Newburgher

I think the writing is on the wall. Towns are learning that the volunteer dept. are not there anymore. Gone are the days of 300 active members and waiting lists. Little to no turn out at calls. False claims of "active" members when the 2% money comes. I'm all for Volunteerism and for helping out but westchester is not built for it anymore. As is said, blue collar folks can't make it here anymore. At some point everyone is gonna have to go career or suck it up, put on their big boy pants and consolidate the county. Lord know most guys want that anyway.

Hello everyone it has been years since I used this log in name and that's because I resigned from the city of Rye Fire department 5 years ago.  
I chose to write a response to the above letter.  The letter below was submitted to myrye.com  as well this morning.  And will be to any other media outlets in which Captain Millman sent his letter. 
The following is my statement and does not represent any former or current members of RFD. I am also not affiliated with any fire department at this time. 
 
 
From: Richard P Suarino 
           Ex Captain Poningoe Hook & Ladder Company
To: Letters to the editor,
I am writing in response to a recent letter that was submitted by Fire Police Patrol Captain Lester Millman in regards to the recent changes that have taken place at the Rye Fire Department.  I would like to start by stating that I was a combined 14 yearACTIVE member of the City of Rye Fire Department. I spent two years as part of explorer post 700 as a junior firefighter.  Then 12 years as a member of the Poningoe Hook & Ladder Company, where I served as first & second Lieutenant and then as Captain before resigning from the department in 2012.  I have a combined 17 years in the Emergency Services.  
The picture that Captain Millman has painted for the Rye citizens and would have one believe is that this change is a big surprise to the members of the department.  It's not.   Volunteer membership has been on the decline since probably the 1980’s,and since then the bleeding hasn't stopped, it’s only gottenworse. In the late 90’s, early 2000’s, the department voted in several new members and it helped a little to put a patch on the crack in the dam.  In the 2000’s as an active volunteer firefighter, a lieutenant and then captain, there were several ideas that myself and other active volunteers proposed to make some much needed changes to the department structure to help with rapidly declining membership.  Recommendations were brought to the attention of the Board Of Wardens, who at that time, controlled all decision making within the fire department.  The problem was that the Board was consistently controlled by veteran members of the department who were not as active and ignored any and all input by young active members, to the point where some members were turned off and stopped showing up. Others resigned and some went to other departments. Rye’s changing demographics has had the biggest effect on membership. Gone are the blue collar families of Rye.  Many of the old long time Rye names that were connected to the fire department making it generational are no longer in Rye, forced to move because Rye is unaffordable to those that would volunteer.  For every one member gained three are lost.  A member joining as a college kid at 19 has to resign by 23-24 because they are forced to move out of Rye. And it's not just Rye membership that is down, nation wide volunteer firefighters are declining.  Being in emergency situations, dealing with and seeing the things a firefighter may see is not for everyone. It's a calling, and the hours of training involved will take most free nights away, not to mention the required alarm response.  
Turnout at alarms; even 10 years ago at the most recent height of active membership-. We had 25 interior qualified firefighters and still sometimes we only had 4 volunteers at an alarm.  All working fires required mutual aid from our friends in Harrison and Mamaroneck.  
 
Leadership was and is non-existent under the Volunteer Chiefs of the department and when a chief did try to implement positive change he was quickly pushed out by older voting block.  At Fire scenes, basic accountability of members was lax.  Meaning,God forbid an explosion or collapse happened at a scene, the chiefs had no idea who had actually showed up at the scene.  Some chiefs had nothing more than basic firefighting training. Most were being relied on because of their 30+ years in the department, yet they had taken no classes to sharpen their skills or update their knowledge.  Any good leader in emergency service will tell you, you will never know everything and you are always learning something new until the day you retire.  This business is always changing and evolving.  
The Rye Professional firefighters often find that they are the only ones on scene. Sometimes I was the only volunteer on scene with them.  During the winter of 2002 I was the only volunteer on scene for an afternoon house fire. Three career firefighters and I, with one of those professionals manning twopump panels and one ladder.  
Commissioner Corcoran didn't just come in and decide to shake things up.  He's a very educated man with years of experience and after speaking with numerous people connected to the fire department he saw there was a need for change.  He has a job to lead the men and women of the Police and Fire Departments and the fire department problems are 20+ years in the making,ignored by past Board Of Wardens members and past chiefs of the department who kicked the can down the road.  The public might be surprised that over 100 years of volunteer service are coming to an end but many of the current and past members are not.  
Regards
Richard P Suarino
Past member and Captain Poningoe Hook & Ladder Company
 

This was a real car. The NYSP had these, and before this Camaro, Mustangs for pursuit on the interstates. I saw them in the past on both I-84 and the Thruway (I-87).

 
Just a taxpayer (Frost025) of Port Chester wondering why the politicians say there's no money for career staff, but plenty of money for a new rig ? Is the current R40 that worn out or beat up ? Just wondering.

That's great, get rid of the professionals buy a new truck.... What's wrong with that taxpayers

Think about it...

Newburgh works 24s also, but it's 72 off.  I know Kingston and Poughkeepsie do also, but I don't know for a fact what their time off is

Leaving your (100' ladder) tiller behind and taking the much smaller squirt because you lack a tillerman is not what I'd consider to be an "excellent plan B".

So if the chief drives, who runs the fire? Or does he park the truck and not have anyone doing laddering, FE, SAR, vent, salvage and overhaul?
 
i am sorry but showing up with a one man squirt instead of a ladder COMPANY is not an excellent plan!, it's covering up a departments shortfalls so the public doesn't know you are faking it!
 
save my baby! Save my baby! ...... I'm sorry ma'am but we brought the toy truck instead of the big expensive one that we told all the taxpayers we had to have to protect you. 

I'm sorry but if you can not staff a ladder with at least a driver and tillerman, then maybe you should not burden your community with the cost of a fully equipped ladder ($1- $1.5 M). Your ladder needs at least enough staffing to do truck work 

so if crossing borders is ok for an incident, yonkers and mt Vernon should be able to go a few blocks into the Bronx  and fdny should be able to go a few blocks north because they were in the area,  and why stop at fires  take in all their ems calls also  might be a cardiac arrest  and save a life. Good communications is what is needed  If I am first due  and I have apparatus from another district already on scene my game plan has to be modified very quickly.  

It maybe the reality, but that's the whole point of this thread. We have more apparatus in Westchester than FDNY, but more than half never goes out the door and the rigs that do are almost always understaffed. Maybe instead of maintaining 100's of unnecessary equipment, we need to worry about staffing.
 
the point of the testing was to show that they did much worst. In fact the chances of survival for a victim was much better with a four man crew that arrived latter than two 2 man crews that arrived sooner.

Canvass letters are used to judge interest of reachable candidates by departments.  You can still receive correspondence from S.F.D. along with other departments if they are hiring. More than one department at a time can canvass and interview a reachable candidate simultaneously. Not sure if there is an expiration date on a canvass letter. 
 
Keep your resume current , a suit pressed and not ill fitting, and a positive attitude.     
 
Besides rumor and hearsay, no one with direct knowledge is going to post here if a particular department is hiring.  
 
Best of luck. 

guys and gals,  stop worrying about the pay  and steps  and work charts.  Focus on one thing at a time.  FAIL cpat  and you wont have to worry about anything else. Come to the test prepared or don't bother coming,  there are 300 people behind you on the list that will take your spot!!

I wouldn't say absurdly high, id say they have a strong union and good working relationship with the town.

I am not sure as to what the benefit of a Dash CF would be to the Stamford Fire Department. The new CF has a very obtuse interior cab configuration and offers absolutely no benefit to the application that the Department is looking for or needs. 
 
The Pierce Enforcer is a very practical chassis and offered us everything we needed and nothing that we did not need.
 
Unlike many of the Departments often represented in apparatus discussions on this site, we operate with a given amount of money for a purchase.
 
What we have to spend, is what we have to spend and not a penny more. 
 
This vehicle incorporated several design components that factored heavily into the final price tag. Getting everything to work for the money we had allocated and available was not an easy task. 
 
The truck should be delivered by the end of this year or early 2018. 
 
 
 
 

Your comment doesn't make much sense in regards to the context of this discussion.  This wasn't a case of someone directly involved speculating about the success of a new program.  This was a case of someone directly involved telling you that a new program that has been in effect for a while now IS a success.
 
You're response was rather dismissive of that informed explanation. 
 
No, I don't believe everything I read.  However, I've had enough interaction with M'ave on this forum to know that he is FDNY and that he has been reliable when it comes to information related to FDNY matters.
 
You may be trying to have a discussion and there definitely is a difference between argument and discussion.  However, you don't seem to understand the detail of each.
 
You are the reason why the "argument keeps on flowing".  A discussion was taking place.  You just weren't up to speed on the issue when the discussion started and speculated regarding the potential success of the program.  I offered an educated opinion to counter yours.  You were dismissive of that.
 
You were also provided with reliable information by a person directly involved that the program is successful (because it's been in place longer than you were aware).  However, your response again, was dismissive and some people called you on it and tried to educate you some.
 
You became argumentative in response to that rather than be appreciative of the information provided to you.  Now you are trying to be preachy, apparently unaware that you are the one who took things from discussion to argument. 

Bro you realize that M'Ave is an FDNY jake that turns out of a busy station in The Bronx right?  Sounds like your're trying to argue with someone who has made multiple posts in this thread about experiencing the benefit of the pilot program first hand.
 
What's your end game here?

 
YOU'RE finding out now, because experts are telling you.  WE'VE known for some time now, seeing as we work in this system and have been for quite some time.  This flycar thing AINT that new.

Is it fair to Yonkers residents when New Rochelle sends 3 units to Yonkers? Yonkers is 2.5 times the size of NR, 
 
Also I believe this is the first time that many units were ever sent from Y to NR

We all have to stop acting like 5th graders and act like adults who know better , To not call an agency because they don't call you is stupid, foolish, and deadly. Sooner or later you will be called out and be held responsible for by passing agencies.  Boooohoooo they didn't call me. So I am not calling them waaawaaawaaa. Total stupidity 

 
 
Firstdue...while I understand where you're coming from, you must think rationally. 
Why call Fairview (or any other career dept)? Because you know exactly what you're getting. No matter what you request (Eng, truck, rescue), you'll get it with a full compliment of QUALIFIED FF's.
Call a volunteer Dept (especially on a weekday), you may get "uncle Joe" the 70 year old chauffeur with an 18 year old "officer" and god knows who else on the back step. 
There may be 1 or 2 vol FDs "closer," but a career dept may get there much faster even if they are "farther" away.
Look, I'm a volly and know where your thought process is. But you have to think logically and choose M/A wisely.
We have Newburgh on our run cards because we know exactly what we're getting when we call them. That is a very reassuring feeling. 
 
Stay safe 
 

Westchester County Hazmat didn't have a meter? Or as mentioned, was it there extended response time so they were skipped? Maybe its time for the Hazmat team to have paid members.