dmc2007

Just thought I would share some of my photos from the 1st quarter of 2011.


















and two from my Tampa trip,


Comments and/or a rep are always greatly appreciated. Please do not take any of my photos without permission.

With all due respect, I think you have a grave misunderstanding about the role of an agency officer and the responsibilities of an agency member. It also seems that you view "professional courtesy" as an entitlement. Let me address your comments one at a time...
First off how do you know the police agencies and/or officers involved in this situation haven't gone to the offending agency in the past? Perhaps this is a pattern of behavior that needs to be resolved officially in the courts.
The defendant in this case committed 21 violations (or perhaps more) and received 21 summonses. The number of violations is what should be viewed as excessive, not the number of charges filed against him. These summonses were issued in lieu of a custodial arrest so the officers did exercise discretion.
Agency administrators, be they Chief, Captain, Commissioner, or whatever, are not parents and their members are not children (at least chronologically). There is definitely a time and a place for bringing a wayward child home to mommy or daddy but this is the case of an adult being held responsible for his actions. There's simply no reason for law enforcement to take an offender to his employer to resolve criminal acts (and reckless driving is a crime). That's like saying the State Police should take their findings in the fatal I-95 bus crash to the bus company for resolution. Where's the logic in that?
I understand where you're coming from about dealing with an agency directly and sometimes that is the right thing to do. I once stopped a vehicle operating at an excessive speed with a blue light and learned that there was no fire, the driver was late for work. He got his speeding ticket and his chief (three towns over) got a phone call about the blue light. Had the guy been running people off the road the chief would have read about the arrest in the newspaper.
It doesn't matter if it is a chief or member or civilian driving recklessly. They should be and are held responsible for their own actions. This case is noteworthy because it occurred while the offender was exercising the privilege of using red lights and siren. As the driver of any vehicle you're held responsible for the operation of that vehicle.
It isn't the lights and siren that make the risk greater; it is the driver's tendency to go faster and take more chances while using them. Psychologically it may be a false sense of security or it may be just plain adrenaline. And, highlighting points from other threads, there is a lack of supervision in many volunteer agencies that exacerbates this problem.
Finally, to receive professional courtesy one must be professional and courteous. This driver was neither. To expect preferential treatment or even infer that it is deserved in a case like this is why we hear stories of people getting tickets despite their membership in a fire or EMS agency. People get courtesy when they deserve it, not when they demand it.

The new Explorer will, in fact, be bigger than the model it replaces. It will just ride on a more car-like chassis.
The Flex is bigger than the new Explorer, but is lower in terms of ride height and the height of the roof.

I have to say that the fastest most appropriate and positively progressive way (enough adjectives?) for the Volunteer Fire Service to take the wind out of the IAFF's sails nationwide would be to fight for equal training standards for all volunteers. If you could soundly argue that all volunteers had the same training as most career firefighters and the same standards for promotion, you'd take away the biggest disparity. Then develop a staffing schedule to get staffed apparatus out in under 2 minutes. If you can accomplish those two things, there'd be no fighting. In fact, you'd see more communities fighting to have free or low cost VFD firefighters if the end result was the same. Some of you are consistently bashing the IAFF and locals and career firefighters to a degree, yet are arguing that the IAFF is making it harder on VFD's by prohibiting trained firefighters from volunteering? Why would anyone volunteer in a FD where the membership continually bashes their job? I know there's anti-volunteer sentiment in th e career ranks as well, but we're starting to get like the discrimination-reverse discrimination issue.
VFD's provide a lower cost level of fire protection. In some places the product is poor, in others it's excellent and in most cases is something in between. The level of protection ultimately is determined by the taxpayers who weight the benefits of higher standards of training and better response times against what they're willing to pay. The real rub is that few taxpayers really know the difference between the levels of service. Most have little interaction with the FD and know(or think) in their time of need the red trucks will show up promptly. Beyond that, a fire is so dynamic that it's nearly impossible for the untrained witness to determine a quality response vs a crappy one. Thus many crappy responses go untouched. If the taxpayers were making a truly informed decision, then the IAFF and career firefighters really would have nothing to say, as we all understand the way the taxpayer/municipal services system works.
If your FD has a problem opening the books to the general taxpayers or will not honestly answer questions regarding training and officership standards, response times, numbers of training responders per incident, etc. you are the problem! If your honestly trying to do the best for the community by providing a service for little or nothing, then more power to you, I wish I lived in your town, but I doubt I have a large field of communities to choose from that meet that standard.

I took this shot of the City of Poughkeepsie this past August from the Hudson River Walkway...... It was taken at dusk just before the walkway closes (Which BTW, also happens to be the optimal time for photography) and I almost didn't finish it... I had a few minutes to go and then I had a less that pleasurable encounter with a NYSPP officer who apparently was having an off day :angry: ......... They put in and make a big deal about all this LED energy efficient lighting and yet the walkway closes at dusk.....Go figure...
I have printed this out on my printer at a size of 24" high by 120" wide and it is highly detailed...... I have a friend who has as a 24" H x ~80" W version and his kids had it framed for him as a Christmas gift.... It now occupies his living room and it looks gorgeous..... I have many other landscape panoramas that I have done and my intent is to try to sell these as a means to pay some of my photography expenses...... Doing the fire photography has put me in the hole as far as expenses go and hopefully I can use photos such as this to offset some of my expenses.....
If you have yet to go to the walkway, you should do it...... It really is a great place to go .....

Another question how many keep the AED in a warm area such as the cab or do you keep it in the body of the apperatus so when your truck is outside for calls in the winter it's just as cold as everything else?

THANK GOD(!!!!!) That you are not in any position of authority. A minute or two of quicker response isn't the difference between life and death, that's the difference between MANY lives and deaths! In my particular area of the city, we are fairly well covered. What I mean is, there are a lot of companies per square mile. However, with only one full assignment out 20 blocks north, we become second due engine to box locations 10 minutes away. Do you know what that does to overall response times? Forget the public, how about that truck company that arrives 2 or 3 minutes before an engine in some cases? Those guys need to get in there to begin searching and the longer they have to do this without the protection of a hose line, the better the chances of catastrophe become. Considering we are losing our 5th man on many engine co's, the second due engines role of backing up the first hose line becomes that much more essential.
One thing that I must completely refute is your assertion that the FDNY needs to be run more like a business. This is wrong, plain and simple. It needs to be run in a professional manner of productivity and accountability, but it is not a business. A fire department is a drain, an expense. It is a cost that the municipality must incur in order to provide safety to the public. What we have now is, just barely, the resources to perform this task. To reduce in the face of cost would be criminal. It may appear that we could reduce our resources, but we cannot. Only in comparison with poorly staffed fire departments does this appear so. The simple fact is that most FD's are not properly staffed. Not at all. Staffing and resource conditions are the most important aspect of proper fire protection. The level of staffing in many areas and the idea of reducing staffing in NYC is an insult to the single greatest resource that most fire departments have and that is an extremely dedicated work force. How about bolstering that with the tools and manpower needed to perform the task and stop trying to figure out how you can best stretch and abuse the personnel on the street.
In New York City, the FDNY uses about 3% of the annual operating budget. For that small change, the 8.5 million residents and numerous businesses the best insurence policy money can buy. That's what a fire department is to it's municipality. The biggest and most versatile Swiss Army knife you've ever seen.

This is a great discussion topic. It's a sticky question, with many opinions, ideas, views, and experiences linked to it's answer.
In my opinion, I think that the fire department should respond to certain(however most) MVA's in their city/town/district, but not all. I also feel that the decision as to if and or when the fire department should respond should be based on the information acquired and the decisions made by dispatch and or the first arriving emergency units on scene, such as city/state police(I found that the police in my area are usually always dispatched and are also the first to arrive at the scene of an accident, big or small).
If dispatch receives a 9-1-1 call with the informant saying someone rear-ended him/her, and if it's determined that it's minor or a fender-bender, I feel that dispatch should dispatch PD and or EMS first to the scene, prior to the fire department. On any other occasion, whether it be a fire, major fluids leaking, roll-over, ejection, entrapment, car into tree, car into pole, car into building, car into water, or head-on collision reported(as said above), I feel that dispatch should request the fire department to respond, if however, that information can be determined. However, depending on the type of accident, dispatch should determine how many or of what type of fire apparatus to send. For example, if it's a reported fluid leak, the dispatch should be one engine at the least. For an entrapment or any other type of accident where an actual collision or a victim is mentioned, one-two engines and a rescue/squad or any other unit with extrication equipment. I think that a department should have a response protocol for each different type of MVA's, and not just vague and broad minor MVA's and extrications that can be one of many situations. Everything also depends on what type and the number of apparatus a department has(whether it be paid or volunteer), or has available from another department to them, and or if the department operates as the EMS provider, or if it's provided by another, either volunteer or paid ambulance service.
My dept. usually runs an engine and a rescue, or just a rescue on all MVA's, other than fluid spills. On fluid spills and car fires, we usually run an engine, a rescue, or both, depending what the first unit on scene reports. Because our rescue is more like a squad engine(i.e. it has a pump, hose, and engine company equipment on board), it can respond as a rescue, while performing engine company capabilities. For example, say that there's an MVA reported with smoke, or something of that nature. If only our rescue goes for one reason or another, and if there is a car fire, we already have, essentially, an engine on scene. However, most departments around where I live and work operate engines and a straight-forward rescue. This goes especially for cities that don't have squad engines in addition.
Just my $0.02.

Your right I did not ask about your fire district, I 1st asked why and what type of foam would be used. In my experience 90% of firefighters either use foam improperly or dont understand why they are using foam. You answered my question by stating you did not know what chemicals are found in YOUR fire district.
My 2nd question was a general question about how fire fighters gather information about hazards in there district.
Yes and I also asked a very simple question for all firefighters.
If you thought my questions was an attack on your department, then you could have simply not answered me. Since I do not know which dept you are with and you did respond that your dept. cant answer the question than I guess party time is over and you and your dept needs to get back to work. I sorry you feel I'm a kill joy and I've ruined the topic for you. My intent is to get others to consider this issue and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. To many firefighters have died or been injured because they do not have information available to them.
There are many "hard" questions that need to be asked in the fire service. This one fire should open the door to asking "how are we doing" and "can we do it better"?
I'm sorry that you feel you are the only one with the RIGHT to ask a question on here. Since you can not answer my general question, then maybe you need to think a little longer about what questions are important in the fire service.
If you can not take the heat (of a simple question) get out of the fire.
Thank you.

Thats because we have too many depts covering a single engine company size district with 3-4 engines. ISO requires spare engines and trucks, but we cant afford them, which is ironnic because we have about 100 rigs more than needed to max out the points

You mean to tell me that EMS personnel walked in, found one unconscious subject and another with "stroke-like" symptoms and some kind of bell in their heads didn't go off?! I've been to calls for unknown medicals where we have found a patient, or in some cases multiple patients, ill and realized something is wrong. Why didn't they get out of there sooner? Why not call the FD sooner?
Seems to me that there is a severe lack of training (and/or common sense) on the part of arriving EMS.
I concur with the other gents who said every EMS unit should have an idiot-proof CO detector that goes into every building, that requires no activation and alarms personnel when there is a CO issue.
On an aside, I am told by colleagues who work at OVAC that the FD showed up, walked in without any kind of PPE or SCBA and checked the house for gas. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? You have to treat CO incidents and any odors of gas as a real threat.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!

Found this article on the site EnglishRussia.com (a blog containing articles and pictures of varying topics from Russia). They did a piece about a rural Russian Firehouse. I thought it'd be interesting for everyone to see:
http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/11/06/ordinary-russian-village-fire-station/#more-22740

You would think this would be the case. I did too, when the announcement to kill Pontiac was made.
However, when you look at the sales numbers, Buick was selling far more cars. Over the past 10-20 years the Pontiac brand had been diluted by the additions of vehicles such as the Torrent (a rebadged Chevrolet Equinox), the G5 (a rebadged Chevy Cobalt), and the G4 (a rebadged Chevy Aveo). GM tried to make Pontiac a brand that would have a broad appeal (a la Chevy), thereby directing it away from being the "Excitement"-oriented brand (their words, not mine) they had been in years prior. While they had enjoyed some success with the G8, other high performance cars such as the Solstice and GTO never lived up to expectations. This dilution of the brand was in no doubt due in part to dealer pressures. Many Pontiac dealers were either independent or bunched with Buick and GMC dealers. None of these brands offered an economy or entry level option (read: high-MPG), which the dealers wanted. Rather than develop a product that would fit this mold and Pontiac's brand image (which probably wouldn't have been economically viable), GM slapped a Pontiac badge on the Cobalt and Aveo, neither of which were great cars to begin with.
This issue gets to the heart of the biggest problem with GM's dealer network. Too many dealers offered only one or two of GM's brands, and thus wanted a full product range in each brand. Rather than try to leverage each brand in a specific niche of the market, GM tried to make each brand everything to every one. Thus, GM had a dealer network selling parallel product lineups while driving up costs (since maintaining each network cost money). Whereas Pontiac had potential as the performance brand in a dealership that also sold luxury vehicles (Cadillac) and trucks (GMC), it didn't work as a full service brand.
Another factor in the decision was Chevy's SS division. They develop high performance versions of Chevy's cars and are sold through Chevy dealerships. They don't require any additional dealership infrastructure and appeal to a similar segment of the market that Pontiac did in it's hayday.
As for Buick, GM is trying to reposition them as an entry-level luxury brand a la Acura and, maybe eventually, Audi. The first two products to this end, the LaCrosse and Regal, look promising. I have high hopes for them.
What's happened to Buick is not too dissimilar from what's happening to Mercury (Ford is in the process of killing of the brand). Lincoln could potentially pull up to compete with Buick. It's going to be interesting to watch.
Executive summary for those who don't want to read that ramble:
*Pontiac brand was diluted due to mismanagement
*Low sales didn't justify added dealership network
*Chevy's SS division will pick up the slack
*Buick poised to reinvent itself

How does ensuring responsibility and applying appropriate risk management detract from the volunteer experience? Giving back to the community is great, but only if it can be done safely and efficiently. Someone who has demonstrated that they can't drive safely get in the way of that.

I spent this past summer working for a rental car agency. My offer of employment was contingent on not having more than 1 ticket or at-fault accident in the past 3 years (as well as having no alcohol and driving-related convictions in the past 5 years). This was verified through a criminal and driving records check. Once hired, I could have been fired for having more than 3 tickets or at-fault accidents in a given year, whether on my personal time or while at work. Keep in mind, this is all for me to drive around cars averaging 10-30K in value (there were some more valuable cars in fleet, but none come even close to the value of an ambulance), with a fraction of the liability that an ambulance has. As far as costs go, considering that a good portion of volunteer agencies in the county drive custom-built ambulances that cost in excess of 100K, driving records checks seem like an excellent value. Besides which, why should it make a difference whether it's a volunteer or paid agency? Do our patients not have the right to safe and competent transport no matter where they live?

Yeah, the problem is they have this stupid slot system at the airport to appease all the people who built mansions overlooking the airport who complain about noise. Gotta lov eit, build a mansion near an airport or within 20 miles of an airport's flight path and then complain about noise.

Barry and the rest of the career guys commenting on this are correct. A special operations rig (Squad or Rescue) should have a "ready reserve" rig to replace or back-fill it instantly. A standard engine company doesn't need a 1:1 ratio of front line to reserve because the chances of every front line engine being out of service at once is remote.
The need for fully equipped ready reserves is not a career vs. vollie thing as many will point the discussion towards.... It's a component of call volume, geography, potential fire load, potential extrication load, combined with bread and butter work. There are plenty of vollie departments in the Northern Virginia, Southern Maryland, Baltimore, Washington metro area who have ready reserves that get used regularly. There are also several career departments who don't that REALLY need them...
One final point about harping on why departments need one rig vs another.... A topic on this board was posted some time ago about a new Seagrave tandem axle heavy rescue that was purchased by a vollie department in nowheresville Delaware I believe. Some folks mentioned what a waste it was and how could they ever use it to it's potential.... To this, I say that specing apparatus should be done based on the criteria I listed above as well as the next nearest unit that can provide a similar service and what the load of similar criteria are for it (the next available unit). If a department in the middle of nowhere covers a 20 mile stretch of highway and the nearest heavy rescue is at least that far away OR doesn't have access to the highway in a timely matter, then they are justified in buying a piece of equipment that can handle an extensive call without immediate assistance..... The direct opposite of this is what has happened in Westchester with the number of aerial devices, let alone tower ladders are piled on top of each other which is something I've taken major issue with over the past few years. Cut the number of tower ladders in half AND reduce the overall number of aerial devices by 25-35% and everyone in northern Westchester benefits. The crews of the remaining truck companies get enough work to keep their skills up and you end up with more competent truck companies, AND the taxpayers save by reducing expenses.

This is a tough topic and one that's surely going to raise the collective blood pressure. However, that said, I don't believe that you can have a successful combination department if you actively create what ends up being, essentially, two classes of firefighter/officer. How can it really function? You're going to have to preface every officer's title with either "Volunteer" or "Career"? That sounds a bit silly.
I believe that for operational management and individual moral, you can't have a structure like this. I can imagine that you might have a situation where only career members can be officers, or vice versa with only volunteer officers. Or, all things being equal and you have all members holding equally weighted titles, the way it should be.
Now for the tricky part....
....you gotta have equal qualifications and this is where the waters get a little murky. You cannot call a guy who took Intro to Officer and Fire Officer 1 a Lieutenant and have a guy who went to FLIPS 5 days a week for 5 weeks Lieutenant as well. Career officers were promoted through competitive examination while volunteers are voted into office. This does call into question the validity of the member holding that rank as popularity can play an unfortunate roll. The manner in which a person is promoted is something that is simply not going to change, so we're going to have to move past that. Volunteer/Combination departments can bolster the validity of an elected volunteer officer by insuring that the candidate pool is very strong, has a certain number of years of experience and holds far more than the basic set of certifications from state fire classes. FLIPS is almost 200 hours long, so you have to put that in perspective and put together a list of prerequisites that can, at least, somewhat compare. The smart, dedicated volunteers (and I know a bunch) have already or will put in the time. You just have to hope you have enough of them.

Does it?
We pay more fore it.
We have poorer ratings than other areas...so we pay more for insurance
We need multiple depts to respond to a room & content fire
And as we get to see photes on EmtBravo, we still get the same roof burned off.
Does the job get done because of us or inspite of us.

This has become quite an interesting topic, so I decided to get a little edumucated about KJ;
So, as of 2006, KJ had 20,071 people crammed into 1.1 square miles. To me, that is incredible.
I could go on and on with the quotes from the article sited. It is understood that our nation is founded upon the principle of seperation of church and state, or government. With regard to fire services, it is also understood (to me at least) that this is a function of government; NOT church.
So here's where the lines become blurry, as the cultural aspects of KJ come into conflict with the established norms of delivery of emergency services. Look, they went to court because they didn't want their boys riding a bus with a woman driving it. Can you imagine the reaction if a KJ resident is involved in a PIAA and the responding EMS unit shows up with two women; maybe one of which has a facial piercing or a tatoo?
IMO, big time conflicting issues will be ongoing with KJ and the surrounding communities, maybe forever. A few of the posters here have said that KJFD has been helpful, others have said they are wrecklessly responding outside their jurisdiction because according to their cultural values, they do not want other types of people other than their own, handling potential victims of emergencies.
The only solution I see would be big time open lines of communication, and established protocols for when a KJ resident is in need of fire or ems services beyond their 1.1 square miles. The protocol KJ has apparently established for itself is that speed-dial to their own people in an emergency. That, to me is absolutely not the real solution, and a recipe for potential disaster at some point.
Since it is apparent that they seek isolation from the "outside" world, when they are within that "outside" world, beyond their 1.1 square miles of crushing population, their obligation should be to CONFORM to their surrounding communities' protocols. Eventually, this will be another court issue I imagine.
To me, ASSIMILATION is also a part of AMERICAN culture. To not want to assimilate, due to religious reasons is THE reason these problems with emergency services exist up in that neck of the woods. How to solve it?
Well, we certainly want religious tolerance, another tenant of our cultural foundation. But KJ residents should also understand, that they have an obligation to AMERICA, as well as their god. If they are unmovable nor open to any type of negotiation and compromise, it is not "being helpful" as some here have stated.
I have to say, I wouldn't want to be up there trying to figure this whole thing out. Problems, problems. But then again, this is the USA, and problems are the least of out worries. Is that an oxymoron or a Yogi'ism?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiryas_Joel,_New_York

Want to talk about crazy population densities? The City of Mount Vernon has 68,381 people jammed into 2.7 square miles (the city is 4.4 square miles but according to census data 1.7 of that is water and I've never seen any houseboats )
But I digress. There is no valid reason for a 1.1 square mile village to have a million dollar+ EOC. If they're confronted with a major emergency they'll be receiving mutual aid from outside the village, the County will help them and they have a state-of-the-art EOC, and why would you put the EOC within the "disaster" area? No matter where you put the EOC in a 1.1 square mile village, it's going to be too close to the scene.
Entirely too political and poorly thought out. I can think of much better ways to allocate 1.1 million federal dollars in NYS!

This is an issue that should be examined closely. This could very nearly have been a tremendous disaster. No one can tell exactly how many people would have been killed had this bomb functioned properly and the psychological ramifications would be extensive, bringing a fear that lurks in the back of our minds to the surface very violently. The police officer who responded to the vehicle was peering through the windows before realizing what was contained within. That's a little closer to a bomb than I can imagine most of us ever wanting to be. Supposedly did a great job at moving people away and bringing the necessary NYPD Bomb Squad and FDNY units.
As terrible a reality as it is, this is something that we, as emergency responders, need to be very aware of today. Furthermore, there has been some scuttle about the intended method of detonation and whether or not the smoke was intentional as a device to lure responders. If there is any validity to that theory, imagine the process. Device creates smoke, brings responders and then the primary device detonates. What a terrible event....
The reality is, there are very sick people who come up with intricate ways to kill lots of people and specific people. Be safe and cautious and try not to let ever present complacency effect your level of preparedness.

You are no good to your patient if you become a patient yourself. Clearly, this individual knew how to evaluate the risk involved and was able to bring a good resolution to this situation. Kudos to him.

I never understood how people can say this out loud and think that it sounds like a logical argument in defense of their position. I'd rather be without the extra yahoos that show up for the "big game" as they generally tend to:
-Get in the way of people who are properly trained and practiced.
-Make the situation worse by making the wrong decisions.
-Use resources that would be put to better use in more capable hands.
-Complicate the chain and scope of command.
I'm not denying that big games draw big crowds, but to hear people put that forth as a positive thing is ridiculous. Give me a small army over a large armed mob anyday.

OK...let's see...
1. No one bashed any agency. 1a. If your telling the truth how it is, how is it bashing if some aren't doing their jobs?
2. Just showing up to a call isn't enough.
3. I spend more time educated truly ill people who try to drive then I do those who call 911 for nonsense. Guess what...if they are that's on you! Public education is part of your responsibilities. 3a. With thinking that 911 adds time...no way...it can add better response and public service with EMD and pre arrival instructions where warranted. Can drive to the hospital faster? So now what we go back to cadillacs and scoop and run?
4. Maybe stress does add time to untrained people not in our businesses eyes..but my CAD doesn't lie and many of the VAC's in my area...aren't cutting it. And what I have learned is the truth hurts and not dealing with not getting out along with the next 3 mutual aid agencies...but patting yourself on the back because on 1 day in a month you got all 3 buses out is ridiculous. Save 1 of the 3...I'll take one of those when I'm sitting there doing a jig to entertain a patient or debating on whether to ask for a cop to come to take his car or another medic for the flycar or to put them in the back of the engine on scene. You can't make the argument about the person with a suitcase in their hand at 2 am and how it could be quicker to drive when you have to be the one to explain why their loved one is struggling to breath and we're going deeper and deeper into protocol. I should not have to apologize for something that isn't my agencies responsibility.
5. If heart and pride were the root to solve all problems...we'd have no problems at all...but its not just about that. Wanting good consistent patient care has nothing to do with ego's. Work everyday where a high percentage of the time your waiting extended periods of time waiting for an ambulance and then come tell me. Or tell me how happy I should be that I'm on my 6th, 7th or 10th job where I've waited for an ambulance and then I get 1 all day and the EMT or whoever comes in all happy go lucky and wonders why I'm at the end of my rope as their all smiles and even sometimes talking about how great their agency is...spare me.
Yeah..I guess that's enough for now.