FD828

Bottom line here is that this was something that they were asked to do. It is obviously a rual volunteer department. As we all know, there are manpower issues that we all have to deal with. They did not take the hose out of anyones hands and I am sure they were directed as to where and how the IC wanted that hose stream directed. We are all here for the same reasons, to serve the public we were sworn to protect. Take help were you can when you need it. I am sure that as soon as there was adequate manpower the police officer's were relieved. I think it was even changed to a monitor unless I am looking at the wrong picture. Would we all rather have firefighters manning the line? Sure, but if you don't have anyone, I will take the help from the PD.

Give that lady a podium and have her read that on national television.

Nice job fellas

Hopefully you will see the HME's appearing up in Stratford and disappearing from Stamford!

Hopefully you will see the HME's appearing up in Stratford and disappearing from Stamford!

As someone already said, "figures lie, liars figure". This in no way calling anyone a liar. Only to point out the fact that anyone can make any statistic valid to their point of view.
As a VOLUNTEER firefighter, I have been passed by other emergency vehicles from ALL services, PD, EMS, and other fire, as well as every day citizens while responding in the apparatus. While responding in my POV, I yield to emergency vehicles but have also been escorted through traffic by PD. As a CAREER(PAID) EMS worker, I have been passed many times by POV's, PD, and FIRE.
As a driver with a CDL, I am subject to higher standards and penalties regardless of the vehicle I am driving. My license is my income.
I get paid by the hour, not by the call or number of patients I transport. Just because YOU called 911, does not make it MY emergency.
The point is, CAREER or VOLUNTEER, on duty, or off, it is an INDIVIDUAL's responsibilty to drive safely, with due regard, at ALL times.

Original poster's question has been asked and answered.
Nothing constructive will come of more debate or detail as we tumble down this rabbit hole.
Thread closed. Good luck in the job hunt.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

3:00pm until 7:00pm
[*]







Join The Highland Rovers and Stamford Professional Fire Fighters L786 in support of our brother Chris Rosiak in his time of need at Tiernan's Bar & Restaurant (187 Main Street, Stamford, CT)
Chris has helped others his entire career. A paramedic for over two decades, he has been a firefighter with the City of Stamford since 1995 and a registered nurse for the past four years. Chris has also been known to run marathons (5) to raise money for pediatric burn victims.
Chris and his wife have boy/girl twins who will turn 3 in April. While planning for their birthday, he suddenly became the person who needed others’ help. Chris was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor called Stage III Anaplastic Astrocytoma (high-grade Glioma).
A month later, Chris had the cancerous tumor surgically removed and he is now recuperating at Yale - New Haven Hospital and preparing for his chemo-radiation treatments.
Chris plans to have long careers as a firefighter and nurse – two jobs he has enjoyed and been proud to have. But for now, he cannot work to help support his family.
Cost: $50.00/person
Gets you: 4 hours Open Bar / See The Highland Rovers / Ticket for door prize raffle.
Even if you can't make it please consider buying a ticket to support a man who has spent his entire life supporting others in their time of need and you'll still be entered into the door prize raffle.
Please purchase your ticket in advance.

Since most depts. do more EMS calls than Fire calls, I suspect this dept. runs about 500 calls per year. If they are keeping an engine for 25 years thats a total of 12,500 calls if it covered all of them without a flycar. Engines used in big citys are designed to handle that in 4-5 years and tend to be dead in 10-12. That means one could double the life of this engine to 50 years. Are we really saving money?
We need to buy the flycar and equip it, insure it, maintain it, fuel it and house it.
Is it cheaper than the engine yes, but the argument appears to be that it will make the engine last longer. Can we keep a rig longer than 25 years and still meet NFPA? Is it safe?
Is it good maintenance practice to run your engine so little? They are designed to get out on the road.
Does it make operations sense? Sometimes, depending on the dept.

Absolutely. That's why I said it would be up to the REMAC to be responsible for all working in their area through (hopefully higher standards then we presently have) whatever means. I would hope it would involve senarios and skills stations. And IMO I disagree that having it be a license as opposed to a certification does have a bearing on our profession. You think the pilot recert program is doing anything for the quality of EMS personnel working in this state? It is a joke. You sit for CME's and send it to the state and you get a new card. With the REMAC being responsible, you could ensure competent people working in the field.

Like "Goose" said, you would pay a yearly fee for your license renewal and would not have to report any CME's to the STATE. However it would be the responsibility of the local REMAC's to set CME/skill requirements. They could do it on an annual, semi-annual or every 3 years as they currently do. But here are some benefits that I see. What if you wanted to take a couple years off to say persue another carrer path, say nursing or PA school? What happens now? You don't recertifiy and you loose your medic card. But if you could send a check every year, you wouldn't have to worry about loosing something you worked so hard to get. It would be up to each REMAC to certify each medic working in their perspective regions. Not to mention it would be income for the state. I pay $150/yr on my birthday to Connecticut for my license. $150yr x how many medics in NY? = $$$ for good old NY. If EMS was truly a career with the same pay/benefits/retirement as PD&FD, and you only had to work one job, then maybe it wouldn't be so bad to recert every 3 years. And isn't making it a license saying it is more proffessional? Don't nurse's get licensed? And no offense to RN's at all(Married to one, mother-n-law is another, most of my aunts are RN's), but I think what a medic does in the field in some terrible conditions is more then what an RN can do at an ER with all the proper lighting, security, an IV team, respiratory and an ER doctor all sitting there. But what is the average number of hours someone in EMS works in a week and at how many different jobs? Maybe that is what the state should be concentrating on doing. Make EMS a CAREER not a JOB.

Mayor's plan:
Create separate department for the 4 consolidated volunteer departments. Hire career firefighters to man 2 TRFD stations, 2 LRFC stations, Springdale, and Belltown, and 1 Chief. 3 FFs per station during the day 2 at night.
Chief Brown's plan:
Keep all as is (2 city engines in TRFD district, 1 in Springdale, 0 in Belltown, all with 3-4 FFs), but decomission 1 engine and 1 truck from the SFRD district and move those crews to cover the two stations of LRFC, therefore not adding any personnel or costs. (I don't know what the plan is for the current LRFC FFs). 1 SFRD DC to cover entire city.
That's as simple and unbiased as I can put it.

Port Chester-Rye-Rye Brook EMS - 5,389 calls

Port Chester-Rye-Rye Brook EMS - 5,389 calls

You're totally right Willy. It's a product of the fact that morally the fire service has it's act together. Always has. That's at least one good thing left to say about it, be it a big urban job, or a small volunteer outfit way upstate. But I've heard many guys from my dad's generation of firemen say exactly the same thing you just said.
I don't think firefighters could really understand, say 40 years ago, the changes that would be coming in fire prevention, from construction type to alarm systems. We all sneered at gusset plates and truss construction. But also along the way, the construction industry got smarter about many things, particularly for the commercial space. Or hotels. Commonplace sprinkler systems were a game changer.
It's probably never been safer (from a fire perspective) to walk into a huge office skyscraper, or say a large hotel casino in Vegas; than today.
Peoples' memories are short. Even those who are old enough to remember when fires were more common find it easy to put out of their minds. They want to forget the DuPont Plaza Hotel arson fire that killed 97 people, or the MGM Grand fire in Las Vegas that killed 85, or the public assembly catastrophes like The Station fire in West Warwick, RI where they lost 100 kids in a heartbeat. Nobody, save firemen, remembers HappyLand.
9/11 jarred peoples' brains when they saw what could happen. The fire service was the beneficiary of our Brothers' sacrifices. We actually got some respect. That lasted about five years? And now the war is back on against the job. Who could have foreseen they would even go after the F D N Y...are you kidding me?
The guys on the job today have got the fight of their lives to fight; then they have to go put out the fires, do the haz-mat, the wrecks, the ems, the "value enhanced" services. Those of us retired, we've got to stay involved, offer encouragement, and most of all, pass down the traditional stuff...

Define "medical field." Just figured I'd ask since my FD is in the "medical field" and we do just fine. But then again knowing who is working and getting financial savings and great service must be a bad thing. Maybe we should run both at below needed staffing levels while they compete for funding. Or better yet bring a profit or my favorite private "not for profit" in like a revolving door and have no clue who's on an ambulance every 12 hours.
This is crazy and a very dangerous precedent. I wish the best to the Local 801 brothers.

"Chief" Whittbread hit the nail on the head with his presentation. His comments said it all. It truly stated what this whole thing is about. Control. He made the statement that they would be able to "CONTROL" the paid firefighters that work for the new VFD where they cannot CONTROL the SFRD career ff's. He also said that they would be in CHARGE/COMMAND of all calls that SFRD responds to in their district. Besides some of the misinformation (volunteers wouldn't be able to ride out on SFRD engines even if they are sitting right there in the station, there is no room for career ff's to live at the stations - for example) he really let the public know what this is all about. VFD's in CONTROL and if they don't get their way, they WILL NOT allow SFRD in their stations and force more hard decisions about public safety and money spending instead of working together. For all our sakes I hope the public and the BOR were paying attention. And they say it's the union and career ff's that are causing all the problems? Perhaps it is the "Chiefs" and not the firefighters(from both sides) at all!
So my original question still stands, if after all is said and done, if the BOR/public choose to have 1 fire department with 1 chief, will the VFD's accept this decision and work with SFRD in the name of public safety? Or will they exercise their right to sue and use the TOR judgement and cost the taxpayers more money? SFRD will have to accept whatever the final outcome is, how about it VFD's?

Being retired and having nothing better to do (alright I just didn't want to rake the yard) I watched that video and have some thoughts.
The mayor made a very poor decision having that chief speak on his behalf. Instead of using negatives for everything he should have sold his plan with all of its positives (even if I don't believe half of his propaganda). I'm willing to bet that that chief's resume is on the top of the pile when the job is announced for chief of the new VFD. So painfully transparent.
Much of the presenters points were anecdotal, the presentation was too long and lacking in specificity that legislative bodies need and want and the constant attempts to smear the SFRD were as transparent as his claims about the proposed department seemingly false.
The mayor should have had an objective, neutral, professional staffer make the presentation highlighting the improvements and positive things that his plan would bring instead of the same old tired rhetoric.
All that said the Board of Representatives seems genuinely engaged and interested. They should work with the mayor and instead of this constant BS back and forth start with a clean slate.
The City limits are well established and they seek to provide comparable, consistent service to the entire City. They should take all that is currently available, personnel (paid and volunteer), apparatus, facilities, buildings, etc. and use NFPA 1710/1720 to set up the BEST system for the entire city. Having two or three different departments isn't going to be any better than the 5-6 they have now. They'll just have some fat-cat chief in a new paid position.
Map all the stations, position the apparatus, and start filling the busier stations with career personnel and backing them up with qualified volunteers. Roster all the FF the same way regardless of their pay status. If a company can be staffed entirely with properly trained volunteers, let it be. If it can't be, staff it with career guys. Make each rig roll with 3 FF and an officer. Building a system that will respond with 1-2 career guys is not the answer and since they're all willing to make some dramatic changes fix it right.
Develop a method for advancement within the volunteer ranks and a pathway into the career side for those who want a job.
Develop a single standard for FF training with two options for completing it - full-time fast track (career) and part-time for volunteers.
Stamford deserves a single, effective FD that covers the entire city instead of just shuffling the same problems around.
Start from the bottom and build yourselves a new system that as someone else here already said, will last the next 30+ years.
If people don't start letting go of the same old BS and complaints they're never going to get anywhere. But what do I know. I was just in combination department for my entire career.

So, if Stamford's volunteer companies are all overflowing with new volunteers to the point where they're being turned away, why is this even an issue? There should be no issues at all and they should be getting out on calls and the issue of consolidation or whatever you call it would be moot.
You'd think they could have found a more eloquent speaker and focused on the positive instead of harping on the negative. Wow.
I didn't watch the whole video of the meeting but did catch parts of it. It seems that the speaker contradicted himself when he spoke at one point about how strong the volunteer forces are and later said that the volunteer departments are absolutely dependent on the career FF to get the apparatus out.
Just from an outsider's perspective it seems that there are alot of inconsistencies and contradictions in the presented material.

Take my words to heart. Even if you think I am full of poop in my firefighting posts, this is the best advice I can give you...ever.
Now is the time for the YOUNGER Firefighters and Police Officers to watch that money like a mama bear guarding her cubs. If Gov. Cuomo (who is probably getting about eight government pensions) tries to take, borrow, rearrange, or touch your pension in any way be ready to pounce.
It is YOUR retirement he wants to play with. Your future is at risk. Take it personally because it is.
Your retirement will come sooner that you think...protect it!

I have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. Perhaps the way it is run now, it is a disaster. But what they need is to make it a real department and staff it properly including officers/chiefs, and make a true M.A. agreement with Port Chester. I can't speak much about the PD, but I imagine they would need to hire more officers if they were to take over Rye Brook's district. As for EMS, we already cover Rye Brook as well as Port Chester and Rye so there would be no change there. But there needs to be a fire department in Rye Brook. The district is too big to rely on the FD responding from downtown Port Chester. If way back when, when Rye Brook was asking/demanding(depending on who you ask) that Port Chester locate an engine into the village of RB (being that they were paying for a huge portion of the fire protection) and Port Chester did just that, maybe Rual Metro would never have come to town and maybe there would be no RBFD. But as we all know that is not what happened.

I fear the days of choosing a career as a firefighter because it is a good, secure, fairly paid with good benefits job are just about over.

I fear the days of choosing a career as a firefighter because it is a good, secure, fairly paid with good benefits job are just about over.

I fear the days of choosing a career as a firefighter because it is a good, secure, fairly paid with good benefits job are just about over.

I wasn't trying to start a battle over your department, I was responding to Stopgoblue's comments that nobody knows the facts and should stay out of it. The fact is PC does cover Rye Brook, but is it run the way it should be? Operations issues are what is being discussed. If you can't take critisism about your department that you and others can learn from and maybe take some positive things away from a constructive and adult conversation then you are in the wrong field. I have been to many fires in Port Chester, if you truely don't think that there is room for improvement in your department (just like any other), then I am sorry. That is niaive at best.
And for the record I feel Rye Brook should exist, needs more fire fighters, officers and a chief of their own.