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This may have been accomplished on-scene, so I'm not pointing fingers. This is just to reiterate the concept.
One more time:
Fast (RIT, MAT) Must be established prior to anyone entering an ILDH atmosphere (the building). The minimum is 2 in 2 out. Fast must be continuous until the atmosphere is no longer ILDH.
Fast is part of the fire control team. You wouldn't even think of starting a baseball game without an outfield. Too much can go wrong.

The 1960 Mack Quad was assigned to Station #5 on Stratton Rd.
Was staffed with a driver, officer, 2 engine men and 2 ladder men the 4 "backstep men" road 2 on each side.

1962 Mack Engine #5 assigned to Station #2

1962 Mack Engine #2 assigned to Station #2
Note this is the same unit as #5 above after the city renumbered all of the rigs.

1965 Mack Engine #6 assigned as the Squad
Note this unit carries Puple K in the jump seats.

1969 Ward LaFrance assigned to station #3. Was referbished in the mid 1980's adding a roof. Sold in 1989 to Eastchester FD.
Distroyed in MVA shortly after sale.
Photo Credits to the Midnight Voice of KEF 934 John P. Maguire

If you are on your 5th Bottle something is major wrong. After that much bottled air (read at one incident) you run the risk of lung issues And staying in Rehab for 10 minutes is not going to resolve a BP issue. And this is the safest choice?
We dont pay for our firefighters to stand around at 99.9% of our fires. Maybe you need to take a better look at the people you are calling firefighters.
If your levels are that off, 10 minutes will not help. YEs it may catch something, but the members also need to know their bodies and at what point they need rehab. It is not always that "automatic".
THats not what you have been saying prior to this.

NR EMS has the ability to do CO Monitoring and if a member needs medical evaluation it is available, but we dont consider CO monitoring needed for every FIREFIGHTER going thru "rehab".
If it was cold we will make arraingments for warming (in a building or we have heated tents.) It was available and not one member was interested in it.

This shouldn't happen to ANYONE, regardless of position or title.

Well being the officer of Ladder 12. Reason you didn't see the stick up is because we just bedded it on order to reposition. Fire was beating down on the rig and we were in the collapse zone.

I have to say that the fastest most appropriate and positively progressive way (enough adjectives?) for the Volunteer Fire Service to take the wind out of the IAFF's sails nationwide would be to fight for equal training standards for all volunteers. If you could soundly argue that all volunteers had the same training as most career firefighters and the same standards for promotion, you'd take away the biggest disparity. Then develop a staffing schedule to get staffed apparatus out in under 2 minutes. If you can accomplish those two things, there'd be no fighting. In fact, you'd see more communities fighting to have free or low cost VFD firefighters if the end result was the same. Some of you are consistently bashing the IAFF and locals and career firefighters to a degree, yet are arguing that the IAFF is making it harder on VFD's by prohibiting trained firefighters from volunteering? Why would anyone volunteer in a FD where the membership continually bashes their job? I know there's anti-volunteer sentiment in th e career ranks as well, but we're starting to get like the discrimination-reverse discrimination issue.
VFD's provide a lower cost level of fire protection. In some places the product is poor, in others it's excellent and in most cases is something in between. The level of protection ultimately is determined by the taxpayers who weight the benefits of higher standards of training and better response times against what they're willing to pay. The real rub is that few taxpayers really know the difference between the levels of service. Most have little interaction with the FD and know(or think) in their time of need the red trucks will show up promptly. Beyond that, a fire is so dynamic that it's nearly impossible for the untrained witness to determine a quality response vs a crappy one. Thus many crappy responses go untouched. If the taxpayers were making a truly informed decision, then the IAFF and career firefighters really would have nothing to say, as we all understand the way the taxpayer/municipal services system works.
If your FD has a problem opening the books to the general taxpayers or will not honestly answer questions regarding training and officership standards, response times, numbers of training responders per incident, etc. you are the problem! If your honestly trying to do the best for the community by providing a service for little or nothing, then more power to you, I wish I lived in your town, but I doubt I have a large field of communities to choose from that meet that standard.

Heres one for ya. the City of Canandaigua NY FD. They laid off FF's and "recruited" new vol ff's to transistion from a "mostly paid" fd to a "mostly volunteer" fd and now routinely calls in mutual aid

At the end of the day it comes down to this.... how long does it take to get adequate resources onscene to do the job people of your community expect. I being somewhat of a buff, listen to the scanner all the time. I hear a career department get dispatched, they go enroute within a minute (with apparatus, not a chiefs car) and are onscene performing their duty within 4-5 minutes.
The volunteer department gets toned out..... 3 minutes later, gets toned out again, 6 minutes later gets toned out again, a chief finally decides he/she will respond. 9 minutes later more tones......and so on.
I will not debate that some of the VF's are trained to very high standards. SOME is the key word. I will not debate that VF's give up a lot of time to volunteer. I know that weekly meetings and drills..followed by cups of tasty beverages, take up a lot of time.
I will not debate that VF's have been injured or killed while performing FF related tasks. I will though ask WHY?
There is always the career vs volunteer argument. Let me ask all of you that volunteer as firefighters....if someone volunteered to the your day job, meaning work for free..would that upset you? You would be unemployed.
Where are all of the volunteer Police Officers? Sanitation workers? DPW workers? Why do communities feel that their fire departments can continue to be volunteer. Can volunteer firefighters still provide essential services? How about at 11am on a Tuesday? And please do not throw the mutual aid song in there...what is the mutual aid department doing at 11am on a Tuesday?
I really have no problem with volunteer fire or EMS agencies. Staff your quarters 24 hours a day with sufficient personnel to meet NFPA standards, both in numbers and training. I don't care whether you compensate them or not.
Guy

Cogs, if there weren’t volunteers (especially in combodepartments) then there would be more paid Firefighter positions. That would mean that many of theseVolunteers would have a paid FF career that they may be seeking. At your full-time career do people comein and do your job for free? Volunteers are good at soup kitchens and other charitable organizations,but in my opinion volunteers do not help the fire service especially incommunities in this area where people pay high taxes. They should be entitled to a professional response when theycall 911.

As if no scuttles or skylights was reason enough not to be on that roof, solar panels too? No reason to be up there. If someone is ordered to vent this roof, where are you going to start your cut? how far apart are the trusses? 16", 24" 36", 8' on center?

I didn't question what you stated at all ... (you stated, " He reported finding the fire, gave a scene size up and went in to make sure people got out safely.") I applaud him for taking those actions. He did a good thing. The point that I made was that from what's reported in the story, it appears that nobody was 'trapped' and nobody was exposed to any severe smoke or high heat conditions.
But ... you do question how educated I am in this field (you said, "I would hope you are educated to know that our media cannot include every single detail.".) Generally, a major portion of the article is devoted to victims and rescuers who are injured or killed at a fire. This story states that none of the civilians who were escorted from the building required any medical assistance (Thank God!).
During my fire service career my experiences educated me to the point where I knew that when a person was cited for making 'rescues' at a structural fire, a lot of information regarding fire and smoke conditions that existed in the area where the 'rescue' took place could be gleaned from the condition of the victim(s) as well as that of the rescuer(s) based upon their need or lack there of for medical assistance. Generally, if the victims (who in theory were in the 'hazardous environment' completely unprotected for a much longer period of time than was the rescuer(s)) and 'rescuers' are unscathed, then conditions in the area of the 'rescue' were not severe during the period of time that the victims and rescuer(s) were in that area. That being said, the medic did the right thing. He used his firefighting background to size up the situation, he knew that at the time he entered the structure, the scene was safe for him to proceed without protective clothing and with no hose line operating on the fire. Remember that this website is visited by many law enforcement, fire service and emergency medical service 'professionals'. Many of the less experienced among us read these posts and put the information into their memory banks for use at a later date where their life may be on the line based upon a decision that they must make. We don't want to make the readers believe that they can walk through fire or that it's a good idea to go above an active fire while unprotected and without a hoseline in position. That is why it's necessary to let the readers realize that the medic in this story did not place himself into an extremely hazardous situation. He sized up the scene and entered a safe area to notify civilians that there was a fire and they needed to leave before it became dangerous.
Stay safe.

Excellent point! IMO the minute you COMMAND respect is the minute you lose it. You may personally not respect the person but you should respect his rank (Bars n Stars), if not everything will start to fall apart eventually. JMO

I will widen the spectrum a bit. Officers, what do you want/look for in a "Senior Man"? How does it benefit you to have a good "Senior Man"?

The senior man that would benefit an officer is ,in my humble opinion, someone who resembles what i would believe to be like a non-com officer in the military. Someone who squashes most firehouse B.S. and keeps the officer advised of any problems/concerns of the men, as well as the experience enough to offer his opinion in a constructive way. The senior man must earn his right to benefit from the title by doing the stuff that keeps the firehouse/firefighters on the right track before it needs to be addressed by the officer. That is what I was taught the senior man was and should be.