markmets415

Reading some of the comments and posts here makes me smile, I am curious how many have no issues taking rigs to parades as far as Lake George for a weekend, it's parade people, some of these I am sure these rigs are valued over 1 million+ and paid for by the taxpayers of their districts, justified for purchased, yet this is ok? Personally I do not see how any fire district can justify taking any of their apparatus to a parade unless it's to a neighboring department, that just me as we are continually being asked or forced to do more with less.
Above it was posted that this vehicle is not a Chief staff vehicle and a fire district vehicle and perhaps just maybe the operator was in attendance at the Fire District conference that was the same weekend, are we really debating this topic without even having any facts other then this photo?

Actually the trend on LI seems to be to do away with the traditional dedicated rescue truck, unless its for specialized equipment hazmat, TRT, dive team truck. Many departments are replacing them with a Rescue Engine. Plenty of room to store extrication equipment and other "every day stuff".
Lots of things have changed on LI including much tighter accountability on how money is spent.
Also note many of the required classes commissioners need to take now are required by law. What's wrong with taking a district vehicle to one of the seminars and stopping at a mall on the way?

Reading some of the comments and posts here makes me smile, I am curious how many have no issues taking rigs to parades as far as Lake George for a weekend, it's parade people, some of these I am sure these rigs are valued over 1 million+ and paid for by the taxpayers of their districts, justified for purchased, yet this is ok? Personally I do not see how any fire district can justify taking any of their apparatus to a parade unless it's to a neighboring department, that just me as we are continually being asked or forced to do more with less.
Above it was posted that this vehicle is not a Chief staff vehicle and a fire district vehicle and perhaps just maybe the operator was in attendance at the Fire District conference that was the same weekend, are we really debating this topic without even having any facts other then this photo?

It is ALWAYS a person with an ax to grind that creates problems.
Opinions are like a$$holes, everyone has them but do we really need to hear from them?

I am willing to bet this person was on their way to the NYS Association of Fire Districts Fall Workshop at Honor's Haven in Ellenville, which started Thursday morning. Woodbury Commons is right off of the Thruway, on the way to Honor's Haven. As a Commissioner, if in fact he/she was on their way to the Conference, there is nothing wrong with using the District vehicle. Most Commissioner's will put in a requisition for their mileage to attend, so what is the difference if a District vehicle is being used?
In case anyone is wondering, the Workshop is very informative for Commissioners/Chiefs. Travel Policy is something that is always discussed and every District should have one in place.

There is no public perception IMO one way or another. the public does not really care. Nor do the public officials.
We are the only ones who care. Usually some bitter member is the person who makes it a problem.
Yeh, I know... 9 years as a chief officer and I never had a problem taking my town issued car to work ( grant it was in the next town and I did respond to when I could. Ya know who made it a problem, a member that was disgruntled. He went out of his way to document via photos the 3 chiefs cars at work, at shopping etc. Needless today, one car sits in the chiefs driveway while he is at work the other two sit in the FD parking lot 18 hours a day and only used when a member wants to go to the pizza joint.
As one of my mentors and favorite Chiefs once said..." WE have met the enemy and WE are them".

So if a department only has one command vehicle the chief should drive it 20 miles each way to work when they won't respond? I disagree. Leave it for who ever will be command. Plenty of places are forced to share the vehicle because that's what's economically feasable. Too much sense of entitlement for some.

Other than the taxpayers, who wouldn't know the difference of what type of vehicle it is or why it's out of district, the only people who really seem to care are US idiots on EMTB! Everyone who has or has had a take home car has abused the privelidge in some way, shape, or form. Some people take it to the grocery store, others take their kids to soccer practice, and others go to a fancy restaurant in the next county. But, who really cares? The abuse of the take home vehicle, both career and volunteer, has been going on for years, and will continue forever on into the future because the only people who can legally stop it (the taxpayers) aren't going to take the five minutes out of their days to write to the commissioners about the "vehicle" found three counties away! I know some of you here "ovey the rules" of the take home car, but face it, any one that has a free ride is going to use it.
I just find it to be a moot point for us to argue over when we're not the people who can fix it.

I grew up on L.I. and my father was a member of a neighboring dept to Jericho. Jericho is a very affluant fire district and department, who recently built a 12 million $ three story headquarters across the street from their existing headquarters. The vehicle in the photo reads Jericho Fire district.. It is a commioners vehicle, not a chiefs car. Unless perhaps used a spare chiefs car, it does not generally respond to alarms. It is merely a commissoners perk, that you see commonly with district commioners on L.I. Some these districts own more than one of these rigs, and others even own one ton dump trucks to plow snow at the stations. Instead of induring the purchase cost and lifetime maintenance costs on a specific commonioners free taxi cab-limo to use to attended a few confernces, the commisioners could maybe use their own vehicles and get re-imbursed for their milage. They way some of these departments operate fiscally gives you alot to look at.

Seems to me if a person is willing to put most of their personal life on hold to generally be available 24/7/365 and most likely would participate or intervene in any situtation come upon whether in or outside his/her own district, then the use of a vehicle as a perk is more than justified. Lots of volunteers put in a lot of hours and Chiefs lots more. Lots of police chiefs have department vehicles available to them 24/7 as well although usually unmarked so not as obvious.
If you expect someone to be available 24/7 then you should provide the means for them. If it becomes a pr problem start stripping the command cars of their department name but don't penalize the Chiefs in the name of political correctness.

There is enough waste of taxpayer resources in my own district to be worried about someone 100 miles away.

I think the one aspect they fail to mention is, personal safety. We know the most dangerous aspects of flight is take-off and landings. If there is an emergency, the crew needs to relay important information and directions. If people are fiddling with their personal electronic, they are less likely to pay attention to their surroundings. I think any distractions should be banned during take-off and landing, especially electronic devices (and not for the technical reasons).

We have all our assignments setup in the CADS with Dutchess 911, which in most confirmed structure fire or larger type incidents, our station is automatically backfilled from a mutual aid company which obviously could depend on what department is available, as the normal relocation department is out on a run, or down an Engine, they then would be skipped over and we would get the next department and so on. Our OG for relocating or standby to another station is always no lights or siren, headlights only, that goes for any non emergency type calls that we may get (the old cat stuck in the tree) as well. Command in most cases will provide a progress report to the dispatch center as soon as they can to back down the response mode of the responding equipment.
For several years our preplans/dispatches have been set-up with placing mutual aid on the initial dispatch with us for those larger scaled incidents or structures within our fire district, our entire Battalion (5 departments) is very rural and mostly without hydrants so obviously we have to do things differently, like having to lay 5" from a static water source and drafting to supply water to a scene or running tanker shuttles, thus having those resources on the road as soon as possible makes a huge difference, its a lot easier to return them if they are not needed.

and some random exterior shots, thanks to all that watched the build with us!

foam pail compartments that are on both sides under the speed lays, they hold two pails each and have the foam pail wrench in the compartment for easy access and the CAFS trash line/reel with 200' of hose under the rear cab step

front compartment, tools, electric PPV fan and electric cord reels and EZ foam fill

Over the wheel compartment tool board front and rear as well as rear wall of compartment with 36" hook and boxes for the SCBA masks

passengers side rear compartment
combo cutter/spreader and slide out hydraulic pump and lines, fuel can and auto cribs



Auto fill controls

Rear of Engine
A tribute to 3 of our members that passed away during the construction of the vehicle and as always a tribute to them and the FDNY, Assistant Chief Jason Whaley, Life members and siblings Jill Caldarelli and Randy Ackerman.


Ladder, hooks, shovels and small suction

Generator and cord reel

and around we go on the drivers side
Cab step compartment


Speed lays of 2" and 2 1/2" and 1" dead lay of forestry hose on top

Pullout steps they're the same on both sides of the Engine

Front compartment with various NST and Storz fittings and adaptors as well as strainers and donut rolled hose

Over the wheel well compartment, two saws, fuel, bar oil, broom and air hammer and hose in box


Rear compartment, mini frig, cones, RAM mini monitor, Pro pac foam unit and small garbage can

The blue beast and Engine # on both rear compartments

Here are the last I shall post, I did a walk around today of the compartments showing the mounting and placement of the items of the Engine and also a few inside shots of the console
Front and rear console and dash



The Navigation and backup camera

12" monitor for the TIC

This was a bittersweet image to see, I recognized to many of those names but I hope it serves the district for many years and is as good a truck as she looks right now!

and some random exterior shots, thanks to all that watched the build with us!

foam pail compartments that are on both sides under the speed lays, they hold two pails each and have the foam pail wrench in the compartment for easy access and the CAFS trash line/reel with 200' of hose under the rear cab step

front compartment, tools, electric PPV fan and electric cord reels and EZ foam fill