LTNRFD

Yesterday the Providence FD had a 4th alarm fire when a triple decker caught fire with 45mph winds. Exposers 2 & 4 became well involved on arrival of first due companies. The second alarm was struck by the first due engine. The third alarm was struck on arrival of the battalion chief. Both exposures 2 & 4 are houses rented by Providence College students. This has displaced 19 students. All are seniors that will be graduating in 6 weeks. During the interior attack of the attic of exposure 4, a PFD Capt sustained a leg injury. He was transported to an area hospital where during the evaluation of his leg the Capt's blood pressure bottomed out. He was admitted to the ICU in critical condition. He was intubated. He was diagnosed as suffering from cyanid poisoning. Of the 21 firefighters injured at this and one other multiple alarm fire just as the first was winding down, one other was diagnosed with cyanid poisoning. 8 firefighters who were working in the same area as the Capt are being monitored for cyanid exposure. http://m.wcvb.com/news/firefighter-critically-injured-battling-heavy-fire-in-providence/38794022

One of the interesting points of this fire was the statement that the union president made and antiquefirelt touched on. PFD has a protocol that if the members are suffering from smoke inhalation they automatically receive the cyanid antidote. They felt that too many times members and the public, that have smoke inhalation, may very well have been exposed to cyanid as a product of combustion. Cyanid can do more harm faster than the diagnosis can be made in larger doses. News reports that the Capt was being seen in the ER and his vitals crashed. If not for the fact he was in the ER, there may have been a different outcome. This may explain some of the sudden deaths of healthy individuals after fires. I have never heard of anyone job related having cyanid in their system at autopsy, but is it ever looked for? The building the Capt was in was the attic of college off campus housing. I don't think there would be much hazardous materials in that attic.

I know of a few other quadcopter operators that have notified towers when they are in the vicinity of an airport and the towers asked them are you flying over the airport or on the approach/departure path. They were just in the area (about a mile away). The tower said don't bother them unless the quadcopter is in the direct flight path of the airport. Many people have the wrong impression of these small UAS. I was told by a county sheriff that I couldn't fly mine over public property. He could not tell why why just he didn't want me to. I had another experience where the location said I couldn't fly because I was video taping my flight. I would be violating peoples privacy. This was a public place. As I was told this, there were many parents taking pics of their kids. How does my quadcopter video tapping up at 300-400 feet up in the air violate someone's privacy and the parents at ground level doesn't. Most operators are responsible flyers. They better be unless they are willing to waste $2,500-7,500. That's what these things cost for the average operator. Some are over $10,000. Here is one of my short videos. It was shot at about 100-125 feet up. You will see at the half way mark 2 people on the pier. You can't I.D. these people so there really isn't any privacy violation as people claim. As Seth mentioned it could be used for immediate water surveillance. If the quadcopter went up to 400 feet you could see a body in shallow water that is on the bottom. IMG_0191.MOV

No online course is needed. You just register your info and pay $5. You can fly the quadcopter AT THE AIRPORT, if you contact air traffic control and airport authorities ( and the both says yes). You have to keep it under 400 feet. Most good quadcopters have built in software that will not let you fly it more than 400 feet higher then the starting point elevation of the quadcopter's flight.

I can't speak for the labor history of Empress. I can only speak from my personal experience in N.R. Abbey Richmond had the New Rochelle contract from when N.R. Hospital stopped ambulance service Jan. 1, 1975 until around 1983-84 when Affiliated Ambulance was awarded the contract with a much lower bid then Abbey. Affiliated was able to do this because they had only a few EMTs and 1-2 paramedics. Once Abbey lost the contract there were more EMTs and Paramedics then Abbey could use so many of us jumped over with the promise of working only in N.R.. When we jumped we lost all our seniority, vacation pay, sick time and went to Affiliated starting pay, which was much lower then Abbey's for both EMTs and Paramedics. Most of us didn't want to leave our comfort zone, many had worked in N.R. for over 5 years. This was also good for the N.R. system. The police and fire knew us, the E.R. staff knew us, we knew N.R. and at that time the Pelham's also. Affiliated systematically rotated in new EMTs and Paramedics into N.R. and then started to mess with the old timers,(they actually scheduled paramedics to do ambulette runs) to a point 80% of the old timers left Affiliated. It wasn't soon after the old timers left that Affiliated could not meet the contract and N.R. abruptly cancelled it. The City of N.R. then handed the contract to Empress who at the time had their own problems, but was the only remaining ambulance company that able to operate in Westchester. This was the jump start that Empress needed to grow. Then the system cycled again and again to this point where Empress is the 6th contracted provider in N.R. When I spoke of stability in the EMS, I was also referring to the system itself, not just the employees. Every time a new provider enters the system, everyone has to adapt. However it is easier nowadays to have a smoother transition do to technology. CAD, GPS, cell phones, radios with talk-a-bout channels, etc.

Again no one has shown any financials as to the "tremendous savings" a Westchester County run fire department would save the tax payers. All the buzz words and phrases sound good, but the bottom line is MONEY.....What is the cost for this great service to the citizens. Show me where I will at least maintain the same level of fire protection and not cost me any more money. I will even say you can raise my taxes if the savings to my homeowners insurance goes down by the same amount. The three career fire districts in the Town of Greenburgh have formed 1 union, and they can't get the powers to be to make it 1 fire district because of the inequality of taxables in the district. The areas with a lower tax rate due to more properties that pay their fair share don't want to subsidies the areas that have a greater amount of tax exempt properties. Again all the great models in the U.S. of consolidated fire or EMS systems have a different property tax situation. You are comparing apples to pineapples, they sound similar, but are two totally different items. The bottom line is the bottom line.....Show me the money.

I never said that departments like the ones in Fla., MD.,Va., etc are failures. Departments like those were establish due to a lack of any fire protection or not enough due to a growing community. Most were due to post WWII development, not to consolidate existing departments. They were able to plan and construct fire stations in ideal locations for timely responses to the entire area. These were areas that had little or no community services to start with so the counties were providing most of these services so the tax rates were equal across the board. In Westchester there are communities that have been around (providing services) for over 100 years. It would be easy to do what those other counties are doing if Westchester was a new developing county. Palm Beach County F.D. (Fla) was organized in the mid 1980's due to massive development in Palm Beach County west of I-95 where there was little or no fire protection. Fairfax County F.D. (Va) was organized in 1949 to assist the existing vol. depts. and didn't really grow until the post WWII development exploded in the late 1950's and it wasn't until the 1970's that they built new stations to handle the growth of the county. The Pace study on consolidation talks about how to consolidate and how many personal are needed, but they have not done a comprehensive financial study to see who pays what. That question has been asked on these forums many times without any answers. My point to my previous post was asking 61MACKBR1 why he is so worried about what is going on in Westchester. He seems to have a dog in this fight. And I say the same to you from Derry, N.H., It seems more out of county people on here have a strong opinions how Westchester should be run. When you can tell me that you were part of a new county consolidation program in YOUR state, and it worked, then please jump in and gives us some insight as to how we can make it work. Not just jump on these forums and say CONSOLIDATE IS THE BEST.

For someone from the State of Rhode Island, you always seem to have a strong opinion on how we should run things down here in Westchester. Not every location is broke down here. Yes many areas would benefit from a merger/consolidation. But at what cost? If Larchmont was to be merged with N.R. who would pay for the extra firefighters needed to man the Larchmont station?? Larchmont could only man 1 rig with their current manpower. Is N.R. suppose to provide the extra manpower? My taxes are high enough and I'm not willing to subsidize Larchmont so they can have adequate fire protection. I want MY dept to be available for My family and MY property. Not Larchmont's or Mount Vernon's or Eastchester's, etc. They can have assistances every now and then for the major stuff, but for everyday stuff I want my first and second due engine and truck available for MY house.

The smoke in the structure call was at the McDonalds next to Sta #3. If that was the unit assigned to stay #3, they would have had to move the ambulance so Eng 23 could respond. Thus putting them basically on the scene anyway.

This is what is wrong with the step child of emergency services. When any municipality puts EMS out to bid you do not get stability in service. Over the years every system goes through a cycle. The lowest bidder. Now most of the current EMS employees of TransCare NR will be looking to switch over to Empress. Thus losing seniority and pay grade. This is no way to maintain quality EMS personal. EMS must be part of the municipality just as Police and Fire is. EMS must be the third service. There will never be stability in EMS when there is a profit to be made.

This is the 6th change of providers to the City of New Rochelle for ambulance coverage after N.R. Hospital discontinued ambulance service in 1975. Empress had the contract in the mid 1980's.

Have New Rochelle consolidate with who ??? Pelham ? Larchmont ? Scarsdale? How would New Rochelle get additional manpower by consolidating ?? New Rochelle needs to get the New Rochelle City Counsel agree to fund a minimum number of firefighters per shift. Back in the 1980's there were 31 firefighters per shift 5 engines X 4 firefighters = 20 3 ladders. X 3 firefighters = 9 D C and his aid = 2 _______ 31 Total NRFD needs to go back to this level of manning plus 1 additional firefighter on each ladder and 2 firefighters to man to rescue every shift. NRFD needs to be funded for a minimum of 36 firefighters per shift,

What do you do when you call for a department and they send ALL of the career staff on the engine, leaving no one to man the remaining apparatus. Then 5 minutes later a call comes in for their department. No one is in town to cover the call and the call gets given to the neighboring department. Should that department have been called in the first place ? Should they have refused to respond to the mutual aid fire ?

Barry the Town of Pelham is taking great strides to consolidate. Back in the late 70's the village of Pelham did absorb the Village of North Pelham's police department. Things can't happen overnight.

I have to admit I ran into the wall a few times.

Back in the 80's, NRFD was considered a, 2 fire, fire department. NRFD could handle 2 different room and content fires. Today NRFD can only handle 1 R&C fire before having to call for help. In NRFD case what has changed? 1 less man per engine? New rules on staffing? Lack of dedication? Harder fires to fight? Lack of understanding by management (city council ) as to the needs of a fire dept.? I think you asked a complex question and there is no easy answer. As I said NRFD was a 2 fire fire dept. It has always been one of the best around, but today if there is a room and content fire in the north end what can I expect if I have a fire at my house 10 minutes later? A 1 & 1 response when the first fire gets a 4 & 2 response. Like I said there is no easy answer.

Retiring when you want to is a good thing. Stay healthy, wealthy and wise.

Nor do you park over a storm drain or sewer cover.

You forgot Paula Tiner........The case worker for 207 Resolutions that can take up to 2-3 days to return the employees phone calls but gets back to the city manager in under 5 minutes.......

I was examined by "Dr Silverman" and his report was all fabercated lies. During the exam he popped my hip out causing me to seek out medical aid. He claims that I set him up b/c I was video recording the exam. He even accessed medical reports of mine that had nothing to do with my case and used the smallest bits of info from those reports against me. He only used the parts that would support his claim and not the whole part that would reject his claims.

I guess my school Taxes will double in the coming years, Anyone want to buy a house in New Rochelle???

I never said that the pulmonary function was required. I said that they refused to do anything but that (Pulmonary function and fit test). It was agreed upon by all the labor lawyers on "their" interpretation of the standard. The Career firefighters involved refused other components that seemed to be the standard when I was on the job (EKG, blood work, X-ray, pulmonary function, med Hx, etc).

I know of career firefighters that refused to take any sort of medical and did not have to because of the interpretation of how the medical standard was written. They were only required to do a pulmonary function and fit test.

Here is a short video of when I was trying out my quad copter. This video was at between 300-400 feet. What you are looking at is a southern direction. In the back ground you can see L.I. Sound and beyond that is L.I. IMG_2850.MOV

The drone ( Quad Copter) in the video by what is described and the shadow in the video, it looks like it's a DJI Phantom II. With GoPro camera it will run you about $2K. The down side to using it at a large op is that it only has about 15-20 minute flight time. Depending on how you are operating the quad copter and prevailing winds. Then you have to change out the battery. Which only takes a minute , but then you have to preflight the quad and launch it again. It can give you a live video feed, but with the GoPro no camera zoom.