FFLieu

The US Justice Department also tacitly condones the smuggling of arms from the United States to Mexico, irrespective of the fact that two of said illicit weapons were later used to murder US law enforcement agents. You'd think that in light of things such as Fast and Furious, it would have more important things to do. Behold the powers Hope and Change!

The only way we know a hydrant is out of service is trying to get water out of it....very infrequent is a formal notification from the DEP. We put a white disc over the threads so that we and other companies know that one is no good in the future.

Yet the parking violations people still write for blocking a hydrant with one of those discs on it ... go figure lol.

It was a very interesting exercise, and I think all of the departments involved learned from the experience.

Ray, I can only speak for myself and my statements, which incidently enough, weren't about the fd or the pd or the schools or anything else other than how the City government is being run, and the components thereof.

While I can see that you're on the job, I surely hope that you come out unscathed from any proposed cuts. Like I've said, cutting the guys who do the job doesn't solve the underlying problem. It didn't work in NYC, it didn't work in Indianapolis, and it won't work in Yonkers.

I sat and watched that same video on March 4, 2011 when I, myself, was tazed. It's to illustrate the effectiveness of the secondary, non-lethal weapon, and is also used to illustrate that each time it is depolyed, there is a video record for supervisory review.

I'm inclined to agree with ny10570. Let's say for argument sake, you have a career department with 12 guys on duty at any one time. The department has 2 trucks, and the manpower is split, 6 on one truck, and 6 on the other. An alarm comes in that is 5 miles from the station. Each truck will drive 10 miles round trip, for a total of 20 miles driven for just one alarm.

Now let's say that you have a volunteer department with the same amount of personnel and the same amount of apparatus. However, the station is not staffed at the time that the alarm comes in, as it is a nice sunny Saturday afternoon. Each member lives 2 miles away from the station. An alarm comes in for a location that is the same distance away from the station, 5 miles. Each member will drive 4 miles round trip to and from the station, which when extrapolated over the amount of personnel, is 48 miles. Then, the trucks will drive 20 miles to and from the alarm, taking the grand total to 68 miles driven for just one alarm.

At least in this particular example, volunteers would drive approximately 70% more miles for the same alarm. Therefore, with the increased mileage driven, and the laws of statistical probability being what they are, there would definitely be a correlation between the number of volunteers and vehiclular accidents.

The only controlling factor in the equation is due regard. Everyone is taught to drive with due regard and applicable courtesy, regardless of whether they are a career guy or a volunteer. The adjective describing what kind of firefighter the person is, is simply irrelavant.

Career politicians are also part of the problem. There is more waste, fraud, and abuse the higher and higher you go in the public sector, and the stench starts at the top. Duplicative management, unproductive management, nepotistic management, and other forms of "management" is often overlooked and it's the guys on the ground who are often made to take the fall. My question is, why cut 15 firefighters or police officers or sanitation workers when you can cut 5 or 6 people who make north of $185k per year, and actually end up with a better return on your taxpayer subsidized investment? Unproductive management that's currently on the job making that amount per year will end up costing significantly more per year in retirement benefits, which will lead to more of a tax gap and burden, and thus, more layoffs. It's a circle that needs to end, somehow.

I dunno. There's only so much tax and spend that people can take before they start to get fed up. Look at what's been going on in the news with the taxpayer-subsidized GSA junket to Las Vegas. My man took a trip on our dime, made sure that he got himself photographed in a suite, and then had the audacity to take the 5th in front of Congress. Personally, as a Westchester taxpayer, I'd much rather see those in charge cut some dead wood making better than a buck-eighty-five to sit in an office all day behind a computer, being otherwise unproductive, than have them cut the cheaper-but-more-productive version, all while de-valuing my home because it gets bad fire protection coverage.

Well, if they absolutely must cut staffing to meet a budget gap, then they should do it correctly. Cutting the guys on the firehouse level only adds up to a few percentage points worth of savings, and overall, it hurts the community. Response times might increase. Fatalities might increase. Shuttering firehouses or reducing staffing levels doesn't solve the issue, especially since there will be the same issue again, inevitably, in the future. However, cutting duplicative management or reducing the salaries of those who make in excess of $185k per year as of the last publication date, would better serve the community-at-large and would be a better "bang" for the overall taxpayer buck.

Did you not read the first sentence with the word volunteer emblazoned in all caps for all the world to see how we're the scum of the earth? Perhaps not.

Top to bottom, left to right. Group words together as a sentence. Many sentences comprise a thought. Maybe they didn't teach you that in elementary school.

Yeah, because no career FF ever drove recklessly, ever, in the history of the world, right?

What's the difference? Did I strike a nerve or are you just that paranoid?

For the record, I was and am referring to all the departments that share these common problems! North and South of 287 in and outside of NY. There's only one department in Westchester that comes close to having the resources or organization of the FDNY.

Get over it. There are lots of issues in all our departments. Turning a blind eye to them won't make them go away.

I wasn't referring to your post. I sent you a PM.

My guess also would be that some of those who are protesting so much in this thread are a problem in their own departments.

Speak for yourself, pal. FYI, I live around the corner from my fire house and I generally walk down the hill to go a job. Don't paint us all with the same brush, lest you'd like to be painted, too. I'd venture a guess that youre house isn't made of glass, no?

Great Topic, Thanks Dinosaur.

You have hit the nailon the head. Emergency Response in Westchester has cultivated a recipe for failure.

Only 1 can do it. Many can not even get 4 "interior" on the road in the first three minutes?

We can not imagine that, infact we do not want to imagine that. How many FF's in Westchester (and other counties around NYC) wear FDNY T-shirts, go to presentations from FDNY members, listen to FDNY on the scanner, but when it comes down to it we want out own little fiffedom and will fight to prevent having any real ability to handle major incidents.

There will always be major calls that will require that level of manpower. It just does not happen often. We generally do not believe in proper staging.....Whats the chance something unexpected can occur at a fire or other major emergency?

Based on the response capabilities, we can barely put a 4 man FAST team onscene, In this case you may need multiple teams. When this happens, we will have multiple LODD's and another study...but this time it will be from NIOSH showing the country what went wrong.

All of this needs to be resolved now, I fear that most will wait until the collapse.

We will get at least that to the LODD Funeral, but not the fire.

Not enough trained members per unit or per response.

Minimal training, if any

More training

the range is from none, to very qualified

If there are SOP's, there has to also be dispatch authority and that does not exist.

Good luck. Thanks for pointing this out.

Well said.

What department(s) are you referring to? Seems pretty specific for some "generalized" terminology in your responses. They wouldn't happen to be the ones north of 287, would they?

This is fodder for the old "slippery slope." How long until the department is dispatched to jobs that mysteriously get cancelled after a couple of people blow by? How long until the department catches on and starts going slower than the posted speed limit, so as to spite the already spiteful Chief? Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the "Chief" be going to the scene to establish command, or at the very least, to the house to staff a rig? Sounds like a d**k move to me.

Btw, if it doesn't have a formalized "ops plan," then it's not an "operation." At least that's what I was taught...

And, it should be limited to PD only, anyway.

_{OK everyone, the original post was whether FDNY can ride for free, which has been more than sufficiently answered by more than one person. It wasn't a thread to compare EMT qualifications, length of time as one, et al. Let's all put the rulers away - it's short, shriveled, and hangs to the left anyway.}

I remember it very well. The dumb a** actually defended himself....thought he was Perry Mason

His cross examination read like a dummies book. Q: "Did you see who shot you?" A: "Yes. You."

But getting back to the issue at hand. I will gladly pay the $266 per month to go from Zone 5 to GCT in order for me to subsidize the few instances when there is an MOS on the train.

NJSP has a better safety record, anyway. The joke around my old Squad was when MonOC got a bird - the nickname was "FallingSTAR." The way NJ is set up, it probably makes the most sense to have no more than 2 in the North and 2 (maybe 3 due to the more rural nature of the region) in the South.

Yes. The federal government can repossess apparatus from a department and then sell it back to them at a premium, just like they can mandate that each of the department's members carry their own health insurance.

From what I've seen, they are NYS certified peace officers, with the same police powers as a NYS correction officer. However, they are not certified police officers. While they make arrests and detain persons violating the law, and testify in court, they were sued by a woman who they detained, and she won. Not sure what the facts were regarding that case.

I do know that at one time, NYSP was in charge of policing the old VLU which later became the casino.

Ah, I got enough for less than 3 gallons.

The estimate was $750. I got enough for 43.75 gallons of 87 grade gasoline.

Behold the powers of "Hope and Change!"

Yes.

My wife is a City school teacher. (She teaches in East New York, but more on that for another day.) She comes home practically every single day with stories about how much money the City wastes on outside consultants, who know more or less nothing about how the City as a whole operates. This whole debacle is yet another instance of how no one within City Hall knows what the hell is going on, and is willing to be led around by an outside consultancy firm - that as a regular business practice, over-inflates the value of their "services" - in order to correct a "problem." Truth be told, there was really nothing wrong with the way 911 operated until Bloomberg f-ed with it. But then again, the same can be said for pretty much every single thing (ie. Citytime) that his "administration" has touched since January 1, 2002. But Grumpy, you're right. Your consistent abuse of the overtime system, and your eventual "double-dipping" once you retire (that one is a favorite of our fair governor's) are what not only caused the current fiscal crisis, but also expanded it to the level that it is today. Blatant government waste had nothing to do with that.