FFEMT150

I remember a time when you thought people were mad at you if your balls were not being broken. Now you have to worry about saying something to someone and next thing you know you are the target of a lawsuit or charges wether internal or external

Those were the good 'ol days.

First of all, what impresses me the most here is the fact that the journal news has printed a positive article about the emergency services. Secondly, I am glad to see that the Hispanic population has an interest in joining the volunteer ranks in their community. I do agree with those if you that have mentioned a language barrier. Perhaps one solution would be the OFPC creating a language program specifically geared towards fire ground operations. I know there may be quite a bit involved in this but it could be an option. Thoughts?

Honestly I'd be worried about back injuries trying to pack hose in there.... You'd be standing without the ability to bend at the knees and dragging hose using nothing but your lower back as motive power... I'd rather have another few hundred feet and kneel to pack hose.

Right with you. I can't imagine how this makes packing hose easier. I see more injuries.

Whisker is a name? I thought it was something my cat had.

Here is a perfect example. This person is teasing me about my last name. Did I get angry? No. I simply giggled over his inability to check spelling from a post not 3 above his own. No hurt feelings here.

Yes, a whisker is something your cat has. A wisker is me. Ball breaker.

Edit: removal of fat finger typeo.

I'm not really looking to have a discussion but if one insues, so be it. I have noticed in a few threads recently that some people aren't able to take criticism or jest very well anymore. I would like to take this opportunity to bring back an acronym that was used by many on this site. Q.T.I.P. Quit taking it personal. Guess what kids, this is the emergency service. You are posting on a forum that is dedicated to us. If you say something out of line or just plain stupid, you will get your various parts busted. That's just how it works. Thanks for your time guys and gals. As always, stay safe.

Wisker

P.s. If you are going to be a keyboard tough guy, sign your name.

"This is a post for tazer policies not arguing. Junior, post somewhere else. End of discussion."

I don't see anyone arguing junior... Just stating observations. That being said, I think you may agree now that you have many police departments that operate in your area who are equipped with tasers and you may infact need a taser policy.

I would like to refer my answer to the top line of your profile picture.

Well played sir. Well played. I may have just popped a lung laughing.

It's s*** like this that makes all of us look bad. This is also why I hate parades. Having a melt down because two members didn't march? Grow the hell up! Can anyone tell me, is there any positive aspects to being a volunteer firefighter anymore? Because all I see is bull s*** and drama.

Here in Armonk, North Castle Police officers do not carry tasers, but do carry pepper spray. Therefore, it is never really an issue for us. This goes for the Town of Banksville and Town of North White Plains.

That may be true but the state police, county police and NYC DEP police that work in that area do carry them. Wouldn't hurt to have a plan just in case.

Nice shots. Thanks for posting.

Buffwhacker 1?

Seriously, it may belong to a hunter. And not the agency.

Deffinately not an agency truck. It has a PBA sticker above the reg and EMT plates on it. You got it right dinosaur... This is "buffwhacker 1".

A buff?

I don't see the benifit of on-spot chains.

Added expense, something else to break, and performance that does not compare to true tire chains.

Once you learn to put on chains does it really take that long? 10 minutes top to do it completly right. If you had to drive an engine or ambulance through a foot of snow which would you choose?

On spots are intended to get you to a place you can safely chain the rig. Too many people are relying on them full time. They come in handy when you find icy little spots or get caught in a fast storm. That's about it. Gimme a good old wrap any day.

Who gives a crap? Just give me an ambulance that is well maintained and properly equipped. The days of massive 4WD and "road warrior" monsters is over. Let's all get back to reality.

I agree. I worked out of a van for years with no problem, and guess what happened when it snowed... I still got to the call! With good tires and the weight of the bus it moved just fine. I can't stand these giant land barges some agencies buy. Although, the new demers that my agencies has are pretty sweet. Nice small type II with 4WD. Weren't all that expensive either.

Been a while but I just checked in and the site looks good. As always, lots of good info. I will try to be a little more active. Studying for the upcoming test has taken a lot of my attention away from normal routines.

Joe

What test is that joe?

I'm glad it worked out, but I feel like you missed my point. In your case, you can't let your members think that he was suspended for turning the license plate upside down when it was actually a "final straw" situation. They don't need to know all of the specifics, just that it involved multiple rule violations (and lying about the license plate incident). A suspension for what appears to be a harmless prank is BS and allowing your members to think that's the situation is wrong to all involved and deserves questioning by the membership.

I apologize, I did not miss your point. I was attempting to edit my last post when I recieved a phone call. The membership was told at the monthly meeting the individual was suspended for ongoing behavioral problems. The rumor mill had already started seeing as he was suspended 4 days prior to the meeting. After the correct information was provided to the membership I still caught a lot of grief over the suspension because "he's a driver and we need him!"

A lot of the reason why people question decisions is often due to a lack of information being available to them or poorly communicated information that is available.

IMO, you just did this in your post above about the member you suspended. You state that you and the Captain suspended a member for turning a license plate upside down. You then insinuate that some issues with his driving and lying about the license plate incident may have influenced the suspension decision.

By itself, turning a license plate upside down is a BS reason to suspend somebody. Factoring in the driving issues to justify a suspension following a non-driving incident is suspect IMO. It might be reasonable to do so if the driving issues were a pattern of rule violations and the appropriate corrective measures where taken and documented. Suspending him for lying about turning the license plate upside down and you have definitive evidence that it's a lie, that's another story.

So what was the actual reason for the suspension, the license plate, a cummulative behavior issue or something else? If you suspended him for lying about the incident, but told or allowed your members to think that it was because of the license plate, then you deserve any grief you got over it.

The license plate incident was the last straw. This individual had been spoken to numerous times regarding violations of rules and regulations. All incidents were documented. The lie was the final deciding factor. The board of directors were aware of the incidents and supported our decision to suspend the individual. We felt that the suspension would serve as an "attitude adjustment". We were right. After his suspension he returned and became a valuable asset. If you wish to discuss this further PM me so we don't hijack the thread.

I've worked in upstate NY (Syracuse) and in NH. I've never seen the need for AWD ambulances. Gotten along fine with good tires, patience, some hiking and the occasional plow truck/SUV for some really snowy days.

As for gas, yes diesel may last longer, but Diesel engines HATE being run the way we run them. And, most of our ambulances never get into the range of mileage where long lasting comes into play. Any ambulance you work on have 500k+ miles??

The new diesels cost more, fuel costs more, they are expensive to maintain and don't hold the advantage they once did. Fleet managers are clearly looking at gas again.

Just my .02.

It's not so much a matter of mileage but of the hours the vehicle runs. The rig may only have 30,000 miles when it retires but could have 60,000 hours on it. To put this in perspective, if you ran the vehicle 24/7/365 for 10 years the rig would have 87,360 hours on it, but in 10 years my truck has 116,000 miles. This is well below its life expectancy. The diesel takes the abuse better than gas. They run cooler and at lower RPMs. Much less wear.

I have been Captain of our squad for over 17 years and we have the same rules in our by-laws. However we also realize the importance of getting a rig to the scene for transport of a patient, therefore we have a contingency plan written into those by-laws for drivers under the age of 21. Any member who is a potential driver is provided with EVOC as well as in-house training on our rigs, we call them conditional drivers. If a qualified driver is not available to get the rig to the scene then a conditional driver drives it to the scene. Upon reaching the scene, if there is a qualified driver available who is not needed in the patient compartment, then that driver will take responsibiity for the transport. If one is not available then the conditional driver follows through with the transport duties.It works out quite well and we have never had a reportable incident.

This isn't rocket science people it is about common sense and community service. If I had been in the same situation as Stephen I would have done the same thing. It would have been a different situation if this had been one of those much too frequent "taxi rides", but it wasn't. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be consequences for disregarding rules and regulations, however I do believe that there was a better option than suspension.in this case. The man had exhausted his search for mutual aid. The people who voted for the suspension should stop, take a deep breath, and ask themselves what they would have considered prudent if they were the parent of this four year old. This is what destroys volunteerism in our communities. Kudos to the four who voted for such a severe penalty you did a great service to your community. Oh, and I also support torture as a means to gather information....yeah right!!!!!!!!!! Just in case no one gets it...this is sarcasm my friends. Enough said.

First: I applaud your agency for having such a plan in place.

Second: this guy would never have been in this situation had he not instructed the first staffed ambulance to respond to the second call as stated in the article I posted about 5 posts back.

Now here is another question for the agency. The suspended EMT is at the bay with another EMT & a driver when the call for the 4Y/O comes in ......Two minutes later another call comes in for an injuried 80 Y/O man. The question is why were they not already signed on & enroute to the first call. Two minutes is really a long time to be sitting around when everyone (crew wise) is there.

2 minutes is possible. Figure about 30 seconds for tones and dispatch information and maybe about a minute or so to go to your car and get your jacket and scope, go back in, start the rig. It's possible. I know personally it takes me about 90 seconds to actually get on the road from the time the dispatcher stops talking. (Learned a long time ago to hit the head before hitting the road). They also could have been playing rock, paper, sissors to see who was going to be the hero in charge. .

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20131227/ellenville-emt-who-was-suspended-had-previous-violations-squad-captain-says

Found this on another news outlet. Hope the link works.

People, both civilians & us in the Emergency response community, get very emotional where sick or injured children are concerned. If this young man was "a loose cannon" as someone sugested and needed to be reeled in, this was not the instance to do it. True, rules are rules but you also need to, sometimes, pick your battles. This could have & should have been handled better. No matter how you look at it .. it hurt 'em & to a larger extent all others in the volunteer community.

In reading this I was wondering if the young man in question would have been of the same mind if the call was for the elderly old lady who fell and couldn't get up (Fx hip) or the old man with belly pain (GI bleed or maybe just constipated) they also deserve the same level of concern on our part and unfortunately seldom get it.

I see what you are saying but maybe this was the "straw that broke the camels back".

Now let me propose this: suppose the article headline read "EMT breaks rules to save 4 year old, crashes ambulance". What tune would we all be singing then? I think a lot of the opinions here and in the public (lots of posts on Facebook about this) are stemming from the fact that the patient is only 4 years old (like you said, we all react differently for a child).

No problem Bro. This is a hot topic and seems to have struck a major cord with everyone here. As a result some fingers are flying faster than they can keep up with the reading or is it the other way around/

Couldn't agree more. The thing that gets me is that so many people are so quick to blame the officers or board of agencies and their policies. Having been a past officer, I have been belittled for policies set in place and disciplinary actions I have taken. Most people don't understand why the decisions were made. Myself and the captain at the time suspended a member for 30 days for turning a decorative license plate upside down. May seem extreme to some bit the decision was made after several incidents of his driving and when questioned about the incident (he was caught on tape by the way) he lied to is about it. Suspended, served his time, came back and became a productive member.

Now we see an article about a boy who was suspended after violating a rule in his agency. The crowd goes wild about it but no one has mentioned that this article states he has violated other rules in the past and no action was taken. I think they were trying to put him in his place. That's why I agree with his suspension.

In the article the Captain stated that the policies were not a result of being dictated by their insurance company. Reasons came down to "experience & training"

Yes. Someone has already pointed that out to me. I missed that in the article. I again apologize.

Thank you for picking that up! You also have to wonder why anyone needs to buy there own PPE!

I know a few guys that purchased their own gear for a back up set. Can't get the NFPA site to cooperate today but I do believe that you are required by their standards to have 2 sets. I may be wrong on this.

Even if that is the case, I wouldn't shell out that kind of money for something the department is required to issue.