bigrig77

I guess I read it wrong. The GoPro is currently the standard for all extreme sports. They are water-proof, shock proof, and are in HD. if your looking for something to strap to your head when you hit the trails mountain biking then it is the way to go.

They have a pretty decent program to evaluate the applications, but how honest the departments are is certainly at question. Given the review process takes place in Emmitsburg and doesn't entail any roadtrips and to my knowledge do not require further review beyond the application, a creative writer can make a case for the "need" where if a reviewer was in the same town, see the application as a "want". Some very needed equipment will not get funded due to poor grant writing or failure to meet guidelines, while others hire professional grant writers to get what they want.We have been awarded 3 or 4 AFG's, but in the last few years not applied as when the grants came out we looked at what we needed and had to really think about it, thus it seems we don't have a true need. Many FD's found that they could buy tons of things they never dreamed of having, and likely didn't need.
Ultimately, IMO, grant programs that are taxpayer funded cost taxpayers more than they should as they typically take the money locally (from your taxpayers) bring it to DC, pay some people to run the program, then re-distribute the money to local areas. This allows some places to buy things their community's would never buy at full price, but couldn't turn down at a 20% match cost. So 100% of the money goes to DC, 80% goes back, we lose 20%, I guess we write it off to job creation. Of course this reaches far further than AFG's and is done across all ranges of government services. Sure there are places that have needs, but why are we all paying for some town that refuses to put enough money in their budget for turnout gear? The FD should instead tell them they cannot do more than spray water from afar if they choose not to properly fund them. Some Homeland Security stuff might need to be done in the current manner given the problem is far more regional than most typical fire issues.

Well, given some responses on quasi-related posts, it doesn't really matter. If a department says they "need" it, then they "need" it, right? Doesn't matter what unbiased, independant observers say, does it?

Nice boat. Of course that money could have gone to a worthy cause. Seems like the people who award the grants don't really do any fact checking on the applications. How can a small department that does not have a strong showing get a million dollar grant for a boat that is not needed? I mean back in 2001 i could see this happening when they were just thorwing money at departments. I would think with this economy, they would be checking and rechecking all these applications.

I. Love. Texas.
If this happened in New England (New Hampshire probably notwithstanding) the father would have been charged with Capital Felony Murder, Ben and Jerry's would have come out with a new flavor of ice cream to benefit the family of the scumbag rapist and Al Sharpton would be claiming it was a racist atrocity perpetrated against an innocent, defenseless minority.
In Texas, the dirtbag gets dead, the father gets to continue taking care of his family and trying to piece together the lost innocence of his child with the support of a caring community that takes care of its own.

Thank God he was in a state with some common sense...had it been NY...he'd be screwed I am afraid!

As the husband of a teacher, if people truly want to save on taxes, then go after neither the Board of Education nor the fire or police service: go after politicians.

You are right. The only ones to benefit are the Pelhams. As a resident of Eng 3's first due area near the Town of Mamaroneck border, every time Eng 23 would go to Pelham my next due engine is either 25 or 21. Both are 8-10 minutes away depending on traffic/weather conditions. If the people want to save on taxes go after the Board of Education, not the fire service.

But think of the children.............

Didn't they already do this?
http://www.pace.edu/dyson/research-and-resource-centers/academic-centers-and-institutes/michaelian-institute/michaelian-institute-and-westchester-fire-chi

Why do you think they would be called more than already established and highly trained teams?

This whole situation boils down to this one sentence....

They are not firefighters! No one with a conscience would stand by and do nothing because of dollars and cents! Paid or volunteer! When there time of judgement comes and asked why you didn't help when you could of? really! are you going to say because they didn't pay! what a disgrace!

I am sooo not a fire guy, so feel free to break my chops on this. Would it be unreasonable to stop allowing the building of structures that if on fire, would be beyond the capacity of the local FD?
It would mean only small structures in small towns, and larger structures in large towns. I know there are buildings in my town that we simply could not be expected to handle with what we have. I think the big new Trump buildings in NR and other huge buildings in WP are beyond the capacity of their protecting agencies.
If a developer felt the need put such a concentration of fire load in a single spot to better fatten his bank account, he would need to subsidize the FD in perpetuity. Not a tax break, a tax add-on for the cost of added fire suppression capacity.
Some will say that large fires are what mutual aid is for. I agree. Based on history, a large fire in a single home in my town needs 2-4 MA dept's to fight it. That is fine and that is what MA IS for. Is MA for building a sprawling 250 bed nursing home full of folks that could not walk out on a warm sunny clear day with NO fire? In an area with NO hydrants?
The FD is part of a Town's infrastructure. If the infrastructure cannot support a large structure, be it sewage, water, EMS or fire, than perhaps we ( or more accurately you), the folks who whether paid or volly have stood up and said, "I will handle the fires around here" need to stand up and say, "I'm real good, but I am not 7 floors X 200 X 200 OMD good. Lets make it three story clusters with sprinklers. That we can handle"
What do you guys think of that? I await my lessons.

From Incident Alert:
Date: 06-17-12 (Sunday)
Time: 18:19hrs.
Weather Conditions: Warm and Clear
Description Of Incident: Chief 80 o/s reporting a kitchen fire on the 2nd floor of a 7-story brick 200'x200' OMD w/reports of victims trapped. Companies o/s w/heavy fire showing w/extension to the 3rd floor. 2nd and 3rd Alarms transmitted by Command for heavy fire conditions and numerous victims trapped. Command reporting fire extended to the 5th and 6th floors w/jumpers down. 4th, 5th, and 6th Alarms transmitted by Command. Heavy fire on the 2nd through 6th floors. Numerous L/S/O's w/master streams in operation. Ladder Companies opening up. Numerous victims rescued. Command requested 24 additional Ambulances to the scene for 30 victims to be transported to local hospitals. All hands working.
The above incident occured yesterday in Hempstead L.I.. The depts. did a great job and everyone was very lucky to have no fatalities.
Identical buildings exist in Westchester from Yonkers to Peekskill along the Hudson, from Pelham Manor to Portchester along the LI Sound and from Mount Vernon North to _______ along the Harlem Line MNRR.
How many depts. can get enough trained personnel on scene fast enough?
How many are competent in fighting a fire in this type of structure?
How long would it take to get 24 additional ambulances?
And how would the performance be if the weather was not perfect and it was at other times/day of the week?
Finally, how do we get there from here?

Don't want to Hijack this thread but, here are some videos:

Affirmative action (reverse racism)

Shamefully....yes. However, let's all remember that this is currently before the second circuit court on appeal. No matter who wins, the other side will probably petition the Supreme Court and no one will be getting any money or any seniority for a long time, hopefully never.

Good morning Brothers,
Interesting replies. Like it or not, the moderation team HAS kept this site, for NINE years from becoming a P.O.S. I can give you plenty of examples of sites that are "THEE" worst. You want to go there because of who the people on these sites purportedly are. They come from big city jobs, and those guys opinions let's face it, are probably some of the most sought after pieces to read.
I want to know what these guys think. They work within systems that are the biggest, with the most complicated action plans, and cultures that we, as brother emergency services people from smaller career jobs, many volunteer departments, would emulate given the chance. Perfect example is how a "10-75" NYC code for working fire has become nearly a standard for many parts of the northern counties.
Job innovations have traditionally come out of the cities. My ego is of such, that I freely admit to the curiosity of what my brothers from the cities New York, New Rochelle, Yonkers, Mt. Vernon and all cities beyond, KNOW. Yes I'd like to hear what their experiences have led them to learn.
But I go to a couple of sites, and I see high-school styled bullying and bashing. What a disappointment. I hope Seth is okay with my giving a shout out to NYCFire.net. THE best NYC site on the web in my opinion. There's a civility and professionalism there that is quite organized.
A great thing about EMTBravo is that our city brothers have joined and participate on a Westchester and northern counties website. Valuable. Cool. Nice of them.
And then we have a colorful amalgam of career emergency services and volunteer. We all know from time to time younger members will come in here and it's almost sad to watch. You can read their anger right into their posts. Without the moderation that has taken place, these kids would have never stopped, and the quality of the site would have declined long ago.
Over moderation? I had no idea this was a festering issue behind the scenes. Maybe some of the brothers who have felt so strongly about this issue would consider what I have stated above.
The photo thing? In my opinion that goes to "EMTCity" website problem that occurred a few years ago. Now when I looked early on with the new software package and saw the 9/11 Remembrance Wall had been removed, I had to admit, certainly I had used images gleaned from searches as backgrounds for collages that I created to respect the 343. With that gone, I could stamp my feet about how long it took to create some of those posts, rather I'm just going to have to admit it had to come down because of these copyright issues; regardless if the thread was about a Remembrance, and certainly wasn't about making money or anything. At the time, I had NO IDEA about these infringement issues.
These guys had to deal with a serious issue just like that when somebody gleaned something off another site recently. Thankfully the other site is made of up good decent people. but the photographer apparently got upset. So that's that.
In the future, I think this site needs to seriously consider changing the NAME of the site to something that connects better with a national base of readers. EMTbravo has spread, initially by word of mouth (thinking about the night a brother came into my office and told me about EMTBravo back in the dark ages of the internet) and reputation. So keep the URL and change the name to Westchester Emergency Services or whatever. Just my opinion, but I think you could expand the base and certainly would get more search hits.
Yeah so it's an old familiar place this site. Today I live on a corral reef in between Florida Bay and the Atlantic. But this site, ah hell it's as familiar and comfortable as my old cardigan sweater that I can't wear anymore where I live. lol
Good luck everybody. Just go for it. Like Joe said, make the site what you want, just stay within the rules of civility. I've posted at times loaded with curses, and been removed. Later you admit to yourself it wasn't appropriate, and you go on. We're all emergency services or used to be's. We all make mistakes every day in spite of our quest for perfection in every thing we do. After all we're just human beings.
Here's my Edit: When I say guys and brothers, I want the sisters who are members here to know, it always includes them.

I just think they want to make this site something that it will never be. It is what it is....a buff site. Not a training site...not a cutting edge tech site...it's a buff site that "used" to have good posters with lots of knowledge and experience that we COULD learn from..if we wanted to. I know personally I have.

I know I will get crucified for saying this - but here goes.
As a long-time member of the forums, and as someone who generally doesn't hold back my opinions, I have frequently found myself on the receiving end of what I call "over-moderation."
My recent banishment from here came on the heels of a thread I started, begging people not to hijack the thread or turn it into the all-too-common paid vs. volunteer debate. Almost immediately after starting the topic, some chose to go the route I didn't want it to go, I became irritated (some call it pissed off) and fired off. When I went back and forth with someone openly about this, I got banned (I don't know if he did or not, but that's not the point). I then sent a message to the Moderators both here and on my Facebook page with some choice phrases. I spent a few months banned from here, but as you can see, I am back (for now).
Putting aside my personal opinions of certain people running these forums, I still enjoy them for the most part and honestly feel they are an invaluable tool to all of us - provided we use them the right way. I know I've given Seth my word that I will try harder to brush certain things off and not engage in some of my previous behaviors, but I know I'll probably slip up again. I am a very, VERY opinionated person, passionate about what we do with a fairly decent amount of experience and training to support what I say. I've seen friends and family hurt or worse doing this stuff and can only hope that some of the things we talk about on public forums like these will make all of us smarter and more cognizant of the dangers we face.
Another thing to consider...
As others have said in the past, sometimes we just need to put our "big boy pants" on and develop a thicker skin for the criticisms and advice of others. Nobody is perfect, especially me, and we all make mistakes. As members of the emergency service community we're one big family - like it or not - and even though we may constantly fight about things, we still (usually) can pull together when the chips are down. We go through a lot of bad things together and a lot of good too - but we need to put certain stuff off to the side and keep the forums on track to do what they're meant to do, help us all do our jobs better and safer, and to stick with one another when we need it most.
The fire service is a great part of our country's culture and I am so very glad to be a part of it. I've made countless friends doing it, and even more so from just this forum. I know that we all think our own way of doing things is always better than the other guys, but it isn't always the case and coming to online resources like this with an open mind can (and does) help all of us.
Last thought...
In this month's Fire Engineering there's an article on fire department social media policies. I think every Chief, Commissioner and Officer should take the time to read it and understand it. I know I learned a few things reading it which will change certain feces I occasionally spew from my mouth and on to my keyboard!
Thanks for posting this George!

So what's up people? Just an opinion, since the site has undergone the software change, feels to me like the "environment" has changed as well.
To the career firefighting Brothers: I realize there is immense pressure on the home-front these days, meaning the jobs are under pressure. Nobody can get a contract, morale is suffering, making it harder to do what you do, Yonkers wants to mess with the job again. Regarding a website like this, there is a new awareness that social media can have real world ramifications.
Witness the Miami-Dade fire captain who recently posted a rant on facebook about the George Zimmerman case. That got him demoted to buck private. I guess he's lucky he's still on the job. The rules in Florida for civil servants can be severe, but I guess that's true everywhere. Just more severe in some places.
And I guess that's why a lot of Brothers and Sisters who used to post more frequently have pulled back as of late. Not that they rant, rather they're being hesitant. It's smart to CYA. You gotta.
Once again just an opinion but the direction can change for the positive. The discussions about firefighting, experiences, the posting of photos of apparatus, these types of posts should be expanded upon, so more people will come back in to the discussion boards. I think many are hesitant to post anything, and it's in direct connect to the job now.
We all knew that was coming. Word was out on this site long ago. Remember the "Cameras are everywhere" thread? Take a look at the NY Post this morning. they are attempting to vilify an NYPD Sgt. who was speaking on the street to the local thugeries that only understand street. One little rat videoed him, and bango, front page of the Post. I watched that video. There is nothing surprising or vile in it. The vile is a morality dictate from the "so morally pure" organization that prints it. You know the one with the phone tap scandal going on. Those morally pure folk.
Trying to destroy an Sgt doing the job the way it gets done in some places. Dealing with a subject with a reported 20 arrests. Nice guy. And the paper exploits this dirtbag to denigrate the NYPD. Why?
The point of this post is directed at the career Brothers and the cops, and ems, and volunteer firefighters who make up this online forum/community. There is so much you can still talk/write about. It will lift morale for guys to get back to discussing the stuff we all learn from.
Happy Monday morning. You know what that media saturation of bad news, it hits everybody. We ll need to stay vigilant enough to realize, just take a look around you, and you'll see the American economy is still vibrantly active, sure there are big problems with the GOVT, but Americans mostly yawn and go back to work. the gazzilion stories of the 10 percent who are unemployed struggling is indeed worthy of attention. But take a look around you at the thriving, the commerce, the technology, the defeat of terrorists.
This country is tired and worked out, but it never gives up. And that's why things are going to be okay. That's why eventually the GOVT will figure out what the hell they are doing. Someday things will come back. The dread, the doom, you know what it's just not worth worrying about it. It'll make you sick unless you step up and put it all down, and continue to do what you do.
So how about some more postings? I yearn to read more from just about everybody here. Like the Summerville Brother said, have a great day.

I do not agree with this at all. I certainly have the Highest Respect for Any State Troopers or City/Town Police officers for that matter.
The fact that if they get hurt, this is Not their job. And who is guarding the hen house while these Troopers fight this fire. If I saw this nd wanted to commit a crime somewhere on their beat, I know there could be a delayed response giving me a better chance to get away with it.
If they were firefighters dressed in civilian clothes doing this, we would be the first to critize them for not wearing the proper gear.
I think Somebody mentioned that they were glad that a State Trooper took the hose line and started to fight the fire. Did I read that right ? A firefighter was glad that a State Trooper took the hose line to fight the fire. Should a firefighter take a gun from the Troopershands and shoot a suspect ? It doesn't make sense to me reading that.
I don't think any State Trooper should be honored for doing this. And personnelly if I was the Chief, I'd be speaking to their supervisor explaining why Firefighters fight fires and not State Troopers.
If I was going for surgury, would I want my electrician who just put in a new fuse panel to open my heart.
I really can not believe some people would agree with this. Maybe they ment well, but should I be pulling cars over for speeding, or should I leave that for the people who are trained (and paid) to do it.

That's why it is an Engine job. LOL

Taken from the Valley Breeze Newsparper in RI: http://www.valleybreeze.com/2012/05/02/cl/what-is-a-firefighter-worth
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