Alpinerunner

So if there are 2 qualified volunteers at the station, they don't get to fill out the 3-4 man career rig? What if the call is right down the street from a volunteer's house? Do they have to drive past the incident to go to the station? Wait for a volunteer rig at the scene? Or can they grab an airpack and tools off the career rig and go to work?

This is something that will have to be ironed out, and will be a point of contention. Many times I've heard a career officer tell a volunteer "Don't touch my [hose] [irons] [can]." They may be right to say that, but it's not how it worked when the volunteers worked with the old career FFs in the volunteer stations. In any future merger/solution, I don't think separating the volunteers and career firefighters to the degree that they have to ride in separate rigs is a good one.

Awesome job Frank. What's the large control panel with the keypad on the right, above the main fire radio?

If the old bridge is saved, then we'll have two bridges to maintain, right? Who's going to pay for the repair and upkeep of the "park bridge". It won't be the Thruway Authority unless they're allowed to have tolls for the pedestrians and bikes.

I can't support the idea of maintaining the old bridge as a park until someone can figure out the cost and who will be paying for it.

I agree that the funding source will have to be established. For the NYC High Line, the article says it's 70% private and (I assume) 30% parks and rec. It's entirely possible that Westchester couldn't come up with the "Community Spirit" to fund the upkeep, but it's a thought.

I like the idea. I know there are lots of details to work out, but it would save on demo costs, and I doubt there are any plans to salvage the materials for the new bridge, since it's being built first.... I would also suggest that foot traffic would cause much less wear and tear than tractor-trailer traffic, and that the current structural stability would be acceptable to support foot traffic without major repairs.

Interesting tangent on a story I heard about the TZ bridge on NPR: There was a push recently to find out why it was built where it was, at the widest part of the Hudson, with the softest river bottom for the supports. Apparently, in the 50s, NYS Governor Dewey wanted to build the bridge to complete his NYS Thruway project. In spite of the higher cost compared to building it at a narrower location further south, in order to collect the toll fees to fund the Thruway (I-87) project, he had to build it outside of the NYC Port Authority's jurisdiction of a 25 mile radius from the Statue of Liberty.

How realistic are you looking to get? I mean we just use wooden pallets over sections of plywood. Good depth, plentiful, and replaceable.

Bad day for fuel tankers.

I offer my condolances. I can't imagine how terrible that must be.

"It was not clear who injured the woman, police said."

HUH?

I was hoping to see something about testing professional racing pace cars on the highways

Well at least this rescue operation went better than the one recently posted with the spreaders!

Yes it is a great thing to see. It's also in stark contast to an incident in Hartford a couple years ago where an old man was hit by a car and bystanders just walked up to him to take cell phone pictures while he was laying in the street

The leader of the outing was advised ahead of time of the rule. He failed to notify some people on the group so its his fault.

This is true. But the woman and the larger group should have taken out their frustrations with the event organizer, not Playland and the PD.

Alpine- what you ignore is the fact that currently, a' "single engine call" (wires down, EMS, etc) in ToRFD actually get 3 career staff (E8 or 9) and whatever volunteers show up. Under the proposed "upgrade", that same call will get 2 career firefighters and whatever volunteers show up. That is 1/3 less staff than Engine 8 or 9, and 1/2 the staff of the rest of the city units. Guess what? That "upgrade" will only cost the residents of the fire district (NOT taxpayers), at minimum, and additional 8 MILLION DOLLARS. If I was resident of this fire district, I would not be worrying about the "major" incidents like storms, fires, and MVAs, those are "good" calls. I'd be worried if I was the diff breather at 6am on Christmas morning. Or the asthmatic at 2pm on a weekday during the school year. THAT is the 15 percent that I am worried about.

You say only 15 percent of the calls need manpower beyond the career engine. How do you know which call will be one of that 15%? Do you wait for the career (either SFRD or the proposed SVFD) staff to get on scene and realize they need more help for people to come out of the woodwork?

In regards to writing an article that skews the facts, I seem to remember a letter to the editor of the Advocate from Matt Maounis slamming the union for our 24 hour work schedule, our pay, our vacation time, etc. Was it not the same Matt Maounis who enacted the 24 work schedule in TORFD (the first in the city)and signed off on firefighters in TORFD getting Lieutenants pay or Fire Marshall pay? Or the same Matt Maounis who said he needed more career staff when they were TORFD career guys, but now can handle it with only 2? Talk about someone ignoring and skewing facts...

I understand where your coming from about the volunteers not making every AFA. These could be serious incidents. But under the current AND new plan there will be 2 engines in the district that will get there quickly, and volunteers can respond directly to the scene quickly also and not have to go back to the firehouse. Currently SFRD sends 1 engine and 1 quint to alarms, so it's really not that different from the proposed plan. That being said, most of those 85% are AFAs that the volunteers respond to.

About the manpower, the plan is for 3 during the day and 2 and night, when volunteers are readily available. And as history shows, you regulary get more than the 2 volunteers minimum on those 85% of calls, so you can't say they won't be there.

About the cost. I really don't know. Without knowing the numbers well, it's only logical that to add career manpower, it will add cost. The proposed staff levels from both plans are similar. You can't add SFRD engines to Long Ridge without adding SFRD personell, or stripping them from downtown, it's just math.

The bottom line is that there is only 1 way to provide proper coverage to North Stamford, and that is staffed 2 engines in TOR, and 2 staffed engines in Long Ridge. Neither plan is "unsafe" or puts the public at risk. The argument isn't about public safety, it's about where those career guys come from.

You just did the same thing that you accused them of. Unless, the volunteers in the new department will be staffing their stations 24/7 (in conjunction with the career FFs), the residents will still need to worry about that 15%. The 15% refers to the number of times that the volunteers (in that district at least) opted not to provide a response for an incident. As I understand things, the North Stamford residents are already getting a career response to all incidents from SFRD units (with higher staffing levels than what is proposed for the new "VFD"). Integrating career FFs into the current VFDs rather than having them staffing separate SFRD units as they do now isn't "solving" the volunteer attendance issue. In fact, I think it's highly probable that volunteer attendance could decrease - specifically on the lower priority calls because the volunteers would know that their apparatus would still respond to the call even if the volunteers didn't respond.

Correct under the current situation, SFRD provides a 3 man engine. Under the new proposal the SVFD will provide a 3 man engine (or 2 at night when volunteers are more available). The whole point is that this 15% of calls that "get no response" are single-engine calls (and sometimes AFAs), actually do get a response now and WILL get a response in the futute. To imply that you might not get an engine for your medical call or CO alarm is FALSE.

Maybe you think that an 85% response rate is "pretty good", but I think the citizens would disagree - particularly those whose incident falls into that 15%. Anything less than a 100% response rate from a Fire Department is more like "not good enough".

Again, that 15% are calls that don't require and 2-3 apparatus. They are wires down, medicals, etc, and they ARE getting a response currently and will get a response with the new system. That is the whole point I'm trying to make. To provide more than an engine to these calls is a waste.

That might be true, but I think there's still "something to argue about" with the article as it is given that you were trying to make the argument that the article was skewing and ignoring the facts.

I remember seeing something about a more low profile pack a while back. was like a thin back pack. that is the way they should be going. Cut weight and profile.

I agree. This 5.5 seems like a small improvement. I'm waiting for the flexible, lo-pro airpacks. Those look revolutionary.

Update of The Daily Stamford article

Stamford Fire Union Rips Volunteer Plan by Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association Today

. The career fire fighters in Stamford still feel the Mayor's volunteer plan is not the best for Stamford.

Photo credit: Anthony Buzzeo The following is an opinion article written by the Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association. The Daily Stamford welcomes letters to the editor and opinion pieces from any and all residents willing to submit them.

STAMFORD, Conn. — In a recent story (Stamford Volunteers Refute Fire Union’s Claim 8-19-11), officials of the Turn of River Fire department — one of three departments that make up a private company that Mayor Pavia wants to give a no-bid, sole-source contract ($8.6 million annually) to provide fire service for North Stamford — actually make the best case against the plan for a second publicly-funded, privately-run department.

Matthew Maounis, an assistant chief at Turn of River, admitted that his department only responds to 85 percent of its calls. Seth Berger, president of Turn of River, said, “I’m not saying we don’t miss calls”.

While .850 would be a spectacular batting average for a Major League Baseball player, anything less than 1.000 in public safety is a failure -- people can die as a result. This isn’t a game. According to Turn of River’s own website, the department responded to 2,126 emergency runs in 2006, the most recent data posted. That means that 318 emergencies were not responded to.

What if you were one of the 15 percent whose house was on fire, whose loved one was suffering a heart attack, who was trapped in a car with your children after a collision or who smelled gas in your home — and your local fire department didn’t respond? Would the 85 percent response rate be any solace?

There is speculation that this new department’s chief will be Ray Whitbread, a Milford resident who is the spokesman for this second, paid fire department and a former chief of Turn of River — the department that admittedly doesn’t respond to 15 percent of its emergency calls.

Don’t the residents of North Stamford deserve better? Why does the mayor continue to ignore a plan developed by the Stamford Fire & Rescue chiefs that would provide adequate fire safety coverage for the entire city at no additional cost to the taxpayers and also provide a meaningful role for volunteer firefighters?

To submit an opinion article or letter to the editor e-mail reporter Anthony Buzzeo,tbuzzeo@TheDailyStamford.com.

I know it doesn't need to be said here, because we know the full story, and this piece was written to sway the ignorant public, but I'll say it anyway. This opinion article pretends that the new merged FD will have no career firefighters, which isn't true. The new fire department WILL respond to 100% of the calls and residents don't have to worry about being in that 15% that doesn't get a volunteer response. The volunteers will and have been there for the major incidents (fires, MVAs, Storms) that require the additional manpower. Furthermore, the currently 85% of the calls being supplemented with a volunteer response is pretty good when probably 15% of all calls NEED additional manpower beyond the career engines.

It looks really ignorant/desparate when articles like this are written that completely skew and ignore the facts. If the article was written about how the whole city needs to have one Chief, or that union firefighters are better than non-union firefighters, at least you would have something to argue about...

Felt it up in East Hartford. Some Pratt employees evacuated, some didn't.

Well that is a CT commercial plate on it. I'll see if one of the SPAMFFA collectors has it out this way.

Where you on 95 or Route 7? And which way were you going? Towards me (New Haven) or towards Westchester?

I-91 SB towards Hartford.

I saw this on the way to work. I have no information about it other than it has a winch on the front bumper, and 2 siren speakers and a rotator on the roof.

RIP Loo. The article says the city tried to shut the complex down multiple times due to numerous safety and code violations. Hopefully the ownwers/management will be held responsible for this death.

me to i like the old one much better,and the old westchester county pd cars ,how do they come up with the grafics?

Pretty sure 'POLICE' on the old one was created in MS Word Art

Safest bet is to stay covered up and don't stay out in the sun all day. Take it from a pasty Irish guy. 2nd degree sunburn, sun stroke and sun poisoning is not fun.

I've read some interesting articles about this from Mike Geary. I've read a lot of his articles and they all seem sound to me.

I'll link them below, but for those who won't read them, I'll summarize.

1) Vitamin D is very important in disease fighting and cancer fighting.

2) Most people are vitamin D deficient for two reasons

a) The animals from which we get meat nowadays (cows and chickens) are kept indoors and do not get vitamin D producing sun

B ) People have been told that sun is evil and will give you cancer

3) Nationality (skin pigmentation) and current location have a lot to do with how much sun you need and vitamin D you have. Generally, someone from a lower lattitude will have darker skin (Italy, Africa) to protect and compensate for higher sun exposure. Someone from a higher lattitude (Germany, Ireland) will have lighter skin to help absorb more sun/D due to being farther from the equator.

If you move to an area other than your ancestry is from, you should note whether you might be over or under exposed to the sun.

Sun and food: http://www.truthaboutabs.com/vitamin-d-deficiency-food-supply.html

Sun and health: http://www.truthaboutabs.com/sun-exposure-and-health.html

Sun and skin pigmentation and lattitude: http://www.truthaboutabs.com/latitude-vitamin-d-deficiency.html

Enjoy!

We have an old Holmatro electric combi. Works OK but the spreaders are small. We tried to sell it and were told it has 0 value. I guess the electric tools have come a long way.

My wife and I both watched " There something wrong with Aunt Diane", in fact I watched it a couple of times to read and see between the lines. The questions I think of is

1. Is Daniel having sex with his sister-in-law?

I also firmly believe that Dan Schuler said or did something to his wife that morning that caused her to go over the edge - I only hope that one day the truth will come out.

Maybe we can put these two hypotheses together?

I like FDNY's policy of requiring a degree for officers. When you are tasked with critical thinking to find solutions to literally any problem that arrises, and being responsible for the lives of your crew, I think it's reasonable to have a degree that shows you can manage time, problem solve, learn, and memorize. For an entry level firefighter who is being told what to do for the most part, I don't think it should be a requirement.