Newburgher

Who gives a crap? Just give me an ambulance that is well maintained and properly equipped. The days of massive 4WD and "road warrior" monsters is over. Let's all get back to reality.

Perhaps you should have read the article or even the first post. Ambulance corps captain John Gavaris quoted as saying squad rules "aren't dictated by insurance".

A classic example of what I like to refer to as volitics.

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2013/December/21/OC_ff_train-21Dec13.html
New firefighters train at Orange County center

Maloney, back right, watches as future firefighters train in the snow NEW HAMPTON – Newburgh s 15 newest firefighters met with Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney Friday at a live burn training session at the Orange County Fire Training Academy in New Hampton.
The $2.4 million in funding to pay for the additional full-time firefighters for two years came from the federal government.
Thirteen of the new recruits are currently in week seven of their training; two others will train in the spring, according to Newburgh Fire Chief Michael Vatter. They have another seven weeks to go and are scheduled to graduate on February 14th.
All are Orange County residents; most of them from the City Newburgh. Many are longtime residents, but one just became a citizen on September 30 at the Newburgh Armory ceremony.
“So he’s just thrilled to death to be helping the community and working Newburgh and looking to make a difference,” Vatter said.
The recruits all passed a written test, a physical examination, an interview, and a physical fitness test.
“They also took a physical agility test which involves simulating a lot of the physical activities they have to do- up stairs, carrying things, dragging things, hitting things,” Vatter said.
The City of Newburgh had applied for the grant more than once before Maloney took office. The congressman’s office took over the process.
“Through a lot of bumps and turns and no’s we got to a yes,” Maloney said. “And as a result a lot of the guys standing behind me today are going to be working and saving lives in a part of the county that really needs help,”
The new firefighters could be responding to calls as soon as February 15th, the day after graduation.
There are two new recruits in the Westchester Academy that were hired before the grant as well. They will be graduating in the middle of January.

There will be two new firemen going to the fall academy. Hopefully, there will be more to follow

What is wrong with having two helicopters, or three or four? What would happen if it was grounded due to maintenance? Redundancy keeps the machine going. There may be plenty of equipment on standby(i.e. METU, or the USART trailer), no other equipment, works every day for the Tri-County area.

We use to have some WCPD pilots on here what ever happened to them?

For the record, I am both a volunteer firefighter and a (union) DPW employee. I work for the Village that I grew up in, where I was a volunteer FF for approximately 12 years before moving out of the area.
In that time, I don't ever remember my role as a volly ever getting in the way of my job. My job is just that, my job. It pays my bills and puts food on the table. I would never risk my career, especially for the volunteer FD.
To my knowledge, my Village would not allow me to leave work for a fire call. Personally I've never cared enough to ask because I'm paid to be here, at work, working.
My understanding is that you may leave work (in NYS) to respond to an alarm. However, your employer does not have to pay you for the time you were gone. Similarly, your employer can not penalize or fire you. Again, this is my understanding. Perhaps someone such as Barry could clear things up or elaborate.
Again, as a DPW employee I do not allow my role as a volunteer firefighter to interfere with my job.
I will also say that I agree with most people here in saying that you are paid by your employer to perform a job, not to be a fireman. Unless you are taken off the clock (while in the role of firefighter), it becomes a sticky situation (IMO). I don't agree that you should be paid while volunteering as a fireman.
If any municipality is that hard-up for membership, perhaps they should hire (gasp) career firefighters. Or...wait for it....look into consolidation (I know, I must be delusional).

FAST / RIT is not supposed to be a special op's resource or a special team, county team, select group of folks who are trained differently or to a higher level than other firefighters, etc. FAST / RIT skills are necessary for EVERY firefighter every bit as much as any other firefighting essential functions are. When a MAYDAY is transmitted, IMMEDIATE action by knowledgeable, skilled firefighters is required. FAST / RIT operations are often required very early on during an incident, obviously we all need to be ready to perform appropriately and immediately when a firefighter requires assistance due to entrapment or medical condition while in a hazardous location. FAST / RIT training absolutely needs to be a requirement for new firefighters prior to certification. Currently certified firefighters who are not FAST / RIT certified should be required to attend the course and become certified. Firefighting is not a game, a passtime or a hobby, it's about life and death. Those who don't see it that way need to find a different calling.

I will pose the exact same scenario I've posed a million times on this forum:
At the exact moment that YOU call a Mayday, would you rather have:
A. The team of 18-21 year olds fresh out of Firefighter 1 standing on the front lawn, ready to go with equipment.
-OR-
B. The elite "Special Operations" FAST crew in their customized FAST rig still en route from 3 towns away.
People are acting like the basics of a RIT operation are some form of black magic attainable only by the saltiest, most senior Firefighters. Sure, would it be preferable to have a bunch of experienced senior guys to do it? Sure. But the situation isn't always going to allow for that.
Say it with me: RIT/FAST is NOT a specialized unit. It is a basic function that must be performed at ALL fires, just like fire attack, ventilation, search and rescue, water supply, etc. So ALL Firefighters need to be trained to perform it... Are some people going to gravitate towards that training more than other aspects? Sure, as with anything else in the fire service. But its not a something that any of us can say is "not our job." It absolutely NEEDS to be a part of basic Firefighter training.

...no one understood that "j/k" at the end of a sentence indicates that said statement was tongue-in-cheek?

They are regular engine companies. The 3 stage HP engines are pretty much concentrated in areas of the city with major high rises (think downtown and midtown Manhattan, and a few others spread out in the rest of the city). As others have said what makes them special is the extra impeller, the special high pressure outlets, and the high pressure hose to go with it. Needing to use the 3rd stage doesn't happen often. I think the last time I know of was the fire at 1 WTC 1-2 years ago.

Oh thank goodness. I don't know what we'd do without it........
**All future references to a "mini-bar" should refer to a small refrigerator filled with a variety of booze in a hotel room

1) that's great, Who do they call when its not coming from an appliance, or the utility does not provide the fuel for that appliance? Who is responsible when its coming from improperly drafting of the oil heater and the gas water heater.....the oil company or the gas company? And who do they call when the owner of the apt building does not answer the phone and their is no Supt. (the apt tenants generally have no access to the basement or even know what appliances are there.
2) Our dispatchers are taught to triage, but more important to tell people to get out of a potentially toxic environment, not to go around turning off things and opening windows, this would be no different than telling them to put out there own fire instead of getting out. We also always advise against opening anything or turning off anything (unless someone can not be moved to fresh air). Once you disturb the air flows and appliance settings its is very very difficult to find and then fix the source. 15 years ago dispatch would tell people this and we would end up getting 2, 3 or 4 call backs when the detector went off again. Particularly problematic during a major pressure inversion which forces flue gas back into the home.
3) Our taxpayers do not think so. They pay for SERVICE and they are glad when we show up in 4 minutes and the gas company does not.
4) See #2. We do not use fans until we isolate the problem. Cost several $1,000...A little inflated...Lets see, the fire truck is paid for and sitting there, the crew is paid, either way...ok so we used 2 gallons of fuel (and we buy it on state contract with no tax).
5) the same risk when they do it to any other type of call that they should not. The problem there is the dept policy not the CO call.
6) 1st home owners insurance generally would only cover it if it were a liability issue. I.e. I got CO in YOUR house, your fault, you or your insurance pay. Generally If EMS responds and does not treat or transport it is illegal to bill.

This really ticks me off it's already extremely hard for females in this field to get respect and now any of us trying to get on pretty much any department will be looked down on that much more.

EMT111 you could not be more wrong. Orange County has one of, if not the worst, emergency radio systems in the Hudson Valley. As for the portables, not all departments "portable 1" is their base station. Some use it as it is supposed to be, and their line officers use portable numbers. Departments who are not authorized to transmit with base stations in county channels use the portable designation, maybe they think the FCC isn't smart enough to figure it out.

Just something to think about... Do you know the flammable range of of CO?
In addition to being a lethal gas for reasons of oxygen deprivation, it is a volatile substance.
Symptoms or not, CO calls shouldn't be toyed with. They deserve a minimum of an engine.

Looking at your post above and going to your profile all we see is that you're a male from Yonkers, so what's your beef if you're not even doing what you've stated above?

You are absolutely incorrect, no such policy exists. For some reason FAST is treated as some speciality team rather than having every interior member trained to get the guy your crawling down the hallway with out. Due to this belief only some departments in Orange County have FAST, which often result in the FAST coming from further away.

Funny that your brought that up, I have recently been thinking about the same thing that happens in Orange County.
1. Dept A is operating at a BS call, quite often they only have one apparatus on scene operating (because that's all they could staff). Dept A calls for Dept B to standby at Dept A's firehouse. Dept. B then calls Dept. C to standby at Dept B's firehouse, it becomes an endless cycle until they finally get to a dept that can actually staff more then one crew.
2. Dept A (who only does 150 calls a year) calls for not one but two standby companies while they are operating at an incident..... The taxpayers are better off.... Lets by quite honest, if you do 150 runs a year what is the probability that you will have a second call, and then if it does happen why not just dispatch a mutual aid dept then....
3. Dept A, B, and C are all operating at a big old barn burner..... each dept then calls for there own standby companies. Why not just have one standby company cover all three depts?
Just a few examples of problems that develop when everyone has there own kingdoms!

The vehicle is not overloaded and under it's payload, the Ford 6.0 liter has had issues with the turbo in many rigs and ours is not an isolated thing, so that issue has nothing to with what we are carrying.
http://www.autoblog.com/2005/12/16/fords-power-stroke-diesel-causing-major-problems/
I will gather a list of what is on the rig and post it, I am interested in seeing what your concerns are, thanks in advance.
As far as pretty lights, paint and training part of the comment I know (hopefully) was made as a generic statement but if you know me I am very proactive especially when it comes to training and pushing beyond the so called "standard". I would say for a very small rural department that's located in an area without hydrants we have a pretty modern fleet of vehicles that not only perform well for US but is utilized often by our surrounding neighbors on mutual aid, we have not just stuck to the "traditional" ways of doing things and have embraced new technologies, researched items extensively and try to give our citizens the best possible protection we can.

When it comes in I will show you another needed "trick" Brother...in the mean times, buy a few rolls of black hockey tape.

UGH!
Looks like a once nice truck crashed through a bad episode of Baywatch and then a JC Whitney catalog!
Y U C K !

No doubt and as gamewell45 correctly pointed out, those personalities are on both sides.
However, like many things in life, how you conduct yourself can often have a big influence on how others view and treat you. If you are squared away as a volunteer firefighter and/or fire department, then the vast majority of career firefighters will not have an issue. Now, if you act like a clown, don't know how to do the job or won't do the job, act more like a social club than a fire department, then they're will likely be some animosity - especially if you start playing the "we're all the same" card.
I work in a small career department in a small urban city surrounded by a good dozen volunteer fire departments who's districts directly border the city and few more close by. We pretty much have no choice but to use the volunteers if we need assistance with a fire. One is pretty squared away and we tend to call them first. A few more are ok and we use them when needed. A few more are pretty much posers and we've had issues with them when we've worked with them.
We maintain a pretty good relationship with most of the departments around us, but when you show up at our fire and your engine company gives us the "you want us to go.....in there and do....what?" look, we aren't going to view you favorably and you won't be invited back.
We don't get invited to many out of town calls for whatever reason, but when the neighbors do extend the invitation, we expect to work along side of you and not in place of you. We also expect that your IC (the fire chief) will not be drunk and require our duty chief and another mutual aid chief to assume control of the incident before somebody gets needlessly hurt or killed! When this is the case, we aren't going to view you favorably.
And for the record, I spent 9 years as a volunteer before getting hired 11 years ago.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130919/NEWS/130919703/-1/NEWS