Newburgher

Great, just what Orange County needs..... another department. We should be thinking about how to provide more streamline and consistent responses instead of forming another kingdom. Lets address the issues at hand (which is witnessed everyday lately) such as responding for calls of service in a timely manner with a crew (not 1 or 2 guys). Why do departments (usually the same departments everyday) continually not crew up for a call, yet no plans seem to ever be put in place to correct the problem? Last week there was a department who could not even get out for a structure fire, mutual aid departments who were sent (only after the first department could not crew) had to respond and extinguish the fire (good thing fire only doubles in size every 30-60 seconds).
This is the last thing Orange County needs, we should be working together towards consolidation and not duplicating resources.

Careful what you wish for, many City Councils would easily make cuts if they knew they'd get higher paid guys to take lower paid positions. Keep the experience and cut costs? That is just one reason Unions are still relevant.

Man I hope they 7 or less fingers in that gun!

Arlington (fire and fire based transporting EMS with EMT/Paramedic)
City of Poughkeepsie (first response EMS only, transport by commercial EMS)
LaGrange (fire and fire based transporting EMS with EMT/Paramedic)
Fairview (fire based BLS transporting EMS)
City of Beacon (first response EMS only, transport by VAC EMS)
Pleasant Valley (first response EMS , transport by commercial EMS or vollie Ambulance with career member on occasion. Daytime staffing only for now)
New Hackensack (?...this one always escaped me..)
In addition, the Castle Point FD is a career, federal (I beleive; perhaps Beekman could verify?) department, that does not hire off of the civil service list.
Not sure if anyone is hiring, but every year more jobs are getting bigger due to dwindling volunteer ranks, except the PFD..they fighting for what little manpower they have)
And let me add - that if this test is valid for three years or so...i would ANTICIPATE volunteer departments in manpower crisis states to start looking to hire, even if they follow Pleasant Valley's lead with daytime only, and even if it is just as a "driver" capacity..but we all know that a foot in the door is a foot in the door, and today's "driver" will be tommorow's Senior Man.

I think I see zombies........oh wait, one of them just got up for another cup of coffee. Never mind

I think I see zombies........oh wait, one of them just got up for another cup of coffee. Never mind

I think I see zombies........oh wait, one of them just got up for another cup of coffee. Never mind

Now I have to buy my wife a Christmas present...was holding out...

I think I see zombies........oh wait, one of them just got up for another cup of coffee. Never mind

The end of the world is coming! Last night while having a beer, the bottom of my glass fell off!!

I didn't realize we could say anything on here that criticized a fire department, especially if the word volunteer is in the original post.....
At least that Tower Ladder wasn't needed to respond to an emergency in the 40 plus hours it was decorated (and presumably out of service)
"Sorry Mr. Taxpayer, that $1,000,000 fire truck you bought for us wasn't available to come save your family because, well, it was Christmas time and we needed to make a kick-ass video with it. How were we to know there would actually be a fire in our district. There wasn't one last week. Can't those dispatchers schedule these calls a little better?

I'm not criticizing the video or department. I have a problem with a piece of apparatus, that the fire depatment has because they "need" it, being used in this way. The only way that it doesn't affect the "utility" of the rig, is if it is completely removable. How long does it take to remove all of that? There is no way that thing is functional at a fire the way it sits. There are decorations in the basket, wires on the boom, lights on the rims, etc. Can it be raised, rotated, and extended? Can the rig respond at a speed faster than a crawl without getting those wires and lights flung off the rims and tangled or whipping against the body? How about compartments? Is access difficult because of the wires and crap all over that thing? Ground ladders? How manywires are going to get tangled there?
I guess the fire can wait, it always waits

I didn't realize we could say anything on here that criticized a fire department, especially if the word volunteer is in the original post.....
At least that Tower Ladder wasn't needed to respond to an emergency in the 40 plus hours it was decorated (and presumably out of service)
"Sorry Mr. Taxpayer, that $1,000,000 fire truck you bought for us wasn't available to come save your family because, well, it was Christmas time and we needed to make a kick-ass video with it. How were we to know there would actually be a fire in our district. There wasn't one last week. Can't those dispatchers schedule these calls a little better?

I'm not criticizing the video or department. I have a problem with a piece of apparatus, that the fire depatment has because they "need" it, being used in this way. The only way that it doesn't affect the "utility" of the rig, is if it is completely removable. How long does it take to remove all of that? There is no way that thing is functional at a fire the way it sits. There are decorations in the basket, wires on the boom, lights on the rims, etc. Can it be raised, rotated, and extended? Can the rig respond at a speed faster than a crawl without getting those wires and lights flung off the rims and tangled or whipping against the body? How about compartments? Is access difficult because of the wires and crap all over that thing? Ground ladders? How manywires are going to get tangled there?
I guess the fire can wait, it always waits

I didn't realize we could say anything on here that criticized a fire department, especially if the word volunteer is in the original post.....
At least that Tower Ladder wasn't needed to respond to an emergency in the 40 plus hours it was decorated (and presumably out of service)
"Sorry Mr. Taxpayer, that $1,000,000 fire truck you bought for us wasn't available to come save your family because, well, it was Christmas time and we needed to make a kick-ass video with it. How were we to know there would actually be a fire in our district. There wasn't one last week. Can't those dispatchers schedule these calls a little better?

I didn't realize we could say anything on here that criticized a fire department, especially if the word volunteer is in the original post.....
At least that Tower Ladder wasn't needed to respond to an emergency in the 40 plus hours it was decorated (and presumably out of service)
"Sorry Mr. Taxpayer, that $1,000,000 fire truck you bought for us wasn't available to come save your family because, well, it was Christmas time and we needed to make a kick-ass video with it. How were we to know there would actually be a fire in our district. There wasn't one last week. Can't those dispatchers schedule these calls a little better?

I didn't realize we could say anything on here that criticized a fire department, especially if the word volunteer is in the original post.....
At least that Tower Ladder wasn't needed to respond to an emergency in the 40 plus hours it was decorated (and presumably out of service)
"Sorry Mr. Taxpayer, that $1,000,000 fire truck you bought for us wasn't available to come save your family because, well, it was Christmas time and we needed to make a kick-ass video with it. How were we to know there would actually be a fire in our district. There wasn't one last week. Can't those dispatchers schedule these calls a little better?

I didn't realize we could say anything on here that criticized a fire department, especially if the word volunteer is in the original post.....
At least that Tower Ladder wasn't needed to respond to an emergency in the 40 plus hours it was decorated (and presumably out of service)
"Sorry Mr. Taxpayer, that $1,000,000 fire truck you bought for us wasn't available to come save your family because, well, it was Christmas time and we needed to make a kick-ass video with it. How were we to know there would actually be a fire in our district. There wasn't one last week. Can't those dispatchers schedule these calls a little better?

I didn't realize we could say anything on here that criticized a fire department, especially if the word volunteer is in the original post.....
At least that Tower Ladder wasn't needed to respond to an emergency in the 40 plus hours it was decorated (and presumably out of service)
"Sorry Mr. Taxpayer, that $1,000,000 fire truck you bought for us wasn't available to come save your family because, well, it was Christmas time and we needed to make a kick-ass video with it. How were we to know there would actually be a fire in our district. There wasn't one last week. Can't those dispatchers schedule these calls a little better?

I'm not sure of your background or experience but you are treading on very thin ice with the volunteer/career comments. Please DO NOT start a career vs. volunteer debate; see the forum guidelines for an explanation on why we won't tolerate that.
As for your question...
I don't give a damn if the crew coming to help my local FD when my house is on fire is career or volunteer SO LONG AS they're properly trained and equipped to do the job and have the appropriate numbers of personnel. If it's a career truck with one FF or a volunteer truck with five guys but only one "qualified" FF, you can keep 'em.
What is the benefit of "local knowledge" when you have fire blowing out the windows in an ordinary construction building? The engine guys know how to stretch hose no matter what street they're on and the ladder guys know how to ventilate the building regardless of its address? Getting there may be a momentary issue but with GPS, computers, smart-phones, maps and, oh yeah, the radio if all else fails, they're going to get there.

I am f****** disgusted by what I just saw on the news about this story. I watched brave cops rush an attempted murder suspect with total disregard for their own safety and then I saw them have to deal the the lembhard family who rushed the cops and made the scene more chaotic. - ** For those of you who weren't aware, this clown who got locked up today is the brother of the other clown that NPD was forced to shoot earlier this year.
This is a scenario that we deal with all the time, family members instead of standing back, come up and get involved, many times physically leading to their arrest also.
I also saw that f****** ambulance chaser sussman who i believe was wearing a bullet resistant vest, right in the middle of the whole thing.
These a******* said that they were in the house voluntarily and were not held hostage so if the orange county DA had any stones, he would charge them all with obstruction !!!!!!
I'm glad the brothers from the NPD, OCSO, NYSP and USMS are all ok and there is now one less lembhard to prey on the citizens of orange county.

M'Ave, the light package is the most important part of the rig! Who cares where the tools are located and how they are mounted?!
I have one big question about this rig- what is the decal in between the officers door and the cab window? Is this new? How will this affect operations?

The track is going to change every 6 hours with every update from the forecasters and models. Then every meterologist will add their interpretation to impress their viewers so this thread will be as long as the Stamford merger thread if we post every update.
I figure we will either get rain or we won't. :-)

Yup. Still in service, and we still get legitimate calls off of them, not just false alarms. Master boxes are still in all the schools and several factories and high hazard occupancies as well

The bottom line is as an incident commander when I call for a mutual aid engine/ladder, I want a staffed engine/ladder with fully qualified firefighter’s (career or volunteer) to be able to perform what ever assignment they are needed for. I don’t want an engine/ladder with 2 firefighters and 3 helpers. If your are not a fully qualified firefighter then you should not be responding on mutual aid.