bmfd231

I have flown out of there both commercially and private. Its a great airport to go out of, with the exception that parking is terrible. When flying commercially, always take a car service. I would recommend that.

Actually it may only be temporary.

I was able to get in and speak with one of the guys today and learned they lost there lease, and rather suddenly.

They are currently looking for a new location, preferably in Elmsford. The store is pretty much cleared out and the phone has been placed on hold. All the materials have been put in storage

Hopefully we will see them back soon

When N12 says local as local news gets, who would have known that it meant outside their building in Yonkers or Yorktown.

Finally we will get news that may cover the other 90 percent of Westchester.

Janine Rose has to go!!!

Braircliff has a Scottys trailer as well. Got it about 3 to 4 years ago and have found it to be a great tool in our community. We use it at schools and community events. More importantly, we make it available to surrounding departments such as Ossining, Millwood and Pleasantville for their events.

Thanks all for all your great input. I am in the very early stages of proposing a team in our town. We do have a number of divers who have various degrees of experience. I myself have been diving since 1974, althought mostly when I head to clearer water.

Just curious, what would be involved to start a dive team, other than having a certified diver.

Are there courses available for special ops under ice or extreme condidtions that may exist? What specialized equipment would be needed to safely develope a team, how much would it cost and what would be a minimum dive team?

Enjoy flying (pilot since 1990) with instrument rating

scuba diving, although not in the north

boating and photography

Once again the government has found a new way to get more money out of our pockets and into theirs undeer the guise of saving us. If they were really worried about us, then they would find a way to save the 26000 people that die in cars each year

FYI - to have access to the Trunked System will require authorization. A program key (password) is required to program the parameters of the system (system ID, etc.).

For Fireground and conventional frequencies, only programming software is required.

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Not to mention that the 1250 you buy must be a trunked version. If you do get the trunked version, you will only have access to 16 channels.

I do not believe that these trucks should be equipped with red lights. Use of these lights are for true, life threatning emergencies. To permit these vehicles to have these lights just so they can get through traffic for a breakdown, is wrong. That is what police and fire are for!!

Thank you, now you have added, by way of your response to me, what should have been in your original article. Your response brought focus to the reasoning behind your article and why you made the claims you did. I was not attacting you, trying to trash your site nor do I have a bone to pick with you but I felt your article was unsubstanciated and incomplete. A walk around one site and one short sighted contractor should not result in blame on a whole industry. We have government to do that.

Constuction workers are not to blame for these dangerous sites, Construction companies and their owners are. Do they consider firefighters, I doubt it.

Your article deals with two main points, dangerous work sites and shoddy construction and they really are two very different issues, I would think two separate articles.

Are work site hazzards preventable, yes, but only if the contractor makes it part of his daily routine. What was the result of your officers complaint to the towns code enforcement office? What did they require the contractor to do and was he issued any violations? Do you consider that the site would now be safe with what was done were you to fight a fire on this property now?

In closing, I have nothing against you. In fact I have enjoyed your various photo's over the years and hope that they continue in the future.

As you correctly state, there are alot of fly-by-night companies out there and some who are legitimate who fall in the same category. Do you realize that all you need to get a license in Westchester is to give them $300 bucks and a certificate of Insurance and you got a license (they just want the money). No test to make sure that they guy actually knows how to do this work, as is required of electricians and plumbers, which brings me to the second focus of your article, shoddy workmanship.

Shoddy workmanship can have a wide meaning to it. It can mean that the molding is poorly done or it can mean that the structure is unsound. There are many different levels of contractor out there, many who understand structural work, and others who do not and do it anyway. It is just not simple to say that an industry is to blame. I agree with you that more can be done to make any worksite and safe place, not just for firefighters, but for the guys that work there.

So as you can see, there is alot more to it. With your response to me, you have advanced this article closer to completion. The last step is to use your article to teach and to point out how we can be safe on these worksites. Develop solutions that we can all discuss openly. Make us want to think about the solution.

To claim that construction workers are trying to kill ff's is a bit much and an irresponsible statement. Based on the way that 635 wrote this article, you should never dig a hole to build a building, never have any construction equipment on the site and never throw garbage in the dumpster, how pristine and how nieve. What are the cheap and shoody construction techniques used here, did not see any pix's for 635 to back his claim. Yes, a site should be secure and closed off so that others can't wonder on the site and it should be kept orderly, but holes are dug on construction sites, heavy equipment is used, piles of garbage will develop and some of it will be conbustable. In short, construction sites, big or small are dangerous places. They are places where anyone who goes on site must be careful and take precautions, especially firefighters. His officers are smart to pay attention to the dangers and maintain a plan of attact should something happen.

This article also contradicts the articles on the Ardsley firehouse demo. I see in the pictures that all the same dangers exist here, piles of garbage and combustables and soon to be holes galor for the new foundations. But these articles are only posiive with no complaint. I don't get it, where is the consistency?

My feeling is we need substance in these blogs, not sensational rantings.

You have to remember that each of these trucks are custom made to each departments spec's. Becasue of that, you are bound to have problems regardless of who you buy from. The key is not whether they can build it, as most look into when doing due diligence, but what kind of post purchase service department and commitment they have to resolving problems

We purchased 2005 KME mid mount last June with the Preditor Cab and no pump. We have had our share of problems, in fact many! The truck has been out to KME twice, once last summer for two weeks and recently for 6 weeks. It also spent three weeks at Ruscon late last year. Up until the recent visit to KME, post purchase service was non existent. It was a battle to get any repairs. Many of the initial problems were poorly routed wires and hose along with loose screws and computer problems/programming. Ultimately it came down to mostly aerial and jacking problems caused by computers. The most recent trip to KME was the most productive we have had all year. They made many changes, ran the aerial over 26 hours to get it right. They fixed all but two items on our very long list and it appears, with just a few more programming issues, most of the problems are gone.

Ultimately, I believe KME makes a strong truck and it is well made. The mechanics I have spoken to over the last year claim it is one of the more sturdy trucks made on the market. Most of our problems have been with the new ICAN computer. There have been lots of bugs to work out. KME has finally made a commitment to deal with post production trucks with a new Service Manager. He seems committed to getting the problems solved.

Briarcliff took Best Aerial Platform

Was a great parade as always. Mt Kisco should be commended for a terriffic job

Beleive it  or not it won't be a problem unless they are porting at Grand Cayman where you have to shuttle.  I was on Jeewl of the Seas which is 2100 passengers and we were off in less than 30 minutes.

As for life safety, less than 5 minutes to ot life reporting station.  They know what they are doing.

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Yes, they are very good, but remember, you are not in the US and the same safety measures that you have become acustomed to here may not exist in that foreign port.

I was on a cruise with Norwiegan in the West Carrib. and tended at Cozamel. The ship had about 1800 passengers. They were using private contactors for the transport to and from the ship because the boats were much larger. On the return close to cruising time, the officer in charge was overloading the boat, just kept piling them on until a couple of us went over and demanded he stop the overload. He did immediately but did not remove the excess passengers which were hanging off the side. Had it been rougher seas, the boat could have capsized. He never would have done this in the US, so you need to use common sense on any cruise.

I have been on 8 of them and they are alot of fun, but you need to pay attention and remember where you are.

TOO BIG!!!

With over 4000 people on board, moving around and getting on and off the ship, especially when tending, will be a nightmare

Stick with ships under 80,000 ton...more fun

According to an article on Firehouse.com, he is receiving "workers compensation" for the time being.  I would imagine it's VFBL that is covering him. 

Would it be proper for a secondary carrier (auto insurance) to also cover him?  If you're on duty, it's workers comp that covers you.  They pay whatever the weekly entitlement is plus any settlement should there be permanent injury, in addition to medical expenses.  If there was any secondary insurance, payment would have to go back to comp before the claimant sees anything extra.

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None of the articles really state what type of insurance Utica is providing. Clearly he is receiving Workers Comp, but it is not clear what insurance he is going after. It sounds to me that this policy is an vehicle policy, since the are requiring that he be in the vehicle. If that is the case, I don't see how he can apply for that insurance because it did not involve the apparatus. I do not believe if NY's no fault kicks in this case, but you never know what a good lawyer can do

Maybe Poughkeepsie can not afford turnout gear, just helmuts.

The guy is nuts to place himself in that position, especially since it looks as if he is in a location with no abillity to get away quickly.

32.659

Date: 01/26/06

Time: 18:15 hrs approximate

Location: Briarcliff Manor - Rt 100 & Chappaqua Rd

Frequency: 46.26 & Briarcliff Frequency

Units Operating: Car 2051, R37, Eng 92 & 93, 53B2, Briarcliff PD

Description Of Incident: Cement Pump truck rolled over and accident with car Closing Rt 100

Writer: bmfd231

New York will always lag behind the other states when it comes to training Volunteers or Career FF because the monies earmarked for emergency services from the Federal Government never get much farther than the states general fund. The three stooges in Albany (Pataki, Silver and Bruno) take our money and spend it on parks, personal pork, parks, etc, anyplace except where it is really needed. Did I mention they love to create parks! Until we find a way to take back our state thru referendums to limit their powers and expand the peoples, this will not change.

Hahn, Maxim, Pirch and Young are gone for ever and Mack saw a loosing market.  Hopefully we won't loose anohter single source manufacturer go by the wayside.

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The companies that exist today, whether it is Pierce, KME, Seagrave, etc no longer have the people working for them that made most of those companies a success. Most of the employees today are there to just collect a paycheck, American quality is dying!

Since receiving TL40, I have gotten a deep lesson in what we did not look at when choosing the truck, a KME. The truck is a beautiful truck, clean lines, something you are proud to look at and own. We have had some problems, some serious requiring it to go back to KME or spend some time at our local repair shop. Collectively, this truck has been unusable for over 8 weeks since we received it in May. The problems are not the issue with me, it is a complex truck which will have some bugs to work out. The problem is KME itself. They are set up to build trucks, not deal with them once they leave. Because they do not have a team to deal with the details and problems that the assembly crew leaves, you have to search in the company to find someone who actually knows something

about the problem you have, not an easy task in a company that large and spread out to a number of facilities. That is the reason the truck was out of service for so long.

Now you might say that KME is a new company to fire apparatus, but from other people I have talked to, it is really not to different in the other companies. The "old timers" are retiring and leaving the company in the hands of employees that do not have any interest in providing a quality product. It is pretty sad if you ask me!

Batt. 16 transmitted extension to the first and second floors.  It has now been reported that there was smoke ONLY on floors one and two...no flame.

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What is the responsibilities of the Batt cars? Do they have authority over the chief, equal status or just there to help?

Two issues I've come across w/ this topic:

1) If your website is in any way the 'official' site for your Dept there often are discussions to NOT include a members section as excluding the public from a village/town/county agency's info is not deemed acceptable. I don't agree w/it but that's what I've run into putting together a site for my Dept.

2) This one will get you - a lot of members do not want to be part of any service where their email address might be 'public' to any level. It's bizzare that many members steer away from a very good communications tool!!! It drives me nuts.

Last frustration - you can go through putting together a decent site and as soon as you have the framework set up the trail of content dries up. If any site is going to be sucessful it needs current content which means people actually taking the time to contribute.

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You should consider setting up a separate site apart from the village, town county official site. This way you maintain full control over any content and regulate its use. If you set it up with a public and member only section, set up links on the official sites to your sites pulic area. The village, town, county will have not complaints with this method.

In the member only section, set up alias's for each member with the ability to forward to there email address. This will give each member a common FD address that is easy to remember. You can also set up a check list to sent to multiple members and/or group alias's to sent to all or special groups. These addresses should be private.

Might want to consider putting repeaters in the chief cars like Millwood has. One of the chiefs just switch it on when they have a call and it fills the dead areas.

Great Job Ossining...as always