LTNRFD

Check this out Cap. http://www.vententersearch.com/

I was hoping for flowers and a box of chocolates!

Amazing...... someone notices that four calls went unanswered in Croton, and asks, very innocently enough, if anyone knows why. Two pages of thread later, people are coming out of the woodwork to declare that Croton EMS needs fixing, when not one fact was shared as to what the real, factual reason was for the lack of response in the first post. Not only does Croton apparently need paid EMT's, but we really ought to be talking about consolidation and regionalization! Maybe all Croton needed today was a good mechanic, but we don't know that, do we?
Perfect example of the rush to judgement and advancing one's own personal agenda without bothering to learn the facts.
I have no affiliation to Croton EMS, but I hope someone from that agency speaks up and at least puts on record what the real situation was today.

Having read each and every post on this thread and having read all of the background regarding the South Fulton/Obion County situation, it is clear to me that many posters have a serious problem with reading comprehension and a serious problem seeing things in a context other than what the know from their day-to-day experiences.
Lets look at some facts --Obion County is extremely rural. It is 545 square miles of land area -- that is 95 square miles larger than Westchester County. The population of Obion County -- THE ENTIRE COUNTY, including residents of 8 cities is 32,450 people!!! Westchester's population is close to one million people. Attempting to view the situation in Obion County in light of the way things are in Westchester is insane.
In TN, you either live in a City or you live in the unincorporated County. There are NO TOWNS. County Government is extremely limited and County taxes are extremely low. Residents outside the Cities are NOT Taxed for fire protection. Fire Protection is NOT provided. People know that when they build their homes in areas outside City boundaries. That is a major reason why they build there. They don't want to be bothered by government, by other people and they hate paying taxes. They obviously also hate services that are provided by taxes and that is why they freely choose to live without those services, including fire protection.
At some point, the local government officials in the City of South Fulton decided that it would be possible to extend the service of the City's Volunteer Fire Department (a department paid for by the taxpayers of the City of South Fulton through their taxes)to certain residents of Obion County who reside within a reasonable response time to South Fulton. The City government established a Fee of $75 per year for the service it agreed to provide to property owners in unincorporated Obion County. Each property owner in the parts of Obion County, lying outside the city limits of South Fulton, was then free to make a conscious decision to purchase fire protection that they never had previously, for the sum of $75.00 per year or to continue living they way that had forever, without any fire protection at all. In this particular case, the homeowner decided to take his chances and not pay the fee. His decision, freely made. He gambled and lost. Nobody forced him to locate his home in an area that does not have fire protection. He freely chose to do that.
If if were a taxpayer in the City of South Fulton, and the local volunteer fire department, operating on my tax dollars, had chosen to extinguish a fire in a Obion County, for a homeowner who had NOT paid the $75.00 fee, I would be in court the next day to sue the fire department and every member who misappropriated taxpayer financed equipment to fight the fire. It would be an open and shut case. The fire department would lose. Responding outside the City Limits of South Fulton to fight fires in unincorporated Obion County is NOT Mutual Aid because there is no organized fire protection in the unincorporated areas of the county. The fire department has a fiduciary and moral responsibility to those who pay for the service -- the taxpayers of the City of South Fulton and those county residents who have entered into individual contracts for department service. They would be violating that fiduciary and moral responsibility if they extinguished a fire for someone who freely chose NOT to avail himself of that service.
Why is it so hard for so many to understand this concept.

That explains the aluminized turn out gear!!!!!

That explains the aluminized turn out gear!!!!!

Last night I attended the Dave Matthew's Band concert at Citifield. There was a staging of FDNY truck and engine companies across from the World's Fair Marina. Along with these companies there were communication/command post from FDNY, NYPD and OEM. Also, there were numerous TAC trucks and support vehicles. Inside Citifields parking lot were other FDNY companies. During the show around 11PM, NYPD aviation was flying over Citifield with it's spotlight on. When the concert was over there was an even greater FDNY presence, along with Rescue 4, in the outlying area along with what looked like every mounted unit NYPD has. One thing that I noticed the lack of was EMS. Usually there are private ambulances contracted for an event parked around Citfield, last night I didn't see any.
I have been to many an event at Citifield and never saw such a mobilization of resources. Not even at Paul McCartney's concert last year. Does anyone know why the resources ??????

Hi all. I am new to the board. I heard from someone today that there is alot of good reading going on here. I am going to jump in here with both feet and just add my point of view from where I have watched this for a long time. I have been involved with the system in Stamford for over 35 years starting as a volunteer, then became a paid driver for one of the departments, served as a chief for that department for two years and have started my 31st year with Stamford Fire Rescue. As most of you may already know, and some of you may have figured out who I am, this is not a new problem.
This problem began a long time ago and it only has become worse. I know, when I worked as a paid driver in ToR I pulled up to jobs alone waiting for my counterpart from the other station and hopefully, a volunteer would arrive soon. And back then they did. Most of those volunteers are now career personnel. The fact of the matter is that the socio-economic make up fo this city (which I was born and raised in)has been ever evolving, from a manufacturing town, then as a bedroom community for NYC to what it is now as a metropolis for world headquarters. It has grown from the 6th to 5th , and now the 4th largest city in CT. What happened to the people who started here? I know there are still a lot of you still living here but the ratio has changed drastically. 2 maybe 3 out of 10 people who reside here now are originally from here, and I dare to say for the most part do not know what there fire department really is or how it is run. You are not getting the volunteer participation that is needed anymore. that is not anyones fault. It is just the way it is. Volunteers are dedicated, but so are career members.
When I began doing this stuff there were more volunteers than there were paid in each of the Big 5 then. It grew to a point where there were more paid members than volunteers. Most of those volunteers were off duty career, more than likely violating FLSA. So at what point does a volunteer FD no longer be considered volunteer when there are more paid members than there are volunteers? Springdale Fire Company used to be one of the most advid anti paid departments in the city. Their past leadership of 20 + years ago were always angry at ToR for consistently asking for more paid personnel at yearly budget hearings. I even had a past chief from Springdale get in my face for always asking for more paid men. He told me that I was killing the volunteers. I told him my responcibility was to the personnel already working for their safety, and the people we were entrusted to protect. He stormed off. Never heard from him again. I think he died.
There is one descriptive word that I have not read in these posts as yet. PROFESSIONAL. Meaning; Of or pertaining to a profession, or calling; conforming to the rules or standards of a profession; following a profession; as, professional knowledge; A person who prosecutes anything professionally, or for a livelihood, and not in the character of an amateur; a professional worker.
You don't neccessarily need to be paid to be professional, nor do you need not to be paid to be an ameteur. It really boils down to attitudes. So I will put this question out to all of you and end this post before it becomes a novel. Which of these two descriptions do you feel you fit into, Professional, or Ameteur? I think that those of us that feel this plan is a good one are ameteurs who are looking to feather their own beds. I further feel that the volunteer chiefs that realized what was needed like Glenbrook's Chief Passero, and (ironically) Springdale's past Chief J. Hoyt (who I was not refering to earlier) are examples of non paid professionals. I can't think of any paid ametuers, Oh wait a minute I am sorry I can think of maybe 6 or 8. They had a clandestine secret meeting a week or so ago at an empty volunteer station. (WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE).
Make no mistake about it. This is a political payback or a strong attempt to begin the process of the city getting out of the fire protection business. Like some of the posts already have raised the spectre of RURAL METRO. And for those of you who think this is a good plan because you are trying to get a back door job, what are you going to do when the new tax district (if it is formed) hires chiefs or administrators from elsewhere who have some kind of credentials. Does this plan specifically state who will be hired, and what qualifications will they need to possess. What qualifications do the current so called chiefs who support the plan possess? "Yesterday I wanted to be chief, today I are one?" Good Luck.

I thought Port Chester was going green??? You should be buying corn oil !!!!!

From the IFFA Locals website.
Salamanca Fire Department is currently operating with 16 Full Time Firefighters and 1 Part time Paramedic under Chief Nicholas Bocharski. The Department provides Fire and ALS level EMS protection to the City of Salamanca, covering an area roughly 6 sq miles. Additionally, another 10sq miles of neighboring areas are covered for EMS only. 2 Engines, 1 Tower Ladder, 2 utility vehicles and 2 ALS Ambulances are available to Firefighters. Duty crews are 4 man strong, with minimum 2 man staffing. These crews consist of 1 Assistant Chief and up to 3 Firefighters. When duty crews are tied up at 1 or more calls and station coverage is needed 2 Firefighters can be recalled for duty coverage of the station (more Firefighters can be recalled as needed for manpower and staffing needs).
From what I can see they run a 4 man shift. This covers 2 ALS ambulances and the 2 engines and the tower ladder. It looks like there is a manpower concern with the duty coverage.

From the IFFA Locals website.
Salamanca Fire Department is currently operating with 16 Full Time Firefighters and 1 Part time Paramedic under Chief Nicholas Bocharski. The Department provides Fire and ALS level EMS protection to the City of Salamanca, covering an area roughly 6 sq miles. Additionally, another 10sq miles of neighboring areas are covered for EMS only. 2 Engines, 1 Tower Ladder, 2 utility vehicles and 2 ALS Ambulances are available to Firefighters. Duty crews are 4 man strong, with minimum 2 man staffing. These crews consist of 1 Assistant Chief and up to 3 Firefighters. When duty crews are tied up at 1 or more calls and station coverage is needed 2 Firefighters can be recalled for duty coverage of the station (more Firefighters can be recalled as needed for manpower and staffing needs).
From what I can see they run a 4 man shift. This covers 2 ALS ambulances and the 2 engines and the tower ladder. It looks like there is a manpower concern with the duty coverage.

30 or so years ago at one of the County Fire Control meeting it was announced that there was 1 and maybe 2 Bell type helicopters delivered and sitting at the County Airport. They were army surplus and were given to the County. At the time the County Police did not exist. There was the Parkway Police and the County Sheriff. The story goes that the Parkway P.D. was to get the helicopter(s) for patrolling the parkways, but the Sheriff put claimed to the helicopter(s) for investigating crimes. It was said that there was such a rift between the two police agencies that the County Exec returned the copter(s) to the Government.

Can you in ALL your years in the EMS field tell us how many people died because of inadequate EMS response to any size disaster in Westchester County?????

Hey Barry, York Twp. PA's crane is bigger than yours!!!!!!!!

I'm glad I kept my badge. I thought it might come in handy !!!!!!

The City Council meeting of Nov. 24, 2009, the city manager presented 3 scenarios. 1) a 21 % tax increase and no reduction in any city services. 2) approx. 8 % tax increase and there will be a reduction in ALL services. The F.D. would lose 10 position. 3) a tax increase in relation to the C.P.I. and other factors would increase taxes approximately 3.9 % and the F.D. would lose 11 position. This is on top of the vacant position do to the hiring freeze. With some retiring in 2010, this would reduce the number of lay offs but not the total positions.
This is what I remember from the council meeting. If the numbers ( % ) are not correct, they are close. The city manager has stated that they will not raise taxes by 21%, so there will be some loss of positions. Hopefully it will be positions lost through retirement and not lay offs. Any way you look at it, the F.D. will have to do more with less. This includes reduction in services to maintain the core services of fire supression.
Some of the council members asked about the use of mutual aid to assist in the manpower reduction. The city manager stated that they will not use that as an option. He said mutual aid is a 2 way street and we need to find a way to maintain New Rochelle level of service without the use of mutual aid.