Newburgher

Not with that dumpster hanging off the end

Read the city notice for God's sake.

Vails Gate Fire District, Town of New Windsor (Orange County)
2014 total runs;
496 (no EMS)
225 of these were daytime alarms (45% of the total)
Average of 19 personnel per alarm
Average response time - 7 minutes 15 seconds
*im working on the breakdown of alarm types

Best wishes! I always enjoy hearing the incidents and perspective that you have experienced in your career, and hope you will continue to share them with us in your retirement.

So lets play devils advocate:
I pay taxes to support my local FD, why should someone who pays nothing to support my protection have the same opportunity? Would that be fair?

It's so sad that some folks who live in NYS (within an hour or less ride from NYC) and dress like firefighters don't understand that 9/11/2001 was the most tragic event that the American fire service ever experienced. HUNDREDS of first responders (firefighters, police officers and EMS personnel) were murdered that terrible day, THOUSANDS more are suffering from disabling effects of the exposure they had to the many toxins at the WTC site during the rescue and recovery operation and HUNDREDS more have died due to their exposure to the toxins. It definitely is not asking too much for members of the fire service to honor one day out of 365 every year. I worked with and was close friends with many of the Firefighters who were murdered that day and although some people here claim to know that these fallen heroes would want 9/11 to be just another day, I know that is not what any of them would want. These heroes come from a culture that has tremendous respect for our nation, our first responders and their families. I've retired from the job and live in Florida. Down here (1200 miles away from NYC) Firefighters honor 9/11 every year with remembrance events and fundraisers. These men and women get it, I'm sorry that some of you don't.

Well guys after 43 years as a Port Chester Firefighter [ 18 years very active volunteer working at DPW then getting the dream job getting paid to do what I love to do this is my last day. It didn't end the way I wanted it too but away I go . I was fortunate to catch the war years when we went out every day for a job worked side by side with many dept.'s and made a lot of life long friends on mutual aid. I saw a lot of death and sorrow [ Gulliver's 24 DOA Stouffer's 26 DOA 9/11 world trade center ] and saved a few along the way but my greatest call was closing a large window [ life savers building ] for a 84 year old lady who was freezing because her window was open and she needed help. The next day she baked a apple pie for me and my partner. So I say good bye to it all and hope that I left a small mark somewhere. To my 2 sons that are following or trying to follow in my foot step's keep up the good work in this most rewarding profession . Good luck to the guy's that are left on my job and hope that thing's get better for you and the people we were sworn to protect.
Angelo Sposta [ Retired Local #1971 ]

Vails Gate command on scene reporting fully involved 2-story private dwelling.
You must have good ears. I never heard Vails Gate command report fully involved

Vails Gate command on scene reporting fully involved 2-story private dwelling.
You must have good ears. I never heard Vails Gate command report fully involved

Vails Gate command on scene reporting fully involved 2-story private dwelling.
You must have good ears. I never heard Vails Gate command report fully involved

Care to give that another shot in English?

We do in the City and it is strictly enforced. No RLS for odors of gas or alarms ringing for 2nd and 3rd due units. Same holds true for automatic alarms and street pull boxes with no contact.
This used to include Manhole emergencies (excluding fire) and, I believe, water conditions (in a building). However, I believe, they were part of some changes. Water does a lot of damage in a short time and you never REALLY know what troubles a manhole emergency could pose.
There might be some more as far as specifics go, but I'm not sure myself.
All this aside.....regulations are only part of the battle. Being able to temper a response using your own judgement is irreplaceable. If you've been doing this long enough, you know what when you can use the siren and lights, but very judiciously and come to a crawl at an intersection, ect....
....and you should know when it's time to step it up a little. Reports of people trapped above a fire, in the apartment or perhaps smoke visible in the air. Could be reports of an unconscious infant or civilian CPR in progress.
Use your head....

Ok I'm going to jump in here to try and end this crap just like I did the last time that M'Ave was getting jumped all over for apparent KoolAid consumption.....
First.... He and the other FDNY'ers on here have been critical of the Seagrave products that have been produced over the past decade due to poor build quality compared to prior generations from Seagrave as well as the poor maintenance and warranty work coupled extended repair times on the recent orders. I have read little to no Seagrave KoolAid talk from the FDNY Jakes on this board for some time. Second, some of the FDNY members posting here were open to the Ferrara purchases prior to delivery hoping for an improvement to the build quality. Alas, there was no improvement if not a regression in the quality of the rigs that were delivered from Ferrara and their opinion moved from hopeful to disappointed. No KoolAid, just experience (which I'll get to later). Finally, with the most recent order of KME rigs that have been extremely successful on the west coast the attitude was hopeful once again.... And surprise!!!! As of a few weeks ago, the KME order seemed to be getting good reviews. No KoolAid, just rigs that aren't disappointing yet.
The crux of the situation is that there are a handful of guys on this board to work for FDNY and have the experience of riding thousands (sometime over ten thousand) calls a year with a particular rig, not to mention driving it to BI, training, and other runs that aren't considered calls. They work in a relatively small geographic area that has nine times the population of the entire Provence of Nova Scotia. Hell Manhattan alone has 1.5 times the population of the Provence of Nova Scotia.... Let alone the daytime population of commuters that comes to the city. So to call these guys out and tell them that they are KoolAid drinkers is just plain silly. They don't give a damn what the brand of truck is that they're riding on as long at it doesn't break, gets to the fire, keeps them warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Ferrara makes a very good fire truck. Its just not up to the job, in its current form, in NYC. Fact, not KoolAid.

....but you don't have 1 single day working on an FD100....built on the Ultra, Split Tilt cab.......in the FDNY. So.....there's that....

I love how you tell me that I've had too much koolaid and basically that I'm wrong with what I post about these rigs when I have first hand expierence with operating these rigs. And spend an awful amount of time in these rigs.
So please enlighten me on how I'm wrong with what I say about these rigs.

1. To generalize that career and volunteer departments don't get along is not a fact. There are plenty of departments that work perfectly fine with one another regardless of how they are staffed. Sure you have isolated knuckleheads on both sides who flat-out hate one another, but the overall majority of ALL OF US don't fall into this category.
2. Do career firefighters have a hire minimum requirement - yes. Should volunteers, yes - but I STRONGLY feel that all of which is covered in the career academy is not applicable to volunteers - specifically the codes portion. A firefighter, whether paid or not, should have the basic education to respond to and mitigate just about anything we are sent to - and at minimum, we all need awareness level training of those specialized operations we may get sent to - but aren't necessarily trained for, staffed for or equipped for. IE: High-angle rescue, water rescue, confined space rescue, etc. It literally baffles me that awareness training on all of this isn't considered part of our minimum training.
3. No training requirements for career chiefs? Interesting. Although since most come from a lower level rank and usually have experience in that role, I don't think this is as bad as it sounds. Granted we all know how politics comes in to play and the best candidates tend to get bent over from time to time...
4. I wish you all a happy and safe holiday season. I don't care if you are paid or volunteer, I just hope you all make it home safe at the end of your day.

Right, but there in lies the problem. Departments should not be doing it, but they are. Not only that, they are willfully allowing members who are underprepared to operate on the interior to do so. Some just aren't up for the job. It's somewhat rampant in my area and other parts of the country.
My department runs very few calls outside of our city (not by our choice, most of the volunteers just don't call us, even though we're closer than some of the departments they use). A few years ago we sent an engine to a reported dwelling fire (basement) early in the morning in a small neighboring borough. As far as I know, dispatch added us to the call due to a slow response from the volunteers. Our engine was the third unit to arrive. It would've been first if on the initial dispatch, but that's a different conversation. They arrived to find 2 engines on scene, a supply line established, attack lines off and several people dressed up as firefighters around the house, but NOBODY had entered the building yet! Our crew entered and quickly determined that there was NO active fire. Just a good smoke condition from a lint fire. Is this what a local FD doing its job looks like? I don't think so.
This type of stuff leads to low expectations from the public because they don't necessarily know what a good FD looks like. The fire trucks show up, people in firefighter gear show up, they squirt some water until the fire goes out, the building is destroyed, everybody pats themselves on the back on how good of a job they did. This repeats itself enough times that the public now praises them for their effort and just accepts that fires = destroyed buildings not knowing that a competent FD would've saved a good number of those buildings and/or their contents.

There are other states with the same, single standard for firefighter. It doesn't matter if you're paid or a volunteer, if you want to be a firefighter you take all the required training. This doesn't mean you have to attend full-time during the day but it does mean you have to make a commitment to your training. How many people are out there with outdated or inadequate training? Too many, and we ignore it and allow it to persist. How many are joining now and only taking the barest minimum of training before donning a pack and going into an IDLH environment?
Departments can order you to complete the training if you want to be given the title firefighter.
Support or exterior positions need to be called something other than firefighter. They're not and they're misleading themselves and the public. Some departments claim to have 100 members. To the public that means 100 interior firefighters (because the public won't make the distinction). In reality they have 25 life members (no longer doing anything), 25 junior members, and 25 exterior or support members, so in reality they only have 25 interior firefighters. How many will actually show up at the call? 1/3? 1/2? So 8-12 guys that can actually go inside to fight the fire or rescue grandma or whatever.
It's time we stop misleading ourselves and our public. One standard for the title of firefighter.

You're incorrect. Every police officer in the state of NY and every career firefighter has been trained to one standard. If they are on desk or light duty later in their career, it's irrelevant. They were still trained to the same single NYS standard.
EMT, paramedic, police officer and career firefighter all have one training standard. Only in the volunteer sector did we eliminate a training standard.
Not everyone can or should be a firefighter. They have to be able to perform the job. If you want to welcome everyone with open arms into your department, fine, just don't call them all firefighters.

Hey guys here for an update-my father was responding to a full assignment on Monday when he suddenly collapsed. My brothers from WPFD used an AED to bring him back almost immediately. He went in for surgery yesterday and all went well. The doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

My favorite part of EmtBravo....A keyboard yahoo from Saskatchewan telling the guys who ride the rigs how it is. The Ferraras suck, end of story

I have never met M'Ave but have followed his posts on here for some time. He is a pretty straight forward career guy who is on the job with FDNY. He had an open mind when the Ferrara's were purchased and now he gets to ride on one every day that he goes to work. I think he's pretty open minded about the KME purchase as well. Not sure the "Kool Aid" comment is fair here.

Ugly or not, who cares. It's not for parades, its for work duty.
Agree, as in having 4 instead of 2? It is usually manned by 2 ESU officers, however, they need the flexibility should a large scale incident occur. Space means more rapid transports.

Yes, you're right. They should continue to buy 2008 Durangos and 2012 Chargers and keep their fleet uniform.