mfc2257

The bridge was built in 1931. Why would you call this a band aid? Unlike the TZB this bridge was built to last, and it has. A major overhaul once every 75-80 (81 in this case) years seems very reasonable to me. The cost of a new bridge would be north of 100million and would probably require a similar overhaul in the same or less time.

Love the powercall.

Love the powercall.

Everything you need to know is on this website... Office of the State Fire Marshall
The Firefighter Minimum Standards Equivalency Examination is offered to individuals who have received training in another state (or country), that is evaluated as equivalent to that required in Florida's Firefighter Minimum Standards Course. To determine an individual's eligibility for the Equivalency Examination, a three-part application process is required. Part I is the Preliminary Equivalency Application (DFS-K4-1309). It is submitted to the Challenge Review Board, along with supporting documentation. Such documentation should be a transcript, by subject, of the hours spent in initial training. Upon review and approval of the training documentation by the Challenge Review Board, Part II, the application for the Equivalency Examination and Certification, will be sent to the applicant. Upn approval of a complete application, the applicant will take the written and practical equivalency examination (Part III). The Equivalency Examination is offered four times a year at the Florida State Fire College in Ocala. Please refer to the Testing Schedule for test dates.
The applicable Florida Statutes are F.S.633.334, F.S.633.34, F.S.633.35, F.S.633.352, F.S.633.351, and F.S. 633.353.

Although I don't disagree with the effectiveness of a dry chem being used, in this case I'd like to point out a few items that may warrant discussion:
1: A modern vehicle with locked doors and latched hood has a difficult engine compartment to get at. Fender liners, plastic pans that cover a good percentage of the bottom side of the engine compartment, elaborate cooling and headlight systems among other advances in automotive technology essentially seal the engine compartment from the elements. Getting enough dry chem to the fire might prove difficult, or impossible. This is especially true in a luxury automobile such as the BMW in this case where the manufacturer is attempting to eliminate as much noise from leaving the engine compartment as possible.
2: Caution should always be used when attacking a machinery or automobile fire based on the increased use of flammable metals in mechanical design. Magnesium engine blocks, wheels, brake components, etc are not uncommon and although you may be witnessing the orange flame and smoke of a traditional hydrocarbon fire, this evidence may be secondary to a metal fire deeper into the the automobile. Use of the wrong extinguishing agent can result in catastrophic results for the attack crew and bystanders. I have personally watched dry chem react adversely to a lawnmower fire where magnesium was used for the engine block. A class D extinguisher was eventually used and thankfully an explosion didn't occur.
3: Those pesky airbag cylinders and hybrid batteries... They are buried everywhere and anywhere you can imagine on a vehicle these days. They are not designed to survive a significant automobile fire, or the combined heat and cooling cycle that inevitably happens once the fire is mitigated. Don't assume that just because you've put the fire out and cooled the bumpers down like we were all taught years ago, that there isn't a secondary danger lurking ANYWHERE in the car. Space is at a premium these days and you'll find dangers in the oddest places.

Facts in this case are very subjective... It would be tough to objectively argue that KFD needs an aerial device.
600ft vs 1000 ft we're splitting hairs... E116 carries 4000+ feet of 3in and E115 and E117 each carry 1800+ feet of LDH. With a split lay of E116's 3in and the 3600+ feet on the other pumpers AND the 600 feet on the tanker we're talking over a mile of hose. Assuming they could get all the rigs out the door in time to establish contineous water supply and mount an attack, there is enough hose to stretch 85 percent of the way from Katonah FD to Bedford Hills FD where 3 more class A apparatus, a mini pumper, a tower ladder and another heavy rescue are sitting with another mile or so of supply line. I think they're covered.
KFD is another department in Westchester that is adding more resources than it's members can staff. It's never going to end... A decade from now everyone will have their own aerial device and the vast majority of them won't have a clue how to perform truck company operations because each department will only catch one or two jobs a year where the rig is used properly and the crew actually performs truck work. For the number of fires in Northern Westchester, the region could use to eliminate 10 or more of the 30+ aerial devices in the area. The county certainly doesn't need more.
On the other hand, I'm glad that KFD is getting the needed renovations to their station as well as an opportunity to build a training facility near home. Anything that adds to the skill and training of fire crews will most certainly increase the chances of a positive outcome at the fire scene. Training puts out fires and sends everyone home safely. Apparatus is just a tool they use along the way.

I've been in the game long enough to look at a duck and know that it'll quack. Tanker 6 has a 2000gpm pump and I'd put money on it that it's got 1000+ feet of supply line. They've got 3 other class A pumpers as well. Add a quint to the mix and you're talking about 5 class A apparatus along with a heavy squad and a mini pumper....
THIS IS NOT A KFD rant, it just happens to be where I hopped on my soap box today... Look at the incident alerts on this website for northern Westchester... You see departments sending 1 and 1 mutual aid to another department and then requesting standby coverage in their own quarters while 4 or more front line apparatus sit idle... You can insert any number of northern Westchester departments into my rant including my own former department, Millwood. Chappaqua, Briarcliff, Armonk, Pleasantville, the Tri-Village gang, the list goes on and on where departments have 6 or more pieces of apparatus, often times redundant in their own department or certainly with their neighbors and they can never get more than a handful of it out the door at any given time. This is a waste of taxpayer money.

YAWN!!!!
I believe you meant to say "you're flip flopping"... I digress...
I'm not sure where I flip flopped. Was it when I indicated that the current apparatus has somewhere in the area of one mile of supply line and then drew in the fact that another station that is 1.7 miles away (google maps) probably has a similar amount of supply line. Between KFD and BHFD less than two miles apart, AND the fact that I'm unaware of any driveways that are two miles long in the area, if you can name a logical reason for making a two mile lay in the Town of Bedford I'd love to hear it.
Or is the "flop" coming when you don't know that a modern quint carries a similar amount of supply line as an engine and it would be logical, even fair to the tax payers who are footing the bill, to eliminate an engine when acquiring a quint? It would appear that KFD is looking at a Smeal quint. Coincidental to this conversation, I'd offer that I worked off a Smeal quint for several years and can comfortably say that it will carry 1000-1250 feet of supply line without a problem.
The way that fire districts in the NY metro area choose to equip their fleet's has little to do with necessity and plenty to do with irrational school play amongst individuals who are more interested in saying they were on the apparatus committee than they are with providing the taxpayer with great fire protection. KFD is merely collateral damage in what has been a years long mission for me to point this out to those who continue to believe that a problem doesn't exist. This conversation will pop up again when someone in Mount Pleasant decides to replace their tower with yet another over redundant tower... OR better yet finds a way to add a quint to sit next to their tower like Hawthorn and Somers did not long ago.

Facts in this case are very subjective... It would be tough to objectively argue that KFD needs an aerial device.
600ft vs 1000 ft we're splitting hairs... E116 carries 4000+ feet of 3in and E115 and E117 each carry 1800+ feet of LDH. With a split lay of E116's 3in and the 3600+ feet on the other pumpers AND the 600 feet on the tanker we're talking over a mile of hose. Assuming they could get all the rigs out the door in time to establish contineous water supply and mount an attack, there is enough hose to stretch 85 percent of the way from Katonah FD to Bedford Hills FD where 3 more class A apparatus, a mini pumper, a tower ladder and another heavy rescue are sitting with another mile or so of supply line. I think they're covered.
KFD is another department in Westchester that is adding more resources than it's members can staff. It's never going to end... A decade from now everyone will have their own aerial device and the vast majority of them won't have a clue how to perform truck company operations because each department will only catch one or two jobs a year where the rig is used properly and the crew actually performs truck work. For the number of fires in Northern Westchester, the region could use to eliminate 10 or more of the 30+ aerial devices in the area. The county certainly doesn't need more.
On the other hand, I'm glad that KFD is getting the needed renovations to their station as well as an opportunity to build a training facility near home. Anything that adds to the skill and training of fire crews will most certainly increase the chances of a positive outcome at the fire scene. Training puts out fires and sends everyone home safely. Apparatus is just a tool they use along the way.

I've been in the game long enough to look at a duck and know that it'll quack. Tanker 6 has a 2000gpm pump and I'd put money on it that it's got 1000+ feet of supply line. They've got 3 other class A pumpers as well. Add a quint to the mix and you're talking about 5 class A apparatus along with a heavy squad and a mini pumper....
THIS IS NOT A KFD rant, it just happens to be where I hopped on my soap box today... Look at the incident alerts on this website for northern Westchester... You see departments sending 1 and 1 mutual aid to another department and then requesting standby coverage in their own quarters while 4 or more front line apparatus sit idle... You can insert any number of northern Westchester departments into my rant including my own former department, Millwood. Chappaqua, Briarcliff, Armonk, Pleasantville, the Tri-Village gang, the list goes on and on where departments have 6 or more pieces of apparatus, often times redundant in their own department or certainly with their neighbors and they can never get more than a handful of it out the door at any given time. This is a waste of taxpayer money.

I've been in the game long enough to look at a duck and know that it'll quack. Tanker 6 has a 2000gpm pump and I'd put money on it that it's got 1000+ feet of supply line. They've got 3 other class A pumpers as well. Add a quint to the mix and you're talking about 5 class A apparatus along with a heavy squad and a mini pumper....
THIS IS NOT A KFD rant, it just happens to be where I hopped on my soap box today... Look at the incident alerts on this website for northern Westchester... You see departments sending 1 and 1 mutual aid to another department and then requesting standby coverage in their own quarters while 4 or more front line apparatus sit idle... You can insert any number of northern Westchester departments into my rant including my own former department, Millwood. Chappaqua, Briarcliff, Armonk, Pleasantville, the Tri-Village gang, the list goes on and on where departments have 6 or more pieces of apparatus, often times redundant in their own department or certainly with their neighbors and they can never get more than a handful of it out the door at any given time. This is a waste of taxpayer money.

I've been in the game long enough to look at a duck and know that it'll quack. Tanker 6 has a 2000gpm pump and I'd put money on it that it's got 1000+ feet of supply line. They've got 3 other class A pumpers as well. Add a quint to the mix and you're talking about 5 class A apparatus along with a heavy squad and a mini pumper....
THIS IS NOT A KFD rant, it just happens to be where I hopped on my soap box today... Look at the incident alerts on this website for northern Westchester... You see departments sending 1 and 1 mutual aid to another department and then requesting standby coverage in their own quarters while 4 or more front line apparatus sit idle... You can insert any number of northern Westchester departments into my rant including my own former department, Millwood. Chappaqua, Briarcliff, Armonk, Pleasantville, the Tri-Village gang, the list goes on and on where departments have 6 or more pieces of apparatus, often times redundant in their own department or certainly with their neighbors and they can never get more than a handful of it out the door at any given time. This is a waste of taxpayer money.

Facts in this case are very subjective... It would be tough to objectively argue that KFD needs an aerial device.
600ft vs 1000 ft we're splitting hairs... E116 carries 4000+ feet of 3in and E115 and E117 each carry 1800+ feet of LDH. With a split lay of E116's 3in and the 3600+ feet on the other pumpers AND the 600 feet on the tanker we're talking over a mile of hose. Assuming they could get all the rigs out the door in time to establish contineous water supply and mount an attack, there is enough hose to stretch 85 percent of the way from Katonah FD to Bedford Hills FD where 3 more class A apparatus, a mini pumper, a tower ladder and another heavy rescue are sitting with another mile or so of supply line. I think they're covered.
KFD is another department in Westchester that is adding more resources than it's members can staff. It's never going to end... A decade from now everyone will have their own aerial device and the vast majority of them won't have a clue how to perform truck company operations because each department will only catch one or two jobs a year where the rig is used properly and the crew actually performs truck work. For the number of fires in Northern Westchester, the region could use to eliminate 10 or more of the 30+ aerial devices in the area. The county certainly doesn't need more.
On the other hand, I'm glad that KFD is getting the needed renovations to their station as well as an opportunity to build a training facility near home. Anything that adds to the skill and training of fire crews will most certainly increase the chances of a positive outcome at the fire scene. Training puts out fires and sends everyone home safely. Apparatus is just a tool they use along the way.

I've been in the game long enough to look at a duck and know that it'll quack. Tanker 6 has a 2000gpm pump and I'd put money on it that it's got 1000+ feet of supply line. They've got 3 other class A pumpers as well. Add a quint to the mix and you're talking about 5 class A apparatus along with a heavy squad and a mini pumper....
THIS IS NOT A KFD rant, it just happens to be where I hopped on my soap box today... Look at the incident alerts on this website for northern Westchester... You see departments sending 1 and 1 mutual aid to another department and then requesting standby coverage in their own quarters while 4 or more front line apparatus sit idle... You can insert any number of northern Westchester departments into my rant including my own former department, Millwood. Chappaqua, Briarcliff, Armonk, Pleasantville, the Tri-Village gang, the list goes on and on where departments have 6 or more pieces of apparatus, often times redundant in their own department or certainly with their neighbors and they can never get more than a handful of it out the door at any given time. This is a waste of taxpayer money.

This is Westchester we are talking about right? There are more apparatus in the county that weren't planned for than anywhere else I can think of. Wanting to have what the other guys have does not constitute a plan. If KFD eliminates an engine in place of a quint then it's a start. They should also eliminate another engine given the purchase of T6.
This is not a KFD rub, it's a county wide issue that is only getting worse.

Another aerial device in Westchester. Great. Along with all the pumper tankers that have been added lately without eliminating an engine... the over redundancy in Westchester is at an all time high. The last thing Katonah needs is an aerial device. Let the boys on TL57 do what they do best.

Slugs and snails are terms used in railroading for auxiliary power. A slug has traction motors but no prime mover (engine) thus the lack of diesel tanks in the belly of that unit. It essentially uses excess electricity produced by the traditional diesel electric locomotive that it is coupled with and powers additional axels without the need for more combustion. A snail is a rarer piece that has a prime mover but no traction motors and is intended to provide more electricity to the other locomotives.
All this not to be confused with a "B" unit which is a fully functional locomotive built without a cab to run in consist behind another or multiple locomotives.

Love the slug without its mother ship. Rarely seen railroad apparatus outside of closed, working yards.

Come on down... We can golf fish lounge, etc... And Im related to one of the key authors of the consolidation language for Orange County.... Business with pleasure!!!!

Just spoke with a buddy from 9 and apparently two brothers from Truck 9 are at MedStar with 3rd degree burns one of which is intubated. Docs are hopeful that they will both pull through and make recoveries.

Just spoke with a buddy from 9 and apparently two brothers from Truck 9 are at MedStar with 3rd degree burns one of which is intubated. Docs are hopeful that they will both pull through and make recoveries.

This is life... Things get discussed. In today's economic environment it would be foolish to think that a bid notice for a fire station being placed on a public forum wouldn't have discussion regarding the merits of such a fire station, the public's perception of the project, and the financial implications that go along with it.
If I posted a picture of a new truck that I bought myself on this forum I would reasonably expect that the Ford vs Dodge vs Chevy banter would follow.

What is it that makes you think that they are Pierce or E-One.
Personally I never could have come to that conclusion.

I have beached apparatus off road many times. Front yard, back yard, neighbors yard, you name it. I haven't seen a stuck rig that was scrapped on site yet because a wrecker(s) couldn't yank it out.
Watch out for septic tanks though. Don't assume that they are in a logical place and don't assume that just because a lot is vacant that the previous structure's septic isn't still in place.

There is no need to bury your head in the sand while having a mature conversation.
Ford did indeed receive money in the form of a loan from the federal government through the department of energy as an enticement to further develop fuel efficient vehicles. The fruits of this loan are already paying off in the form of the more powerful yet much more efficient motors that are going into F-150's and the Taurus, not to mention Ford's very successful hybrid program with the Fusion and Escape as well as the new plugin hybrid technology slated for later this year in the Focus. The only thing they could do to improve on this is to bring the European Focus spec diesel motor to the states which is capable of 50mpg.
Chrysler and GM are slated receive similar loans. The government will make money (albeit not much) off these loans and therefore to any manufacturer who receives one, I would not consider it a bailout. On a personal note, I would prefer that the government not loan money to businesses as I believe it creates a levered relationship between commerce and government which I do not believe is beneficial to a free economy nor is it equitable to smaller companies who do not have access to similarly structured loans from the government.
The difference between a government loan and the situation with GM and Chrysler's bailout is tremendous and most certainly inappropriate. The events that took place surrounding their bail out and the conditions that have been put in place violate decades of bankruptcy and securities law. Most shareholders of the previous entities (General Motors Company used to be General Motors Corporation and The Chrysler Group used to be Chrysler LLC) lost every ounce of equity that they had and the secured creditors got pennies on the dollar for their receivables. Then the New General Motors (the old is now officially known as Motors Liquidation Co.) floats a new IPO where you guessed it, the US Treasury department owns 60% percent (although they've sold off part of it). The government of our country should not be the owner of or a significant shareholder of any business. It has been proven that the government does a poor job of running any form of enterprise. Just take for example the United States Postal Service and Amtrak. Both are examples of government run companies that lose money hand over foot. Finally, the fact that shareholder equity in Chrysler Corp was eradicated by a government dictated bankruptcy and control of the company was given to a foreign (Fiat) automobile manufacturer is awful.