Boss159

My take on the video, the traffic light turned green for traffic going the opposing direction from the ambulance a split second after the crash, my guess is the driver of the car was trying to beat the light, that being said, the crew should have exercised more caution entering the intersection. a good reminder on how intersections should be approached, with tons of caution....

Somewhat related to this topic, I have noticed a more than usual 'lack of knowledge' in new and newish EMT's, I am not really sure if it is due to the lack of understanding due to the cultural changes in society, or the 'dumbing down' of these programs to the basic minimum to pass the tests, I know the saying goes class is just the beginning the real training happens on the street, but it seems that it's worse than it's ever been.

I am for conslodation for man power issues not like the "in debt to its ears" department pushing merging in my area with the departments whos budgets are balanced and in the black. However this is where I see the VFD's in NY in the next ten years in my area at least, is paid staff, either contracted aka Wackenhut ect or paid staff of a county list, the type of people in my area 'expects' to have FD as soon as they dial 911 and can't understand the concept of volunteering, the demagraphics have changed big time over the last 10-15 years, and the ones who do volunteer don't have the same sense of pride or work ethic that I have or others had in the past, It's slowly dying.

The article lacks one important peice of information. While they report the town has 12 fire disctricts, they fail to mention the size of the town or number of residents served. is a district 1 square mile or 100? not being from the area I cant guess. It would have been nice if the reporter did his homework.

From my limited knowledge of the town is that it is very large, as for each individual district i do not know, However if you take the 8.8 million and divide by 12 then you get $733,333 average per department, that to me is a lot of money, in my small department that's a new engine, rescue and brush truck all at the same time with money left for a new chiefs car. Two years with that much money its land and a new firehouse, then a ladder the following year and so on, granted that does not include utilities, fuel and such, but i am sure they can cut some of their budgets and do a few more boot drops and events to raise money like we do.

Wish all involved a speedy recovery!

Now my two cents:

According to the news report in the video, they crashed in the driveway of the house they were going to for a deck fire, Although there was not a good angle of the trucks involved the one that you could see had some serious damage to the officers side of the cab. So my question is why the hell were they going fast enough to cause that much damage pulling into a driveway? No doubt 'tunnel vision' was in play in this incident, even if the one truck didn't see the house and was cruising past the other driver should have been aware that the truck was not turning into the driveway, This is easily preventable! Driver training, Requalification what have you, or just taking the second to think and look.

On a lighter note, this is why the Chief should drive nothing bigger than a Tahoe!!

What I didn't read is, are they District run or membership owned house? either way shouldn't they be getting tax or contract money from the village, town, county, state? If so where the respective auditors? Is the Chief the end all be all of the company, is there board of directors, commissioners, membership? There are grants and fundraisers, I am a fourth generation member of a small FD and to the best of my knowledge they never had to get a bank loan for equipment, it was always covered by fundraisers, grants, tax or contract monies. Maybe we have been just lucky, or better money management.... lots of questions, not enough answers in that article... or maybe i missed it.

Well, 2 people went up and supported him..Just 4 years of employment....Being a paid EMT at Mobile Life previously and a volunteer in Marlboro w/ no experience in Dutchess other than the 4 years gets you the top job in the county!! Guess others that have 15+ years of EMS/Fire and Coordinator experience arent qualified enough....oh well!

Well, I was sent the announcement of assistant fire coordinator, Hopefully someone gets it that has a clue and gets some things done, good luck to whoever gets it cause they will be one busy S.O.B. LOL

BTW the announcement is here if anyone wants to apply https://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CivilServiceInformationSystem/ApplicantWeb/Public/frmAnnouncementList.aspx deadline of 2/18

In my opinion totally wrong person for the job, and i do believe one of the requirements was to be a Dutchess resident.

Yup it is here is the line pulled directly from the announcement "Residency requirement in Dutchess County is mandatory."

I did save the Email from the county.

I guess my two cents is, prevention, the only way to stop valves, pumps and hose from freezing is educate the community. Easier said then done in the broke economy, homeowners and occupants using whatever means to keep warm, but every little bit helps.

Stay safe and warm out there fellow brothers and sisters.

Rhinecliff (Dutchess)2010-194 2009-210 Fire and EMS

Stuff like that make me wonder what we pay taxes for.

I know the NYS Thruway will bill motorists insurance companies for propery damage caused by an MVA, which I can sort of understand. But to bill the motorist directly?

Even if they just bill the insurance companies, it means auto rates are going to go up for people that live or drive in New York City.

Do they charge for trash pickup?

Some of these ways these politicans are coming up with to fund Fire, PD, and EMS are going to kill people by fear alone. No one should have to hesitate to call 911 to consider if they can afford it or not.

I totally agree, isn't that what taxes are for? This will lead to more hit and run accidents in my opinion, why stick around and be forced to pay because a engine rolled, whats next bill Ala cart, well $490 for minor injury, $2000 for cutting you out, oh and by the way we need to check your credit before we start. If you wreck and get transported by EMS the auto insurance picks up the tab. This is just another sign of total mismanaged and misguided politicians, trying to put a band-aid on nuclear warhead timed to explode.

As far as EMS charging for service and Fire not, if its a municipal system in my opinion it should be fully covered by taxes, with a per capita 'pay in' from health insurance companies that operate. I will explain lets just say for discussion there are 10 health insurance providers in city xyz those carriers pay in to a pool to off set EMS costs, thus supporting the tax base, and not having to pay out to ambulance services. If privates are involved a signed contract for the service area should entitle them to the same benefits. that's a short version to my 'solution' should keep everyone funded and costs down for insurance. that is my two cents...

It will get much worse

I thought Transcare bought the old Hudson Valley Ambulance/Community Medical Transport (CMT) CON, when it was MetroCare. This was back around (correct me if I'm wrong) 2002 or so when they first moved into Kingston in Ulster County and Otisville in Orange County.

I am pretty sure you are correct on that,from what i have heard, doesn't health quest still retain the CON's from Alamo and Sloper as they were the parent company?

In northern Dutchess county it is rare that reporters even leave the office for incidents in the area, rather call the Firehouse 20,000 times while everyone is still on scene requesting information from the answering machine. I have had on a few occasions updated the local papers with incident detail only to read the article the next day and have it completely wrong, and very obvious that the reporter was not even listening or taking notes. So in my opinion it is a waste of time to give out any info, I will never again, if they want a story drive to the call or firehouse and interview in person. With that being said I do understand the power of the media, positive or negative.

A priority system based on a sequence of standard questions and adding any other pertinent info to decide the response seems to work up here. Granted I've been to life threatening and fatal priority 3's and 4's (NLS side of the scale), and been to very minor almost "laughable" for better lack of an appropriate term priority 1's. From my time spent behind the wheel of an ambulance, in our rural setting, RLS for the majority of transports results in minimal time gained. Not that I am denying their credibility in the ease of transport, but it is just something to think about.

I have been there as well, also we have our 'regulars' (in nice terms) where as 911 dispatches a priority 1 response for a seizure because the CAD says so, even though it's the 40th time they have called 911 in a month because they sold/taken all their narcotics, 7 day supply lasting only one day! I digress, the dispatchers are well aware of the BS nature of this caller but have to follow protocol and dispatch it P1. I and most of the crews know of this person, very well and do not respond 'code 3'.

However now that there is priority dispatching, what liability are crews taking by reducing their response to calls like my above mentioned patient when the one time out of 700 it's a true life threat, the EMD from the CAD gets it wrong, call taker gets it wrong or patient embellishes their symptoms to get a faster response? This happens day in and day out, all of us who have been doing this for years have been there, what we all need to do is the seasoned veterans need to educate the newbies, as with most emergency services problems education is the key, pass your knowledge on to the next generation, be it patient education, driving, BLS/ALS skills and techniques and believe it or not, common sense can be passed on. (to a slight degree)

Blah blah blah...........warning lights people......warning lights!

WHO CARES!

I ride around in a big red engine or truck. It has flashing lights and we use it on streets highways ect.....The only thing that is really going to make a difference for your safety is YOU! Use your head and pay attention. I've been standing on the highway and seen people work REALLY hard to squeeze their car between the flares we put up to close a portion of the road. I've had motorcycles weave right through the firemen on the scene.

Lights, stripes, ribbons, flares don't matter that much. The only thing that will keep you safe is using your head and some proper rig placement. The only thing that's going to keep you safe and stop drivers from coming near you while you work is to make them UNABLE to.

Couldn't have been said better.

May their families find peace, RIP brothers.

Date:8-16-10

Time:2355

Location: Holy cross way

Frequency: DC 911 dispatch, command, FG 5/6

Units Operating: (61)Rhinecliff 13,53,71 (44)Hillside 24,32 (59)Rhinebeck 14,32 (58)Red Hook 13

Weather Conditions: warm, humid

Description Of Incident: 40x50 2 story maintenance building heavily involved

Reporters: me

Writer: me

2355 Initial dispatch for unknown type of fire called in from Ulster county in the area of Holy cross/Morton rd

0002 Rhinecliff Car 1 updates DC911 working structure fire on the old Holy Cross campus/ Assignment upgraded Hillside and Rhinebeck T/S

0003 61-13, 53, 71 responding

0006 Heavy iron gate impeding FD access to property

0009 access gained fire building is in the rear of the campus Heavily involved with collapse

0014 additional for engine for draft site and tanker T/S, also fire investigation division requested (Rhinebeck 14 Red Hook 13 disp)

0115 Fire K/D

0134 FID O/S

0215 All M/A released

0406 FID investigators/ Rhinecliff units clearing scene

http://dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/08/17/blotter/doc4c6a6bbb896e4818131007.txt

A few "in the field" shots

I believe Bill our Chief will be looking for your officer at the next chiefs council meeting, possible asking for a copy of your spec's. thanks for the pic's helped a bunch.

Tim

To add some info, this will be a f450-550 chassis,it will have mixed use as in traffic control, brush fire, tree&wire babysitting, I've seen Wassaic's truck in pic's but..pro's and con's, any problems with ground clearance, any problems with the booster reels being on top like they are? or is this is the best brush truck anyone has ever used?

We have looked at CET, BRAT, two others that I can't recall off the top of my head. Here is what the committee has so far as to what we want...

f450-550 super cab 4x4

Single wheel rear axle

300gal water/10gal foam poly tank

18hp+ truck fueled diesel pump/ pump and roll capable

led or hid tele scene lights

enough hose bed for 300' forestry

pre connect at waist level w/150' forestry

room for 2 lengths of suction hose

enough cabinet space for hand tools, chain saw ect.

I think we have most of what we want on the truck figured out, just looking for the, opinion of departments that have newer truck in service and what options that are liked and not like on them

Our department is kinda stuck in a rut with getting specs finalized for a new brush truck, we have seen some demos and just looking for some input on the likability, ease of use, technical abilities of existing newer trucks, any input will be appreciated please give me all pro's and con's and a description of what you use...

Thanks Tim

Date:6/15/10

Time:1606

Location: 224 mill rd

Frequency: dc 911

Units Operating: Red hook fd tivoli fd Rhinebeck 59-14,32,46 (59-14 redirected from car fire) milan 48-12 Hillside S/B Rhinebeck FD

Weather Conditions: sunny warm

Description Of Incident: Report of house fire multiple calls

Reporters: dc 911

Writer: me

1610 command advised multiple phone calls

1610 Tivoli dispatched with all equipment M/A

1616 2nd dispatch for remaining equipment

1620 59-32 dispatched T/S

1622 59-46 T/S Hillside engine S/B in Rhinebeck's FH

*1645 Fire appears K/D from cell pics*

I need a change of shorts just watching the video, can't imagine how the people on the highway felt!

I do not know much about the call volume, logistics or for that matter anything about operrations in the city of Newburg or the Town, but what about the idea of expanding the Town VAC to cover city calls also with ALS fly car back up by MLSS or even City medics?

Does the City have a contract with MLSS, and what is the fee? If anyone knows...

I am all for the shoutbox.

Another busy day in Dutchess county, a couple structure fires, a couple chimney fires, and a good job by all.