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I find most "communities" haven't the slightest idea what level of risk they have. They do not know if the dept. is staffed or not. They see trucks parked in the station and they believe they are protected.
If the FD takes a week to respond as long as its not their home that is burning, they are ok with it.
And the costs in their mind is almost always too much. They want to pay nothing, because they know they will never need it. And they pray like made that the dept is well staffed, well trained and well equipped as they are dialing 9-1-1.

1) they only staff with the 1 firefighter, so when he switches their is no one left on the rig.
2) Since the State has imposed a tax cap, with penalties on the community for breaking it, no one is going to spend more money to improve services, even if they know they are woefully understaffed.
3) I know of only a few in the county that even come close to meeting the standards.
4) how many depts. even prep for it? How many that have fire stations in the flood zone even know enough to get out.

I will try to add some historical insight here, but I might get it a bit wrong. I have been a Corlandt "35 medic" a few years now.
The Town of Cortlandt got an ALS flycar license, set up a program and started running its system. We are NOT Town empolyees. We technically work for Hudson Valley Hospital. The Town pays HVH to pay us. That way we don't have to be at all concerned about getting any of the generous benefits that other governement employees are burdened with, like LOD injury pay, pension or insurance. It makes for pretty low budgets. The TOC library gets a bigger budget than the CRP does.
After the system began, the City of Peeksill asked if they could join. PFD had for some reason a large number of FF's who were medics. So a deal was struck that CRP would become CPRP. More gear and trucks would be bought and the two flycasrs would be deployed and staffed by the FF's from PFD, as noted peviously- engine goes OOS when it's FF needs to be a medic, AND the flycar is OOS when it's medic needs to be a fireman. I think COP pays some $$$ to TOC for cost of gear, trucks etc. $50,000/year sounds familiar. When the PFD staff are doing medical calls, they are NOT under the FD's control, and I think I recall that was their demand. They operate under the CPRP director. They are called "39 medic" since they are on a different tone-out channel, but when being a medic they opeate under the CPRP director.
Whoever is closest to the call gets it. 35 medics get called into Peekskill and 39 medics get call out Cortlandt. There can be one or two 35 and 39 medics on, so numbers can be 2-4 flycars, based on scheduleing factors. These numbers are VERY carefully monitored by COP admin, and they are always looking to avoid paying TOC using numbers as ammo, saying they do more, so should pay less. As far as medics on BLS... I have no issue with it. I was an EMT before I became a medic. My patch says EMT on it. If you need medical help, I am there for you. If you want to pay me medic pay to do BLS, that is fine. If I am not available due to that, well there are bosses to deal with that. I take care of the sick and injured. The CRP policy is that the medic on the call is to be asked if they will ride in a BLS. We can say "No". Of course that leaves the medic stranded with the pt awaiting an ambulance from somewhere.
If there is low engine availability on the PFD end due to the deal they wanted and got, then it seems the cheapest thing to do is to have COP hire civilian medics to staff those "39" trucks, or pay TOC to do it. THAT is a COP decision, and not up to the minions of EMT bravo. I doubt my brother 39 guys would be happy about it either.
They cannot run ALS ambulances as they don't have a license to do that. Empress puts ONE EMT at PVAC. PVAC is VERY busy and often has multiple calls.

It DOES matter when a Peekskill Firefighter has to take his fire engine out of service, get into a flycar, respond to the neighboring jurisdiction, and ride in a call BLS because the VAC can't get an EMT.
Our whole business is based on "What If?". It matters when our customers call for help that we have the right resources available to send them in a timely manner. The problem here is that those resources are being improperly utilized. And, because of that, when our customers call,they may be waiting an dangerously long time for an ambulance or a fire apparatus to get there.
What's the long term solution to all of this?

Being on a Fire call is probably easier to swallow than being on an EMS call.
And, when you are on an EMS call because the powers that be think it is OK, and financially responsible, to dump the failure of the present Volunteer EMS system on the local FD's, then yes, it does matter.
A failure on one part of the system should not bring down the whole system.
And, while I am not completely up to speed on Peekskill. From what I read, they are understaffed to begin with. Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I read, it seems Peekskill Firefighters may be taken out of service to go on a mutual aid EMS call to an outside jurisdiction to answer an EMS call that the original agency was unable to respond too?
If that is the case, how would that one be answered out? I am not knocking the other agencies that are having problems, but this is a chronic EMS problem through out the country, not just the Hudson Valley.
The problem is no one, be it FD/EMS supervisors, politicians or bean counters are answering this. They are playing it as a balancing act.
They are coming up with half-assed solutions to a problem that will eventually bite them in the azz. It may not happen today, or tomorrow, but it will happen.
The system is broke. It has been for a long time. It needs to be fixed.
The answer is obvious.
The answer is "pay up".
But, that will not happen until the powers that be are forced into it. The cost may be more than financial.

Being on a Fire call is probably easier to swallow than being on an EMS call.
And, when you are on an EMS call because the powers that be think it is OK, and financially responsible, to dump the failure of the present Volunteer EMS system on the local FD's, then yes, it does matter.
A failure on one part of the system should not bring down the whole system.
And, while I am not completely up to speed on Peekskill. From what I read, they are understaffed to begin with. Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I read, it seems Peekskill Firefighters may be taken out of service to go on a mutual aid EMS call to an outside jurisdiction to answer an EMS call that the original agency was unable to respond too?
If that is the case, how would that one be answered out? I am not knocking the other agencies that are having problems, but this is a chronic EMS problem through out the country, not just the Hudson Valley.
The problem is no one, be it FD/EMS supervisors, politicians or bean counters are answering this. They are playing it as a balancing act.
They are coming up with half-assed solutions to a problem that will eventually bite them in the azz. It may not happen today, or tomorrow, but it will happen.
The system is broke. It has been for a long time. It needs to be fixed.
The answer is obvious.
The answer is "pay up".
But, that will not happen until the powers that be are forced into it. The cost may be more than financial.

This probably looks great on paper to bean counters and politicians.
But what will they say when something "bad" happens at the wrong time and half your FD is tied up on ambulance calls?
What will they say when reality happens.

This probably looks great on paper to bean counters and politicians.
But what will they say when something "bad" happens at the wrong time and half your FD is tied up on ambulance calls?
What will they say when reality happens.

This is what will probably happen, the officers will become "Westchester County" Police Officers. They will, in effect, "lateral" over to the WC Police, keeping their pension rights and seniority. No one will lose their job. They will wear WC uniforms. The cars will be marked as WC Police. They will be paid as WC Police. The former Mt Kisco Police will probably not complain, as the WC Police salary would be a raise.
Their contract will become void.
The Mt. Kisco Police, for all intents and purposes, will cease to exist.

This is what will probably happen, the officers will become "Westchester County" Police Officers. They will, in effect, "lateral" over to the WC Police, keeping their pension rights and seniority. No one will lose their job. They will wear WC uniforms. The cars will be marked as WC Police. They will be paid as WC Police. The former Mt Kisco Police will probably not complain, as the WC Police salary would be a raise.
Their contract will become void.
The Mt. Kisco Police, for all intents and purposes, will cease to exist.

1) The "plan" says you are suppose to respond if you can. But you are not required to give a reason if you can not.
2) The system does not document that. Their is no place to put "no" into what you are going to do.
3) Each Fire Chief fills out who he wants and for what and in what order. If everytime you are asked to respond you are "unavailable" for what ever the reason, the chief will change his request list, because its not helping him.
Everyone keeps assuming that YFD will not respond to MVFD, but if they are not called, they clearly never will (btw I know YFD was in MV on MA within the past 2 months).
4) YFD has in the past said they will respond to fires or station coverage when asked, but they expect the dept to make an effort to recall to restaff the dept. and they will not cover a station indefinitely

The Barracks may not be manned, but the Troopers assigned to it are on Patrol in the area.

This has been going on for 15 years, if the members were even remotely interested, there was more than ample time to register.
I think it means the majority are not that interested.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.

"The plan couldn't even get the votes of the estimated 100 volunteers of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company No. 1, which serves the district."
That is the most telling part of the entire story.