traumajunky

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Everything posted by traumajunky

  1. My apologies for digging up an old thread, but some may be digging to find this training... Currently the only two AEMT original programs that I know of being offered in NYS are in Western NY, one at Erie Community College, and the other at Niagara County Community College. Considering at the time of roll-out of the new curriculum 700+ of the 900 EMT-I's were in WREMAC, it does not surprise me that they are the only ones teaching it. The last of a dying breed in NY, and considering the pass/fail rate on the new curriculum is less than desired, I don't foresee a long future for this level of care.
  2. You can check out the requirements of different services mostly by looking on company websites, or if you are curious you can always contact the company for more information. http://www.mercyflight.org/content/pages/staff -Mercyflight WNY does mainly helo transports but will do fixed wing flights when needed based in Buffalo, Batavia, and Olean NY. http://www.mercyflightcentral.org/index.htm - Mercy Flight Central based in Canandaigua and Marcellus NY, also offer fixed wing and helo transport. http://www.nemspa.org/mc/page.do;jsessionid=BDB16010F411A346894D3D268E109B83.mc1?sitePageId=75801 - National EMS Pilots Association
  3. 03:15 RMMS Dispatch: Respond for the man with the rectal bleed, vomiting blood, at the nursing home 03:15 576: Responding hot for the frank and beans 03:16 RMMS Dispatch: Advise when the pork is on the slab 03:20 576: Chicken's done, where's the beef? 03:20 RMMS Dispatch: Hamburger in room 105 03:20 576: Received 03:30 576: Cooking with gas to the General
  4. OCSD: to any unit in the area for the pair of boxers running down the street PD Unit: available for description OCSD: unknown on description FD unit: I hope they don't have a brown stripe
  5. Date: 6/14/2011 Time: 04:10 Location: East Lee Rd (Rt 31A) at Mathis Rd, Town of Barre (Orleans County) Frequency: 46.08 Units Operating: (Orleans County) Barre, Albion, Clarendon, Holley, Shelby, East Shelby, Kendall, Fancher-Hulberton-Murray, Orleans County Special Response Team, Orleans County Sheriff, Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance(COVA), NYSP Troop A (Genesee County) Elba, Byron, South Byron, Town of Batavia, Oakfield, Alabama, Genesee County Haz-Mat (Monroe County) Brockport, Kodak Numerous fill-ins Weather Conditions: Cool, dry, winds 5-10 mph out of the North Description Of Incident: 04:10: Barre equipment along with COVA, Holley FAST, and Clarendon for the report of a tanker rollover with fire at Rt 31A at Mathis Rd. Barre 1 on location reports heavy fire from a tanker carrying unknown fuel requesting Shelby for the FOAM pumper and 1 tanker, Albion pumper and manpower along with fire police to shut down Rt 31A, Tankers from Clarendon, Holley, Fancher-Hulberton-Murray, East Shelby, Kendall, Elba, Byron, South Byron, Town of Batavia, Oakfield, Alabama, Genesee County Haz-Mat with FOAM unit, and Kodak Chemical FOAM truck, Brockport requested for 2nd FASTeam. Command established that the overturned tanker was carrying ethanol from the near-by ethanol plant in Medina. Units relocated residents outside of the hot-zone. Fire placed under control shortly after 06:00, crews cleaning up, investigation underway, road to remain closed for the day. The tanker had just picked up 8,000 gallons of ethanol from the ethanol plant and failed to negotiate a 90 degree turn on Rt 31A, the driver was fatally injured after the tanker rolled over and burst into flames, approximately half of the 8,000 gallons of ethanol was spilled, a second tanker was called in to remove the remaining 2,800 gallons of fuel from the truck. Reporters/Writer: traumajunky http://rochester.ynn...s-county-crash/
  6. A bit further upstate: http://apps.rit.edu/studentaffairs/studenthealth/rita/
  7. I have done some research on tactical medics around the country and wanted to know what others thought of them being sworn LEO's or not. Why do you think they should/ shouldn't be, and what should their scope of practice include in their roles as such... Thanks for your thoughts in advance.
  8. http://www.firehouse.com/news/top-headlines/ny-village-officials-question-afg-grant-award Ok so what do others think about this topic and have you experienced resistance to AFG's from local government? On another note to the above story; this Dept. has very limited exercise equipment (1 treadmill and a free weight bench) and in 2008 this Dept. lost one of their firefighters to a heart attack after being upwards of 440lbs... I think the Dept. would greatly benefit from new exercise equipment!
  9. This building covered 6 acres of land, about the size of a small city block!
  10. There are actually 4 different departments within Salamanca, only the City of Salamanca are IAFF, between recall and vollies calls get covered. The county is quite rural with approx. 38 fire departments, mutual aid is used frequently between them.
  11. Date: 4/2/10 Time: 18:54 Location: 2056 Oak Orchard River Rd. Waterport (town of Carlton, Orleans County) Frequency: 46.08 Units Operating: Albion, Carlton, Lyndonville, Medina, Ridgeway, Shelby, Mercyflight WNY, Orleans County Sherriff, Orleans County Emergency Management, Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance, Medina Fire Ambulance Weather Conditions: 75, dry, slight breeze Description Of Incident: Homeowner smelled gas in home, got children (24, 23) out of house, returned to house to investigate, flipped switch for basement light and explosion occured. Upon arrival of FD the 2 1/2 story house was leveled with heavy fire and smoke conditions, EMS asked to expidite for male with extensive burns. Mercyflight WNY was called and landed across the road from the incident, patient was loaded for transport to burn facility. Shortly after lift off Mercyflight was forced to make an emergency landing for vibration in the engine. Patient was then transported to the nearest hospital by ambulance for stabilization and later transported by another Mercyflight unit to the burn center. Homeowner was listed in stable but guarded condition. Homeowner's childern were treated and transported to the burn center for minor burns and released. Fire was extinguished by mid-morning on 4/3, investigation was started and continues. Debris from the LZ in the intake was a preliminary cause of vibration in the engine of Mercyflight, a full inspection and maintenance of the helicopter is required before returning to flight. Reporters: Writer: http://www.orleansfi...on_04022010.htm http://rochester.ynn...ouse-explosion/ http://rochester.ynn...losion/?ap=1&MP http://thedailynewso...2f952622633.txt
  12. So I am curious as to how different departments manage firefighter accountability during an incident. What they use, how they manage and keep track etc... Currently my department is trying different methods to see which one fits. The problem is that no one wants the responsibility of knowing where everyone is at all times. Any input would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!
  13. I agree with you there 100% newsbuff. The poilcy in place for my battalion are as follows: All departments will have a color coded tag system, official colors are as follows. Green is for on scene of the incident, issued to all firefighters and responders for the purpose of being accounted for on scene. Exterior only operators will be given 2 of these. Red is issued to all qualified Interior Structural Firefighters. Those qualified will have 1 green tag and 1 red tag. Orange is to be utilized for radio accountability of radios that are assigned to apparatus and not to officers (as not all firefighters have thier own radios) When operating on scene the Incident Commander will determine Zones of Operation. The incident and immediate surrounding area(collapse zone) will be known as the Hot Zone or Working Area. A determined area outside of the Hot Zone will be the incident Cold Zone. A staging area will also be utilized outside of the incident. The first due assignment will be in charge under the IC, and the Accountability Officer for that department. The IC, Accountability Officer with the Tactical Operations Board, FAST Officer, Deputy Coordinator (Battalion) and Incident Safety Officer will remain just outside of the Hot Zone. Staging Area Accountability: Upon arriving at the scene of an incident all incoming fire personnel will report to the Staging Area and wait for a Line Officer or their Accountability Officer to tag into the scene. Fire personnel from incoming mutual aid departments will be in this area until utilized by the IC for the sole purpose of better on scene accountability, and eliminating free lancing or wandering. Tactical Operations Accountability: Each firefighter actively performing a task within the Hot Zone or Working Area will report to the Tactical Operations Board for the assignment that they have been given. Firefighters will tag the board with either their red tag for interior operations or green tag indicating that they are performing an assigned task within the Hot Zone. When the task is complete firefighters will return to the tactical accountability board and tag out of the Hot Zone or Working Area until assigned to a different task. EMS Rehab Accountability: When a firefighter is sent to EMS or a designated rehab area they will tag the EMS/Rehab area of the Tactical Operations Board. Tags will remain on the EMS/Rehab area until such time that the firefighter is released to return to duty or being transported to the hospital for further evaluation. Radio Accountability: Each portable radio not assigned to an officer will have an orange accountability tag describing the radio number (based on the apparatus it is assigned to) and the department. Upon being used the radio tag will be attached to the firefighters accountability tag that will be attached to the Tactical Operations Board. If the radio is reassigned to another firefighter on scene it is the firefighters responsibility to attach the radio tag to the proper accountibility tag. Policy: Each department will appoint accountability officers (completely seperate from safety officers) for their respective agency to work on scene of incidents for utilization of accountability. All firefighters at the scene of an incident will give their green tag to their respective accountability officer in the staging area. Upon being utilized into the hot zone or working area firefighters will take either their assigned red or remaining green tag and report to the Tactical Operations Board for assignment. In the event that there is not yet an accountability officer on scene, an accountability identification board will be on the apparatus that has responded. It is the sole responsibility of the accountability officer to work with the Incident Commander and the Tactical Operations Board to determine which firefighters are actively performing what tasks. When a firefighter leaves the scene all accountability tags will be returned to them. So basically to sum this up is that every department has an accountability officer that is responsible for their own members safety. If a department is first due to an assignment it is the responsibility for that department to set up the Tactical Operations Board, along with their own accountability on scene board. You tag in and out on the Tactical Ops Board every time you enter and exit the Hot Zone, and you tag in and out of the scene through your department's on scene board. When operating as one department individual tasks are tracked on the Tactical Ops board, and on scene accountability is kept track by what apparatus you arrive on or assigned to. I am usually roped into being the accountability officer for my department. That is why I am asking for others input on the topic. For more info on our system or a visual diagram please feel free to PM me. Posted is a pic of out Tactical Ops Board, when I can I will post a pic of our individual dept. on scene board, which there is one on every truck. CR
  14. Okay, so my limited fire experience being a FFII and a FASTeam member on a low budget department I'm going to give the "cheap" but effective bail out technique that works for my department members. We make do with what we have, because the whole harness thing is not in the near future budget for us. You may have even already tried this method. I would say the easiest bail out for me would be a tool, preferably a halligan, with a 50ft personal escape rope tied to it. You clear the window, place the halligan diagonally across the bottom of the inside of the window with the rope centered, and deploy the rope out the window behind you as you hang outside of it (inside arm and leg still in window). With the first 5 to 7 feet or so (depending on your size) of the rope from the tool, take it and get the rope up under your airpack waist strap and join the two sides of the rope in your free hand in front of you, not crossing the two ends or wrapping the rope around your hand. Have both ends of the rope facing the same direction in your hand. Make sure your tool is not going to slip, out of the window by giving the rope a quick tug. Carefully with the rope firmly in your hand let yourself slide upright out of the window, and control your descent down to safety, with your airpack being your harness. It sounds like a lot of steps, but it can be deployed in seconds. The technique takes a few tries, but practice in a safe enviornment will help you perfect it. I'm not saying this will work for you and you should use it, but it's worth a try. Plus I'd rather be hanging out a window on a rope than inside a s*** enviornment getting burnt to a crisp, but that's my opinion. If you would like further explaination of this please feel free to PM me.
  15. Working in a system that was part of the study I found the paperwork very useful... I think it was one of the smarter things NYS has done for EMS.
  16. The county I live in has 3 trucks for the whole county. West side has a Quint for 235sq miles, Center has a TL for 275sq miles, and East has a straight stick that's about useless for that 215sq miles. Most laddering comes from the engine co's or we get lucky and we can set up a truck on scene, the tallest building in the county is 4 stories. My 2 engines have between them a 35' and 24' aluminum extensions, 2 16' aluminum roof ladders, and 2 attic ladders.
  17. I love our protocols... first 5mg of MS is free... As for CHF we do not use MS... PAIN MANAGEMENT CRITERIA • Pain (>4 out of 10) due to burns, amputation, or isolated extremity fracture / dislocation without evidence of head injury. • May also be used for other pain management, if ordered by Medical Control and if other pain management techniques are insufficient. ALL LEVELS 1. Routine medical care. If pain is secondary to a burn, see burn protocol (2.8). 2. Assure airway patency. Administer oxygen per protocol. 3. Apply pain relief measures such as splinting, positioning, ice packs, etc. as appropriate. EMT STOP EMT-I STOP EMT-CC & P 4. Morphine 5 mg IM or Slow IV/IO (if SBP >100 mmHg) for pain >4/10 due to burns, amputation, or isolated extremity fracture/dislocation without evidence of head injury. Medical control authorization is required for any other indication, or any repeat doses. Peds: Morphine 0.1 mg/kg (max 5 mg) IM,or Slow IV/IO if SBP normal for age and pain >4/10 due to burns, amputation, or isolated extremity fracture/dislocation without evidence of head injury. Medical control authorization is required for any other indication, or any repeat doses. EMT-CC STOP EMT-P STOP ABSOLUTE ONLINE 5. If pain persists and if BP > 100 mmHg systolic and RR >8: Morphine 0.1 mg/kg every 10 minutes IM or Slow IV/IO, per Medical Control Peds: Morphine 0.1 mg/kg (max 5 mg per dose) every 10 minutes IM or Slow IV/IO, per Medical Control PULMONARY EDEMA / CHF CRITERIA • Dyspnea/Tachypnea • Rales/wheezing • Pink, frothy sputum may be present or absent ALL LEVELS 1. Routine medical care. 2. Assess signs, symptoms, hemodynamic status. 3. Position patient with head elevated (High Fowlers). 4. Initiate oxygen therapy. 5. If inadequate respirations or decreased level of consciousness, consider use of BVM. 6. Begin timely transport. EMT STOP EMT-I STOP EMT-CC & P 7. If systolic BP > 90 mmHg: Nitroglycerin 0.4 mg SL every 3-5 minutes as long as systolic BP > 90 mmHg 8. Consider CPAP if available 9. If patient has respiratory failure, altered mental status, or inadequate ventilations, consider intubation. EMT-CC STOP EMT-P PHYSICIAN CONSULT 10. If evidence of total body hypervolemia: Furosemide (Lasix) 1 mg/kg (max 100 mg) slow IV/IO 11. If systolic BP < 90 mmHg: Dopamine HCl (Intropin) 5 mcg/kg/min to maximum 10 mcg/kg/min IV/IO titrated to maintain systolic BP >90 mmHg using a rate-limiting device. My time is done... That's my $0.02
  18. Date: 5/19/08 Time: 04:30 Location: Byron, NY, Genesee County Frequency: 46.120 Units Operating: Genesee County Units: Byron, South Byron, Bergen, Elba, Town and City of Batavia, Le Roy, Oakfield, Stafford, Pavilion, Genesee County Sheriff's Department and Genesee County Emergency Management. From Orleans County: Clarendon, Albion, and Barre. From Monroe County: Churchville. Description Of Incident: http://www.genfirewire.com/current.htm Photos and related stories http://www.genfirewire.com/Byron_Fire_051908.htm http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story.asp...fd-98d58685f142 http://www.rnews.com/Story_2004.cfm?ID=614...amp;category=10 Writer: traumajunky
  19. A few county websites for Western NY Genesee conuty www.genfirewire.com Livingston county www.lafireline.net Monroe county www.mcfw.com Ontario county ontariofirewire.com Orleans county www.orleansfirewire.com
  20. Okay I'm probably adding fuel to the fire... but here I go... So I'm in a FD that responds to about 200 incidents a year, including EMS first response, population of the district: 5,000... Refering to my last post and my former chief being 23... During said chief's 3 year stint the department had the highest number of trained interior firefighters in the county.(out of 16 FD's) We started the third FASTeam in the county with 18 trained members. The department revamped our SOP's to include guidelines for EMT's and Fire Police, and requiring all members to have and pass a yearly physical, and go through at least an 8hr OSHA inservice along with an 8hr HAZ-MAT ops class. We also aquired numerous grants and did many fund raisers to purchase a new fire engine to replace an open cab gas powered engine, along with 30 full sets of turnout gear, and 20 new Scott 2.2 airpacks with composite bottles to replace the steel air bottles. We had only 10 structure fires in the three years, thanks to our community fire prevention, and no moderate or even serious injuries/fatalities to MOS or civilians. Not to blow smoke up anyone's rear... I believe our young chief did a wonderful job during his 3 years... that is why he keeps his white helmet, I give him alot of credit because I sure as hell couldn't have done half as good of a job as he did. My rant is over... My $0.02 is in!
  21. According to my FD's bylaws for any officer position including chief you only need have FF1 or Essentials/Basic, Fire Officer 1, and a minimum of 3 years in the Dept, you can start at 18... so in theory a chief could be 21... our youngest chief was 23, and is still an asst. chief at the age of 29 now.
  22. Hello everyone! I am traumajunky... I can't state my real name due to my wonderful employer . I am a Full Time Paramedic/ Volunteer Firefighter 2, FAST/RIT certified, Rescue Tech/ Part Time 911 Dispatcher/ and Jill of all trades from the Western NY area... that part of the state people forget about... I am also currently pursuing my BA in Emergency Management. I am one of those crazy people that can't seem to get away from emergency services, and have been enduring this madness since early 2001. Been lurking on the site for a while and figured I might as well contribute some of my knowledge and experience to the site. It's great to meet everyone, and hope to have some good discussions in the future.
  23. Still wearing Morning Pride manufactured in '96... holding up better than the Globe turnouts our department purchased in '03... I look more like a rookie because my gear has held up alot better... and yes they have seen more fire than the new sets of gear! Did I mention I can move all my joints easily... wouldn't even take Globe as a back-up set. Just my opinion... Another question to go along with this... What color turnouts do you prefer/does it differ from the color your department uses? I've worn tan with pink/silver triple trim... went to black with yellow/silver triple trim... can't say I liked tan with pink, feeling was mutual in the department.