gamewell45

Drove it for years as well. Really fine rig for its time.

I'm surprised that anyone would have any issues when it comes to safety and health, especially in the firehouse where people might spend a majority of their time. There might be more to this story then what we know.

I'm surprised that anyone would have any issues when it comes to safety and health, especially in the firehouse where people might spend a majority of their time. There might be more to this story then what we know.

I'm surprised that anyone would have any issues when it comes to safety and health, especially in the firehouse where people might spend a majority of their time. There might be more to this story then what we know.

I'm surprised that anyone would have any issues when it comes to safety and health, especially in the firehouse where people might spend a majority of their time. There might be more to this story then what we know.

I'm surprised that anyone would have any issues when it comes to safety and health, especially in the firehouse where people might spend a majority of their time. There might be more to this story then what we know.

I'm surprised that anyone would have any issues when it comes to safety and health, especially in the firehouse where people might spend a majority of their time. There might be more to this story then what we know.

I'm surprised that anyone would have any issues when it comes to safety and health, especially in the firehouse where people might spend a majority of their time. There might be more to this story then what we know.

We are accountable to the taxpayers, members of the department, as well as the state comptrollers office to name a few. And if I may ask can you elaborate a little more when you say drama stems from or is blamed on fire commissioners? I see a lot of drama and it is usually disgruntled people that like to throw gasoline on things and make things bigger than they really are.

Stay up NORTH and keep on paying for Obama Care with ur crazy tax's...having a great time in SC and making decent money part-time...U need to make ur money up north then move here! Also volunteer firefighters in some area's get paid by call! U need to do a REAL physical and PT test. Also need national cert's and say ya'll...I'm workin on that...

Coming from someone who used to live in the Hudson Valley and worked commercial i understand how that doesn't sound very appetizing. However what most people forget is the cost of living is substantially cheaper (my luxury 2bed 2 bath apartment w/ a fireplace and a screened in porch) is $700 a month. Gas is $2.87. It's a wash. But it's a tough concept to grasp for most people in the Hudson Valley. Construction is booming in the area here and jobs are plentiful.

The cost of living down there is a lot less then westchester or for that fact, the tri-state area.

Maybe someone could realize that some people lives depend on health insurance and thousands can't get the health care they desperately need because they can't get health insurance and can't afford it, or go into bankruptcy doing so. Everyone having single payer health insurance is the only equal, ethical and humane option. That's the only solution to this discussion.

The fact of the matter is both services will always have those who sparr with one another for whatever the reason; let the rest of us focus on getting the job done while the others poke at each other with pike poles.

Whether or not a paid department would've made a difference here is irrelevant for a few reasons:
1st off since there wasn't a paid department in place in Seaside Heights at the time of this fire, it's impossible to tell if their presence would've made a difference under the conditions present upon arrival. We can speculate all we want about response times, staffing or tactics, blah blah blah, it doesn't matter. Things were as they were and any number of circumstances could have placed a paid department in a position to be unavailable at that moment.
2nd paid departments do not have the monopoly on tactics, equipment or competency and that's a fact. Now if someone here was actually in Seaside Heights at the time and was there on the initial alarm and they know the Chief or officers and they know their backgrounds and competency...well then yeah to an extent, they can comment factually, otherwise it's nothing more than the speculations of Monday morning quarterbacks. I mean let's get real here, many a building(s) has burnt to the ground in career towns too and upon hindsight we learn that better resource management or deployments or tactics could have or should have been used. That's called learning and that's something we should all be doing regularly. The truth is every department makes mistakes or faces situations that test their limits and when faced with those circumstances does what they believe to be the "right" thing at the time. Should we sit here behind our keyboards and fault them for it, or worse revel in the misfortune of others to justify our point of view? No we shouldn't unless we were there to judge based on facts. What we should do is look at the situation for what it was and what it is and do our best to learn from it, lest we find ourselves in the same situation and get the same results.
Lastly, if taxpayers don't want to fund a paid department well then guess what, there isn't go to be one...end of story
Stay Safe

The fact of the matter is both services will always have those who sparr with one another for whatever the reason; let the rest of us focus on getting the job done while the others poke at each other with pike poles.

The fact of the matter is both services will always have those who sparr with one another for whatever the reason; let the rest of us focus on getting the job done while the others poke at each other with pike poles.

From what I have heard about this electrical fire, unless someone called it in when the problem first started happening it would not made much of a difference. People forget you had 30 MPH winds driving that fire so once flame broke out the theory of fire doubling every minute went out the window.
I have heard of plenty of large fires were paid departments were completely in charge and they still lost a lot. I have heard paid departments cancel mutual aid just to end up calling them back 10 minutes later as they are loosing the building.
No volunteers are not perfect but no one is. In this current world especially in our situation where we have a large mix of paid and volunteer departments we need to stop fighting one another and work with each other to get the job done.
Believe it or not volunteers will support paid firefighters MORE when they are not A**holes back at them.

Things must be pretty quite around EMTBRAVO land to throw that hand granade!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reminds me of my job; they guys all complained about work load and too much over time; once the company hired more manpower, the overtime virtually dried up and they almost all to a man complained there was virtually no overtime. They shot themselves in the foot in the long run.

Not to be argumentative, but I think it would be safe to say he does have values, just that his values are different from your values/viewpoints.

I volunteer to help my community and do something productive with my time. I LOVE being a fireman.
I also understand and respect not responding to career depts. that are getting shafted with layoffs and hiring freezes I get it.
I never got into the career vs volunteer bs, so please don't interpret this as that.
My question is : Where is the brotherhood in career members complaining in one breath about the lack of manpower, but then complaining again when they hire because their overtime is either cut or now nonexistent with the new hires

It all comes down to how much of a tax burden the taxpayers are willing to shoulder. With increasing school taxes and depending on what services your town, villiage or city provides most people aren't going to be too receptive to replacing volunteers (both fire and ems) with paid personnel until it has a direct impact on them. That, combined with a poor economy we are currently suffering under will make it an even tougher concept to sell to the taxpayers. Cutting budgets in other areas will most likely cause numerous issues since most departments are operating under reduced budgets and it all comes down to a turf war.
As has been mentioned in here on numerous occasions, a county-wide fire department would be a very viable option, however from what I've read, NY state laws prohibit this and the only way to its ever going to happen would be to change the laws. Good luck with that; the state assembly and senate can barely agree on what day it is, so until they are reigned in, its unlikely that anything is going to happen any time soon.
In the meantime, the career/EMS departments are going to have to wait and hope clearer heads prevail when putting together budgets that include increasing staff. The volunteer fire companys/EMS services will have to increase recruitment/retention efforts, offer and encourage as much training as possible and impress upon them the importance of their services to the community.
There is no simple answer at this point given the state of the economy; one can just wait for better financial times and work to do the best with what you have.
Just my 2 cents.

Well Stated Barry, Westchester Departments Spend MORE Time Specing Million Dollar Rigs And Multi-Million Dollar Firehouses And MOST Departments Can't Muster Up Enough Equipment To Fight A Small House Fire, It's VERY, VERY Sad !!!!!!

Lately there seems to be a strong emphasis on harassment and harassment policies in emergency services. While I don't condone or encourage any form of deliberate harassment against anyone due to their race, religion, gender, etc...I do wonder if this has become a shield for the thin skinned or those with agendas. Like many on here I remember the days of good old fashioned b*** breaking and pranks and many times being the target of it and laughed with it and got even and laughed even more. It was a sense of belonging. A sense of trust. I also remember many strong disagreements and arguments, some very intense but at the end of the day it was over. Today you have to worry if someone will take what you say or do to the point where they will file internal or even get a lawyer or run to the police ( yes I have seen this happen) and look to file outside charges. I feel it has come to a point where you truly have to be careful what you say and do because you never know how someone is going to take it and it is unfortunate because I feel most incidents are not intended to be malicious rather innocent yet there is a chance someone may take it the wrong way and harassment policies that I have read are pretty much clear cut with zero tolerance by the AHJ and the AHJ has to act if a complaint is brought to them.
Here's to the good old days!!!