RITRobotoX

I was R18-3 on this call.
We used EVERY airbag and EVERY piece of cribbing on our rig.
We had pretty much everything from the airbag compartment under that locomotive.
Metro-North's yard employees used a forklift to bring us an additional pallet load of scrap railroad ties to use as cribbing, which is what really helped us get the needed height for the lift.
I can't remember what size each of the airbags is off-hand, but there are 6 of them on the rig.
Five are various sized squares, while one is a long rectangle.
In the photo on YHFD's page, you can see that the pilot (aka "The Cow Catcher") on the locomotive had to be bent upwards to make the extrication.
The patient had been run over by the pilot and was pinned in the section under those steps, right in front of those wheels.
He had been dragged under the locomotive for a little while before the engineer realized he was under there (when running in that direction, the engineer is on the other side of the locomotive and can't see that side at all).

I was formerly employed as a contract employee to provide Electrical Design services to the NYS Office of General Services - Design & Construction Group, who's biggest client was the NYS Dept. of Correctional Services.
I was based out of Albany but I did A LOT of work for Sing Sing CF and can say that it needed a whole lot more work then what we were already working on.
As the second oldest facility in the state, it has some of the oldest wiring you can find still in use.
On top of that, all of this wiring was done over the years by lowest bidder contractors or poorly paid/ overworked maintenance staff.
What was of decent quality at installation, can be guaranteed to be deteriorating due to lack of maintenance over more than a century.
I am a little surprised that there aren't more electrical fires there.
As far as the safety of the Firefighters from injury by inmates, I'd guess that the C.O.'s marched their evacuated inmates well away from the building in question before the facility let the fire department inside the inner perimeter.
They would never let the safety of civilian volunteer firefighters be at risk from inmates, nor do I think that the vast majority of inmates really have any animosity toward volunteer firefighters.
I don't think the facility would have significantly delayed the fire department's response that much, probably just collected ID's, got a head count and gave everyone a hand stamp.
With the solid construction of those buildings (they may be slowly falling down due to age, but they are all pretty much solid masonry, steel and concrete, nor do they have a heavy fireload from their contents), I don't think the gate delays would be that big a deal.
I would however guess that accounting for every person and EVERY tool or piece of equipment after the fire has been extinguished would take a lot longer than normal.
In all of my site visits I never saw a Sing Sing CF fire truck, like the one that Bedford Hills CF has (my group supervised the construction of the new storage structure for BHCF's fire truck), but it could also be stored in the old boiler plant, which I never got to visit.
Many facilities do have vans full of their fire brigade's gear, which in combination with pre-connected lines and standpipes throughout the facility can help the fire brigade get a handle on most fires until mutual aid can get on scene.

Here's video of uniformed members of IAFF Local 311 (Dane County, WI, aka Madison), marching into the rotunda of the State Capitol, with bagpipes and drums, to thunderous applause from the protesting union workers.
Public Safety employee unions are currently exempted from the revocation of collective bargaining rights, under the proposed bill. Even so, Madison firefighters have had a sustained presence at the demonstrations all week, standing in solidarity with their union brothers and sisters. As Local 311's president said, "If this passes, its only a matter of time before they come back looking for the same from us."

Here's video of uniformed members of IAFF Local 311 (Dane County, WI, aka Madison), marching into the rotunda of the State Capitol, with bagpipes and drums, to thunderous applause from the protesting union workers.
Public Safety employee unions are currently exempted from the revocation of collective bargaining rights, under the proposed bill. Even so, Madison firefighters have had a sustained presence at the demonstrations all week, standing in solidarity with their union brothers and sisters. As Local 311's president said, "If this passes, its only a matter of time before they come back looking for the same from us."