side and you can vote more than once.

Fire never got inside the exposure but burnt all the siding off of it. we were in the alley between the houses with a 2 1/2. great stop.

so was engine 307 saved??

As of now.. Who knows what the future holds

Do you honestly think that the state government would pass legislation that would put businesses in such financial jeopardy that they'd risk them going bankrupt? It's plain common sense.

I think there are plenty people in state govt that would pass almost anything in order to get re-elected. As said before, they cant pass a budget, which is actually important to EVERYONE, but can pass this which benefits a few.

I also heard it has a ton of rescue equipment and not much tactical stuff at all. Concrete breakers, boat,stanley system, torches, search camera's, air shore, rescue jacks, etc...

Is it me or does this sound like what YFD Rescue 1 carries? Duplication od service?

what is the age limit for entering the YFD?

thanks

Fire 84

The max age is 28 when taking the exam.

Perhaps the mayor should downsize the staff in City Hall?

He did. By 1. What a joke.

Would the closing of the two fire stations mean laying off personel, or are there enough opens spots for those firefighters to be reassigned?

The way he is talking at the moment, its 44 ff that would recieve pink slips.

"as I told you I was never much of an engine guy but i've developed a newfound appreciation for what they do after standing in front of some jobs with my white helmet on and basically praying someone would put some water on the fire fast (which they usually do)....it' funny how i always thought us truck and engine guys put the fires out but my first job as a chief all i could think of was water, water, water..."

Its great that you finally realize who the "real" workers are. There is a reason that truck guys are called "firefighter helpers"

sounds good

He's just trying to scare the union since their in negotiations. Otherwise, he seems contradicts himself significantly with his optimisim? He's painting a doomsday and happy day scenario on the same canvas.

Dind, ding, ding. You win the prize. Contract neg are coming up and thats exactly what he trying to do.

The school district is a seperate budget, but it doesn't the taxing ability like other places. They submit a budget to the mayor and than he finds a way to fund it. Usually it comes from municipal side or "one-shot" deal from the state.

I may be naive and ignorant, but the Mayor placed the fault of the Citys ways on the State and its cuts to education. I can see how this would affect teachers and the schools, but what does that have to do with emergency services?

The problem here is that the school side has its own budget and the other side is municipal. When the schools are shorted, he takes from municipal, and gives it to the schools. Also, school cuts can't happen until end of school year. Municipal cuts can happen when are needed.

How fast he forgets. He could do alot of cost savings in his office alone. Boy has he changed.

Geez... I'd better be careful then when your aide is driving me when I have to work B2, he'll be pushing it all the time. His luck... he will press it and it will short out and eject him instead of me!!!.... now wouldn't that be so typical...lol

Yes it would Golden Boy

Isn't one of the more fundamental issues that this is a village of .2 square miles with a completely autonomous, independent fire department?

Does anyone know where I can find out how many runs they went on? Nothing on the website about it, just that they won first place in the parade. In a place this small with so many departments within a close proximity, you cant tell me it would not be cheaper to contract out or, god forbid, merge with another department. (sorry for the crazy thinking)

Newsweek or Newsday? 400 Heavy Rescues between 180 departments...Really?

Even if you cut the number in half, you still have about 195 too many. Every little village, hamlet or town doesn't need a rescue. I also love the 100 ft sticks for places that have two story buildings.

In the top photo of jjpinto's post #3, what does the red helmet designate in YFD?

Its the safety officer. Either a chief or captain that has taken the required courses

Career firemen I understand why you have the feelings you do, but if you have loved ones living somewhere that the fire service being provided is less than adequate do you tell them to move? Also doesn't the Commisioner of Yonkers live/lived in a volunteer town?

I can not tell my family to move, but they happen to live where sub-par service is provided, I will advise them of such and make preparations for it. Example: A LT in my firehouse was badly hurt on his property. He had very labored breathing from being crushed and it took 25 minutes for an ambulance. 25 MINUTES!!! that is completely unacceptable. If it was a heart attack, he would be dead. His family now plans to drive themselves to the hospital in the future because its faster.

The Yonkers fire comm lives in Yonkers.

A good question deserves a good answer. My volunteer department has over 100 active members, lots of associates. Some serve out of family traditions, some are adrenaline junkies, some believe in community service. There are even a few souls who come for the food, and my heart goes out to them. Yes, some people love to parade and those people go to parades. The last time I was at a meeting, which is a while ago, there was grousing from the parade people that so few people were turning out, it was a always the same few. Long after one has put on a scott pack for the last time, one can don a uniform and shiny shoes to go marching for the cause.

For every hour out at a parade, dozens of hours are spent in house, polishing, gear checking, maintaining equipment. Towns are extremely well protected when everyone is in house on a detail. I even remember a mutual aid call where not only did we make filthy the parade truck and the parade rack, we could have won best dressed department to a running brush fire.

It is hard to prove a negative. I can say without reservation that in my 20 years as a volunteer, my department never put parading above fire fighting. I cannot think of a time where service suffered when a truck was out of town, be it maintenance or a parade and I can think of many times a designated crew on stand by cut response time. I can remember the dozens of times that I was asked to stay home and stay frosty. I can remember the day of a department golf outing we handled back to back structure fires with over 40 members at scene. I can remember the night of the 2000 New Year's Eve gala when, party notwithstanding, we mounted an outstanding attack on a propane fueled house fire with easily 50 members at scene.

A volunteer fire department is a social enterprize. It is also a large and dedicated fire fighting organization. What we lack in paid performance is more often than not made up in brute size. If for 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon we are down 10 deputy chiefs with a combined age of 750 and one truck.... we still have 7 trucks and 80 members home cutting grass. Parades aren't on held on weekdays.

Here is a pair of questions for our paid brothers: How many fire fighters does a paid truck get to the scene.... 4 or 5?

Can our paid brothers point out times when participation at a parade has actually resulted in a negative outcome for a community served by volunteers?

First of all, thank you for actually providing answers and not getting offended.

To answer your questions: It is been said said many times how many guys Yonkers brings to the scene but here a breakdown again. 4 engines - each w/4 members

2 Ladders - each w/4 members

Rescue - 4 members

Chief & aid - 2 members

Safety - 1 member

Thats 31 members arriving within 4-5 minutes of the call. If it sounds like a working fire, a 5th engine is usually started to roll at the chiefs discretion. I can not recall a time when a parade has had a negative on the community. The rig is O.O.S. for a short amount of time but can be ordered to go back in service within seconds. If someone else from YFD does recall a time when there was a negative outcome, please correct me.

I for one also would like to see the thread stay open. I'm still waiting on some answers that hopefully will be answered. Maybe myself, JFLYNN, BNECHIS and others are asking too much. Then again, we are southern Westchester elitists. Funny, I always thought Yonkers was looked down upon by the rest of the County cause its poor and crime-ridden. An actual quote that was said to me a few yrs ago when asked where I'm from "I'm so sorry". Said by Northern West resident.

FFLieu

"Seems like those lower-Westchester elitists are the first to say QTIP, but are also the first to cry when the shoe is on the other foot. I guess they can dish it but they cannot take it. Either way, they're fools."

For clarification purposes only, can you explain this? As an elitist, I can not comprehend. When has anyone cried? A simple question asked of everyone, not just vollies, and some provided good explanantions. Others get mad. Im confused.

Great photos

3.) Who appointed you, JFlynn, or your respective "boys" the judges and juries with respect to how a department other than your own is doing? Don't you think that's the business of each other departments' Chiefs, Board of Fire Commissioners, Members, and most importantly, residents themselves? Unless you or a loved one lives in a district that you know provides inferior service (again, KCRD's word), why is there the constant gripe about what the volunteers do, their staffing issues, their response times, and all the other bullcrap? I've met paid guys who are worth their salt and I've met volunteers who are worth their salt. Conversely, I've met some paid guys who are pretty useless and I've met some volunteers who are pretty useless. That said, no one can paint the opposing side with a broad brush. And that includes coming on here and demanding to know answers to questions that have been killed ten times over in the past. How would you like it if I listened to 60 one day when you were getting slammed and I came on here to raise questions about YOUR department? I'm pretty sure it would piss you off. And I'm pretty sure it would piss you off if I came on here every third day to talk smack - in general - about your "brothers." We all put the wet stuff on the red stuff, we're all "brothers;" who gives a flying crap what side of the line we're on, and who gives a flying crap about a parade? Don't you think department leadership is responsible enough to maybe perhaps CANCEL their participation in the particular parade if it came to light that their immediate jurisdiction was left short? Nobody ever mentioned that, now did they?

Holy wow!!! Someone is taking this very personnally. My comments were meant for every department that provides Shoddy service. Never once did I mention or infer to volunteers. It was for both sides. There have many threads that bashed Mt Vernon manpower issues they face. Its not the guys on the lines fault. Its the Mayors. Their abuse of the mutual-aid system is well documented. Both career and volly members spoke on this issue. The constant gripe pertains to those places that seem to have a systemic problem of not having to be retoned and mutual aid called. If your department is not one these, than why does it bother you?

Now to address some of your points:

1. Its not up to those people you mentioned because most of those people in charge dont want to admit there is a problem.

That would require change and we cant have that. The travesty. The average citizen is also clueless when it comes to this. They are not given the correct info, because if they were, change would've happened already.

2. For the record, I do have loved ones that live in Northern West, Rockland, and CT, so I feel it is my right to be concerned about the the coverage they are recieving. Wether its Fire or EMS.

3. I invite you to listen to the our departments tones and point out flaws. We have some very open-minded chiefs that read this site and would take your objective criticism under consideration. (except JFLYNN -cause he would take it personnal )

4. It has already been pointed out that by this thread that some depts have placed parades and other events above good service.

5. Once everone is trained to same level and there is 1 standard for all, there will only be 1 side. The career vs Vollie arguement will be dead because response times are the same, skills are the same, and most importantly, the public will be better served by US.

("give me facts," "I want specifics,")

Since when is asking for facts or specifics arrogance? If you make a claim about the service you provide or qualification you have, you should also be able to back up that claim with facts. An attorney has to provide facts to back up the things they say in court. They cant just tell the jury "he's innocent because I say so" Also, this thread was started with no particular department being singled out, but a few have taken offense. Why is that? Others provided answers and it was left at that.

"thanks for what you do, but I have a question regarding x issue"),

Why should someone be thanked for providing an inferior service (career or vollie)? Should a chief say to a taxpayer " you should thank us, we made a great stop and saved the foundation"

I'm pretty sure most people on this site can agree there are issues with response times and staffing. We can talk about it on emtbravo all day long. Until its brought up in a venue where the right people see it don't expect a change.

I'm sure it does get brought up in other venues as well, but there are plenty of people that are on this site that live in the affected areas. If enough "x" department members start to realize there are issues, they can begin the process of changing their own departments for the better. As someone who lives in southern westchester, there is no way I can change a nothern west department's policies. That needs to start from within. Also, as Healz pointed out in another thread, there is fear of retripution for speaking out about problems. A "lone wolf" can be dealt with, but a chief or board of comm cant take on the whole pack.