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Seems roof rakes/shovels are hard to find. My local hardware store got in 8 of them them have had on order for 3 weeks, and they were all spoken for. Lowes and Home Depot are in the same situation. None availible for sale. I really cant fault someone for not clearing their roof when the tools are all out of stock. That being said, I shoveled the roof over my porch yesterday as a precaution with a plastic shovel. Anyone know what the NYS building codes says for snow load?

The municipality "you can only raise taxes by 2% a year" stuff applies to fire districts also. This could lead to interesting times. With "pork barrel" $ being cut big time, I think this is going to hurt alot of small districts. The yearly increased costs of insurance, apparatus, turnout gear, utilities, and everything else wont be capped at 2%, thats for sure. It would be nice if NYS picked up the cost of the audits that they imposed on the districts a few years ago. The average cost for a small district's audit is 10-15K, and it is a yearly state requirement to have done.

I love my Driod 2.. Works great, I can check email and surf the web all on my phone! Im a "phone abuser" (not on purpose, but I've dropped my droid a BUNCH of times, and it keeps on working) The only suggestion I have is go for the bigger extended battery that Moto offers for the Droid. I can get a day and a 1/2 of out one if I forget to charge it at night with heavy use. The regular battery that it comes with lasted me only 3/4 of a day's of heavy use.

Wool socks and a sweatshirt are at the bedside are a must.

Extreme temps kill just about all types of batteries faster.

Seems like they are.. I still wonder why Garrison Fire Equipment is no longer a dealer for them.

All, I was wondering what REALLY does it mean to "expidite" your response as a driver of apparatus. There seem to be certain levels of "unofficial" response with in the response SOP. A) The "it's the 8th time an Automatic Alarm went off at the same location in the past 6 hours" response.. SOP says Red lights and sirens, but as a driver, I think most people drive to these at a "slowed" (as compard to normal emergency response) pace, with the lights on, an hitting the siren for only the "really dumb drivers" infront. Almost like your responding non code, but with lights. The "maybe/maybe not call" Drive like you mean to get there: Red lights, and siren/air horns going "normally" Driving within SOP's for emergency response, using due regard, C) The working fire call. You know what that means. As above, driving within SOP's for emergency response, a sense of urgency, using due regard, ect. The officer and crew are making plans/giving assignments, and in general getting ready to go to work. D) The Chief's radio call to "expidite to the scene" Consider your know your heading to a working call before you leave the apron or get the "expidite" call enroute. The Chief gets there does his scene size up, and the radio call is "Engine 1, expidite to my location" If your driving, your already amped up, driving with a sense of urgency, siren, lights, airhorns, and due regard. What does the expidite call do? The crew is already in "working mode" as above, so they really have nothing else they can do until they get there. The plan has been made, and unless they are told to change the plan, they are basically just waiting for the engine to arrive on scene. As a driver, do you drive any different then you already are? Does the expidite order give you "authorization" either offically or unofficially to do anything above and beyond in a response other than burn the bearings out of the Federal Q? For myself personally and my dept's SOP, it doesnt exist. I imagine it's the case in other dept's, but you hear it on the radio frequently.... So whats the deal? Is the term a hold over from long ago, and just needs to go the way of laying dual 2.5 inch hoses as a supply line? I think so. What do you think?

When it comes to buying new turnout gear for a small rural dept in the Hudson Valley, what do you suggest? Call volume is 200- 250 calls per year. The usual occasional structure fire, car fires, brush fires, MVA's and the like are the norm. (Yes, I know you shouldnt wear bunker pants to a brush fire, but most small departments dont have enough brush fires to justify the big expense of wildland gear for a small handful of calls.) Any particular features that work great as advertised or dont work at all, or "it sounded like a good idea, but no one ever uses that XYZ for it's intended purpose"? I have already seen how sewing names either directly on to a coat or a panel on the coat doesnt work great when the member leaves the service and the coat gets passed on to a new guy, or more frequently, outgrows their gear.. A snapped on name panel is the way to go for that. Any suggestions?

Alot of how the gear feels is directly related to what it made of. Outer shell, moisture barrier, and thermal shell. There are hundreds of possiblities you can use from the 3 to put a set of gear together. What works for FDNY may or may not work for another dept. But to use the sales tactic that "FDNY uses it so it must work for you too" I dont buy at all. It may, or it may not, but without evaluation, it's hard to say either way.

I took it as "FDNY uses it, so it must be the best. No reason to look elsewhere.."

I agree that skimping on turnout gear is a big no go. However, you can buy $800 on set of NFPA approved gear, or you can spend over $5000 on a set NFPA approved gear.. I imagine most depts buy the $1500-2000 range a set of turn out gear. JCNYC.. What do you say dont use Globe? Do you have specific examples of failures, bad workmaship, or???? Asking members what they need and like is an excellent idea. Morning Pride FDNY specs... I really dont care what FDNY uses.. They do things and operate differently than other depts. What may work for them may not work for someone else. I dont buy into those kinds of arguments. Should a dept buy new hose, fitings and nozzles with FDNY threads just because FDNY uses it? I know my dept and all others arround run National Standard threads.. It works better for us and our mutual aid depts than what FDNY uses.

Meetings with sales guys are great sources for info, but they dont tell you stuff like you can find out by asking others who have no dog in the fight, like on here!

Thats the sort of info that is very helpful! Keep it coming!

Just as a follow up: Central Hudson's contractors were at the fire house for 16 or so hours total replacing every floresecent light. Every ballast was changed to brand new electronic ballasts, new T-11 Bulbs installed, and reflectors. They even gave us a box of spare T-11 bulbs for the future. The work was very professional and the crew moves along at a good pace, wasting no time, cleaning up any mess they make. The biggest most visible change was in the apparatus bay, it is very much brighter in there than ever before. If you live in an area serviced by Central Hudson, you would be foolish to NOT take part in this free service. Basically, get new lights, do no work other than some paperwork, and save money... You cant go wrong. Even if you have gone to energy efficient lights in the past, they will check those to make sure there arent more efficient lights out there.

They wont know what those orange "Red Ball" gloves in the deep dark corner of the extra gear closet were orignally for.

The ex US Army supply officer in me is wondering with the SKEDs... Were they fresh off the delivery truck from the factory as part of an emergency procurement order, or were they in some warehouse sitting for a while when they should be been issued out long ago for use???

In additon to all the above, the durring and after the incident is very important to extended ops.. Getting cold/wet firefighters warm and rehabbbed. The hardest thing is keeping tabs on people at the "non fire ground" sites.. Do the guys at the draft site and your fire police have warming beverages???? The fireground usually takes care of itself as the chief is there to see firsthand whats going on, but it's the off site people that can be forgotten about in the heat of battle. Your Ladies Aux might come in to play here big time, and save the day when the hot coffee and soup arrives on scene. Some other stuff is: Keeping closed nozzles cracked a bit to prevent freezing. Will you need a pickup or flat bed tow truck to pick up "externally frozen" hose so it can be repacked at the station? Your probably not going to want to do it outside... If engines are called for manpower and arent pumping, is the MPO recirculating to prevent pump freeze up? Do you have a warm meal being prepared if it's that time of the day at an extended incident for when you get back in quarters? Taking care of people is key in the cold..

If anyone knows of a dept who wants to buy a good quality, well maintained and plenty of service life still left rigs, my district has 2 of them for sale 1987 Hahn (Marlboro E 38-20) 500 gal water, 1500 GPM pump (totally stripped of equipment except ground ladders) and a 1982 Stuphen, (Marlboro E 38-30) 1000 gal water, 1500 GPM pump. The Stuphen has 2000 feet of 4 inch, and a bunch of loose equipment including ground ladders. E 38-20 was our first out until we got our new engine a few months ago. E 38-30 is still a front line piece. PM me for more details. We cant find buyers anywhere, and we're not asking big $$$. I'd love to see them go to a good home. We'll even take yearly payments from a dept if all they can afford is a few thousand a year. No kidding, we've done it before.

Ahh. Your in a relatively decent radio area. Down in the extreme southern end of the county where it borders Orange County reception isnt so great. You should hear County pretty well.

It's been said that most people (who have some smarts about the subject) would rather have a $10 scanner coupled to a $100 antenna rather than the other way around. If the scanner cant catch the signals, it's useless. I use a Scanntenna http://www.grove-ent.com/ANT7.html Good coax cable and decent connectors are important also. Dotn forget some sort of lighting protection. Depending on where you are in Ulster determines how much you'll hear, no matter how bad a$$ your antenna is. There are some locations in my district where the apparatus with a 60 or 100 watt mobile radio cant hit the Illinois tower, but if you move 100 feet it's clear as a bell. Thats part of the problem with Low Band in general. Also, KEH-981 (Ulster 911 as they like to be called now) dispatches on one freq (the pager freq). After they make contact with the chief or apparatus on Channel 2, they will tell you which fireground channel (3-7)to switch over to. Channel 1 is for command to talk to Ulster 911 ONLY... I dont have the new freq/channel sheet with me, but I'll post it tommorrow. Some of the channels are on different freq's so it sort of makes it a quasi-duplex system. Tell us a bit more about where your generally located in Ulster and that will help.

I dont think chains for the fleet are a crazy item to have to every vehicle for an eventuality such as this. According to another poster, there are 2 shovels per rig. Im not talking Onspots or the like, as they are expendsive. Normal tire chains will last a lifetime for the amount they will get used, and if you spec out the same size tire when you get new rigs, you can use the old chains on new vehicles.

Since a "edict from above" was given that may change things a bit, but I dont think that is going to stop some lawyers. Good job to the troops in the field for doing what they had to do making the best of a bad situation, but those in the offices calling the shots might have some explaining to do.. 1st question I would ask is "You didnt have any foresight to buy chains for your fleet???"

My EMT card expired a while ago, but I dont remember there being an exception for weather emergencies that allowed you to abandon your patient. Some lawyer is going eat the city's lunch over that I bet.

He should of got more jail time. How exactly can he be made to pay money back that he doesnt have?

More work, more pictures. The 1.5 inch handline set up all bolted together now. I can pack 200-250 feet of 1.5 inch in there, so not bad for 2 handlines on a hose bed that not even 3 feet deep. The stop light on the back is not original, but I figure it cant hurt as far as being seen. The Federal WL siren was originally 6 Volts and non working when I got it. It's now 12 Volts and very loud..