JohnnyOV

Might as well make designer fire gear as well... include interchangeable boots for the homes where the homeowners ask you to take your boots off before you come inside and check out the smoke condition...

Might as well make designer fire gear as well... include interchangeable boots for the homes where the homeowners ask you to take your boots off before you come inside and check out the smoke condition...

I appreciate what you are saying, and my intent with this comment is not to make this thread go off topic. I don't think she would mind now if I said I dated a female police officer from southern Westchester for quite some time. The insight I got into the professional operation of a particularly small police department made me wonder why they were able to maintain such a high level of professionalism, and LOYALTY toward each other; when I've seen fire departments in southern Westchester destroying themselves with infighting, ridiculous hatred and grudge-holding, and overall dysfunction. This does not apply to the larger jobs like Yonkers IMHO. I had opportunity to advise a Brother to transfer to YFD years ago from another department. My advice was GO and don't look back. I think he thinks he made the right choice.
Guys have to raise their game in the fire service. Forgiveness is a virtue; one that too many firefighters, career or volunteer don't seem to understand. We all make mistakes, but the higher virtue of Brotherhood could prevail, IF the Brothers could learn to forgive, let it go, understand we're all human and ALL of us are going to do something that pisses others off.
Thank you for the opportunity to address this particularly nagging issue in Westchester County Fire Departments.
We now return you to the regularly scheduled discussion of an amazing fire; amazing because it shows what firefighters are capable of doing as a team. More of us need to keep that in focus during the times when tankers and buildings aren't burning.

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

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

Also, nothing that is being said here I am taking personally... I actually welcome all discussion as we can only improve our operations. There will be a post incident debrief in our department and I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about on how we could have improved.

Newsbuff, you're labed as an enthusiast... have you ever actually participated in any of the activities you've mentioned? If you have never operated in a tanker shuttle, or been on a hose line trying to put a 50% involved fire out from the interior, its going to be very hard for you to understand how labor intensive this type of operation is. It is no fault of your own, other then that you haven't experienced it first hand, and I do not hold that against you.
The water and apparatus were needed. 3000 gallon ponds get used very quickly when you're operating long streches of LDH, and 3 hand lines and a blitz gun are being utilized.
I'm not following. No other large operations, or even any other operations were occurring from any of the departments called for Yorktown's fire that I am aware of. And if there was before Yorktown's fire, we would have been pulling from other resources and attempting to not strain other departments.
You're placing a lose-lose statement posed to us here... Are you suggesting that Yorktown has 5 engines and 5 tankers? If so, please, run for commissioner and tell the town you want to purchase 4 more tankers and 3 more engines... You'll be quite loved by our residents.
edit: If not, what do you suggest we do? Not enough water and you lose the house, or have an abundance of apparatus for your own district, with no place to put them unless you build more firehouses....

This is not on the other end of the revervoir, its on the north side, about a 1/2 mile up from Rt 129 and the Croton boarder. Its 7 miles from LMFD Sta 1, with a travel time of 17 minutes. Dispatch to responding was 10 minutes on the dot, so their travel time was spot on.
Reports from both the neighbors and the PD on location was that the homeowner was still inside. The neighbors were very adamant about this, and 100% positive at the time she was home and had not come outside. This was relayed to all incoming units. We attempted to enter the structure through the only viable part left that could sustain any life, and backed out when conditions dictated us to do so. Even if there was no life hazard, there were 3 members inside, and about 12-20 guys outside packed up, ready to drop what they were doing to effect a rescue.

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

Apparently calls were being received from the Saw Mill / TSP area, and Rt 35 and Rt 100 intersection in Somers for this. Flames were about 40-50 feet in the air, and the smoke column was in the hundreds.
Upon arrival, flames were completely through 50% of the roof and 2nd floor on the A/B side, and fire had already progressed through the access to the bedroom area of the 2nd floor on the D side and was quickly taking over the first floor AB corner as well.
First arriving units were met with neighbors and police who were positive that the homeowner was still inside, so a quick relay of 272 (750gal, 2nd due) to 273(1000, 1st due) gallons was established as personnel committed to gaining entry through the 2nd floor sun room area on the BC corner to effect a search and hold the fire off in that area. As crews were making a push and were getting a hold on the fire, the floor began to sag and immediately after the main joist to the roof partially gave way giving the interior guys quite the "pucker factor." An "Urgent" message was transmitted relaying the minor / partial collapse and units then pulled out, PAR was established, and a defensive operation then commenced.
Homeowner was not home, and was out paying bills at the time.
Once again, the home was packed with stuff creating an enormous fire load. It seems like all the hoarders like to flock to Yorktown these days....

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

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

I've been giving some thought on some of the comments on not only Yorktown's recent fire, but other incidents and want to share my thoughts.
Ten years ago, many of us were getting along fine, making do with what we had at our disposal in terms of manpower. Most fire departments would handle a single family dwelling fire with little to no Mutual Aid. Was it because we all had an abundance of manpower? I don't think so.
Many people like to get on the "manpower soapbox" all too often to explain their dwindling firehouse numbers, yet it can generally correlate to other contributing factors that many don't admit to, or even recognize.
1. Poor leadership. Many people in the volunteer fire service are giving their time to the FD while balancing their family duties, jobs and other commitments. Most guys and gals join either to be an integral part of their community and/or to become part of a social club. When your leadership is doing it's job (leading when leading is needed, being fair and balanced, treating everyone with respect, making everyone feel safe and accpeted) then the troops feel better about themselves and the department they've joined. I've been in my department since I was an Explorer (1992) and have seen AWESOME LEADERS (Chiefs and Company Officers) and sadly, we've had a few too many crappy ones. If you can lead your troops when they need leading and you can motivate them by making them feel a sense of ownership in their company/department, then they'll give that extra effort.
2. Lack of Training Availability. So many of us strive to be the best departments we can be, and this means a lot of training. We've grown from doing roughly one drill per month to offering 4-5 different training venues every month. Since everyone has crazy schedules, you need to be flexible. Having just one drill night isn't going to cut it. Also, training that we are all required to have isn't always made easily accessible. I don't fault WCDES for the lack of some courses - I lay blame on OFPC (or whatever acronym they use now). Why can't volunteer fire departments have an MTO? In our own department we have a half dozen NYS and/or National Fire Service Instructors and we're being under utilized. We had a good thing going for a couple of years where one of our guys was granted a "supplemental CFI" status and was providing in-house OFPC classes, such as HMFRO, HMFRO Annual Refresher, Confined Space Awareness & Safety, Scene Support Operations and others that you just don't see often enough. Losing this has hurt our training program, and now it costs us more money to outsource and bring instructors in. In a nutshell, the current system sucks.
3. Personal Agendas. I've seen a couple of Chiefs (not just in our FD but around the county) that get elected with an agenda of their own. In order to get what they want, they start cutting funding for certain things, they lie to everyone and worst of all - they let the department's members suffer. For example, if your Chief is up in your commissioners officer / town hall lying to them about what your members need simply to make themselves look good - that will come back to the guys/gals and ruin their ambition to be a part of your department.
I know I may sound like a broken record, but it really does come down to how your department is run, from the top down. If your Chief can't run a scene, the guys lose faith in them. If your Captain can't be bothered with drill night because of his softball games, how are the guys in the trenches expected to show any initiative? And if all the guys walking around with collar brass don't take the time to guide, mentor and lead their men/women - kiss it all goodbye.
These things have major negative impacts on your department's performance call after call. You might get 40 guys in line at a parade, but how many of them can honestly remember the last time they got out of bed at 2am for a CO call?
Leadership makes/breaks fire departments - we can blame it on anything else we want, but this simple truth is what hurts so many of us.
Stay safe & train often.
/thoughts.

Well, I guess the laws of physics cease to exist on top of your "city." Were these magic "btu's?" Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans? (enough "my Cousin Vinny," it's bed time)

iSad

When you really think about it, there should of been at least one additional engine on this job, ... for a second fill site for the Tankers... one of the general rules of thumb I have learned, ( 3 tankers can work off of 1 fill site, 4 - 6 tankers should have 2 fill sites. ) so with this in mind, there should of been another engine on the list...
* newsbuff - tell you what, you start on 1 side of BCR and I'll come in from the other end with T 10 and you tell me its really a 2 lane road...
* johnnyov - your incident debriefing, it might be helpful to invite some of the key members of the different areas of this call... ( the fill site, tanker off load site, and fire ground ) so that you can see points from different views... plus, I am sure its not going to be the last time we work together, so it could help get us all on the same page or provide us with a different method of operating...
* jflynn - on several other topics you have mentioned, that you do not know much about tanker operations, which is understandable, and if you ever wish to attend on of the Croton / Yorktown / Millwood yearly tanker drills, we would love to have you there and open up to any ideas you may have... let me know and I will gladly email you when we do our next...
* bnechis - you did attend our last CYM tanker drill and you did bring up some good points, one thing I took from your comments, lead Croton to get a 5 inch gated Wye, and because the tanker site was on a hill side, with no level areas near by, we tossed the ponds on the side of the road and went with the gated Wye and had 2 tankers nurse to the relay pumper, which worked out great.. thanks Barry.
* 99subi - most of the tankers in this area carry around 3000 gallons...
- as far as the worries about there being 100 FF on this job, WOW thats great... I know every single resident I spoke with, who were trying to get home or out for some reason we gald so many people were there to help out... I think it says allot of the system up here in Northen Westchester... it may not be the best, but it does work.
....... AND YORKTOWN, THIS DID NOT COUNT AS YOUR YEARLY TANKER DRILL, ITS YOUR TURN FOR THIS YEAR...

Knowing what signs to look for on the exterior of the structure upon arrival are also very useful. Some consistent things I've noticed on the exterior of hoarders houses are, uncut lawns of a known occupied house, a plethora of odd trinkets and other lawn ornaments, moss and algae growing on the siding of the home, every window's shades are closed, pools are not cleaned or the winter covers on during the summer, garages that are packed to the brim and overflowing with stuff, neighbors stating that they are never allowed inside or that they are never seen outside or with anybody. If their cars are in the driveway too, look at the cleanliness of both the interior and exterior of the car. If there is crap stuffed throughout the back seats of the car, generally the house looks like that too. These are just personal observations I've made over a few years in my district.
Does anyone else have any key signs to look for on the exterior?
Also, I found that as you're doing your search, specifically in places that have "pathways" of papers, magazines, trash and other crap that goes completely to the ceiling, you need to be extremely careful to not bump into the walls of trash as it might collapse around you blocking your escape path, or becoming wedged under a door.

This is why the dual dispatch with a FASTeam was implemented. Get them started, and if you don't need them, turn em around. All of our M/A teams were more then willing to try this out.
Yorktown's own FAST team response protocol is if we cannot field a crew (minimum 4 FASTeam qualified members [which is pages long in our SOGs]) in 3 minutes and out the door in 5, we will notify 60-control and the IC we cannot field a FASTeam. If we know we cannot field it sooner then that, we'll notify them immediately. If we have the manpower(minimum 4 interior firefighters), but not a FASTeam, we will notify the IC that we can send either an engine or truck, if the IC so chooses to accept. We have a no retone policy, and honestly feel others lives are more important then our ego's
As "buffy" as this sounds, our guys are very good at "getting on the horn" the moment a neighboring department gets called to a fire, and sending out mass texts and group chats (for those who have smart phones) to see who's around to respond. We sometimes know before the first due company arrives on scene, if we'll be able to field a crew or not should we be called. Members normally start making their way to HQ to lesson the time even more as the texts are going out.
No
4 out of the first 5 arriving firemen are FASTeam members.
3 in and about 20 outside was being utilized.

Sorry Chief, I was reading up on my phone and not neglecting to respond to you. No offense taken, or feelings hurt either.
To begin, the Yorktown Heights Fire District covers approximately 40 square miles, 1/2 of which contain no hydrants. The southern end of Yorktown is the non-hydrant district, with roads that were designed for travel well before cars were ever designed to be driven on them. Old Logging Rd, which is the access road for Maiden lane is even worse. It is a single lane goat path, with barely even enough room for a single engine, let alone some massive tankers to drive up, or even turn around. OUR engines and tanker are designed to fit up these roads/ driveways, and designed with our district in mind. Some of our neighboring department's tankers will not fit down our old roads, and if they do make it down, there is no where for them to turn around to get back to a fill site. Most of the houses located on these properties are large, older buildings constructed with balloon frame, wood, plaster, lathe, and are home to many hoarders (seems to be an epidemic in Yorktown recently). The newer homes are just as big and McMansions in some cases. Many unique homes and oddly designed layouts also adorn our district on the southend.
Yorktown has 2 primary first due engines, Engine 273 out of the Commerce St station in the center of town with 1000 gallons, and Engine 272 out of Station 2 in the Northern, hydrant supplied section of town, with 750 gallons of water. The Tanker sits at the commerce st house as well. Engine 270 is a rescue pumper with only 500 gallons, and engine 271 is our spare engine (basically an older twin of 273). Engine 270 would normally be a 3rd due engine, if it responds at all, to keep our hurst tools available for a run. In our non-hydranted sections of town, it is not uncommon to have driveways that are hundreds, or even thousands of feet long (our longest being almost 1/2 a mile off of hog hill rd). Old logging road is basically no different then a common access driveway that is thousands of feet long.
Now on to your question of why 7 departments were called.
Our first due engine takes the drive way and normally lays in from the bottom for long lays. The next due engine then hooks up to that to relay pump to the first due. The tanker supplies the 2nd due, and drops its tank for a dump site there. At this particular house, the driveway was only 100' long, if that. 273 arrived first, and 272 was seconds behind them. Upon arrival, the neighbors were screaming that the owner was still inside, so our priorities immediately turned to life safety. Engine 272 immediately supplied 273 with their tank water, and sent their crew to assist in the offensive attack. Tanker 14 arrived shortly thereafter, and supplied 272.
Millwood and Croton's engines were called as draft site fills, and I believe a relay and supply line to the tanker at the scene. Even with the water that was there with the initial 3 apparatus, the water filling the supply lines, and the time it takes to back one tanker out and have another one pull in and dump its tank, the supply was running out every 2-5 minutes and we could not keep up with the fire flow formula. More tankers were requested to compensate for the lack of water supply.
Yorktown is very adamant about not stripping other towns and villages of apparatus for our fires. If we've called you for 1 piece, the only way we're going to call for something else is if there has been a discussion with the chief of that particular department a)having the capability to supply 2 pieces and the manpower and willingness to deplete their town of their own resources. If they say no, we can't/don't want to/ or unsure, they're not going to get called for 2.
Our 10-75 assignment for any non hydrant area (which we'll stick to for the remainder of the discussion [our other boxes and assignments can be found here: Yorktown box alarms]) includes tankers from 3 other departments, and an engine as a source pumper; 1 and 1 are requested on the relocate to cover our town since our manpower is focused on the working fire. FASTeams are dual dispatched on the initial report of any type of structure fire before a working fire is transmitted. 2nd alarm, moves the engine that is standing by up to a new draft site, and brings in 2 additional tankers, a cascade to the scene, another FAST and another engine on a relocate to our HQ. 3rd alarm brings in 2 additional Tankers and the Field Comm unit. The relocated ladder will not be taken off standby, as they will clog the system up.
So the 7 departments were:
Yorktown as first due
Croton - Engine and Tanker
Millwood - Engine and Tanker
Somers - Tanker, Rehab unit
Continental Village - Tanker
Katonah - Tanker
Buchannon - Cascade
Now, I'm for regonalization and standardization of some aspects of the fire department, but some areas of the county, regardless of fire district lines, are completely different then others. Apparatus design that work well in one area, may not work well in an area directly adjacent to that. Consolidation is always a hot topic, and I know prior i've been adamant about county consolidation. Honestly, I have no idea what the correct answer is. Sometimes, independant districts are fantastic, and other times they're completely horrendous. I really don't know if there is a single correct answer for the current situation around our area.
And in the utmost respectful way to ask this possible, and I really mean that, would you or anyone else for that matter, consider consolidating the ENTIRE county, large cities included, into ONE regional department? If so, why, or if you exclude large cities from your plan, why are they so special and different from a town or village department?

After 34 years OTJ, I can tell you there are many, many more Collyers Mansion places out there than you would tend to think. The ones on the TV show are mild cases compared to what you might respond to.
My first was as a FF. It was an ordinary multiple dwelling, six floors, open stairs, fire reported on about floor 3. We forced the door at the lock side, but it refused to swing. One FF reached around the door to feel for a possible victim and felt furniture. We went to the hinge side and when that side was free the door still stood there. We managed to get the door out into the hall and my partner started passing furniture to me so the hose line could advance. Things were getting a little touchy at this point since the fire was growing fast and we had no way to control the doorway.
After we removed maybe a room and a half of furniture, my partner and I started a search and the hose line went to the fire. I remember not being able to crawl because the floor was COVERED with booze bottles that rolled as you tried to crawl across the floor. I felt what appeared to be a doorjamb. I felt clothes up at about 3 ft off the floor and shoes on the floor beneath the clothes. OK, it's a closet. I'll move forward til I hit the other door jamb. Next thing I know iI was feeling a couch and coffee table. What happened to what I thought was a closet? I completely lost my bearings.
The hose team bumped into the victim as they advanced, also sliding on the bottles. They passed the victim to us and we were 1...2...3... yanking her toward the door as the bottles piled up into a mound. The more we moved the higher the mound got. I finally took my flashlight, look at her signs of life from about 2 inches away because that's the visibility allowed. I pronounced her dead, pulled my mask out from my chin so I could be heard, and announced her death to the Chief who was outside the door. The answer back was to "get on the fire."
The cleanup after the fire found she had over 500 bottles in a 1-bedroom apartment. Not only was she a hoarder, but a recluse and alcoholic. Sadly, there was a picture on a table that was charred pretty badly, but you could make out the form of a Firefighter.
So, back to business. What can you expect when you discover you've got a Collyer's Mansion? Anything.

No one is worrying, in fact, people are applauding Somers Commissioners for exploring the possibility of providing a service that can only enhance the service that is in place. There is no bashing, only constructive ideas that others (mostly career firemen with decades of experience) are bringing to the table to help you out... free of charge. This is basically pro-bono consulting with limited information on your situation.
Let your ego aside, embrace the fact that people are looking out for you and trying to help, rather then throwing you to the dogs. You currently have unlimited time to make this work, and work well. I would rather have 1000 different people try and help so there are 1000 different viewpoints on the topic, then only 5 people with almost no diversity on an issue. If time was a pressing issue, which right now it does not appear to be, then you would need that 1 guy making all the choices. But since this is not a state of emergency, and this is a democracy, explore ALL of your options, truly weigh the pros and cons of every choice that is out there, and make a choice that works for your district, and serves your customers the best choice that THEY are willing to pay for.

While I do agree with some points made here like 28 miuntes for a FAST team is far to long to wait, fortunately this was for the most part an exterior surround and drown as the fire had made substantial progress prior to arrival of the first due unit and probably was burning for a good period of time prior to discovery and reporting. As for consolidation/regionalization I think that is a fantastic idea, however with NY being a home rule state and too many different entities to make it happen so maybe we should find another topic to beat to death. As stated most of the mutual aid at this job was for tankers, the Millwood engine was requested for the fill site and the Croton engine was requested for the dump site to supply the rigs at the top of the hill doing the attack. The 3 units that were held for manpower were due to the fact that this structure was a collyer's mansion so overhaul was a labor intensive operation. Utility 88 was requested for rehab, utility 12 was requested for the cascade. The county's policy requires a deputy coordinator for any mutual aid fire. My estimation of manpower was more like 60 - 70 firefighters. Mutual aid is not strictly used by only northern westchester it is used countywide by almost all departments except going into the city of yonkers. (Correct me if I am wrong here Chief Flynn). I do have 1 question for you Chief Flynn and I am not trying to start a career/vollie problem here since I have a tremendous amount of respect for you and your department. How many rigs (engines, trucks, rescues and any special units) would you get on your 2nd alarm and how many firefighters would that be. This post is strictly my own observations and opinions and in no way reflect my department or any department that operated at ths job and did a great job!

This is why the dual dispatch with a FASTeam was implemented. Get them started, and if you don't need them, turn em around. All of our M/A teams were more then willing to try this out.
Yorktown's own FAST team response protocol is if we cannot field a crew (minimum 4 FASTeam qualified members [which is pages long in our SOGs]) in 3 minutes and out the door in 5, we will notify 60-control and the IC we cannot field a FASTeam. If we know we cannot field it sooner then that, we'll notify them immediately. If we have the manpower(minimum 4 interior firefighters), but not a FASTeam, we will notify the IC that we can send either an engine or truck, if the IC so chooses to accept. We have a no retone policy, and honestly feel others lives are more important then our ego's
As "buffy" as this sounds, our guys are very good at "getting on the horn" the moment a neighboring department gets called to a fire, and sending out mass texts and group chats (for those who have smart phones) to see who's around to respond. We sometimes know before the first due company arrives on scene, if we'll be able to field a crew or not should we be called. Members normally start making their way to HQ to lesson the time even more as the texts are going out.
No
4 out of the first 5 arriving firemen are FASTeam members.
3 in and about 20 outside was being utilized.

Sorry Chief, I was reading up on my phone and not neglecting to respond to you. No offense taken, or feelings hurt either.
To begin, the Yorktown Heights Fire District covers approximately 40 square miles, 1/2 of which contain no hydrants. The southern end of Yorktown is the non-hydrant district, with roads that were designed for travel well before cars were ever designed to be driven on them. Old Logging Rd, which is the access road for Maiden lane is even worse. It is a single lane goat path, with barely even enough room for a single engine, let alone some massive tankers to drive up, or even turn around. OUR engines and tanker are designed to fit up these roads/ driveways, and designed with our district in mind. Some of our neighboring department's tankers will not fit down our old roads, and if they do make it down, there is no where for them to turn around to get back to a fill site. Most of the houses located on these properties are large, older buildings constructed with balloon frame, wood, plaster, lathe, and are home to many hoarders (seems to be an epidemic in Yorktown recently). The newer homes are just as big and McMansions in some cases. Many unique homes and oddly designed layouts also adorn our district on the southend.
Yorktown has 2 primary first due engines, Engine 273 out of the Commerce St station in the center of town with 1000 gallons, and Engine 272 out of Station 2 in the Northern, hydrant supplied section of town, with 750 gallons of water. The Tanker sits at the commerce st house as well. Engine 270 is a rescue pumper with only 500 gallons, and engine 271 is our spare engine (basically an older twin of 273). Engine 270 would normally be a 3rd due engine, if it responds at all, to keep our hurst tools available for a run. In our non-hydranted sections of town, it is not uncommon to have driveways that are hundreds, or even thousands of feet long (our longest being almost 1/2 a mile off of hog hill rd). Old logging road is basically no different then a common access driveway that is thousands of feet long.
Now on to your question of why 7 departments were called.
Our first due engine takes the drive way and normally lays in from the bottom for long lays. The next due engine then hooks up to that to relay pump to the first due. The tanker supplies the 2nd due, and drops its tank for a dump site there. At this particular house, the driveway was only 100' long, if that. 273 arrived first, and 272 was seconds behind them. Upon arrival, the neighbors were screaming that the owner was still inside, so our priorities immediately turned to life safety. Engine 272 immediately supplied 273 with their tank water, and sent their crew to assist in the offensive attack. Tanker 14 arrived shortly thereafter, and supplied 272.
Millwood and Croton's engines were called as draft site fills, and I believe a relay and supply line to the tanker at the scene. Even with the water that was there with the initial 3 apparatus, the water filling the supply lines, and the time it takes to back one tanker out and have another one pull in and dump its tank, the supply was running out every 2-5 minutes and we could not keep up with the fire flow formula. More tankers were requested to compensate for the lack of water supply.
Yorktown is very adamant about not stripping other towns and villages of apparatus for our fires. If we've called you for 1 piece, the only way we're going to call for something else is if there has been a discussion with the chief of that particular department a)having the capability to supply 2 pieces and the manpower and willingness to deplete their town of their own resources. If they say no, we can't/don't want to/ or unsure, they're not going to get called for 2.
Our 10-75 assignment for any non hydrant area (which we'll stick to for the remainder of the discussion [our other boxes and assignments can be found here: Yorktown box alarms]) includes tankers from 3 other departments, and an engine as a source pumper; 1 and 1 are requested on the relocate to cover our town since our manpower is focused on the working fire. FASTeams are dual dispatched on the initial report of any type of structure fire before a working fire is transmitted. 2nd alarm, moves the engine that is standing by up to a new draft site, and brings in 2 additional tankers, a cascade to the scene, another FAST and another engine on a relocate to our HQ. 3rd alarm brings in 2 additional Tankers and the Field Comm unit. The relocated ladder will not be taken off standby, as they will clog the system up.
So the 7 departments were:
Yorktown as first due
Croton - Engine and Tanker
Millwood - Engine and Tanker
Somers - Tanker, Rehab unit
Continental Village - Tanker
Katonah - Tanker
Buchannon - Cascade
Now, I'm for regonalization and standardization of some aspects of the fire department, but some areas of the county, regardless of fire district lines, are completely different then others. Apparatus design that work well in one area, may not work well in an area directly adjacent to that. Consolidation is always a hot topic, and I know prior i've been adamant about county consolidation. Honestly, I have no idea what the correct answer is. Sometimes, independant districts are fantastic, and other times they're completely horrendous. I really don't know if there is a single correct answer for the current situation around our area.
And in the utmost respectful way to ask this possible, and I really mean that, would you or anyone else for that matter, consider consolidating the ENTIRE county, large cities included, into ONE regional department? If so, why, or if you exclude large cities from your plan, why are they so special and different from a town or village department?

This is why the dual dispatch with a FASTeam was implemented. Get them started, and if you don't need them, turn em around. All of our M/A teams were more then willing to try this out.
Yorktown's own FAST team response protocol is if we cannot field a crew (minimum 4 FASTeam qualified members [which is pages long in our SOGs]) in 3 minutes and out the door in 5, we will notify 60-control and the IC we cannot field a FASTeam. If we know we cannot field it sooner then that, we'll notify them immediately. If we have the manpower(minimum 4 interior firefighters), but not a FASTeam, we will notify the IC that we can send either an engine or truck, if the IC so chooses to accept. We have a no retone policy, and honestly feel others lives are more important then our ego's
As "buffy" as this sounds, our guys are very good at "getting on the horn" the moment a neighboring department gets called to a fire, and sending out mass texts and group chats (for those who have smart phones) to see who's around to respond. We sometimes know before the first due company arrives on scene, if we'll be able to field a crew or not should we be called. Members normally start making their way to HQ to lesson the time even more as the texts are going out.
No
4 out of the first 5 arriving firemen are FASTeam members.
3 in and about 20 outside was being utilized.

This is why the dual dispatch with a FASTeam was implemented. Get them started, and if you don't need them, turn em around. All of our M/A teams were more then willing to try this out.
Yorktown's own FAST team response protocol is if we cannot field a crew (minimum 4 FASTeam qualified members [which is pages long in our SOGs]) in 3 minutes and out the door in 5, we will notify 60-control and the IC we cannot field a FASTeam. If we know we cannot field it sooner then that, we'll notify them immediately. If we have the manpower(minimum 4 interior firefighters), but not a FASTeam, we will notify the IC that we can send either an engine or truck, if the IC so chooses to accept. We have a no retone policy, and honestly feel others lives are more important then our ego's
As "buffy" as this sounds, our guys are very good at "getting on the horn" the moment a neighboring department gets called to a fire, and sending out mass texts and group chats (for those who have smart phones) to see who's around to respond. We sometimes know before the first due company arrives on scene, if we'll be able to field a crew or not should we be called. Members normally start making their way to HQ to lesson the time even more as the texts are going out.
No
4 out of the first 5 arriving firemen are FASTeam members.
3 in and about 20 outside was being utilized.