LTNRFD

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.

It also says the school failed to place her in a classroom that could be evacuated, while other parts of the ADA require that forcing those disabled persons into some spaces is prohibited and reasonable accommodations must be made to ensure they're given the same choices as fully mobile persons. It's a no win situation. No one wants to force someone to suffer greater injustice due to their disability, but there's a point where "reasonable" must be determined and this case seems to lead directly to the question of what's reasonable to expect of the school, the FD or any other building owner.

With regard to The Villages.... Apples to Elephants comparison....
For fire protection it is an IAFF local. For EMS, for about a decade ending in 2011 Lake/Sumter EMS (Lake County, FL and Sumter County, FL) provided EMS as a bi-county municipal entity. In 2011 Sumter County opted out of the bi-county agreement that established Lake/Sumter EMS and contracted with Rural Metro. Lake County decided that the previous model was still efficient and merely removed the Sumter half of the logos from the rigs and went on operating as is.... This is an apples to watermelons comparison with regard to anything in Westchester....
The Rural Metro has the contract for ALL of Sumter County which is 580/sq miles and has a population of 101,600. Within Sumter County, 51,500 of the 101,600 residents are located within The Villages which is 5.5sq miles which includes the hospital of choice for transporting within Sumter County. So R/M gets a major economy of scale. A contract for 101,000 folks where nearly half of them (the half that are most likely to have medical issues and who ALL have Medicare as their reliable healthcare payor source) are living in a 5.5sq mile area with a hospital right down the road. Lesson here.... You've got a captive group of folks who all have a reliable means of reimbursing an ambulance service making up half the lives that are covered in the County contract all living within spitting distance of each other AND the hospital. NO BRAINER.
Eastchester you might say is very similar... 32,500 residents in 5sq miles with a hospital nearby. Thats where the similarities end. R/M doesn't have the contract for ALL of Westchester County nor will they ever get it. So if R/M goes it alone in Eastchester they have no economy of scale, the median age is is 40 years old vs. 66 years old in the Villages and thus the payor mix for reimbursement is going to be vastly different than it is for the Villages where everyone has coverage and work will be consistent to say the least.. Lesson here... EMS in Eastchester is NOTHING like EMS in The Villages AND.... Rural Metro doesn't do a good job of running fire departments in heavily populated areas. They currently have Fire Contracts for Pima, Pinal, and Yuma County Arizona whose population density ranges from 36 people/sq mile to 107 people/sq mile. Their other two fire contracts are for Knox County, TN at 751P/sq mile and Josaphine County, OR at 50P/sq mile. Eastchester has a population density of 6,500P/sq mile and Westchester County as a hole has a population density of 2200P/sq mile. Providing fire protection in Westchester, especially Southern Westchester is NOTHING like Sumter County Florida where the County covers most of the unincorporated areas with an IAFF local and the Villages has a stand alone IAFF department.

What if? What if? What if?
You can "what if" things to death and the bottom line always seems to be we respond to the call we have. We don't decline to respond so we can remain available for the call that we MAY get.
What if Engines 131 and 134 are on another FIRE call when your hypothetical structure fire comes in across town? Does it matter that the call is EMS or FIRE? It shouldn't. It's still our customer calling for help.

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.

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.

But the real question is.......Did you catch any fish???

But the real question is.......Did you catch any fish???

But the real question is.......Did you catch any fish???

But if this guy was a hard core alcoholic or drug addict and went to the chief and said "I need help", off to rehab he goes. After months of rehab, at the city's expense, he can go back to work. Not knowing if this "rehabbed" individual could be trusted not to fall off the wagon while working.
It seems there are other reasons the fire department wanted this guy to leave. If the reason was they don't know when it could happen again and others would be at risk, then anyone who needs glasses to see could be fired. Someone who needs glasses to see and can not wear them during a fire may do something to put others at risk because he couldn't read the right floor button in the elevator etc.

But if this guy was a hard core alcoholic or drug addict and went to the chief and said "I need help", off to rehab he goes. After months of rehab, at the city's expense, he can go back to work. Not knowing if this "rehabbed" individual could be trusted not to fall off the wagon while working.
It seems there are other reasons the fire department wanted this guy to leave. If the reason was they don't know when it could happen again and others would be at risk, then anyone who needs glasses to see could be fired. Someone who needs glasses to see and can not wear them during a fire may do something to put others at risk because he couldn't read the right floor button in the elevator etc.

Chief Henry Campbell was of the old school that if you are properly trained it won't be your training that hurts you. PD can be an asset at any FD scene. They need to know what the limits are as to when they turn from asset to liability. What I have scene on the news reports was that the 2 officers exited the elevator on the fire floor and the fire was in the hallway. They opened the door into an inferno. The rescuers became the rescued. This asks the question, were these officers trained in how to respond to this situation? Are other officers at risk for a similar occurence?

Chief Henry Campbell was of the old school that if you are properly trained it won't be your training that hurts you. PD can be an asset at any FD scene. They need to know what the limits are as to when they turn from asset to liability. What I have scene on the news reports was that the 2 officers exited the elevator on the fire floor and the fire was in the hallway. They opened the door into an inferno. The rescuers became the rescued. This asks the question, were these officers trained in how to respond to this situation? Are other officers at risk for a similar occurence?

Chief Henry Campbell was of the old school that if you are properly trained it won't be your training that hurts you. PD can be an asset at any FD scene. They need to know what the limits are as to when they turn from asset to liability. What I have scene on the news reports was that the 2 officers exited the elevator on the fire floor and the fire was in the hallway. They opened the door into an inferno. The rescuers became the rescued. This asks the question, were these officers trained in how to respond to this situation? Are other officers at risk for a similar occurence?

Can you explain how a "county run ""regional"" fire service" would be any different for Mt Vernon?
Do you think that the powers to be in Mt Vernon would agree to it. Or any other dept for that matter. The manpower may increase for the area. This by eliminating duplicate administrative postions. I haven't seen any cost analysist as to who would be paying what? My costs in New Rochelle may go up and I may lose coverage due to the redistricting of companies.
Everyone that would be in the plan would have to come to the table with an equal share of the costs to receive the benefits. Due you really think Mt. Vernon would ante up more for a county system??

I didn't see where the tiller man sits !!

I didn't see where the tiller man sits !!

This is one of those exceedingly rare cases where I can offer a valid comment: 1- we had a fire, 2-I was there and 3- I think the article referenced was about the fire.
This came in as a working fire, and one of our officers confirmed it in less than 3 minutes. It took me 10-12 minutes to get there in an engine, going from first tone to on-scene, and I was there third, I believe. I was then directed to a hydrant at BOCES, which google has as 1.9 miles away and a 6 minute drive (by car, not tanker.) in order to fill tankers.
Our chief called tankers from Yorktown, Katonah, Goldens Bridge and Millwood. And we had our own 3000 gal tanker and a 2000gal tank engine. At times I was filling two tankers at once with a 5 inch line to each and maxing out the hydrant- to which I was hooked with a 5 inch and a 3 inch intake line.
Being that I was out of the engine setting up, and running 200 yards to cut a chain on a gate to help the tankers with their approach, I missed a lot of radio traffic. It sure seemed to me they arrived at my spot fast and empty.
What I am trying to get across is there were no complications, but it was a big hassle as compared with the hook-up and look-up type of water supply that many of my less rural brother MPO's are blessed with.

I noticed in the flier that you have to be in "excellent" physical condition but only of "good" moral character. I guess the city doesn't worry that Firefighters go into people's houses when they are not home.
And, Cap, you must be old school if you noticed all the typos. Back in your day (and mine) the job descriptions always said "Performs light clerical duties." That piece of the job description is gone, so candy dates don't have to spel gud no more.
I better stop writing now or I'll get in trouble

Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us

Congrats to wraftery, EMTBravo's December MOTM.
wraftery contributes knowledgeable, insightful topics and posts, on a regular basis, often times with his relevant trademark humor. He is a former Hartsdale Deputy Chief and fire service instructor, and is very respected for his knowledge in the Westchester fire community. We are glad and appreciative that he brings it here to EMTBravo for all of us to learn from.
wraftery is just one our many, many excellent and dedicated members who are deserving of this recognition, and we will continue to recognize these members every month.

Now the important question.......Will my Uniden Trunk Tracker III work with the new system?

No, it will not. This will be a digital system, Trunk Tracker III's are only capable of scanning analog systems.
It will also need to be Phase II TDMA capable. As I type this post, the only scanner capable of that is the GRE PSR-800. Uniden is announcing new scanner models in about 2 hours, and it's expected that they will decode Phase II TDMA, but hasn't been confirmed yet. None of Uniden's current models will work on the system (HomePatrol-1, BCD396XT, BCD996XT, etc.).