Mark Z

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Posts posted by Mark Z

  8. Posted

    You don't have to agree with the protest to support their right to protest. This incident is terrible and the people responsible need to be held responsible, but as a whole, why should the protest be ended?

    Because protest just for the sake of protest is silly and now Dangerous! The OWS crowd is doing nothing but costing the city money and can you sensibly articulate what they want to accomplish in order to end the occupation? I can't for the life of me understand what they want or want to see happen!rolleyes.gif

  9. Posted

    Mark, this is a new feature put in place to bring to attention/remind people that they are about to post in a thread that is "dead"/old. Some people like to go in and post comments in old thread for reasons unknown, sometimes just to comment and build up post counts. This by no means should discourage someone from posting that really has something to contribute to a topic.

    Just because a thread is old and you get that message, please don't feel the need to start a new thread if it already exists, if it is appropriate!

    Thanks! As I said i am going on a cruise 10/21 and will see if i can get any pics to update the thread!smile.gif

  11. Posted · Edited by Mark Z

    "Mark Z, the last post of this topic is over 90 days and a new post will now be considered as flood!"

    What does this mean?

    BTW, I'm just about to leave for a cruise next week, so this was good timing!

  14. Posted

    {Firefighter Luis Simon, who was dismissed and rehired in May along with 15 others after an arbitrator's ruling, said it cost the city $800,000 "to dismiss people last December."}Read more: http://www.miamihera...l#ixzz1ZN1roYYB

    It seems the City of Hialeah has had problems before and didn't learn from the situation. The city is making another stupid mistake and will probably pay for it in the long run. I just hope nobody dies as a result.

  15. Posted · Edited by Mark Z

    I can't say how it will work out and don't know much about their operation. As for doing the transport in this unit, I suppose it's probably better than sitting on scene for 20+ minutes with a critical patient waiting for an ambulance to get there.

    Why is CAFS on an ambulance dumb? How does CAFS on an ambulance leave you with "a vehicle that doesn't do either job well"? What are the two jobs that it isn't doing well?

    An EMS and Rescue service near me acquired two atypical ambulances a year or so ago. (A little background - The service a large township (with lots of MVAs) operating traditional ambulances and a heavy rescue style vehicle. Back when they started, they provided the rescue services to the township, predominately with home response personnel including people who were also FD members. Over the years, the various VFDs in the township have over-duplicated the rescue services. These days, they are mostly a career department and I don't think they rely on "off-duty" personnel to staff the unit, so there are times in which their rescue may not be able to respond and are reliant on the VFDs. However, the VFDs suffer from the same response issues that most other VFDs do and are thus inconsistent with their responses.)

    The two ambulances are on medium duty chassis and have a small CAFS system and a HRT with a small power unit. Aside from having a different layout, the units are fairly identical to units I've operated at other EMS agencies and have performed well as an ambulance. Now if these units were designed to replace a structural pumper and a heavy rescue truck, then sure they'd have a hard time doing those jobs well. However, they weren't designed to replace those units. They were designed to address the response issues of the VFDs.

    The CAFS is not for fighting a house fire, it's predominately for patient/crew protection in the event of a MVA/vehicle fire. The rescue tools carried are not intended for them to work a heavy entrapment by themselves (and then clean up before transporting), they are predominately intended for minor extrication situations, like a simple door pop, where the VFDs are slow to respond and their rescue doesn't have staffing. They can quickly pop the door and get on with taking care of the patient instead of "wasting time" waiting for them to arrive and perform a "30 second extrication". Seems to be working so far.

    Combination units do typically tend to represent a certain degree of compromise compared to separate units, but that doesn't necessarily automatically translate into not being able to do different jobs well. Sometimes they aren't intended to do everything and can do what a department needs them to do quite well.

    I am not fond of the medium duty or whatever you want to call the ambulances on the international or freightliner chassis and don't think they work well as an ambulance so adding a cafs unit just adds something else they don't do well. I have seen too many meetings where politicians want to buy one of those monsters with a CAFS unit so as to cut another truck "Because it can do both" I have worked in that type of unit and find them horrible due to nothing being close at hand and everybody wanting to throw more on the truck because we have the cabinet space. You are entitled to your opinion as am I, time will tell if the idea works for Broward, I won't bet on it working! In my limited experience it isn't an idea that works very well and it may work for them, time will tell and I will reserve judgement until the units are in service for a while.

  16. Posted · Edited by Mark Z

    I don't know that this is such a good idea, I believe it has been tried before and found to be a bad idea! I don't know that I would want to do a transport in one1 OTOH, is it any dumber an idea than a CAFS unit on an ambulance? You end up with a vehicle that doesn't do either job well! Time will tell if it works out the way Broward wants it to! But what do you expect from a sheriffs dept that runs the fire side?

  19. Posted

    You cannot do things on an individual or department by department basis. There's too much grey area there. This is one case where a blanket regulation needs to be created. When you allow for too much "home rule" you create loop holes and exceptions. That's not a good scenario for a F.D.

    There is also a huge amount of difference in things like dept location, size, district and other factors to not allow a "grey area" such as this. Many rural areas need much more flexibility in allowing younger (or older) members to do things that would and never should be allowed in other places. We cannot regulate everything to the point that nothing is allowed to happen! I am sorry but the only way to avoid all accidents from happening is to park the apparatus shut the doors and tell everyone that we might get hurt so we aren't going to respond anymore. I am not saying that training or safety awareness isn't needed but accidents can and will happen and age may or may not have been a factor, but anyone who has ever driven any kind of emergency vehicle has made a mistake that could have caused a serious accident and didn't, if only by the grace of God. This kid had an accident and so have many older drivers so lets not jump on his or her age as the only factor that was involved. In my mind it needs to be left up to the chief of the dept and their training to decide and if that means 18 for a particular dept then so be it! I know WAY TOO MANY older drivers that scare the daylights out of me that I will not ride an apparatus with than I do 18 year old's that I don't trust with an ambulance.

  20. Posted

    There's a time and place for eveything. The can will knock down a lot of fire while waiting for a standpipe to be readied and the line stretched. On the other hand, if the fire is showing in 3 windows with signs of extension to the attic, it may be wiser to leave the can on the rig and help pulling the 2 1/2.

    Also, Chiefs...don't over-SOP the guys. Give them a little leeway to work their fire. Overly strict SOPs leave the troops no options except for the one you specified. Remember that your SOP was something you dreamed up for what you would do in an imaginary situation. All fires are a little bit different from eachother and the tactics must be flexible to tend to those differences.

    "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven"

    A time for the deck gun, a time for he can

    A time to break glass, a time for the fan

    I think he just DID!

  21. Posted

    For 2011, we have 11 Ford F-550/4x4 Wheeled Coach Customs delivered, with air ride suspension that lowers to load the patient, the new Wheeled Coach "Coolbar" AC module above the cab, and solar panels on the roof for auxillary power and reduce idling, amongst other things.

    Austin-Travis County EMS, Texas

    post-11-0-89055000-1305574813.jpg

    Sharp Looking as always! ATCEMS has good looking stuff and you get good shots of them. Thanks Seth.

  23. Posted

    Best pager ever: Minitor II. I've had two of them over the years. Both dropped in several puddles, the toilet once (clean water), one dropped off a roof, had it run over by a car, and even went for a ride on the front bumper of my hometown's quint. They never died, never broke, and dried out fairly quickly. I just hope the Swissphones are just as durable.

    I AGREE! smile.gif