JBE

Amen!!!

Amen!!!

Reading my mind. Didn't know they were connected. Oh wait, they are by about 10 or so miles of shoreline!! The more I read, the more I don't like what I'm seeing.And, this knucklehead drops the race card. Ponderous, friggin ponderous.

Orchard Beach? I didn't realize that as in Clason Point.

Out of control??? All I see on here is grown men having a conversation about a very controversial subject regarding Yorktown.
And if they were to enter into a mutual aid agreement for every call, you're right. We would talk about it. It's covering up a much larger issue of a lack of manpower.
Nobody is attacking YHFD for trying to protect their constituents, but in this day and age with EVERYONE looking at how we spend taxpayer money, we/they can do better.

They are the same folks. They received a few hours of training in taking fire calls, whereas my guys have a month of training to take fire calls. I don't necessarily think the FDNY ARD has the hardest job out of all of us. I've observed the NYPD ACD's and the EMS ARD's. I'd say it's about equal, just different circumstances. One very simple solution, but would add time to alarm processing, is, this is 911, press 1 for the Police, 2 for the FDNY, or 3 for EMS. Another idea, that will never happen, is give the FDNY its own 3 digit number. 211, 811, whatever. PS, we just hired 13 or 14 new people on my side. So there goes any overtime that was available for the FAD's. I can't remember the last time PD hired anyone. Maybe 8 or 9 months ago.
I almost forgot, the Mayor is lying when he says that you only have to talk to one person. UCT has been conference calling back into FDNY since November of '09 when they fat fingered an alarm in Queens, and the error may have led to the death of two fellas in the basement of a house in Woodside. They put in 62 Street, and the fire was on 65 Street. The system hasn't really changed. We're just now proofreading the calls to make sure PD isn't screwing it up. We get so many incidents over the course of a tour where the comment from UCT says Previous Incident Address: XXXXXX because they don't properly interrogate a caller. They are also told to take the call at face value and not pry. The UCT folks don't have the leeway that the FDNY Dispatchers do.
One for instance, the caller was obviously a Spanish Speaker primarily, and gave the UCT 168 West Broadway. The UCT calltaker, who had a very thick Indian accent, didn't properly interrogate the caller, so the box went out for 168 West Broadway. I'm more than sure the caller was saying 168 West, Y Broadway. It was difficult to understand either person, but the fire was at West 168 and Broadway. Engine 7 pulls up to 168 West Broadway, looking for a caller, while the 13th Battalion put all hands to work for a fire in a Starbucks. You guys really don't want me going on. The bottom line is, the system needed to be tweaked with the call taking, not a complete overhaul.

Sorry, M, they are NYPD. Civilian employees of NYPD.
FDNY Dispatching is a little different now, but that is because of UCT. That's the program where NYPD Calltakers are handling Fire Calls. They take the call, get the information, and enter it into the CAD. The CAD link sends it to us, and we act on it with the mostly half cocked information we get. The NYPD UCT then conference calls the caller into us, and the FDNY Alarm Receipt Dispatcher then re-interrogates the caller. This is where we find out where most of the errors are. The NYPD calltakers are not trained in EMD. When an EMS run comes in, they conference to EMS and the EMS folks triage the call, etc.
Please understand, that even though we are all on the same floor at 11MT, the command structure is separate. PD has their own chain of command, from the Platoon commander, to Principal Police Communications Technicians, to the Supervisors, to the Dispatcher/Operators. In my Chain, we have one Chief Dispatcher(Civilian) on duty 24/7, then 3-5 Supervising Dispatchers, (1 for each borough and 1 or 2 surplus), then 17 Dispatchers total in the three boroughs. As far as EMS goes, there is at least one Captain on duty, with three or four Lieutenants, and then however many dispatchers they have working.
Now, I'm not sure what kind of standards you're talking about. If you mean APCO, and all those national standards, forget it. Come on, this is New York City, where things are done our way. The job doesn't want to pay us overtime as it is, much less bring someone in to get us certified. They actually gave an award to one of my big bosses at Metrotech for controlling the overtime(meaning cutting it). And discovering Dispatch Anamolies, as they put it. You know that means detecting our screw ups and writing people up for it.

Sorry, M, they are NYPD. Civilian employees of NYPD.
FDNY Dispatching is a little different now, but that is because of UCT. That's the program where NYPD Calltakers are handling Fire Calls. They take the call, get the information, and enter it into the CAD. The CAD link sends it to us, and we act on it with the mostly half cocked information we get. The NYPD UCT then conference calls the caller into us, and the FDNY Alarm Receipt Dispatcher then re-interrogates the caller. This is where we find out where most of the errors are. The NYPD calltakers are not trained in EMD. When an EMS run comes in, they conference to EMS and the EMS folks triage the call, etc.
Please understand, that even though we are all on the same floor at 11MT, the command structure is separate. PD has their own chain of command, from the Platoon commander, to Principal Police Communications Technicians, to the Supervisors, to the Dispatcher/Operators. In my Chain, we have one Chief Dispatcher(Civilian) on duty 24/7, then 3-5 Supervising Dispatchers, (1 for each borough and 1 or 2 surplus), then 17 Dispatchers total in the three boroughs. As far as EMS goes, there is at least one Captain on duty, with three or four Lieutenants, and then however many dispatchers they have working.
Now, I'm not sure what kind of standards you're talking about. If you mean APCO, and all those national standards, forget it. Come on, this is New York City, where things are done our way. The job doesn't want to pay us overtime as it is, much less bring someone in to get us certified. They actually gave an award to one of my big bosses at Metrotech for controlling the overtime(meaning cutting it). And discovering Dispatch Anamolies, as they put it. You know that means detecting our screw ups and writing people up for it.

Sorry, M, they are NYPD. Civilian employees of NYPD.
FDNY Dispatching is a little different now, but that is because of UCT. That's the program where NYPD Calltakers are handling Fire Calls. They take the call, get the information, and enter it into the CAD. The CAD link sends it to us, and we act on it with the mostly half cocked information we get. The NYPD UCT then conference calls the caller into us, and the FDNY Alarm Receipt Dispatcher then re-interrogates the caller. This is where we find out where most of the errors are. The NYPD calltakers are not trained in EMD. When an EMS run comes in, they conference to EMS and the EMS folks triage the call, etc.
Please understand, that even though we are all on the same floor at 11MT, the command structure is separate. PD has their own chain of command, from the Platoon commander, to Principal Police Communications Technicians, to the Supervisors, to the Dispatcher/Operators. In my Chain, we have one Chief Dispatcher(Civilian) on duty 24/7, then 3-5 Supervising Dispatchers, (1 for each borough and 1 or 2 surplus), then 17 Dispatchers total in the three boroughs. As far as EMS goes, there is at least one Captain on duty, with three or four Lieutenants, and then however many dispatchers they have working.
Now, I'm not sure what kind of standards you're talking about. If you mean APCO, and all those national standards, forget it. Come on, this is New York City, where things are done our way. The job doesn't want to pay us overtime as it is, much less bring someone in to get us certified. They actually gave an award to one of my big bosses at Metrotech for controlling the overtime(meaning cutting it). And discovering Dispatch Anamolies, as they put it. You know that means detecting our screw ups and writing people up for it.

Sorry, M, they are NYPD. Civilian employees of NYPD.
FDNY Dispatching is a little different now, but that is because of UCT. That's the program where NYPD Calltakers are handling Fire Calls. They take the call, get the information, and enter it into the CAD. The CAD link sends it to us, and we act on it with the mostly half cocked information we get. The NYPD UCT then conference calls the caller into us, and the FDNY Alarm Receipt Dispatcher then re-interrogates the caller. This is where we find out where most of the errors are. The NYPD calltakers are not trained in EMD. When an EMS run comes in, they conference to EMS and the EMS folks triage the call, etc.
Please understand, that even though we are all on the same floor at 11MT, the command structure is separate. PD has their own chain of command, from the Platoon commander, to Principal Police Communications Technicians, to the Supervisors, to the Dispatcher/Operators. In my Chain, we have one Chief Dispatcher(Civilian) on duty 24/7, then 3-5 Supervising Dispatchers, (1 for each borough and 1 or 2 surplus), then 17 Dispatchers total in the three boroughs. As far as EMS goes, there is at least one Captain on duty, with three or four Lieutenants, and then however many dispatchers they have working.
Now, I'm not sure what kind of standards you're talking about. If you mean APCO, and all those national standards, forget it. Come on, this is New York City, where things are done our way. The job doesn't want to pay us overtime as it is, much less bring someone in to get us certified. They actually gave an award to one of my big bosses at Metrotech for controlling the overtime(meaning cutting it). And discovering Dispatch Anamolies, as they put it. You know that means detecting our screw ups and writing people up for it.

Sorry, M, they are NYPD. Civilian employees of NYPD.
FDNY Dispatching is a little different now, but that is because of UCT. That's the program where NYPD Calltakers are handling Fire Calls. They take the call, get the information, and enter it into the CAD. The CAD link sends it to us, and we act on it with the mostly half cocked information we get. The NYPD UCT then conference calls the caller into us, and the FDNY Alarm Receipt Dispatcher then re-interrogates the caller. This is where we find out where most of the errors are. The NYPD calltakers are not trained in EMD. When an EMS run comes in, they conference to EMS and the EMS folks triage the call, etc.
Please understand, that even though we are all on the same floor at 11MT, the command structure is separate. PD has their own chain of command, from the Platoon commander, to Principal Police Communications Technicians, to the Supervisors, to the Dispatcher/Operators. In my Chain, we have one Chief Dispatcher(Civilian) on duty 24/7, then 3-5 Supervising Dispatchers, (1 for each borough and 1 or 2 surplus), then 17 Dispatchers total in the three boroughs. As far as EMS goes, there is at least one Captain on duty, with three or four Lieutenants, and then however many dispatchers they have working.
Now, I'm not sure what kind of standards you're talking about. If you mean APCO, and all those national standards, forget it. Come on, this is New York City, where things are done our way. The job doesn't want to pay us overtime as it is, much less bring someone in to get us certified. They actually gave an award to one of my big bosses at Metrotech for controlling the overtime(meaning cutting it). And discovering Dispatch Anamolies, as they put it. You know that means detecting our screw ups and writing people up for it.

Hello and Happy New Year everyone. Just wanted to pop by and let you guys know that Christopher has come home from Boston Childrens Hospital. He is having his ups and downs but all round is doing very well. He wants to thank you all for your prayers and kind words.
I would like to thatnk you all for the overwhelming amount of patches and shirts that you have sent for him! I will post pictures of his collection once it is mounted and hanging on his wall.
Thank you all again.
Pat Wisker

Dispatchers on duty:
JBE had the tour,
251,253,277,284, and 769(Brand New Probie)
We got hit with an all hands, about 5 minutes before this one came in, down on Fort Washington Avenue and W 161 St.
Watchline was going till about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. Temperatures go down, aerial ladders go up. Jinxed myself really good last night.

Dispatchers on duty:
JBE had the tour,
251,253,277,284, and 769(Brand New Probie)
We got hit with an all hands, about 5 minutes before this one came in, down on Fort Washington Avenue and W 161 St.
Watchline was going till about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. Temperatures go down, aerial ladders go up. Jinxed myself really good last night.

Dispatchers on duty:
JBE had the tour,
251,253,277,284, and 769(Brand New Probie)
We got hit with an all hands, about 5 minutes before this one came in, down on Fort Washington Avenue and W 161 St.
Watchline was going till about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. Temperatures go down, aerial ladders go up. Jinxed myself really good last night.

Dispatchers on duty:
JBE had the tour,
251,253,277,284, and 769(Brand New Probie)
We got hit with an all hands, about 5 minutes before this one came in, down on Fort Washington Avenue and W 161 St.
Watchline was going till about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. Temperatures go down, aerial ladders go up. Jinxed myself really good last night.

Dispatchers on duty:
JBE had the tour,
251,253,277,284, and 769(Brand New Probie)
We got hit with an all hands, about 5 minutes before this one came in, down on Fort Washington Avenue and W 161 St.
Watchline was going till about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. Temperatures go down, aerial ladders go up. Jinxed myself really good last night.

Had an instance a few years ago at a Yashiva in my district where a young teenager injured his ankle fairly well. One of the adults of some authority there through conversation with the polite young man says "you're going to take him to the hospital?" So looking at him with a..well why else would you call us look...he says..."so you take him to good hospital yes...New York City has excellent hospitals yes.." So I smiled and said yes..NYC has several wonderful hospitals...but he'll be going to a good hospital here. Then comes the attitude..well we want him taken to NYC being he is from Brooklyn...well...that's nice...he can return to Brooklyn when he's discharged here we don't transport to Mt. Kisco lone less NYC..but you're more then welcome to sign a refusal for him and you can drive him. He finally relented.
So then as he's being loaded into the ambulance and take note where this Yashiva is..or was, I'm not sure if they still are in operation after the numerous code violations there that were found...the adult then says...is there a male doctor and nurses there..he is not to be touched by a woman...and it just so happened that both the ED doc on duty was a woman and there wasn't a single male nurse on shift that day. Needless to say I told him that they're going to have to get over it..and I'm sure in the name of a child's well being that there has to be some sort of understanding from the man upstairs. Homie didn't like it...but he sure didn't want to drive him anywhere else.

I roll out of bed Sunday morning, after a lovely evening at the Carmel High Class of 91 20 year reunion. Where, I came to find out later, I was the recipient of the Life Saver Award, along with 5 other members of my class who have taken up Public Safety as our careers. Go me!!
First stop, obviously, was Lake Carmel. Here's 17-2-3, a 2005 Spartan/Smeal. First due engine that replaced 17-2-1 a few years ago.

Here's what I really wanted. The new 17-6-1. A 2010 Spartan/Hackney with a 300 gallon tank and pump. I forgot to ask, did they follow Pattersons lead on this?? Either way, I like.

I headed over to Kent, to feast my eyes on this beast. 16-4-1, a 2008 Sterling 4,000 gallon Tanker.

After this, I made my way up to Port Jervis, and got some nice scenery shots. This, is to prove to my co-workers and friends that I actually am starting to branch out into things other than apparatus photography.
But, I digress. I had heard about the Philadelphia Fire Muster, and I decided to go check it out. I got some shots, but have to say I walked away a bit disappointed. I got down there around 10, so most of the rigs were already registered and parked. That kinda kills photo taking like mine. But, I did the best I could with what I had in front of me. Here's Engine 7, Foam 33, Upper Darby's old ladder and the Fireboat Independence.





Back to the city in a moment.

Well said, Chief.
How does one fix this?? Set a policy. If someone shows up in POV from a M/A department, tell them to standby until the rig gets there, with proper manpower,or, have them assist the IC at the Command Post, or, send that person packing. Furthermore, set forth in that policy, maybe countywide, that anyone going M/A MUST respond to the firehouse, and respond with a rig. Just my thoughts.

Well said, Chief.
How does one fix this?? Set a policy. If someone shows up in POV from a M/A department, tell them to standby until the rig gets there, with proper manpower,or, have them assist the IC at the Command Post, or, send that person packing. Furthermore, set forth in that policy, maybe countywide, that anyone going M/A MUST respond to the firehouse, and respond with a rig. Just my thoughts.

Let's clarify our definitions before this thread starts rolling.
"Buff" is someone whose hobby is the FD, be it fires, fire apparatus, old tools, history, etc. A buff often appears at fires but is not involved with any part of the command structure. His position is to stay behind the fire lines and observe, take photos or videos, or discuss the strategy. Sometimes, he is well known and trusted by the IC, and is allowed to cross the fire lines and take pictures, but he cannot become involved in the operation. Also, both career and voll personnel are often found buffing, many are there not to buff but to learn strategy or tactics to better their knowledge of firefighting. Most buffs are not a problem. If they go where they are not supposed tb be, they are told to get back and usually comply.
"Freelancer" is someone who IS part of the command/operations structure but is not following the orders of his superiors or the incident action plan. For example, without an order, he may vent a window, discharge a hose line, enter a building without authorization, etc. A freelancer, by the way, can be a Chief from another department who is operating and giving orders like it was his fire instead of the actual IC. It could be a company that is assigned to the job, but is doing their own thing. Freelancers will get people killed. Yes!...straighten them out or get them off the fireground. Career FFs who are freelancing are easy to correct. Their freelancing can cost them 3 days pay or worse. Volls might take some schmoozing to correct the problem, but if it happens more than once, it's probably time to drop him from your rolls. I know it's hard to get volls to join, but losing a member is better than losing a life.
If there is really a problem, you can get a police officer and request an arrest for interfering with governmental operations. (That's if the freelancer isn't the cop)
Sorry Brothers in blue, I just couldn't pass that one up. I still like you guys.

Just keep it up, Chris!!!

My name is Kimberly, I am Christopher's mother. I would like to thank each and every one for your awesome words of encouragement and support. I've been an EMT for the 6 years and one thing I've learned is that I am part of a much bigger family! Before we found out what was causing Christopher so much pain, I thought I could handle anything, but it's a different story when your actually told the news. After Christopher's 1st surgery, the doctor's are going to place a Petrie Cast on him. For those that do not know, it is a cast from the top of the thighs and goes all the way down to the ankles. Both legs will be casted straight and there will be bars forcing his legs apart from each other. He will have to have this cast on for 6wks. Every word you type, Christopher is reading, so please don't stop! GOD BLESS YOU ALL!! I pray you all stay safe during this holiday season. May you and your families share love, peace and happiness.

Hey Christopher, keep it up, fighting the good fight. YOU CAN DO IT!!!! The door is open at FDNY Communications if you ever want to visit.
God Bless, and enjoy your Christmas.
Jimmy "JBE" Raftery
Supervising Fire Alarm Dispatcher
FDNY COmmunications