jd783

I live in Mahopac and did attend the town hall meeting, I found it informative . The meeting was attended by elected officials and Fire dept member and residents of Mahopac. The residents made up about 10% of the crowd. No change is coming to Mahopac in my opinion. This was the good old boys club at its best. I as a mahopac tax payer am annoyed that the dept as a whole has not offered a apology or explanation how this has happened. Its under investigation, cant talk about it. I feel 1 of the chiefs should write a letter to the local paper (Mahopac News) and explain. If I cashed my paycheck and dropped $5 on the way home from the bank I may not notice ,but if I dropped $500 I'm sure I would notice and the rest of my family also wonder where our money went this week. Before everyone forms their opinion of me let me say I am a paid fire officer and I do not believe the volunteer fire system works so my view is 1 sided, I do know several families that have volunteer firefighters in them and I can say they are stand up men and women who want to serve, but lets look into the latest UL fire studies on how todays fires burn hotter and give off more BTU's early in development and reach flashover quicker. I work in a large dept and we are in the firehouse waiting for a structure fire to come in and we still lose buildings and people. What are you really saving in a rural community with the reflex time it takes to get a piece of apparatuson scene with the needed manpower to start a fire attack. I know whats needed thank god most residents don't

I live in Mahopac and did attend the town hall meeting, I found it informative . The meeting was attended by elected officials and Fire dept member and residents of Mahopac. The residents made up about 10% of the crowd. No change is coming to Mahopac in my opinion. This was the good old boys club at its best. I as a mahopac tax payer am annoyed that the dept as a whole has not offered a apology or explanation how this has happened. Its under investigation, cant talk about it. I feel 1 of the chiefs should write a letter to the local paper (Mahopac News) and explain. If I cashed my paycheck and dropped $5 on the way home from the bank I may not notice ,but if I dropped $500 I'm sure I would notice and the rest of my family also wonder where our money went this week. Before everyone forms their opinion of me let me say I am a paid fire officer and I do not believe the volunteer fire system works so my view is 1 sided, I do know several families that have volunteer firefighters in them and I can say they are stand up men and women who want to serve, but lets look into the latest UL fire studies on how todays fires burn hotter and give off more BTU's early in development and reach flashover quicker. I work in a large dept and we are in the firehouse waiting for a structure fire to come in and we still lose buildings and people. What are you really saving in a rural community with the reflex time it takes to get a piece of apparatuson scene with the needed manpower to start a fire attack. I know whats needed thank god most residents don't

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.

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.

I think the best part of this whole video is.......the fact there is four to five firefighters and one chief in front of this burning store front and the camera guy has to tell the guys to get a "can" to put the fire out !!!!!
I just don't get it ??

So you'd subject your family and friends to watching you go through a painful and devastating disease or other illness you could have possibly prevented? It's not a personal choice, it's the law.

The best and largest fire department in the world just put out a GARBAGE TRUCK FIRE without even having SCBA's on their back, just yesterday!
Yes they did they did, but what they did not do is run around it with a couple of hooks and a can, and then have the camera man tell them to use a can.
If you want to blow smoke up there ass and call it a good aggressive job go right ahead. they looked like s*** to me from what I seen. Im sure there is more to the video and the fire did go out, but I would like to suggest to all limited manpower or Volley departments the 1st or at least the 2nd rig to man and get out should be a engine. the public expects us to put the fire out no matter what we show up in. I do hear (not see) a 2nd rig pull up in the video, but when the guys come into view on camera more NY hooks lol

FDNY does not regularly do this. The FDNY prides itself on aggressive interior attack.
As far as the discussion goes, making conditions more tenable sounds great except, 75% of fire victims die from smoke inhalation. Flowing water through a window to make conditions more "tenable" for firefighters to enter won't save victims. Getting them out of the building will. Since when does a firefighter put the rescue of a civilian at the bottom of the list? The training of firefighters is about developing skills. Firefighters are taught to put out fires from the interior advancing through a structure a certain way. These are just the basics and the basics take time and is not something that is taught in 5 minutes. Firefighters who have battled fires from the inside learn from experience and repetition how to do it better and more effective which allows firefighters to have the skill levels to extinguish fires from inside. When a firefighter shoots a stream through a window all of the skill development is over. There is no skill level to that and only lowers our skills and is a fire service failure. Another example of fire service failure is that we still have firefighters who cannot operate a 2.5 inch line due to poor technique and education.
"A fire department that writes off civilians faster than an express line of 6 reasons or less is not progressive, it's dangerous, because it's run by fear. Fear does not save lives, it endangers them." -- Lt. Ray McCormack FDNY
http://www.firehouse.com/blog/10631380/transitional-attack-is-whack

I think this is a poorly framed poll question. The question asks for a one size fits all answer for something that has far too much variability for that type of answer to work.
I think there will be times in which this tactic will be a wise option and there will be times in which it is the wimpy option.

I'd like to comment on his interview, but I have to head to work go shine my car.

http://nycfire.net/forums/index.php

http://nycfire.net/forums/index.php

http://nycfire.net/forums/index.php

It appears we're straying from the topic, but without a doubt I can tell you that there has to be a place for those FD's that are between no career staff and those who are completely staffed to cover the majority of their structures fires on their own. Some of you live in areas where the population and finances clearly should allow for a properly staffed career FD. Many of us (most of the country) do not live in the dense urban/suburban areas where that it reality.
If my FD demanded to be staffed so that we could have 23 FT personnel on the first alarm assignment our budget alone would exceed the rest of the municipal budget combined. So, what are we to do? Eliminate all FT staff since we can't meet this standard? That's better in your myopic view? We won't get to that level in my lifetime, right now we hope to remain at current staff, and that's an annual fight.
While we must acknowledge that running with 5 people as Firemedic notes is not enough for a structure fire, outside of the Metro FD world, few companies run with 5. So we have to treat our little crew as if their just a single first due company. Some places they ride all on one apparatus, some places more. Upon arrival, at least on my job, they all function as one and more often than not ensure the first line is positioned and operating. What others do simultaneously, we do consecutively? Optimal? No. Functional? Most of the time? Dangerous? As dangerous as the officers allow. We know there isn't a third due engine for 10 minutes, so we have to adjust our operation.
Two weeks ago my dept. had two structure fires a few days apart. In both cases, the first (and only) line was in operation in under 10 minutes from the time 911 was accessed. In the first case the fire in a SFD was knocked down as it extended from the garage into the house via a failed exterior window. Had we been a VFD or paid call like all around us, the fire surely would have been much more significant as the next in call company was 17 minutes from 911 pick-up. The second fire was in an apartment building with similar results. So while we got our 23 man staffing at some point, the initial 6 man crew had both fires under control before anyone else arrived. It's hard to imagine this is barely better than nothing?
Some of the comments imply there should be no FD that employs any less than 23 FT personnel per tour? So VFD or minimum of 69 man Career FD (that's only 3 tour system)?
These issues are not because the FD doesn't want safer better staffing, it's because the taxpayers are willing to accept a lesser service for less money. The sad part is when FDs and Chief's fail to show the reduction in service.This is not defending understaffing, it's merely understanding reality for a particular area.
I'm certain no one can convince the taxpayers that we need five times our budget to meet a standard that won't guarantee any noticeable difference in the results they get now. And again, not that we don't want for better staffing, but NFPA 1710 and 2 in 2 out haven't been around for much more than 15 years, so how might anyone expect to suddenly grow the majority of FD's in that time?

Ya know....yeah, it usually is. When you're in Westchester County, you're living in someone's little fiefdom. Someone's little slice of the pie and it's a ridiculous exercise in redundancy. I'm paying my property tax bill (which is insanely high) and wondering why they're always asking for more money, but there are fewer cops and the roads are like the surface of the moon.
Too many Chief's, not enough Indians.....lets streamline the operations around here and put our money and manpower to better use.
It's all about ratio's with the fire service. We DO have some good resources here, so lets expand their scope of coverage and better utilize them. We could use an analogy that would apply to many volunteer departments around here:
Lets say Dept. A has 5, reliable and involved members and that department answers 2 calls a day. Dept. B next door also has 5 reliable and involved members answering 2 calls a day. Well, 5 guys is useless...and those guys would probably jump at the opportunity to do more with their dedication. So, COMBINE those depts. and you've got 10 solid guys handling 4 calls a day. You've doubled your available manpower and simultaneously increased staff utilization by 100%. In the process, you could eliminate half the chief's and their vehicles, probably a firehouse to maintain and a redundant vehicle or two.
But....that'll never happen, because everyone is too interested in protecting their slice of the pie....

You know the consolidation of volunteer departments without the addition of any paid personnel could be a significant improvement over the completely arcane system we have now. Everyone immediately assumes that consolidation implies paid but it doesn't! How about merging 4-5 districts that serve the same town? Or the countless villages that rely heavily on each other and are smaller than a postage stamp.
Imagine a River Towns or Sound Shore or North County Fire District with several former departments under one hierarchy. Economies of scale in purchasing, reduction of apparatus numbers (and the ability to have "spares", something virtually non-existent outside the big cities), higher personnel counts, standard training, administration and operations, to name a few.
A member department with strengths in one area can help one weak in that area and so on. Officers can be vetted from a larger pool of candidates improving the quality, competition, and ultimately performance. Chiefs will oversee a bigger department giving them more experience. Budgets can be consolidated perhaps reducing the overall cost to the taxpayer.
There's a lot to be said for consolidating and it doesn't mean adding ONE paid guy.

given The vast discussion of Last weeks; condos in edgewater of Lightweight Construction a buddy of mine who's living in southern Pa. had this Post arrive from an Incident in Bryans Road Maryland which is a bedroom community along the Potomic River.....
(The 1st Photo shows extensive Basement Damage to a residential fire In which the "Engineered strandboard I beams" burned 87% away and are sagging in the photo,)
"This is a photo from the basement of the House Fire today. Notice the burnt out I-beams. These are the engineered beams that are common in construction over the last few years. The floor in the living area above had sagged about a foot and was on the verge of collapse when noticed by interior Officers and crews. Fortunately no one was injured and the area was cordoned off. Just another reminder of what can and will kill us. Thanks to Mark Kaufmann for sharing the photo."
below (2nd Picture) shows The general configuration of these OSB I beams in another larger structure, Obviously These are being supported By 2x 6 headers and studs for a larger structure...obviously larger then a single fam dwelling

Yes but in many other places that also have the same standards from one place to another.
Standards for response,
Standards for equipment
Standards for personnel
Standards for training.
You will never see a "system" here until everyone agrees to follow similar rules.

The IC should have called a full alarm response from the city of White Plains. they are the closest fully staffed dept. Put your egos aside and think about the people on the train. This is not a dig at any of the 1st responders that were on scene, but if I was the IC I would want more then less on scene

The IC should have called a full alarm response from the city of White Plains. they are the closest fully staffed dept. Put your egos aside and think about the people on the train. This is not a dig at any of the 1st responders that were on scene, but if I was the IC I would want more then less on scene

The IC should have called a full alarm response from the city of White Plains. they are the closest fully staffed dept. Put your egos aside and think about the people on the train. This is not a dig at any of the 1st responders that were on scene, but if I was the IC I would want more then less on scene

The IC should have called a full alarm response from the city of White Plains. they are the closest fully staffed dept. Put your egos aside and think about the people on the train. This is not a dig at any of the 1st responders that were on scene, but if I was the IC I would want more then less on scene

The IC should have called a full alarm response from the city of White Plains. they are the closest fully staffed dept. Put your egos aside and think about the people on the train. This is not a dig at any of the 1st responders that were on scene, but if I was the IC I would want more then less on scene

EMTBravo was a great site until it became a part of modern society. Nowadays, everyone needs to feel appreciated, to feel more important than they are and to constantly get a pat on the back for everything. I miss when a good job or deed was recognized and can't stomach the constant need everyone has now to one-up each other. And this is for life in general, not just this site.
As Tony Soprano's mother used to say, "Poor you!" To quote the kids nowadays, GFY!