JohnnyOV

Ohhhhhhh.....THOSE wings....LOL
Congrats!

Glad we have the 2nd amendment... That "Right to 'bear' arms" might come in handy when you get caught in a hand to hand death match

I recently had the opportunity to do a few days of swift water training, I'll try to pass on a little of what I learned.
The first I learned is a brand new respect for moving water.
the NFPA defines "swift water" as water moving faster then 1 knot.
Water rescue is the technical skill we kill the most rescuers doing (drilling including).
The proper equipment is a must ( cold water suits are not swift water suits). You can be tied off but need a life vest that allows you to free yourself from the line quickly and easily.
http://store.mpgear.com/images/products/display/extrasportswiftwaterfury_red.jpg
notice the red ball on the above picture? that ball allows you to slip free from the rope you are tied to.
ask away on this topic, today is the perfect day to discuss it.

Tying off is only beneficial if it can keep you out of the water. Tied off and in the water you can become dragged under. Tied off in the middle of the current you become an obstruction. Water builds behind you and creates an eddy in front of you. This sinks you lower and lower until the water can start over topping you. At this point you have the full force of the river holding you under. This all takes places in seconds.

All of you whom still self dispatch and/or have your local PD do it...your citizens aren't getting such services.

Leave the bridge up so that the jumpers don't tie up traffic

The department has a uniform policy plan and simple, just like every other department. Where I work we cannot wear a pink shirt or do red shirt Fridays. We have to wear our standard uniform shirt and a navy blue work t-shirt under it. That is our policy, yes we would like to be able to do wear the shirts in support but rules are rules. There are other ways to show your support like with a ribbon or pin on your shirt, obviously with permission. I'm assuming somewhere down the line their uniform policy was a problem and they began enforcing it.
Also the quote "We were under the impression it was improved" pretty much can make you take it both ways; either they had permission to make up a shirt for presentation or they just had them made up and began wearing them with out proper permission.
If there is an agreed uniform policy between the local and the management well it has to be followed. Sounds like both sides didn't follow up properly.

Best thing I ever did was get a college degree, in a field completely unrelated to anything fire. If your civil service tests don't work out, which they haven't so far for me, then you have a degree to fall back on. Taking civil service exams, are like dropping your resume off at businesses; don't limit yourself to just one option.

It all comes down to the NYS training requirements which are an absolute joke. Include FF 2, survival and FAST as the basic FF course. If the training is too much, go join the Elks lodge.
My department encourages everyone who is an interior firefighter to train with the FASTeam and eventually join. However, you cannot put non-FAST trained members on a FAST assignment though, which is why it comes down to a special team in volunteer departments in NYS. Unless you require every interior member to be certified with survival and FAST, then it is going to have to be a special team.

Best thing I ever did was get a college degree, in a field completely unrelated to anything fire. If your civil service tests don't work out, which they haven't so far for me, then you have a degree to fall back on. Taking civil service exams, are like dropping your resume off at businesses; don't limit yourself to just one option.

It all comes down to the NYS training requirements which are an absolute joke. Include FF 2, survival and FAST as the basic FF course. If the training is too much, go join the Elks lodge.
My department encourages everyone who is an interior firefighter to train with the FASTeam and eventually join. However, you cannot put non-FAST trained members on a FAST assignment though, which is why it comes down to a special team in volunteer departments in NYS. Unless you require every interior member to be certified with survival and FAST, then it is going to have to be a special team.

In my opinion your Mom is right. Get not only your Bachelors but an advanced degree now before family and work obligations get in the way. Most importantly do not expect that your experiences in firefighting and / or emergency services will be very similar to your predecessors. The one thing you can be sure of is that during your working life, the fire service, and in fact the world, will undergo enormous, and oftentimes, rapid change. A well rounded undergraduate and graduate degree will make you much more capable of anticipating and positioning yourself for the changes you will see. Don't limit yourself to a fire science degree either- you will be studying that stuff for promotion anyway- get the most well rounded education that you are able to- researching and writing, public speaking,government, history, psychology, technology, etc. are just basic skills which are necessary to function as an effective, progressive, fair leader in almost any field of endeavour. Consider a bachelor's in management, organizational leadership or some such with a minor in fire science or emergency management. After that you will have a better idea as to what to study for your Master's Degree.
Don't believe everyhting any of us in the Fire Service tell you (it's very hard to be objective about yourself)- seek out contrasting opinions, as you have done here. Spend time (such as in college) with people who have no connection to the fire service or emergency services. Learn from them too.
Realize that as a Firefighter you will be working with many dedicated, hard working people, but you will also be spending your life working alongside many who just want a decent civil service job and who do not have the same pride and work ethic that you do. This can prove to be a big shock and an enormous sense of dissapointment to a "gung-ho" young guy such as yourself. If you think you will be able to motivated these types and change their attitude, I would suggest that you first find a brick wall and bang your head against it as hard as you can a few times and make sure you enjoy that.

That and painting the rigs RED....

It all comes down to the NYS training requirements which are an absolute joke. Include FF 2, survival and FAST as the basic FF course. If the training is too much, go join the Elks lodge.
My department encourages everyone who is an interior firefighter to train with the FASTeam and eventually join. However, you cannot put non-FAST trained members on a FAST assignment though, which is why it comes down to a special team in volunteer departments in NYS. Unless you require every interior member to be certified with survival and FAST, then it is going to have to be a special team.

It all comes down to the NYS training requirements which are an absolute joke. Include FF 2, survival and FAST as the basic FF course. If the training is too much, go join the Elks lodge.
My department encourages everyone who is an interior firefighter to train with the FASTeam and eventually join. However, you cannot put non-FAST trained members on a FAST assignment though, which is why it comes down to a special team in volunteer departments in NYS. Unless you require every interior member to be certified with survival and FAST, then it is going to have to be a special team.

It all comes down to the NYS training requirements which are an absolute joke. Include FF 2, survival and FAST as the basic FF course. If the training is too much, go join the Elks lodge.
My department encourages everyone who is an interior firefighter to train with the FASTeam and eventually join. However, you cannot put non-FAST trained members on a FAST assignment though, which is why it comes down to a special team in volunteer departments in NYS. Unless you require every interior member to be certified with survival and FAST, then it is going to have to be a special team.

Our department SOG requires the Incident Commander to dispatch a Mutual Aid FAST to all working structure fires. It also states that the IC shall designate at least two members to act as a "FAST" until such time the Mutual Aid unit arrives. We've established a "FAST" at several hazardous materials incidents, including CO emergencies, over the years to keep a crew dedicated to helping our own within an IDLH.
Our team began formation in 1997 and went into service June 1, 1998. We currently have several of those original members as well as multiple new ones on our team.
Team members are all required to have completed the FFI, Survival and FAST courses at minimum. They must have a few years of experience as an Interior Firefighter. The team has one drill every month, ranging from knots/rope rigging to search to firefighter removals to team-building drills in live fire situations. Many of our drills incorporate many of these things to keep our skills sharp.
We have "members in training" that work with us at drills and will respond to an incident to observe and assist where they can. Once they complete all of the training and make enough drills to show their abilities, our team's leaders will add them on as actual team members.
We've revamped our SOGs probably 6 times over the years based on NIOSH reports, training standards and lessons learned at calls and drills.
Our minimal response is one qualified team leader ("Officer") and three qualified members. 9.5 out of 10 times we have no less than six members. As far as response time - if a department near us that wants to use us for FAST coverage has a possible fire - please consider starting us out sooner. Most of us are listening to the radio a majority of the day, and when someone around us sounds like they're going to work, we start texting/calling one another and unofficially start to assemble.
If we can't meet our own minimum response manpower and/or can't get on the road in a proper amount of time, we will notify 60 Control to advise the IC, and go from there.
I, too, take firefigher safety/survival/rescue to heart for my own reasons. This is why I am so aggressive with it in our department (probably to the point others get sick of hearing me!)
On a side note, I am pleased to report that over the past few years I have been able to get more equipment for our team that we all asked for, for quite some time. Luckily the two Chiefs ahead of me have given me the go ahead to purchase this stuff, and for that we are all greatful. (This includes new ropes, webbing, RIT-Pack, retractable search lines and more).

It all comes down to the NYS training requirements which are an absolute joke. Include FF 2, survival and FAST as the basic FF course. If the training is too much, go join the Elks lodge.
My department encourages everyone who is an interior firefighter to train with the FASTeam and eventually join. However, you cannot put non-FAST trained members on a FAST assignment though, which is why it comes down to a special team in volunteer departments in NYS. Unless you require every interior member to be certified with survival and FAST, then it is going to have to be a special team.

I think the concept is being lost on some departments that create special teams for FAST when it should be the function of aany/every FF instead of "special teams" that aren't always available.
In a large career department every FF can be FAST. In smaller departments and most volunteer agencies it's treated like something special and not everyone gets the training.

holy sentence batman

holy sentence batman

holy sentence batman

Guess the southern county does participate in tanker operations....

With due respect to the staff,
Before the topic was locked, there was some measure of displeasure with the post from the site's founder regarding one-liners and inflammatory comments, with a poster saying the site has lost it's balls and the members need thicker skin.
It's not a matter of the site "losing it's balls" or members who need "thicker skin", it's about keeping the site educational, a positive environment, and most of all, PROFESSIONAL. Sometimes we need to remember that "we" (emergency service members) are not the only ones who read the content contained in these forums. I'm sure there are enthusiasts, members of local government, members of the media, and so on who read the content contained in these forums. While it's all good to banter amongst each other as if we were in the firehouse, precinct, quarters, or whatever you would like to call it, we still have to maintain some level of decorum and professionalism just as if we were present in a public place, since this board is easily viewed by members of the general public, and more importantly the media. Case in point;
The NYPD Rant for those who's haven't read it is full of so much garbage since there is little to no moderation, it's not one bit enjoyable to read from an educational standpoint. If anyone outside the NYPD read the material in that forum, the useless bantering of a few sets a bad precedence and honestly depicts the members of the NYPD in a very negative light. The media reported today on a thread contained in the NYPD Rant website about posters who posted personal attacks against an NYPD member. As a civilian reading that article, what kind of opinion do you think the "average Joe" will have of the Rant and the members of the NYPD?
So in order to keep this site from becoming another "rant style" website, there needs to be a level of moderation that suits the wishes of the site's founder, since it is ultimately his call on what is and what is not permitted. If any of us don't like it, we are all free to start up our own site where anything goes and all the members can brag over who has the biggest balls. Personally, I'll stick with the site that's an educational portal as well as promotes and exhibits the professionalism of emergency service providers.

We cannot even get departments to agree on an standardized accountability system that can be used county wide, and everyone wants to jump into completely consolidating 60 fire departments (not including brigades and county teams)? How about we start with basic things like radio communication, accountability, mutual aid staffing and training requirements before we go completely changing the tax lines, which is going to be a complete logistical nightmare.
On a side note, is it possible to completely remove all districts lines including fire protection, fire district and city limit lines, and create a Westchester County Fire District or Fire protection district? NYS fire laws are pretty stringent, and I'm pretty sure there has to be a majority vote from the tax payers in the fire district to absorb another or dissolve their own.